WEBVTT 00:00:00.140 --> 00:00:04.993 - I'm really excited for these that the- - [Jono] Oh no, it broke. 00:00:04.993 --> 00:00:08.634 - [Brandon] Jono broke the press kit it's not Sony's fault. (Jono laughing) 00:00:08.634 --> 00:00:12.780 - Way to go Jono. (Jono laughing) - [Jono] It wasn't my fault. 00:00:12.780 --> 00:00:16.080 - [Brandon] It kinda was though. - Oh, there's goo on it. 00:00:16.080 --> 00:00:20.990 The conventional wisdom has always been that in ear headphones isolate you from the outside world. 00:00:20.990 --> 00:00:24.200 And we've used technology to get around that to a degree 00:00:24.200 --> 00:00:29.030 with things like transparent modes that use microphones to pass through ambient sounds. 00:00:29.030 --> 00:00:34.010 But the LinkBuds take a far more holistic approach to this problem with a shape 00:00:34.010 --> 00:00:37.240 that I would've actually never imagined ever seeing in an earphone. 00:00:37.240 --> 00:00:40.770 Unfortunately, I have no idea how to open this box. 00:00:40.770 --> 00:00:44.402 - [Jono] Check that little cap on your right. (indistinct) - This paper. 00:00:45.847 --> 00:00:49.490 - [Jono] Yeah that part. - [Brandon] Sheer brute force. - [Jono] Oh, he forced it. 00:00:50.514 --> 00:00:51.347 - Okay. 00:00:55.010 --> 00:01:01.410 Oh, please tell me it's not an NFT. YouTube sent this cringe NFT display thing to me 00:01:01.410 --> 00:01:04.410 a little a while ago. Just didn't know what to say. 00:01:04.410 --> 00:01:08.540 Sustainability is extremely important to us at Sony which is why the LinkBuds and their charging case 00:01:08.540 --> 00:01:12.580 are made using recycled plastic materials and have plastic free packaging. 00:01:12.580 --> 00:01:14.230 Not the press version apparently. 00:01:16.140 --> 00:01:18.190 I swear to you, this thing's really cool. 00:01:19.280 --> 00:01:22.530 I can't get the box open. And then I can't get the other box open. 00:01:23.690 --> 00:01:26.653 But trust me, it's really cool. Oh, all right. 00:01:29.200 --> 00:01:34.433 Okay. This is actually pretty cool. It's all just cardboard padding. Like it. 00:01:35.650 --> 00:01:39.590 Very compact charging case. No wireless charging on the charging case, 00:01:39.590 --> 00:01:43.400 but it has a lot of other redeeming qualities. USB-C charging. 00:01:43.400 --> 00:01:46.740 There's your pairing button so nice, simple pairing process. 00:01:46.740 --> 00:01:51.110 It's really small. Here actually hold on. I've got my AirPods Pros in my pocket. 00:01:51.110 --> 00:01:55.720 So you can see it's thicker than the AirPods Pros, right? 00:01:55.720 --> 00:02:00.300 But in both other dimensions it's actually substantially smaller. 00:02:00.300 --> 00:02:04.640 Like other wireless earphones. The case acts as a charger, holding 12 hours worth of juice 00:02:04.640 --> 00:02:08.710 while the earphones themselves hold five and a half for a total of seventeen and a half. 00:02:08.710 --> 00:02:12.400 That should be good enough for most people's long day. 00:02:12.400 --> 00:02:17.410 And if you want to top up the earphones quickly, Sony quotes, 90 minutes of use 00:02:17.410 --> 00:02:21.060 off of a 10 minute quick charge. And then I believe it's 90 minutes total 00:02:21.060 --> 00:02:27.500 to fully charge the assembly. Now this is where the similarities to other earphones 00:02:27.500 --> 00:02:30.690 pretty much die in a fire. 00:02:30.690 --> 00:02:35.620 Look at these things, Brandon. - [Brandon] That's so cool. - They've got kind of this bulbous 00:02:36.610 --> 00:02:41.410 almost figure eight shape. And you can see the analogous components, right? 00:02:41.410 --> 00:02:47.330 Like here's the part that goes into the canal. And here's the part that sits in the little, like, 00:02:47.330 --> 00:02:52.120 you know concave spot in your ear, right? 00:02:52.120 --> 00:02:56.710 So relative to the AirPod you can kind of see how it's gonna sit. 00:02:56.710 --> 00:02:59.443 But it's got a hole in it. 00:03:00.610 --> 00:03:06.020 - [Jono] It's a donut. - This is what I meant when I said they've taken a much more holistic approach. 00:03:06.020 --> 00:03:10.930 Get it? Pun very much intended. To making it so that you can hear your surroundings. 00:03:10.930 --> 00:03:14.580 The driver is actually a ring shaped driver 00:03:14.580 --> 00:03:20.230 around the outside here. So what they've done is they've created a completely 00:03:20.230 --> 00:03:24.720 actually open backed in ear headphone. 00:03:24.720 --> 00:03:28.500 Okay, I'm gonna put it in. They've got these little silicone loops 00:03:28.500 --> 00:03:33.060 to help hold them into place. Hopefully my ears aren't too waxy today. 00:03:33.060 --> 00:03:38.460 So it kind of sits like that. One of their priorities for this product was all day comfort 00:03:38.460 --> 00:03:42.650 with the being that because they're not cutting you off from the rest of the world, 00:03:42.650 --> 00:03:46.420 you are able to wear them all day while still carrying on normal conversations 00:03:46.420 --> 00:03:51.360 or safely walking around in the city and not getting, you know, run over by a car or a train 00:03:51.360 --> 00:03:54.480 or whatever the case may be. I believe they've actually partnered with Niantic. 00:03:54.480 --> 00:03:58.950 And they've talked about Pokemon go as a specific use case for these headphones. 00:03:58.950 --> 00:04:02.220 They've also boasted that they have excellent ambient noise rejection 00:04:02.220 --> 00:04:06.831 for the microphone. So if you wanna carry on a conversation with someone, we'll have to do a test call with Jono. 00:04:06.831 --> 00:04:10.880 You gotta way to record it real quick. Actually okay, I guess I'm not gonna use this phone. 00:04:10.880 --> 00:04:14.360 I'll use the one that is preloaded with their application because these aren't released yet 00:04:14.360 --> 00:04:19.240 so you can't just grab it from the app store or the play store. Thanks to Vessi footwear for sponsoring this video. 00:04:19.240 --> 00:04:23.650 Vessi shoes are known for being lightweight, easy to pack comfortable, and most importantly 00:04:23.650 --> 00:04:28.040 water resistant with their Dyma-tex technology. Their everyday move lineup is designed to keep up 00:04:28.040 --> 00:04:32.230 with your active lifestyle with added support in the mid sole and better breathability. 00:04:32.230 --> 00:04:37.130 It's also got a pull tab to make taking them off and putting them on super easy and they're made creature free. 00:04:37.130 --> 00:04:43.210 So you don't have to worry about that. You'll wanna wear them everywhere. So keep your dry and save $ 25 by visiting the link 00:04:43.210 --> 00:04:47.150 in the video description and using offer code shortcircuit. 00:04:47.150 --> 00:04:51.280 Crap, Jono, you gotta sign into your Apple ID. I gotta say these typing sounds 00:04:51.280 --> 00:04:56.670 are tripping me the crap out. Because I don't feel like I'm wearing headphones. 00:04:56.670 --> 00:05:01.489 So you know how with some headphones you get that like inside your skull sensation. 00:05:01.489 --> 00:05:04.730 - [Brandon] Yeah. - I'm definitely getting that a little bit. 00:05:04.730 --> 00:05:09.040 They're very comfortable. I mean, obviously I haven't spent an entire day with them 00:05:09.040 --> 00:05:16.084 and I actually sleep with my AirPods Pros and my Tone Free FP8. 00:05:16.084 --> 00:05:20.370 But they're extremely comfortable for me. I don't know if I could say that about these yet. 00:05:20.370 --> 00:05:23.800 The XM4's from Sony I found were a little bit too bulky for that. 00:05:23.800 --> 00:05:26.970 And the touch would often get activated by lying down on my pillow. 00:05:26.970 --> 00:05:31.370 So I wasn't able to do that with those, But these seem at least on first glance, 00:05:31.370 --> 00:05:34.400 extremely comfortable cause they don't put pressure on the canal. 00:05:34.400 --> 00:05:39.230 It's all up here. They're really light too. Like extremely light. 00:05:39.230 --> 00:05:44.130 - [Jono] How are you doing today? - That's really weird. 00:05:44.130 --> 00:05:47.920 Just how, how do I describe this? 00:05:47.920 --> 00:05:53.480 - [Jono] Is it like I'm right there? - With the typing sounds and with this phone call. 00:05:53.480 --> 00:05:55.950 It sounds like you're coming from 00:05:57.000 --> 00:06:00.930 like in between my ears. (Jono laughs) - [Jono] I'm in your head 00:06:00.930 --> 00:06:06.460 - Now this is interesting. The press deck for this talks about wide area tap. 00:06:06.460 --> 00:06:09.900 Whatever that means. And it seems like the guy in the picture 00:06:09.900 --> 00:06:13.590 is like tapping his head. Whoa 00:06:17.680 --> 00:06:20.990 - [Brandon] That's cool. - [Jono] Whoa - Could you hear that? 00:06:20.990 --> 00:06:22.740 - [Jono] Yeah, I can hear that. 00:06:29.431 --> 00:06:33.184 (group laughing) - [Jono] I can hear that from here though. 00:06:33.184 --> 00:06:37.380 - That's crazy. Yeah. So that was one of the things we asked Sony about. 00:06:37.380 --> 00:06:41.280 If I'm on the bus or if I'm in a quiet room, will people be able to hear my music? 00:06:41.280 --> 00:06:46.100 The answer is sort of. Because they're in ears, 00:06:46.100 --> 00:06:50.270 what sounds loud to you is gonna be pretty quiet for everyone around you, 00:06:50.270 --> 00:06:55.270 but because they're open backed there's no isolating layer that will prevent sounds 00:06:55.270 --> 00:06:58.570 from leaking out of them. So yes, it's possible. 00:06:58.570 --> 00:07:01.890 They're also ridiculously loud right now. This is just the default. 00:07:01.890 --> 00:07:06.023 - [Brandon] Then it's not that bad probably. - [Jono] Yeah. - You definitely have to tap with intent. 00:07:07.710 --> 00:07:11.960 This is what I would consider to be a reasonable listening volume for me 00:07:11.960 --> 00:07:15.070 when I'm not like jamming out, but I'm sitting and working. 00:07:15.070 --> 00:07:19.400 Can you guys hear it? - [Jono] No. - [Brandon] No. 00:07:19.400 --> 00:07:23.821 - No, okay. This is like, I'm cleaning the house and I need energy. 00:07:23.821 --> 00:07:27.634 - [Jono] I think like a little bit. (indistinct) - These sound great. 00:07:27.634 --> 00:07:31.080 - [Brandon] Better than the XM4's? - They're different from the XM4's. 00:07:31.080 --> 00:07:36.330 So the thing about the XM4's is that like most earphones they're a closed back design. 00:07:36.330 --> 00:07:40.510 So even though you can run them in a transparent mode, right? 00:07:40.510 --> 00:07:47.050 That's always gonna be artificial sounding and there's always gonna added background hiss 00:07:47.050 --> 00:07:50.290 or added artifacts from doing it that way. 00:07:50.290 --> 00:07:53.950 Whereas these are allowing ambient sound 00:07:53.950 --> 00:07:58.388 so I can hear the person who opened the door over there. Hi, how you doing? 00:07:58.388 --> 00:08:03.130 - [Denniss] Hello. - [Jono] Denniss. - But the music also has a more open and natural sound. 00:08:03.130 --> 00:08:08.620 That's one of the key benefits of open backed headphones when we're talking about full size headphones as well. 00:08:08.620 --> 00:08:11.770 So if you like an open back sound 00:08:11.770 --> 00:08:14.770 these are just gonna completely change your world. 00:08:14.770 --> 00:08:18.010 They sound really good. Oh, for crying out loud, 00:08:18.010 --> 00:08:21.210 you will not be able to listen to music while I go for through the app here. 00:08:22.770 --> 00:08:26.360 Speak to chat. You can start conversations while wearing the headphones 00:08:26.360 --> 00:08:29.820 simply by starting to talk. Yeah. I wanna experience that. 00:08:29.820 --> 00:08:33.960 Try saying things like hello while music is, oh, okay. So it pauses your music. 00:08:33.960 --> 00:08:37.930 Oh, that's really cool. It will resume while you are speaking 00:08:37.930 --> 00:08:43.870 and will close if approximately 15 seconds passes after you finish speaking or you've operated the headphones. 00:08:43.870 --> 00:08:48.730 I would make it less than 15 seconds. That seems like a lot. 00:08:48.730 --> 00:08:55.190 Although I guess if you're going back and forth with someone. They've got some EQ presets here. 00:08:55.190 --> 00:08:57.913 Pretty cool. And then I believe you can also edit it. 00:08:58.770 --> 00:09:04.160 Very nice. I wouldn't mind if these were a little more granular. 00:09:04.160 --> 00:09:08.250 This is cool. The ear shape analysis thing, I've run this with previous Sony products before. 00:09:08.250 --> 00:09:11.482 It actually does appear to make a small difference. 00:09:11.482 --> 00:09:14.770 - [Brandon] You know honestly I almost can't tell your wearing headphones, with your hat. 00:09:14.770 --> 00:09:20.010 - Yeah. Cool, right? And they actually have what, I think a really cool look to them. 00:09:20.010 --> 00:09:24.420 Like I could see these being a conversation starter when someone does notice that you're wearing them. 00:09:24.420 --> 00:09:27.940 They've got support for adaptive volume control. So if the ambient sound gets louder, 00:09:27.940 --> 00:09:32.550 they will try to overpower it, If you're into that. Personally I think you should always 00:09:32.550 --> 00:09:35.900 control volume yourself to keep it at a safe level. 00:09:35.900 --> 00:09:41.240 Wide area tap. Super cool. That was on by default. And you can actually configure the tap operations. 00:09:41.240 --> 00:09:45.970 So there's no single tap because obviously that would cause problems, right? 00:09:45.970 --> 00:09:50.060 If you just, you know, accidentally slapped yourself 00:09:50.060 --> 00:09:54.300 for example, that might start playing music. So it's only double and triple tap. 00:09:54.300 --> 00:09:59.700 That is one drawback could see to this product is that you can't have as many different functions, 00:09:59.700 --> 00:10:03.940 but because you can program the left and the right individually I think you can kind of overcome that. 00:10:03.940 --> 00:10:07.770 Four functions is a fair bit. I'm gonna turn the screen recording off now 00:10:07.770 --> 00:10:11.013 cause I wanna listen to a little bit more music on this puppy. 00:10:11.931 --> 00:10:15.840 Man. Other earphones try to get this sound. 00:10:15.840 --> 00:10:19.280 With if like digital sound processors and you know 00:10:19.280 --> 00:10:24.963 adding like an auditorium effect or like a open sound stage wide sound stage effect. 00:10:25.980 --> 00:10:30.930 Nothing is ever quite right. But an open backed earphone. 00:10:30.930 --> 00:10:34.470 Now to be clear there are far more open back earphones. 00:10:34.470 --> 00:10:39.793 The regular AirPods, for example have a much more open back sound than the AirPods Pros. 00:10:40.670 --> 00:10:45.320 But this is more open than I've ever experienced before. I can say that definitively. 00:10:45.320 --> 00:10:49.120 There's a hole in it. It's open. I'm just talking to you. 00:10:49.120 --> 00:10:53.470 And what's interesting about that. Is that actually carrying on a conversation with you 00:10:53.470 --> 00:10:57.610 is not as easy as an earphone like this 00:10:57.610 --> 00:11:02.240 in a specific transparent mode because they're using like voice detection 00:11:02.240 --> 00:11:07.330 to find voices around you and amplify them for you and they're plumbing them right into your ears. 00:11:07.330 --> 00:11:12.816 But this is more natural. These sound great for $179.99. 00:11:12.816 --> 00:11:16.460 - [Brandon] 179 US? - Yeah. They're like reasonable actually 00:11:17.306 --> 00:11:21.820 - [Brandon] Oh Man, I'm tempted. - Man, I'm not gonna be able to daily drive them. 00:11:21.820 --> 00:11:26.560 Because ANC is actually a lot of what I use my earphones for. 00:11:26.560 --> 00:11:29.560 A lot of the time I'm not even listening to anything. I just have the ANC on 00:11:29.560 --> 00:11:33.223 because I find my life a little overwhelming. 00:11:36.600 --> 00:11:40.390 But if it was just about the music, boy are these ever cool? 00:11:40.390 --> 00:11:47.100 - [Brandon] What about gaming? - Gaming's a tough one because I would say that gaming is more about immersion 00:11:47.100 --> 00:11:50.770 than a lot of the other things that I do. But the funny thing is that 00:11:50.770 --> 00:11:54.300 I actually use open back headphones for gaming. I use Sennheiser HD 600's 00:11:54.300 --> 00:11:58.320 because when I'm gaming, when I'm in my computer room 00:11:58.320 --> 00:12:03.170 I don't have to worry about distractions or anything like that. I want the best possible sound. 00:12:03.170 --> 00:12:08.170 And for me, open backed is a more natural, better sound. 00:12:08.390 --> 00:12:11.390 So I would absolutely use them for gaming 00:12:11.390 --> 00:12:15.660 but maybe when I'm out in public where there's distractions all over the place 00:12:15.660 --> 00:12:19.330 where I want to dial in. Your mileage may vary though. 00:12:19.330 --> 00:12:23.450 Maybe you're on the bus and you like, need to hear the next stop or the train, right? 00:12:23.450 --> 00:12:27.090 So you guys can check them out. We're gonna have the link down below and you can subscribe to ShortCircuit 00:12:27.090 --> 00:12:29.943 where we do first impressions videos just like this one.