Audio-Technica Wireless Earbuds

UPDATE: Mics are beyond worthless for phone calls for anything beyond a perfectly quiet library. The rest of the review still stands. As title states, I don’t understand the hate. These are $79 earbuds from Audio-Technica, a Japanese audio company known for no-nonsense, good quality equipment at a fair price. As I said, these are $79 normally, on steep discount to $29, and with a 10% coupon even less. That in itself and the reputation of Audio-Technica alone makes it more appealing than the alphabet soup brand truly wireless offerings on Amazon. Before I dive in, I’ll let you know my headphone history, and why I got these. - Some random Skullcandy earbuds with wings - Monster Beats by Dr. Dre Studio - Audio-Technica ATH-M50x - AirPods Gen 2 - AirPods Pro Gen 1 - Razer Barracuda X - Bose QuietComfort 2023 - Bose QuietComfort Ultra - Bowers & Wilkins Px7 S2e - Bowers & Wilkins Px8 And now these: Audio-Technica ATH-SQ1TW So as you can see, I have a bit of experience in a lot of audio variety, from $30 - $700, in ear and out. I wanted a pair of straightforward headphones for fitness, but have struggled finding earbuds that stay in the ear, and most over ear headphones don’t have IP rating against sweat. Heck, my AirPods are both failed because they didn’t do IP ratings in the times I purchased. The first thing the manufacturer asked me to do is charge the product fully. They also state for most consistent audio wear your listening device on your left. Weird, but true. All ya’ll complaining about defects out of the box must not have read the manual. It comes in a dense plastic USB-C charging case that would easily fit in a bag of any variety but likely not your pocket because it’s basically a cube. Charging was quick and before I knew it, I was ready to test them out. For my purposes, I was pleasantly surprised about the sound quality. Given the drivers are just over 5 mm I was not expecting much, but these are plenty loud and carry through the typical consumer-grade sound profile, meaning you will hear each aspect of the sound range, but emphasis with bass to carry the tunes. Given I purchased these specifically for workouts I’m quite happy with that. Some may want more neutral headphones. The earbuds themselves are very durable, with the same dense hard plastic and fit into the ears easily, with four different tips to adjust diameter. They do sit very deep in the ear canal, and I think it would cause discomfort if you planned on using them all day long. But for a 30-60 minute gym session, I’m actually very happy about the fitment and how deep they sit, because these are the first earbuds I’ve had that don’t fall out of my ears with the repetitive motions that accompany a workout, and these will not move or even wiggle through burpees, basketball, and the rowing machine. With an IPX4 equivalent rating, if I wipe them down, I expect they’ll be serviceable for quite some time. All that to say, I’m impressed, both with the price, but also the sound quality, and delighted that they’re so stable through fitness. I’d far have these at $29 dollars for the gym over AirPods (a third time) or the other vastly more expensive true wireless earbud selections so many gravitate to for the gym. Don’t feel like you have to spend $90-$250 on some earbuds, people. This will fit the bill just fine.