Jeff
27 de septiembre de 2025
Really good value with active noise cancellation
I owned a previous version of the NC9's from 2022 that were a bit different than these, and as often happens with these little earbuds in a small charging case, I recently lost them somewhere, probably in my last hotel room. Beware of spending too much on earbuds - you absolutely will go through multiple sets of them.I was really happy with those earbuds for the price I paid at the time, which was a little over $10. So I figured rather than trying to wade through all the nonsensical marketing-speak on Amazon or the ridiculously overpriced offerings from Apple and other major brands, I'd just get the latest version of the same thing I had.And so far, these are pretty great for the price and a definite upgrade over the 2022 version.Now, I will say that while I'm not an audiophile, I could probably call myself an "audio enthusiast" and I don't think any earbuds from anybody sound all that great either on their own or when compared with decent full size headphones. That's one reason why I refuse to pay anything close to the $200 that's the standard price for major brand earbuds. These are tiny drivers using a low-powered DAC chip and DSP, getting a lossily compressed audio signal over a low-bandwidth wireless codec. It's just the nature of the beast. No earbuds anywhere are worth more than about 50 bucks, and that's with the profit baked in. Anything above that is just a name brand tax. (And these days, maybe a tariff.)But these sound perfectly fine for what they are and basically as good as any other wireless earbuds I've ever used. I did notice some sibilance with the default EQ - like most (all?) modern wireless earbuds, these accentuate bass and treble. But a quick adjustment to the high frequencies in the phone app (something that my older NC9's didn't support) seems to have cured that. There is of course still a bit of extra bass, but I'll leave that alone for now as I don't mind it. I can always adjust it later if I feel differently down the road.One minor quibble with the sound is that possibly because of that extra bass and treble, these don't get very loud. At maximum volume, they're about where I normally feel comfortable in regular listening, but they start to break up a bit before that. My guess is that Tozo has reduced the maximum output to control distortion, which isn't unique to them, but again, don't expect a high-end over the ear headphone experience here for 30 bucks. You just can't listen very loud with a lot of bass through tiny drivers like these without distortion. I don't think most people wearing earbuds listen as loud as I normally like to anyway.If this so far sounds like faint praise in a 5 star review, again, look at the price. You are getting a good value in sound quality, especially when you compare these to much more expensive earbuds that don't sound any better. If Apple were selling these and charging Airpod Pro prices, you'd be looking at a 2 star review. But these are priced fairly given their performance and the limitations of the category.Tozo also sells earbuds without the active noise cancellation but I bought these specifically for that, because it worked well on my previous NC9's and it seems to work at least as well and probably better on these. Keep in mind that noise cancellation in general was specifically developed to counter engine noise on airplanes. And that's still what the technology is best at.The way it works is by pushing out a specific frequency to act counter to the frequency of whatever continuous noise is present. It's not going to be very effective at silencing things like conversations or crying babies that are made up of variable, higher frequency sounds (because countering those would also affect the music you're listening to, not to mention using a lot more processing power, which also uses a lot more battery). That, again, is the nature of the beast. It applies to every set of earbuds that have ANC. But in terms of continuous background noise, such as from a jet engine or a loud fan, these work as well as anything else I've used. And I've used a lot of headphones and earbuds (as well as real aviation headsets) with active noise cancellation.The ANC also does not really alter the sound of the music you're listening to, which my older NC9's kinda did with the ANC on, and it's a pretty common issue with older devices that use ANC. Seems like it's more refined now and I don't really notice much difference, if any, in sound quality with ANC on or off.There was a time only a few years ago when you'd need to spend a few hundred bucks to get ANC at all, and that would have been in a set of wired full size headphones. Now we're talking about how well it works in a $30 set of wireless earbuds. It's kind of amazing if you think about it. I think real ANC alone is basically worth the price of admission here. There are a lot of earbuds in this price range that advertise "ENC" but that is not the same thing - that's for reducing noise on your voice when talking on phone calls. ANC is for listening to music. It's rare at this price, even now. For it to work this well is a huge bonus.Battery life is a definite step up from my older NC9's, although to be fair those were probably also just wearing out by the time I lost them. I intentionally tried to run these down while writing this review and after about 5 hours of constant listening, they were still going strong and when I put them in the charging case, it read 83%. Of course that's the total charge including the case battery, not the buds themselves. I have no idea how accurate that is but if it is correct, then that's probably more battery life than I would ever really need. (You can never have too much, but I can't think of a situation when I'd run out of battery life before being able to recharge.)I read another review where someone said the case on these did not close securely; that is not true. I'd think he must have been using a different version (the reviews here seem to cover all previous versions as well), but I had older ones and that case closed securely too. It's magnetic. The earbuds kind of pull themselves into their little cubbies if you've oriented them the right way, and then the case cover snaps closed with its own magnet. If the case is not closing properly, you're not putting the buds in the right way. They only go one way. You'll get it after a couple tries. Just take note of how they're oriented when you first open the case.Overall I can pretty confidently recommend these. Given that modern phones and many other devices no longer even have headphone jacks, you really need a set of wireless earbuds. Just get these; they're as good as more expensive earbuds and the price is fair. You can't say that about most name brand earbuds.Ver másVer menos
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