WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:07.120 People are always asking what's the new tech, but never how's the new tech made? 00:00:04.319 --> 00:00:11.440 And if you look into it, a lot of the parts of the supply chain are um 00:00:08.960 --> 00:00:15.280 ethically dubious. Whether that's due to wasteful manufacturing processes or just 00:00:13.599 --> 00:00:18.560 unfair working conditions, it can be hard to be excited about new tech when 00:00:16.720 --> 00:00:22.880 you know about the downsides. But that's Fairphone's whole mission. They're 00:00:20.880 --> 00:00:27.359 trying to make tech a little bit more equitable. And these are their new 00:00:24.960 --> 00:00:32.480 Fairbuds XL. A couple years ago, we took a look at the first generation of these. 00:00:29.519 --> 00:00:35.680 also just called Fairbuds XL, which is a weird name, but I guess if you can call 00:00:34.079 --> 00:00:40.160 them AirPods Max, then you can call these Fairbuds XL. The front of the box 00:00:38.000 --> 00:00:44.079 says Fairphone. The side of the box says Fairbuds XL, but they are just 00:00:42.160 --> 00:00:47.120 earphones. I guess Fairphones is too close to Fairphone Phone, so this is the 00:00:45.680 --> 00:00:52.160 best they could do. I liked what they had last time, especially due to the repairability aspects, and they are 00:00:50.239 --> 00:00:57.039 keeping that going with this generation. In fact, if you saw the other one, they 00:00:54.719 --> 00:01:00.320 are pretty much identical in shape. That means that no matter what generation of 00:00:58.719 --> 00:01:04.720 Fairbuds you have, you can use spare parts from the new one or the old one. 00:01:02.320 --> 00:01:08.000 They all work together. Before we get any further, let's take a look in the 00:01:05.920 --> 00:01:11.600 box. You get a nice little egg sack, as Dankpods likes to call them, as well as 00:01:09.600 --> 00:01:17.680 a quick start guide. And the packaging is fully recyclable. I love to see it. 00:01:15.680 --> 00:01:22.159 The darker green color, I think, is a lot nicer than last gen. And while last 00:01:19.759 --> 00:01:25.439 gen did have that kind of cool speckled appearance that you get from a lot of 00:01:23.360 --> 00:01:30.159 recycled plastic, this has gone for a more classy pine green. There are still 00:01:28.720 --> 00:01:36.479 some changes from last gen though. And for the ear cups and headset, they've gone from a polyurethane leather to a 00:01:34.640 --> 00:01:40.880 new meshlike material that they're calling uh bird's eye mesh. I haven't 00:01:39.439 --> 00:01:45.920 looked too many birds right in the eye, but I don't really understand the um 00:01:43.759 --> 00:01:50.320 correlation there. But I do think they just look a lot more premium. And I 00:01:48.320 --> 00:01:54.240 think the texture on the top here looks really quite cool. For the material 00:01:52.079 --> 00:01:58.079 change, this isn't my usual first pick, but I'll give you more impressions when 00:01:55.840 --> 00:02:01.280 I try them on. Let's keep looking around the headphone. The headband still feels 00:01:59.600 --> 00:02:05.680 relatively durable, and we still have folding ear cups, which is cool. And I 00:02:04.399 --> 00:02:09.679 also like to point out that these are like USBC cables that are connecting 00:02:07.840 --> 00:02:13.440 here. For earphone adjustment, you don't have a ton of wiggle room. There's a 00:02:11.360 --> 00:02:17.760 little bit of tilt [music] up and down. Not really much by the way of swivel. 00:02:16.000 --> 00:02:21.440 And for the adjuster, it is a smooth adjustment. And oh, that's um not a 00:02:20.080 --> 00:02:26.080 great look. Uh [music] just from me trying to adjust it, I kind of pulled 00:02:23.680 --> 00:02:30.560 the headband off a little bit. And it happens on both sides. It's not exactly 00:02:28.959 --> 00:02:35.040 flattering, but the good news is that if you want to change the band cushion or 00:02:33.440 --> 00:02:39.440 fabric type, you can just slide it off and don't have to replace a whole band. 00:02:37.760 --> 00:02:43.920 So, that's pretty cool, I think. For controls, you get a single button plus a 00:02:41.120 --> 00:02:50.080 joystick that also acts like a button. And for charging, you have USBC. [music] 00:02:47.280 --> 00:02:52.800 You can also listen over the USBC, but it does require the headphones to use 00:02:51.920 --> 00:02:59.599 battery, [music] which is a little bit of a bummer. It's not passive like it would be if it was 00:02:56.239 --> 00:03:02.560 like a 3.5 mm jack. The batteries are 00:02:59.599 --> 00:03:06.400 replaceable. Oops, wrong side. And inside the left ear cup, there is a 00:03:04.400 --> 00:03:11.920 battery, which they claim will provide you 30 hours of battery life on a single 00:03:09.360 --> 00:03:15.280 charge. And it's a lithium ion battery that has a little recycling symbol on 00:03:13.360 --> 00:03:20.000 it. And it's nice and blue. Isn't that a nice blue color? I like that blue. And 00:03:17.280 --> 00:03:23.120 they use standard Phillips0ero screws. But note that there are a few 00:03:22.000 --> 00:03:26.720 different screw lengths that you'll want to keep track of if you're taking these 00:03:25.017 --> 00:03:30.799 [music] apart yourself. Another thing that I like how they even labeled the 00:03:28.720 --> 00:03:34.239 inside of this ear cup to be left. Like it's just that kind of extra like 00:03:32.480 --> 00:03:38.239 accessibility work that they put in to make this not just repairable for 00:03:36.400 --> 00:03:41.920 somebody with experience with electronics. But for the average user, 00:03:40.319 --> 00:03:46.400 it's little things like that that make a huge difference when you're trying to put this thing back together. The one 00:03:44.480 --> 00:03:49.680 that lasts. Keeping on what's inside of the 00:03:47.599 --> 00:03:54.080 headphones, they have new and improved 40 mm drivers, which they claim have 00:03:52.000 --> 00:03:58.000 better tuning and better bass response thanks to stronger magnets. We'll see if 00:03:56.799 --> 00:04:02.959 that's true when we get to our listening impressions, but I'm just going to take their word for now. Well, I've done a 00:04:01.360 --> 00:04:06.560 lot of talking, but I haven't done a lot of listening. So, while I'm doing that, 00:04:04.799 --> 00:04:12.000 why don't you listen to this message from our sponsor, War Thunder. 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These aren't the most 00:04:48.880 --> 00:04:54.560 comfortable, not going to lie. They're a little firm. The ear cups are quite 00:04:52.720 --> 00:04:58.000 firm. They have a little bit of clamping and also they don't really seal at the 00:04:56.400 --> 00:05:02.639 bottom that well. Also, being not the largest earcuffs, you larger eared 00:05:00.160 --> 00:05:06.000 fellows might have um well, you might have issues. I don't mind the headband, 00:05:04.240 --> 00:05:09.919 but I'm also not very sensitive to the headband and stuff on the top of my head 00:05:08.160 --> 00:05:15.039 in general. The noise cancelling, which is already on, I can tell is improved 00:05:12.720 --> 00:05:19.759 from the last generation. There is a slight bit of white noise that you can 00:05:17.199 --> 00:05:23.280 hear even when the ANC is on. And also like this is not a very loud room, but I 00:05:21.680 --> 00:05:28.479 can tell just from how it's affecting my voice that it's a little bit more of an aggressive profile. When I switch to 00:05:26.320 --> 00:05:32.479 transparency mode, or as they call it in the gentle voice, it just appeared in my 00:05:29.840 --> 00:05:35.919 ear. Ambient sound. There's quite a lot of white noise hiss. It's not as 00:05:34.080 --> 00:05:39.600 convincing of a transparency mode as you might get from the uh premium tiers from 00:05:37.919 --> 00:05:42.800 like Apple or Sony. But the nice thing is that you can also just choose to have 00:05:41.199 --> 00:05:46.639 the noise cancelling off. We've connected it to Android and we'll take a 00:05:44.800 --> 00:05:50.160 quick look at the app. We got the app installed, but it wasn't as smooth of an 00:05:48.639 --> 00:05:53.600 experience as I would hope. A lot of headphones these days, even like cheaper 00:05:52.000 --> 00:05:57.039 ones, are doing that kind of magic pairing that you can get on Android and 00:05:55.919 --> 00:06:01.759 iPhone. That was not the case with these. You had to download the app, manually pair them, but once it finds 00:06:00.080 --> 00:06:05.759 them inside of the app, we have some default sound profiles as well as a 00:06:03.680 --> 00:06:09.600 fiveband equalizer, which is fine. Personally though, I would like to see 00:06:07.459 --> 00:06:13.759 [music] more granularity from the equalizer. Then there's tips color. Oh, 00:06:12.560 --> 00:06:18.240 you can select it so that reflects coming out. You can update the headphone 00:06:16.319 --> 00:06:23.039 firmware through the app. Pretty basic app, not going to lie. Cool. Let's take 00:06:20.800 --> 00:06:26.560 a listen to some tunes. You might notice that I look a little bit different, 00:06:24.479 --> 00:06:30.639 perhaps cuter, hopefully. Uh, don't answer that. But it's because we found 00:06:28.560 --> 00:06:34.240 some really strange behavior within the app, and we decided to go back and 00:06:32.400 --> 00:06:39.759 retest these headphones before we talked about their performance anymore. 00:06:37.440 --> 00:06:44.080 Okay, I don't know what happened. These sound like The 00:06:42.560 --> 00:06:51.120 moment you touch the EQ, it just everything up. I kind of want to update the software. Basically, within the app, 00:06:47.840 --> 00:06:53.039 you have four preset EQs, uh, default, 00:06:51.120 --> 00:06:58.000 bass boost, podcast, and detail clarity, as well as a fiveb equalizer. But the 00:06:56.560 --> 00:07:03.759 thing is that when you leave the equalizer at flat, it turns off these 00:07:01.360 --> 00:07:10.720 settings and makes a different sound profile than what is default. It's very 00:07:07.280 --> 00:07:14.639 strange behavior. And it caused this 00:07:10.720 --> 00:07:17.599 profile, the equalizers set to zero, 00:07:14.639 --> 00:07:21.520 uh, to sound really truly terrible. Quite bad. I It just sound sounds like 00:07:19.599 --> 00:07:24.560 you're like listening to it through like like a piece of foam or something. It's 00:07:23.280 --> 00:07:31.680 like in in the other room. But when we're in the default profile, to my ears, these are serviceable. They 00:07:29.280 --> 00:07:35.680 definitely have kind of a U-shaped sound profile where we're getting a lot of 00:07:32.960 --> 00:07:39.280 extra treble sparkle and a big bump to the bass and subbase, which is a matter 00:07:38.080 --> 00:07:45.360 of preference. I would say that the treble presentation on these is a little 00:07:42.800 --> 00:07:49.120 un I don't know, unrefined. There's some kind of weird peaks. But what was kind 00:07:47.520 --> 00:07:53.120 of a pleasant surprise is that as I was listening to these, I did actually 00:07:50.800 --> 00:07:56.479 notice certain parts of songs that I had not heard before. I'm not going to say 00:07:54.800 --> 00:08:03.440 that that's because these are like super resolving or anything like that. They're 00:07:58.000 --> 00:08:05.280 not that great, but the unique tuning 00:08:03.440 --> 00:08:09.520 allowed me to hear cool new things in songs that I didn't quite notice were 00:08:06.560 --> 00:08:13.440 there. So, that's always fun. The mids end up being scooped out as per usual in 00:08:11.440 --> 00:08:17.360 a U-shaped sound signature to a point that I'd say like it kind of feels 00:08:15.759 --> 00:08:21.440 almost distant sometimes. A lot of the most important parts of the music where 00:08:19.120 --> 00:08:25.280 there's like vocals and the main, you know, the body of your instruments just 00:08:23.120 --> 00:08:30.000 kind of not there. And the bass can be a little bloated at times. But I don't 00:08:27.840 --> 00:08:34.159 think these sound too terrible. Um, also I've been wearing these for a couple of 00:08:31.360 --> 00:08:38.000 days now. The ANC I would I'll still say is pretty good. The comfort isn't ideal. 00:08:36.959 --> 00:08:42.000 I find it's a little bit too much clamping pressure and as we noted earlier, there's not a ton of movement 00:08:40.320 --> 00:08:45.040 for the ear cups and that makes these a little bit uncomfortable and honestly 00:08:43.519 --> 00:08:48.640 they end up a little bit warm around my ears. Your mileage may vary. Comfort is 00:08:46.959 --> 00:08:52.959 very, very subjective. But what isn't subjective is our measurements. Let's 00:08:51.680 --> 00:08:57.600 take a look at those. Here is the frequency response and variation graph 00:08:54.880 --> 00:09:02.320 from Labs. The white highlighted area is what we consider to be good for most 00:09:00.480 --> 00:09:05.600 people. The average listener will enjoy headphones that fall in between the 00:09:03.920 --> 00:09:08.880 white lines. Now, every headphone is going to have some level of variance, 00:09:07.040 --> 00:09:12.640 and that's where the red comes in on this graph. This is our frequency 00:09:10.320 --> 00:09:15.760 response plus the headphone transfer function variation. Basically, we 00:09:14.240 --> 00:09:18.880 measure these headphones across a variety of different measurement rigs, 00:09:17.360 --> 00:09:22.560 and this is the variation in performance between these tests. So, the red area 00:09:20.640 --> 00:09:26.959 represents what you might hear based on your unique biological construction. And 00:09:25.279 --> 00:09:30.480 sometimes headphones are more or less varied. As you can see in the treble 00:09:28.560 --> 00:09:34.160 region weighed at the top, it's a little bit erratic where you have some specific 00:09:32.240 --> 00:09:37.600 spikes that different people might be very sensitive to. As I said that the 00:09:36.000 --> 00:09:42.399 treble was a little bit wonky. That spike that's just above 10 kHz kind of 00:09:39.760 --> 00:09:45.440 sticks out for me, but I don't know if I saw all of that level of wonkiness. And 00:09:44.240 --> 00:09:50.640 if we look at the overall shape of the graph, you can see that it's pretty consistent in the lows and the mids. And 00:09:48.880 --> 00:09:54.399 we also see that kind of bass bloat as the red line goes outside of the white 00:09:52.480 --> 00:09:58.800 area, as well as that mid-range scoop that contributes to that U-shape sound 00:09:56.480 --> 00:10:04.720 signature that I talked about. The treble is obviously a little erratic, 00:10:00.959 --> 00:10:08.240 perhaps could be tamed, but it's not 00:10:04.720 --> 00:10:10.240 truly bad, but I wouldn't call this a 00:10:08.240 --> 00:10:13.040 high performing or analytical headphone, you know? But I think you might have a 00:10:11.440 --> 00:10:18.240 lot of fun if you're a bass head. This second graph shows the difference between the flat EQ and the default EQ 00:10:16.320 --> 00:10:24.240 on this. And you can see that the flat EQ is um well, it's not really flat at 00:10:21.120 --> 00:10:26.880 all. In fact, it's truly awful. The 00:10:24.240 --> 00:10:32.079 pronounced muddy bass hump that's just over 100 Hz is even bigger. And the 00:10:29.279 --> 00:10:36.399 treble is way, way, way pulled down, which makes for a very, very muddy and 00:10:34.959 --> 00:10:41.519 bad experience. It sounds like you're listening to something in a different room almost. It's truly insane that they 00:10:40.000 --> 00:10:47.200 would call that flat. Hopefully, they can figure that out with a software update. For now, I'd say stick to the 00:10:45.040 --> 00:10:50.240 default sound profile. So, that's the sound quality impressions. I know I 00:10:48.560 --> 00:10:55.600 wasn't too positive, but don't let that scare you off. If this is a cause that 00:10:52.160 --> 00:10:59.680 you support, then maybe consider these. 00:10:55.600 --> 00:11:01.040 They are a little bit expensive at €250. 00:10:59.680 --> 00:11:04.399 And considering that that price point has decent competition, you should do 00:11:03.120 --> 00:11:08.800 your research before you pull the trigger on these, especially because a 00:11:06.640 --> 00:11:13.347 lot more headphones are more repairable than you might think. However, Fairphone 00:11:11.360 --> 00:11:17.440 does have a track record and history, [music] and it provides really simple 00:11:15.519 --> 00:11:20.560 upgrades. So, it's more repairable and you're more likely to have parts that 00:11:19.040 --> 00:11:23.279 are going to be around for a lot [music] longer. If you want to see how these 00:11:22.079 --> 00:11:26.800 come apart, check out the ShortCircuit we did on the previous version of these. 00:11:25.120 --> 00:11:30.240 They're basically the exact same structure. You can literally swap the 00:11:28.640 --> 00:11:33.920 drivers in and out. If you want the new drivers, you can put them in the old headphones if you got those, so you 00:11:32.480 --> 00:11:37.760 don't have to buy a whole new set of headphones. 00:11:35.600 --> 00:11:41.760 I think that's pretty cool. Thanks so much for for watching this video. I love 00:11:39.440 --> 00:11:41.760 you.