Sennheiser CX True Wireless review: Jack of all buds

Sennheiser has been within the true wi-fi buds house for some time, and with the Sennheiser CX True Wi-fi they’re aiming to make earbuds with a extra inexpensive value. This pair of earbuds lack energetic noise-cancelling, however in any other case provide options in step with Sennheiser’s costlier fashions. Is the CX True Wi-fi the subsequent high-value contender?

Who’re the Sennheiser CX True Wi-fi for?

• Anybody in search of a brand new pair of earbuds that may final all day and gained’t break the financial institution.
• Athletes in search of one thing sweat-resistant however don’t care about noise-cancelling.

The Sennheiser CX True Wi-fi are fairly comparable in design to different Sennheiser true wi-fi earbuds. These have the identical boxy form we’ve seen earlier than, now with all-black matte contact panels as an alternative of shiny ones with silver logos. The case is sort of an identical to earlier buds as effectively.

The earbuds are a bit cumbersome, however they’re gentle and safe, with 4 sizes of ear ideas offered to verify they slot in your ears effectively. These don’t have any hook or fin to securely match into your ears, so discovering the fitting tip is vital.

The case is a bit of cumbersome too, however nonetheless compact. It’s product of plastic however doesn’t really feel low cost, and the earbuds match properly into their slots, held in place with magnets and pegs.

The Sennheiser CX True Wi-fi are IPX4 rated, to allow them to deal with sweat and splashes of water, making them secure to work out with. Be warned that going for a run can shake them free a bit, so be sure your match is sweet and also you aren’t transferring your head an excessive amount of whereas sporting them.

The CX True Wi-fi join utilizing Bluetooth 5.2, which implies perhaps at some point they’ll be capable of use the LC3 audio codec and LE Audio. For now, the CX True Wi-fi help the SBC, AAC, and aptX codecs, so these buds are nice whether or not you’re utilizing an Apple or Android system.

See additionally: The perfect exercise earbuds

Since these earbuds have capacitive contact panels, you may modify quantity, reply calls, management playback, and entry your voice assistant with out utilizing your cellphone in any respect. Tapping as soon as pauses playback, two faucets take you to the earlier observe from the left earbud, and the subsequent observe from the fitting. Three faucets will activate your voice assistant, and holding will lower your quantity from the left bud or improve it on the fitting.

The Sennheiser Sensible Management app offers you extra management over the buds, together with swapping any of the faucet controls. It additionally lets you modify the EQ of your earbuds both with a three-band EQ module or by way of preset choices. Extra crucially, you may also get firmware updates right here. Whereas there’s no Bluetooth multipoint, the Sensible Management app will allow you to change between just lately paired units seamlessly, however solely one after the other.

Sennheiser claims the CX True Wi-fi last as long as 9 hours on a single cost, however in SoundGuys’ testing, they fell in need of that. At a constant output of 75dB, the left earbud lasted eight hours, 31 minutes, and the fitting one solely lasted 5 hours, half-hour.

It’s fairly regular for one earbud to empty quicker than the opposite with true wi-fi earbuds, since one bud is linked to each your cellphone and the opposite earbud, whereas one earbud is simply linked to the opposite one. Sennheiser says it designed the earbuds to modify between which earbud features as the first connection level when taken out of the case every time to mitigate this lopsided battery drain, so extra common use will mitigate this downside.

In response to Sennheiser, the CX True Wi-fi case holds as much as 18 hours of further fees, and it lived as much as that. The case fees with USB-C, however options no fast cost or wi-fi charging choices.

The Sennheiser CX True Wi-fi don’t have energetic noise-cancelling (ANC) — you’ll want the Sennheiser CX Plus True Wi-fi for that — however that doesn’t imply they’ve poor attenuation. Upon getting the fitting match with the fitting ear ideas, you get some strong isolation efficiency. Isolation hardly ever impacts mid and low-range sounds from reaching your ears, however the CX True Wi-fi really do a good job of decreasing this noise. It’s not going to be like having precise energetic noise-cancelling, however noises ought to appear significantly much less distracting.

Try: The perfect noise-cancelling true wi-fi earbuds

The Sennheiser CX True Wi-fi frequency response (cyan line) follows the SoundGuys goal curve (pink line) fairly intently in a number of the greater ranges, however has a little bit of an emphasis within the bass and mid-range. It sounds good, nothing is simply too boosted, and it doesn’t trigger something to be notably distorted.

Most genres of music ought to sound good by way of these earbuds, although the drop within the treble vary might imply that cymbals and a few strings, in addition to higher-pitched “whirr” sounds in some genres like EDM is likely to be a bit tougher to select.

The microphone within the Sennheiser CX True Wi-fi is fairly normal for a pair of true wi-fi earbuds. It’s clear sufficient, although there’s some muffling and digital compression sounds. It nonetheless does a good job of decreasing low-level environmental noise, however it’s positively not nice for recording speech. That is positively a mic for cellphone calls, and it’s alright for that objective.

Sennheiser CX True Wi-fi microphone demo (Very best):

The Sennheiser CX True Wi-fi aren’t excellent, with points within the excessive vary audio, battery life considerations, and a scarcity of options like wi-fi charging and ANC holding them again from being nice. If you would like the proper factor for a selected use case, like understanding, commuting, or taking calls, this isn’t it.

Nevertheless, these earbuds do sufficient issues effectively sufficient which you could’t completely knock them. They sound good, have strong isolation efficiency, app, and that IPX4 score is nice. If you happen to’re in search of one thing that may do some little bit of the whole lot, these is likely to be value contemplating.

If you happen to like the concept of those earbuds rather a lot however want that they had energetic noise-cancelling, Sennheiser up to date its CX line with the Sennheiser CX Plus True Wi-fi ($179), which have the same design, Bluetooth 5.2, and expanded high-quality codec help as effectively.

If you happen to’re in search of true wi-fi earbuds which have an incredible battery life, the Samsung Galaxy Buds Plus ($149) can deal with virtually 12 hours of playback on a single cost, and so they’re simple to search out on sale. If you would like one thing that falls between the Buds Plus and Buds Professional, the Samsung Galaxy Buds 2 ($149) is likely to be value contemplating.

If you would like an incredible pair of exercise earbuds, the Jaybird Vista 2 ($149) have silicone ear hooks to maintain the buds in place, in addition to energetic noise-cancelling. And for those who choose to be further conscious of your environment, the Sony Linkbuds ($179) have a ring-shaped ear tip design to maintain exterior noise coming in like regular, although they don’t sound nice.