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Wireless earbud recommendations?

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Sussa
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Wireless earbud recommendations?

Post by Sussa »

Quarantine and work from home has made me realize wireless earbuds would be a very good birthday present for my wife next month. I gave her a headset with a boom mic, but apparently it looks dorky. We need an invisible solution. I also stand to benefit by not having to listen to her conference calls, so win-win.

Features I'm looking for:
  • Good at blocking out outside noise, either with noise cancellation or custom fit. I try to be quiet and she tries to stay on mute, but our dog has a tendency to thunder down the stairs at the worst time.
  • Works with Windows 10 and an Android phone
  • Good mic quality, ideally also good at blocking unwanted noise
  • Long battery life - her meetings often go 2+ hours and may have multiple meetings in a day
  • Easy for someone with somewhat limited finger dexterity to use and charge
  • Does NOT have a built-in personal voice assistant (e.g., Alexa) - this is a deal breaker
I'm a fan of my Mpow over-ear headphones and Jaybird X2 buds, so definitely looking at those brands. What else should I look at? Budget is up to $200, but I'd like to keep it under $100 if possible.

Thanks!
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Re: Wireless earbud recommendations?

Post by Boourns »

I have a pair of Jabra Elite 65t and a pair of Elite Active 65t. I bought one used from Amazon warehouse and one refurb from Jabra. Both work great and were less than $75.

They do have built in Alexa but you can select "phone default." The result is that it turns off Alexa, but if I say "hey google" my phone's google assistant activated and it just puts the sound through the earbuds. Not sure if that counts as your deal breaker or not.
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Re: Wireless earbud recommendations?

Post by MoT »

I bought Mrs.MoT the Samsung Galaxy Buds+ (https://www.samsung.com/us/mobile/audio ... buds-plus/), and I have a pair as well.

She uses them for a few hours almost every day and has nothing but praise for them. They paired easily with both her laptop (Windows 10) and her phone (Galaxy S10). Battery life has been outstanding, and the sound quality (subjective, I know) is outstanding.

My favorite features have been the ability to customize the function of, or totally disable the touch-sensitive pads on the buds, and the ambient sound feature that lets you decided on just how much noise from your surroundings to allow through.
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Re: Wireless earbud recommendations?

Post by Sussa »

ManOnTime wrote: Thu Jul 09, 2020 7:18 pmMy favorite features have been the ability to customize the function of, or totally disable the touch-sensitive pads on the buds, and the ambient sound feature that lets you decided on just how much noise from your surroundings to allow through.
Disabling the touch-sensitive pads is a nice feature. I didn't even know that was an option. Considering the number of people I know who have accidentally hung up while trying to adjust their earbuds during a call, that's a big plus.
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Re: Wireless earbud recommendations?

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Re: Wireless earbud recommendations?

Post by Sussa »

watchpalooza wrote: Fri Jul 10, 2020 10:54 am These...look no further:

viewtopic.php?f=15&t=81&p=65063&hilit=sony#p65063
They look great, but are Alexa-enabled, which is a dealbreaker.

Maybe I'm misunderstanding personal voice assistant technology as it works in wireless earbuds and someone can set me straight. This may sound like I wear a tinfoil hat, but I don't like devices that are constantly listening for a cue because there's so much potential for privacy intrusion. I understand that earbuds with microphones have listening capabilities by design. If I can disable the PVA on the connected device and the buds stop listening for a cue, it's not a dealbreaker. But if there's more to it than that, my wife would rather not have Amazon AI potentially listening to every conversation.
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Re: Wireless earbud recommendations?

Post by watchpalooza »

Sussa wrote: Fri Jul 10, 2020 12:06 pm
watchpalooza wrote: Fri Jul 10, 2020 10:54 am These...look no further:

viewtopic.php?f=15&t=81&p=65063&hilit=sony#p65063
They look great, but are Alexa-enabled, which is a dealbreaker.

Maybe I'm misunderstanding personal voice assistant technology as it works in wireless earbuds and someone can set me straight. This may sound like I wear a tinfoil hat, but I don't like devices that are constantly listening for a cue because there's so much potential for privacy intrusion. I understand that earbuds with microphones have listening capabilities by design. If I can disable the PVA on the connected device and the buds stop listening for a cue, it's not a dealbreaker. But if there's more to it than that, my wife would rather not have Amazon AI potentially listening to every conversation.
They have a soft switch in the app to disable voice prompts.
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Re: Wireless earbud recommendations?

Post by cheddar »

May be too late for the OP, but in case others are looking at this thread -- I have these Anker Soundbuds Slim. I don't believe they are Alexa enabled. For the price, they've worked very well.
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Re: Wireless earbud recommendations?

Post by Sussa »

I ended up getting Galaxy Buds+ for myself after my wife was waffling about whether in-ear buds would work for her after all. I'm pretty happy and can ditch *my* dorky headset for conference calls. A single bud works great and no more sitting on the in-line controls and accidentally muting myself. Unfortunately, she did not like them and vetoed all in-ear buds, so it's back to the drawing board.
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Re: Wireless earbud recommendations?

Post by Granite3 »

From Cnet-

TaoTronics' SoundLiberty 79 list for $60 but sell for around $50. I don't love their looks -- the little chrome accent isn't my thing -- but these Bluetooth earbuds fit my ears well and sound decent for the money, with just enough definition and ample bass. All that said, where they really stand out is how they perform as a headset for making calls. They are five stars in that department, with excellent noise reduction; people had no trouble hearing me on the noisy streets of New York. The company's "Smart AI noise-reduction technology" really does work.

They are fully waterproof (IPX7-certified) and you can get up to 8 hours of battery life at moderate volume levels. The charging case, which provides an extra 32 hours of juice on the go, feels a little cheap, but it's compact and has USB-C charging.
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Re: Wireless earbud recommendations?

Post by UzairS14 »

I am using powerbeats3 wireless headphones which are sweat and water-resistant and have 12 hours battery life.
And the sound quality is tremendous.
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