WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:06.000 Earbuds that go inside your ear canal? 00:00:03.080 --> 00:00:10.640 Gross. Cringe. No, thank you. I don't like those at all, but they seem to be 00:00:07.840 --> 00:00:15.120 the most popular option. I am looking for earbuds that don't go inside my 00:00:13.160 --> 00:00:20.240 body. I've always been a fan of earbuds that don't want to violate your your 00:00:17.720 --> 00:00:25.600 bodily autonomy, you know? Like ones like the Sony LinkBuds Clip. This is the 00:00:22.680 --> 00:00:29.480 latest entry in the form of earbuds that I'm more interested in, where they just 00:00:27.400 --> 00:00:31.920 kind of sit outside your ear canal and kind of you know what? Like we're just 00:00:30.680 --> 00:00:36.520 going to keep our distance. Personal space is important. I really liked the 00:00:34.120 --> 00:00:41.920 original Sony LinkBuds [music] with that kind of circular design. The LinkBuds 00:00:39.040 --> 00:00:46.560 Clip use a different design where they clip on to your outer ear. There's at 00:00:44.480 --> 00:00:50.560 least one other model out there that does this, the Bose Ultra Open, and 00:00:49.080 --> 00:00:54.640 there's probably more that I'm not aware of, but this is Sony's take on it. I got 00:00:53.120 --> 00:01:01.800 to say Sony seems to have stuck with this sort of like gray recycled paper 00:00:58.520 --> 00:01:03.720 packaging for their earbuds, which even 00:01:01.800 --> 00:01:07.160 after a few years, which is nice to see them stick with that. I appreciate that. 00:01:05.320 --> 00:01:12.240 I like the look, and maybe it's environmentally friendly, I don't know. 00:01:09.000 --> 00:01:14.320 Oh, extra cushions. Normally with the 00:01:12.240 --> 00:01:17.320 earbuds you'd have different size tips that come with it, but this one there 00:01:15.920 --> 00:01:21.520 are no tips, which is what I [music] like. So, they're giving you little 00:01:19.000 --> 00:01:25.600 cushions. Um I'm not sure whether you're supposed to wear them with or without 00:01:23.240 --> 00:01:30.080 the cushions by default. We'll find out. All right, we got a 00:01:27.280 --> 00:01:34.000 nice Look at that glossy finish on the top combined with a matte finish on the 00:01:32.520 --> 00:01:38.200 bottom. That's kind of that's definitely a look. It looks like a little ottoman. 00:01:36.760 --> 00:01:42.680 It looks like Well, I mean, maybe you wouldn't want to put your feet on the top there, but you'd you'd maybe I could 00:01:41.200 --> 00:01:47.000 put my feet on that. As long as we're looking at the outside here, though, uh 00:01:44.600 --> 00:01:51.480 we got a USB-C port on the back for charging. We got a We got a pair button 00:01:49.240 --> 00:01:54.480 as well. Nice to see. You know, Apple comes out here with their new cases and 00:01:53.400 --> 00:01:59.800 they're like, "Oh, and there's no buttons. Figure it out." 00:01:57.440 --> 00:02:04.960 Inside we got the LinkBuds clip. Definitely the strangest looking 00:02:02.800 --> 00:02:09.280 earbuds I've ever seen. You got your charging contacts there. You got a 00:02:07.120 --> 00:02:13.720 little hole there, probably a mic of some sort. And then it also, you know, 00:02:11.760 --> 00:02:20.080 Vietnam. And then on the other side you've got 00:02:15.880 --> 00:02:22.240 the kind of audio output grill, speaker 00:02:20.080 --> 00:02:24.920 grill, you know, the earbud grill. I don't know what to call it. What are 00:02:23.440 --> 00:02:30.640 these? I don't even know what they are, but I like them. Oh, 00:02:27.400 --> 00:02:32.720 there's also a little either a mic or 00:02:30.640 --> 00:02:38.480 speakers on the inside. Can I bend this? So these 00:02:35.680 --> 00:02:41.040 are bendy, which makes sense. You probably don't want them to be too 00:02:39.840 --> 00:02:45.680 stiff, but I'm also worried like how far can I 00:02:43.760 --> 00:02:48.880 bend it? Probably shouldn't test it too much. Someone's ear that someone doesn't 00:02:47.440 --> 00:02:53.840 have an ear that big. I don't want to judge. You can't really see in there, 00:02:50.720 --> 00:02:55.880 but I like inside there there's another 00:02:53.840 --> 00:03:00.239 little grill. So I don't know whether audio comes out of that little hole 00:02:57.760 --> 00:03:05.080 inside there. I feel like I'm getting ready for the ball. 00:03:02.320 --> 00:03:10.480 That's got to be how it is. Right? >> It looks cool? 00:03:08.000 --> 00:03:15.880 Wow. It feels like you can kind of position it in a bunch of different like 00:03:12.239 --> 00:03:17.720 you can kind of put it lower or like 00:03:15.880 --> 00:03:22.080 higher. I mean my glasses are there then it runs into my glasses in the back. I 00:03:19.720 --> 00:03:26.880 mean, you probably just want it in kind of a more neutral position there. I've 00:03:24.280 --> 00:03:31.360 seen some takes from people saying that they couldn't wear this for longer than 00:03:29.000 --> 00:03:34.280 30 minutes. Like it's it's unbearable and it bothers their ears and I've seen 00:03:32.800 --> 00:03:37.239 other people saying that it feels great and it feels fine and they're 00:03:36.000 --> 00:03:40.840 other people complaining are just whining. So I'll let them sort that out. 00:03:40.737 --> 00:03:46.600 >> [clears throat] >> But for me right now, 00:03:44.519 --> 00:03:52.239 it feel it definitely feels weird. It definitely feels unusual, 00:03:49.080 --> 00:03:53.880 but like not in a bad way. 00:03:52.239 --> 00:03:57.960 If I was walking around like this like I feel like I'm in a I'm in an alternative 00:03:56.400 --> 00:04:02.440 band or something. I'm like I feel like I need to now adjust more of my look to 00:04:00.600 --> 00:04:05.680 be more goth because [music] of this. What do I Do I look like a normal 00:04:03.720 --> 00:04:07.440 person? I'm getting nose. 00:04:06.937 --> 00:04:13.200 >> [laughter] >> So the cushions, pretty simple as far as I can tell. You just kind of squish them 00:04:11.200 --> 00:04:16.920 on there. And then they're on there. 00:04:15.040 --> 00:04:20.280 I feel like if you wanted cushions anywhere, you would want some silicone 00:04:19.079 --> 00:04:27.680 like on the part that's pinching your ear, not on this part, but I mean, you know, 00:04:25.200 --> 00:04:31.000 we'll see. They're pretty 00:04:29.440 --> 00:04:35.440 pretty intuitive just to kind of clip on like that. Probably more so than a 00:04:32.840 --> 00:04:39.800 regular earbud, honestly. Oh, I take it back. 00:04:38.200 --> 00:04:44.000 Okay. That kind of makes them feel like if 00:04:42.400 --> 00:04:48.240 anything it's less of a cushion and more kind of like a grip. Like I feel like 00:04:45.640 --> 00:04:52.600 it's it's keeping them in place more so than without. But they are earbuds. We 00:04:51.000 --> 00:04:55.960 can't forget that they are earbuds, so we should probably listen to something 00:04:54.320 --> 00:05:00.960 after this message from our sponsor. Be honest with yourself. When you're in a meeting, are you really paying attention 00:04:59.120 --> 00:05:05.360 if you're focused on taking notes? Well, our sponsor Circleback is built just for 00:05:03.120 --> 00:05:10.120 that. It's an AI meeting assistant that records conversation and takes accurate 00:05:07.280 --> 00:05:13.120 notes and syncs with multiple CRMs. If you can't remember what you had for 00:05:11.320 --> 00:05:16.720 breakfast yesterday, how the heck are you going to remember a meeting from 3 00:05:14.560 --> 00:05:20.720 months ago? Anything recorded is stored in a searchable database so you can 00:05:18.760 --> 00:05:24.560 remember that meeting. Circleback is also able to capture contextual 00:05:22.280 --> 00:05:28.919 information, not just a verbatim summary of the meeting. So try it yourself using 00:05:26.720 --> 00:05:32.360 our link below and get 30 days for free using code ShortCircuit. Oh, now that I 00:05:31.080 --> 00:05:37.320 think about it, this this case is actually a little thick, so maybe I do 00:05:35.120 --> 00:05:40.720 want to do like a little pocket test. Is this Is this going to stick out of my 00:05:38.760 --> 00:05:44.919 pocket here? Like I wouldn't want to put that in my front pocket, you know? But 00:05:43.160 --> 00:05:48.680 that's just me. Like if you go like what What is You got a growth or something. 00:05:46.880 --> 00:05:51.920 You got You You should get that looked at. That's kind of what's happening 00:05:49.880 --> 00:05:55.960 there. I guess people who carry bags with them everywhere won't care. They 00:05:53.240 --> 00:05:59.240 can just toss them in there, but uh for me, that might be an issue. Okay, 00:05:57.920 --> 00:06:03.280 it's time to see how these things actually sound. Just by default, before 00:06:01.560 --> 00:06:08.360 we get into any of the crazy features and stuff, I'm just going to play a song 00:06:05.640 --> 00:06:12.440 off Apple Music and see see what we're dealing WITH HERE. WOO! 00:06:10.640 --> 00:06:16.120 WOW, THAT'S LOUD. YOU CAN HEAR THAT. OKAY, how about this? 00:06:14.840 --> 00:06:19.200 I'll turn it down and you tell me when you can't hear it anymore. 00:06:23.280 --> 00:06:30.080 Right now? Now you can't hear anything? That's pretty good. We're just under 00:06:27.520 --> 00:06:33.760 half volume. It's a little I would want to turn this up a little bit more than 00:06:31.360 --> 00:06:37.480 this. Can you hear it now? Yeah. 00:06:35.200 --> 00:06:42.080 Yeah. Now, we should note that the guys here are 8 to 10 ft away from me, but 00:06:40.640 --> 00:06:46.320 we're in a pretty quiet room, so I feel like, you know, it's a pretty good representative 00:06:44.640 --> 00:06:48.800 situation here. And as for sound quality, 00:06:48.724 --> 00:06:55.560 >> [snorts] >> there's like a surprising amount of bass. Which is actually kind of funny. I 00:06:51.960 --> 00:06:57.320 feel like there's a lot of bass going on 00:06:55.560 --> 00:07:01.400 and a lot of highs 00:06:58.720 --> 00:07:06.040 and not as much mids. Or at least, you know, at least the uh those seem overly 00:07:03.800 --> 00:07:09.520 represented, the the lows and the highs. That said, I don't know what sound mode 00:07:07.360 --> 00:07:13.160 I'm in and there are EQ options in the app that we'll look at in a second. Now, 00:07:11.320 --> 00:07:16.720 before I listen to any other music, I want to just head into the app here 00:07:15.080 --> 00:07:21.640 because uh some of these modes and features might affect the experience. 00:07:19.280 --> 00:07:27.400 We've got three listening modes here: standard, voice boost, and sound leakage 00:07:24.520 --> 00:07:31.840 reduction, which is the one that will stop your noise from leaking out into 00:07:30.440 --> 00:07:37.560 the environment so that other people can hear it. So, it turns out we were in voice boost mode there, which probably 00:07:35.400 --> 00:07:40.440 affected my perception of the lows and the highs there. So, let's go to 00:07:38.680 --> 00:07:45.640 standard. Let's go back, see what that sounds like. Yeah, that seems a bit fuller. 00:07:44.480 --> 00:07:51.040 That kind of flushed out the mids a little bit more. Voice boost will make 00:07:49.240 --> 00:07:54.680 things like, you know, have things be crisper, and have voices be more audible 00:07:53.080 --> 00:07:58.320 to you, but it will probably be more audible to people around you as well. 00:07:56.480 --> 00:08:01.720 And this is just on standard mode, and already on standard mode the noise 00:08:00.240 --> 00:08:05.280 leakage is already a bit better. Interesting. 00:08:03.520 --> 00:08:09.440 Okay, sound leakage. Let's try that real quick. Let's see. I I want to be able to 00:08:07.720 --> 00:08:14.720 go to max volume and have you guys not hear at all. Oh man, that's muffled. 00:08:12.840 --> 00:08:18.320 That's much more muffled to me. You guys hear? 00:08:16.160 --> 00:08:20.560 You can't hear anything? You can't hear it? Just a little bit. 00:08:19.919 --> 00:08:25.480 No, pretty much. >> Just a little bit. WOW. 00:08:23.320 --> 00:08:30.880 OKAY, SONY. Sound leakage reduction mode is indeed 00:08:28.360 --> 00:08:34.919 sound leakage reduction mode. It works. In voice boost mode, they could hear it 00:08:32.760 --> 00:08:37.880 all the way down to like here. In standard mode, it was more like around 00:08:36.680 --> 00:08:43.080 here. And in this one, I forget exactly where, but it was like up here. 00:08:41.400 --> 00:08:46.600 So, the sound leakage reduction mode does affect the sound quality. You heard 00:08:45.040 --> 00:08:50.760 me say when I started playing it that it was immediately more muffled. 00:08:48.600 --> 00:08:54.839 But like, if I go back to like the hard, you know, the 00:08:51.960 --> 00:08:59.160 the active part [music] here. It's definitely quieter. 00:08:56.760 --> 00:09:03.600 But this still feels like fairly loud volume. Like it's it's it's I wouldn't 00:09:01.480 --> 00:09:07.640 want it this loud unless like I was in a very very loud environment. So, you, you 00:09:06.240 --> 00:09:12.040 know, there's there's trade-offs with these things. You're going to get 00:09:09.880 --> 00:09:16.640 slightly reduced sound quality, but not in a way that's like it's it's not like 00:09:14.440 --> 00:09:20.080 it's not making it more tinny. It's it's kind of putting like a blanket on it. 00:09:18.680 --> 00:09:26.839 But it's still kind of there. It's obviously up to you. It's a bit of a subjective thing, but for me as someone 00:09:23.480 --> 00:09:29.200 who is is looking for these kind of open 00:09:26.839 --> 00:09:32.680 earbuds, it's nice to see something that doesn't go into my ear 00:09:30.920 --> 00:09:36.880 canal, but gives me a lot of options about how to tailor my my experience. 00:09:35.440 --> 00:09:41.880 It's nice to see. And of course that comes from Sony. They care about us. 00:09:40.000 --> 00:09:45.280 Right? So, let's go back to standard mode here, 00:09:43.520 --> 00:09:50.080 head back into the app and see what we're dealing with. So, there is an equalizer mode because we're in 00:09:47.800 --> 00:09:57.080 standard. We can go in here and switch between a bunch of presets here. Heavy, 00:09:52.520 --> 00:09:59.760 clear, hard, soft, manual. The 00:09:57.080 --> 00:10:02.600 The standard names for EQ settings. Okay, now in device settings I saw 00:10:01.280 --> 00:10:07.880 something that was kind of interesting about the controls. These are earbuds 00:10:04.600 --> 00:10:10.000 where you can customize 00:10:07.880 --> 00:10:13.880 what the taps do. On the right side you've got sort of your default controls 00:10:11.960 --> 00:10:18.000 for Sony earbuds anyways where double tap is a play and a pause, a triple tap 00:10:16.080 --> 00:10:21.920 is a next song. And then I guess you also have the option to tap a bunch of 00:10:19.840 --> 00:10:27.160 times to raise the volume. On the left side, if you tap a bunch of 00:10:24.200 --> 00:10:30.840 times, it will lower the volume. And then you have a double tap and a triple 00:10:29.280 --> 00:10:36.120 tap that you can assign to [music] change modes or to what? I don't know. 00:10:34.600 --> 00:10:42.080 So, that setting that I couldn't change on the left here is you can set it to 00:10:38.720 --> 00:10:43.280 one of these services. Amazon Music Play 00:10:42.080 --> 00:10:47.880 Now. N-Del Quick Access. I don't know what 00:10:45.400 --> 00:10:50.960 that is. And Spotify Tap. I don't think there's anything in the app here that 00:10:49.400 --> 00:10:54.920 won't be familiar to people who have used Sony 00:10:52.600 --> 00:10:58.520 earbuds before, but there's a number of ways you can kind of customize your 00:10:56.440 --> 00:11:02.400 experience if you so choose. But I'm just thinking about the earbuds like 00:11:00.480 --> 00:11:05.920 like these earbuds as hardware here. So, on that note, I'm just going to listen 00:11:03.560 --> 00:11:11.080 to a couple tracks real quick that aren't Crab Rave because, you know, 00:11:08.880 --> 00:11:14.600 sometimes that's nice to listen to. This sounds pretty good. Like I'm at a pretty 00:11:13.120 --> 00:11:19.200 high volume here and I'm in standard mode without any EQ. 00:11:17.000 --> 00:11:22.040 In any situation with open earbuds, if you're right next to somebody, they're 00:11:20.680 --> 00:11:25.160 probably going to be able to hear a bit of what you're listening to. That's just 00:11:23.680 --> 00:11:31.480 kind of the trade-off that you go with, you know. I'm okay with that. I'm not 00:11:26.960 --> 00:11:33.240 usually listening to stuff that is like 00:11:31.480 --> 00:11:37.320 inappropriate for children. Another one of the tradeoffs that you make with 00:11:34.880 --> 00:11:41.200 going with open earbuds is the potential that you are losing some sound quality. 00:11:39.720 --> 00:11:44.440 You know, obviously like an isolated environment where they can control 00:11:43.000 --> 00:11:47.880 exactly what sound waves they're listening. There isn't like distortion 00:11:46.040 --> 00:11:52.000 happening or or disruption. [music] That's the environment that you're going to want to choose if you just are 00:11:50.400 --> 00:11:56.600 prioritizing sound quality. If you're going with open earbuds, you're kind of 00:11:54.240 --> 00:12:00.960 acknowledging that like, okay, tip-top sound quality is not the most 00:11:59.080 --> 00:12:05.320 important thing to me. I just don't like doohickeys inside my ear canals. Why do 00:12:04.040 --> 00:12:08.368 they keep wanting to go in there? It's That's for me and my wife. 00:12:07.640 --> 00:12:13.720 Uh >> [laughter] >> But I got to say, this is a very quiet 00:12:11.560 --> 00:12:17.280 environment, but like it sounds really good. There's 00:12:15.080 --> 00:12:21.200 definitely things with these earbuds, you know, that I would like to kind of 00:12:19.480 --> 00:12:25.160 tweak with the EQ. I'd want to spend a little bit of time in the app tweaking 00:12:23.000 --> 00:12:28.840 the EQ to my liking, but there's nothing that I'm experiencing right now that's 00:12:26.720 --> 00:12:33.720 like, "Ooh, that Ooh, that's bad." But overall, it's fine. It's 00:12:31.800 --> 00:12:37.839 It's fine. Generally, I'm someone who wouldn't want to do a lot of tweaking 00:12:36.080 --> 00:12:41.560 with my with my headphones or earbuds. I would want to just kind of put them in 00:12:39.480 --> 00:12:44.280 and have them sound good. And that's why I feel like I'm satisfied with this 00:12:42.760 --> 00:12:47.440 because I put them in, they sound pretty decent, and I know that there's some 00:12:46.080 --> 00:12:51.839 tradeoffs that you're going to make with open versus closed earbuds or headphones 00:12:49.760 --> 00:12:56.880 or whatever. Now, that's all my subjective experience, but we had Labs 00:12:53.960 --> 00:13:02.280 uh test these earbuds, and they came back with this frequency response graph. 00:12:59.880 --> 00:13:06.600 Now, uh in case you haven't seen our graphs here, this gray band here is the 00:13:04.960 --> 00:13:12.320 average listener preference. So, that's generally what the average listener is 00:13:08.920 --> 00:13:15.480 going to want to hear, and the red band 00:13:12.320 --> 00:13:17.880 here is what the LinkBuds returned in 00:13:15.480 --> 00:13:23.760 terms of frequency response. So, as you can see, the lows drop off pretty 00:13:20.240 --> 00:13:25.360 harshly uh around the 100 Hz mark, and 00:13:23.760 --> 00:13:29.480 that's mostly to be expected with, you know, earbuds. We are partly within the 00:13:27.720 --> 00:13:32.720 preferred range through the mids, but then as we get to the highs, we're 00:13:30.760 --> 00:13:35.480 getting some weird kind of variations and spikes. So, [music] 00:13:34.160 --> 00:13:39.280 it's a good thing the app has a decent EQ tool you can use to try to compensate 00:13:37.600 --> 00:13:44.200 for those. [music] Labs left a note here that this frequency response is 00:13:41.520 --> 00:13:48.040 relatively normal uh for what you'd see from a open-ear device. Now, one thing 00:13:46.000 --> 00:13:53.680 to note here is that this is a Sony device, but they [music] do not support 00:13:50.360 --> 00:13:56.120 Sony's LDAC codec that they developed. 00:13:53.680 --> 00:14:00.160 So, anyone going for these open earbuds are probably there's a trade-off. You 00:13:58.800 --> 00:14:04.120 know that you're not going to get like the absolute highest quality, so I guess 00:14:02.480 --> 00:14:07.320 they thought, "Oh, we won't even put the LDAC in there." I don't have enough 00:14:05.640 --> 00:14:10.960 background information to know why they chose not to put LDAC in there, but just 00:14:09.120 --> 00:14:13.960 so you know, it doesn't have LDAC. If that's what you're looking for. Okay, 00:14:12.360 --> 00:14:17.640 that's audio quality. What about mic quality though? And this is kind of 00:14:15.600 --> 00:14:22.360 interesting because the LinkBuds Clip apparently use bone conduction for the 00:14:20.000 --> 00:14:27.040 mic. Uh they don't use bone conduction to play audio like, you know, Shokz 00:14:25.080 --> 00:14:30.800 headphones or something, but they do use it to record audio or at least to detect 00:14:29.600 --> 00:14:35.320 that you're speaking. So, I'm going to give Bell a call here and he's going to 00:14:32.680 --> 00:14:40.920 record and we'll see how it sounds for him. So, this is me speaking from the 00:14:38.440 --> 00:14:45.320 mic from the LinkBuds. Uh obviously, this will depend on your particular 00:14:43.320 --> 00:14:49.040 device and your speaker setup. Uh you know, maybe that'll sound good or bad to 00:14:47.160 --> 00:14:53.280 you. I don't know what it sounds like. I can't hear through your ears. I'm 00:14:51.120 --> 00:14:58.160 listening to the recording that I just recorded through these earbuds and it 00:14:54.800 --> 00:15:00.480 sounds like I'm a bit far away in it. 00:14:58.160 --> 00:15:05.920 It doesn't sound bad. So, audio quality, mic quality, not bad for an open set of 00:15:03.839 --> 00:15:11.040 earbuds. In terms of battery life, Sony says that the earbuds themselves can 00:15:08.360 --> 00:15:15.880 last for 9 hours and then you get 28 hours of battery life in the case for a 00:15:13.080 --> 00:15:22.160 total of 37. That's obviously in optimal conditions. They got Bluetooth 5.3, IPX4 00:15:19.760 --> 00:15:25.240 uh water resistance rating, which is which is pretty standard for 00:15:23.800 --> 00:15:31.720 these kind of things. And it comes in four colors, lavender, beige, green, and 00:15:28.760 --> 00:15:36.440 black for $230. Now, that's a little bit on the high 00:15:34.040 --> 00:15:40.840 side for, you know, what some people would feel is like a compromise in terms 00:15:39.000 --> 00:15:45.520 of sound quality. But for someone like me, who is really looking for open 00:15:42.960 --> 00:15:50.000 earbuds, I don't know. There's not a ton of really great options. We mentioned 00:15:47.000 --> 00:15:52.640 the Bose Ultra Opens. Uh there are the 00:15:50.000 --> 00:15:55.840 Nothing Ear open ears, whatever they're called. Uh but those are a little bit of 00:15:54.400 --> 00:15:59.600 a different design cuz they don't clip on. They are like sit on top of your 00:15:57.840 --> 00:16:03.640 ear. So, there's not a ton of options out there. So, I don't know. 230, it's 00:16:01.640 --> 00:16:06.680 up to you. Well, that's it for the LinkBuds Clip, guys. Thanks for 00:16:05.360 --> 00:16:10.840 watching. If you're looking for another video to watch, let me tell you, I had a 00:16:08.440 --> 00:16:14.320 lot of fun with the Richie mini robot. I think we're friends now. We're supposed 00:16:12.440 --> 00:16:19.240 to hang out this weekend, but we'll we'll see. Uh subscribe to ShortCircuit. 00:16:16.240 --> 00:16:19.240 Bye.