I preordered the Echo Buds when they were first announced, and tried them out for a while.
Had to return them because the microphonics while walking were really bad, and the noise cancellation didn't seem comparable to the Bose QC30's I still use, even though the Echo Buds's were supposedly "powered by Bose".
Can't comment on microphone while walking because I rarely talk while walking.
But Amazon's were advertised as Bose "noise reduction" rather than straight out "noise cancellation" (this was made very clear in the specs and in reviews), and in that respect, it does what it's supposed to. I wear my Echo Buds on my daily walks listening to podcasts and for all purposes it works pretty well. (I also own a pair of Bose headphones which are too bulky to wear on walks)
I will say that the Echo Buds' noise reduction don't work well on a plane, I'll give you that. Tried it.
Apple's AirPods Pro has real noise cancellation, but it's also double the price.
I'd say Echo Buds are pretty good deal at the $100+ price range.
Thanks, I wasn’t familiar with that technical term.
I just put on my Echo Buds and started walking. If I’m understanding microphonics correctly, it means a rustling electrical sound when there’s mechanical vibration. This does not happen with my Echo Buds.
However, I do hear the thud of my footsteps. I’ve accepted that this happens with any in ear headphones. Not sure if there are any IEMs out there that don’t have the footstep problem.
> However, I do hear the thud of my footsteps. I’ve accepted that this happens with any in ear headphones. Not sure if there are any IEMs out there that don’t have the footstep problem.
The thuds annoy me a lot, but I found that in the Bose QC30 (which I still use), the Sony WF1000XM3, and the AirPods Pro (which I've tried), it somehow seems less obvious.
The Samsung galaxy buds+ are a lot better. Rtings seems to agree as well.
Truth is, Amazon tries to be an everything company, and that simply does not work well, when the competitors have honed their specialty skills for way longer. I find that Google faces a similar problem with hardware.
At least with Microsoft, I can respect them going out of their way to make their products weird and unique in an Apple-esque manner. (Surface book, Surface pro, The Surface headphones, the surface buds)
On the contrary, Samsung and Apple for eg. derive their music prowess from AKG and Beats respectively. Bose and Sony have a long history in music. It simply isn't possible for even the biggest of players to break into the market if treat it like 'any other product'.
There's tons of bluetooth earbuds on Amazon that you'd never hear about but are top ranking sellers in their category. I've bought 5 different pairs over the last 3yrs and they've all been great (I lose them or buy them for other people).
They all sell for $30-60 and are the same quality as Amazons.
It's like how Apple is the #1 phone seller even though there are 5x more Android phones in circulation under 10 different brands.
