Intro
I’ve been wanting to write this roundup in some form or another, for years. I think now is a good time as TWS (True Wireless Stereo) IEMs are becoming mainstream and there’s so many options out there.
With so many true wireless IEMs options in this list, I’m going to forgo the usual style of reviews. These will be quick, dirty, and opinionated. I will mainly focus on how they sound, but if there are any features that stand out, for good or bad, I’ll include them as well.
I’m purposely leaving out all of the tech specs, battery life, etc. Do a quick google search on the IEMs you want to know more about, and there will be 1,000 tech sites spouting the exact same info – there’s no time for that in this roundup.
Cambridge Audio Melomania Touch – The Dumpster Fire
A pet peeve of mine when it comes to TWS IEMs is when a manufacturer slaps in a totally garbage driver, heavily sprinkles marketing gimmicks about said driver, and then tries to fix all of the shortcomings through DSP (Digital Signal Processors, aka: heavy use of digital equalizers). This. Never. Ends. Well.
The Cambridge Audio Melomania Touch is no different. The driver is pure trash. Sub-bass is completely rolled off as is the treble. This leaves a muddy mess of everything in-between – even the treble! Using the app to EQ doesn’t even come close to fixing it. The technicalities are so bad that the $13 Moondrop Quarks runs circles around the Melomania Touch.
As if that wasn’t bad enough, this dumpster fire has massive connection issues that will keep you from using them or wanting to use them. I had one set returned under warranty and the second set has the exact same connection issues.
The only upside is the fit. When you nail the eartips and the earwings, it can be worn all day long. It’s so comfortable. They may be the most comfortable IEMs I’ve come across, wireless or wired. This is its only redeeming feature.
Sorry Cambridge Audio. You make great home equipment, but your IEMs are a total disaster.
Stay far away from these at any price.
Grell TWS 1 (non Drop version) – Very Meh
Sticking with the theme of using a not-so-great driver and DSP-ing the crap out of them, let’s talk about the Grell TWS 1.
The fit is incredibly shallow and the IEMs themselves are very large and stick outside of your ears. This makes the TWS 1 very uncomfortable as the weight of the IEMs themselves act like a fulcrum to the eartips, creating pressure in your ears. Because of this weight distribution, they fall out super easily. I even tried tip-rolling, using 20+ different styles of eartips to try and make these not painful. I was only somewhat successful and they still fell out all of the time.
The bass is big and boomy, which could be alright, but it is also lacking any sense of definition. The lower mids are definitely warm, contributing to the muddiness of the overall sound signature.
The mids are really well tuned, there’s nothing wrong here, but there’s nothing special either.
The treble is the same as the mids, except they roll off at the top end. There is no sense of airiness or upper-harmonics.
Overall, it’s a mainstream type of tuning with a good mid range. While this isn’t necessarily a bad thing, its lack of technical capabilities ruins the whole thing. Instruments are all “globbed” together and it lacks soundstage. Again, there are some sub-$20 wired IEMs that will run circles around the TWS 1 in terms of technicalities.
I love the idea of the SoundID companion app, but I can’t seem to keep it from boosting the bass and treble way too much, creating massive v-shaped tuning. Again, the TWS 1 gets massive DSP and the treble becomes completely overdriven on the sub-par driver. As you’ll read later, this isn’t just a problem with the Grell TWS 1 – SoundID doesn’t seem to work well. It’s a great concept, it just doesn’t execute currently.
For the original asking price of $200, this just isn’t worth it.
Lypertek Pureplay Z3 – The Jack of All Trades
Here’s where things get interesting. The Z3 is…well, alright. I don’t really have any complaints about it, but I don’t have any major praise either. The Z3 seems to put its head down and get to business without drama.
Overall, the Z3 has a neutral sound signature with some elevated sub bass to keep things fun. It’s not super bright nor super bassy. When the app works (with iOS I had some issues), it is simple and easy to use. LDX Audio boosts the bass and treble a little bit, which adds some fun to the sound, pushing it slightly away from the stock, almost clinical tuning. The EQ works great and it makes sense – as opposed to other EQ apps that are at weird intervals (like 69Hz).
It does lack active noise canceling (ANC), however its passive isolation was good enough that I didn’t really miss ANC. I’d also be doing the Z3 a disservice if I didn’t mention that the IEMs themselves are very light and very comfortable to wear for long periods of time.
For the price, the Pureplay Z3 is a solid contender, but it’s nothing special either. If you don’t need the latest and greatest features and doo-dads, this is a great option.
Soundcore Space A40 – Almost the Best All Arounder
The Soundcore Space A40 is quite a little beast! The IEMs are extremely light and comfortable. They’re so comfortable and small, that you could probably sleep with them in.
The app experience is top-notch and works very well. I like the HearID feature and the fact that you can set an EQ based on your hearing profile. The A40 gets all of the tech bells and whistles, minus in-ear detection, which makes it a screaming deal at $99.00. The ANC isn’t the strongest out there, but the A40 has superb passive isolation to help the ANC. However, they aren’t vented much and with a good seal, there is some driver flex that happens – this is inexcusable for any IEM at any price. Luckily, switching to non-stock ear tips helped fix this issue for me.
The default sound signature is what I’d describe as boring-neutral. The bass isn’t very present, the mids are there – but the pinna gain (upper mids) isn’t quite right, and treble is ok but not very engaging.
With the help of HearID and EQ, the bass can be elevated, although not anywhere near bass-head levels. The texture and resolution of the bass is above average. The mids respond very well to EQ and liven things up. This helps bring out some detail and soundstage. Even with the upper treble maxed out on EQ, they still lack airiness and the details that come from this frequency range. Overall, the soundstage is above average and the detail resolution is slightly above average as well.
I can appreciate the more neutral style sound over bloated bass and treble, however the A40 just doesn’t seem to have anything special going for the sound signature either. It’s good, but not great. It does have top of the line features though.
For the price, the A40 is a fantastic option if you want almost all the tech gadgets without breaking the bank and a decent sound – just don’t expect anything spectacular from them.
1More Evo – The Best All Arounder
The 1More Evo is the only multi-driver TWS in this list. It features one balanced armature for the treble and one 10mm diamond-like-carbon (DLC) dynamic driver for the bass, in a coaxial style setup (one driver in front of the other).
The app works well, although it lacks the polish of the Soundcore app. With a recent firmware update, the 1More app has added an equalizer, although it only adjusts +/-3 db and has strange intervals set (69Hz, 282Hz, why?). The app features SoundID as well, but again, I couldn’t keep it from over-boosting the bass and treble to the point of ridiculousness. I’ll say it again, I love the concept of SoundID, but it just isn’t ready for actual use.
The default sound is a bit strange, although not horrible either. It’s ok, but not accurate. Overall, it’s a neutral-ish sound signature. Bass feels slightly elevated due to the fact that everything from 1k upwards is recessed from where it should be. 1More love to boast that their headphones/IEMs are tuned by a Grammy award winning sound engineer. From the frequency response graphs that I’ve seen, he doesn’t know a thing about tuning IEMs. It feels more like he’s tuning the IEMs to sound good on the music he’s produced – this is the exact opposite of how it should be. Unsolicited advice here 1More: hire someone who knows how to tune IEMs and your products will stand out.
Luckily, I used EQ to mostly smooth over the bland stock tuning. While this helps, only having +/-3 db can’t fix everything to where it should be. The bass, while not neutral, can be fun and engaging, with good texture and resolution. I could only get the mids to sound somewhat average – nothing to write home about here. The treble is very nice and extends pretty well. With my EQ settings, the soundstage is wide, although instrument separation is just average. Detail retrieval is surprisingly above average from sub bass to upper treble.
The 1More Evo has absolutely all the features you could ask for. The combination of in-ear detection, EQ’d sound, and adaptive ANC has easily made these my daily drivers. I love that music pauses the second the Evo comes out of your ears – there’s no fumbling for your phone or tapping unreliable touch panels on the IEMs. This is easily one of the most underrated TWS features out there.
The Evo has oval shaped eartips, which I have found in the past to be absolutely miserable. However, 1More seems to have nailed it here! With a shallow fit, the rounded eartips are actually very comfortable and easy to wear for very long periods of time. However, the shallow fit leads to pretty poor passive noise isolation. However, the ANC is very strong and easily makes up for it. Compared to the Soundcore Space A40, they’re on an even playing field despite using opposite techniques (good passive isolation + average ANC vs poor passive isolation + great ANC).
While on the expensive side of things, the Evo has all of the tech features you can shake a stick at, while having multiple drivers as well. Overall it is the best all arounder here, but only by a small margin. If the Space A40 had in-ear detection – the best all arounder would be very hard to decide.
Final Audio ZE3000 – Best Sound Quality
If you’re chasing the best sounding TWS IEM on this list, look no further. Final Audio declined adding any tech gadgets in favor of sound quality. Instead of plopping in an average driver and calling it a day, Final Audio created its own 6mm driver from scratch. Basically the ZE3000 has its own custom driver!
The sound is nearly perfect. Overall, the sound signature is a treble-leaning neutral. It is detailed and lean, aka: not warm. In fact, they remind me a lot of the Tripowin Olina in terms of overall sound signature.
While the sub bass definitely rolls off a few decibels at the very low end, it has enough mid bass to balance out the slightly boosted upper mids and treble. While the bass isn’t the star of the show here, it’s fast and detailed while being natural and not exaggerated. However, some might find the neutral bass to be too subdued.
The mids are extremely clean and open. They have great resolution and sound natural as well. The treble is slightly forward, but is smooth and airy. The treble goes right up to the sibilance threshold but never crosses it. This helps give the ZE3000 a wide soundstage and great separation. In terms of technicalities, I’ve never heard any TWS that could come close to performing this great. In fact, I’d go as far as to say that the ZE3000 has 90% of the technical abilities of the Tripowin Olina – that makes these unbelievably good.
While the shape of the IEMs themselves have a modern angled look to them, they are rounded on the backside and are very comfortable. They are also the lightest IEMs I have come across (wired or not), and have eartips developed specifically for use in Final Audio’s TWS earphones. All this combined makes them incredibly comfortable for long listening sessions. In fact, there are times when I forgot that they were in my ears – they are that comfortable.
If you’re looking for the best sound possible while remaining wireless, the ZE3000 is the only choice here.
To come back to a theme in this roundup, I wish more TWS manufacturers placed sound quality on the top of the list of importance. Instead, it seems that tech features have the highest placement on this list and that sound quality is one of the last. I’m glad that Final Audio bucked this trend and put sound quality as the main focus. The ZE3000 is brilliant.