Jaybird Bluebuds X - Some Fantastic Bluetooth Earphones!
Linus Tech Tips
·Linus Tech Tips
·2014-05-07
·
1,438 words · ~7 min read
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the Jazz mini is a beautiful and compact aluminum stand for your smartphone that
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even holds tablets up to 8 in Click now to learn more the first thing that
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caught my attention about this product was its excellent packaging something I
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appreciate as someone who sees a lot of packages if you get my drift the second
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thing that caught my attention was how infuriatingly difficult it was to
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extract the goods from the package so to speak and I'm sure there's a joke in
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there about how blue my buds were getting by the time that I actually finished but the real question here is
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not how much inuendo can I cram into my point about how hard you have to work to
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get the j-bird BlueBuds X earphones into your hands but rather is it even worth
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the effort I normally avoid doing videos about lifestyle audio products they
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advertise a bunch of features and then fail to perform their most basic
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functionality that is to reproduce audio with as much Fidelity as they can with a
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reasonable degree of proficiency so let's start with the bottom line then
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audio quality when I was doing my listening tests on the blue buds X I was
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not only pleased with the level of performance I was getting out of a
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mid-range pair of IMS but I didn't even feel like I was making compromises
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because they're Wireless rock on j-bird I spent some time digging through my
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music collection and figuring out what kind of sound signature jbird was going
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for I had determined that they sounded pleasing with satisfying impact at the
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low end reasonable detail in the highs and mids that were less pronounced than
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I like when I realized that they advertised their response curve right on
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the box Kudos appreciate this saves me
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some time because I can just say they sound as advertised once I had
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determined they sounded good the features started to matter the BlueBuds
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X feature a remarkable 8h hour battery life that it pretty much achieves in
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real world use an integrated microphone for voice calls that my brother
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described as decent and spite of the fact that it was located behind my ear
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at the time and Liquipel sweat repellent nano technology with a lifetime sweat
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warranty to back it up the package includes a variety of ear tips three
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sizes of sports ear cushions to help
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them stay in and a large hard carrying case that fits the included charging
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cable and the earphones themselves there are also Cable Management clips for
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wearing the blue buds X as an over-the-ear headset and finally there
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is a ual with excellent instructions on
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how to set them up so let's take a look at them physically these are big iners
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but that makes sense since they have to contain Wireless communication Tech and
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a battery it did make me worry about how well they would fit though since I have
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pretty small ear canals more on that later speaking of batteries the micro
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USB charging port is accessed by popping off the backing of the left earpiece
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just like so and it's got three inline
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buttons that you can use to control power calls media playback and volume
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control depending on how long you press them for in practice that works but if
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you've also got a pebble or other Smartwatch that's even awesomer I find
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reaching for my wrist a bit easier to do between rallies than reaching behind my
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head but your mileage may vary on that one so back to how well they fit the
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manual says to try the under the ear fit
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first so I promptly set myself up with the smallest ear tip and between the
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size of the buds and the weight of the cord they just fell out I guess I was
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expecting that so I gave up immediately and set them up as over the year
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something I'm already used to from my ie80s it took me about 5 minutes to set
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up and adjust the wire management Clips by the way the inclusion of an extra
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wire management clip in the case in case I lose or break one is a very nice touch
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and now they fit so it's time to head to
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the court and stress test them with some badmon singles pairing is lightning fast
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and the range is perfect for the products intended use I didn't experience any interruptions whether my
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phone was actually on me or sitting at Courtside the tops of my ears easily
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support the weight of the wires and I didn't even need their Sports ear
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cushions for them to stay in flawlessly A+ for comfort the only thing that
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weirded me out a bit is that as someone who carries imem 247 I felt a little bit
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naked without wires but I'm sure I'd get used to that noise isolation is maybe a
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Touch Too Much to use these in a team sport but but this is a big point in the
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product's favor for base response and listening immersion so there's no 100%
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right answer there the product isn't perfect yet though volume adjustment is
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something they need to address I'd like to see it tied into the phone's volume
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control like most other Bluetooth audio devices as it is they're separate and
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when you make adjustments using the inline button it actually temporarily
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cuts off the music with each button press also when you wear of them in over
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the ear mode the stereo sound is reversed because you are physically
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inserting them into your ears the other way I guess it's not a huge deal since
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the product is not intended for me to sit back in my comfortable chair reving
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in my audio snobbery but rather for me to use when I should probably be focused
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on something else but it's still something I wouldn't mind seeing
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addressed with a version two product something good did come out of that
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channel switching issue though their support blew my giraffing mind you call
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the number on their website go through one menu layer to indicate that you're a
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customer yes a company that doesn't divide callers up further by support and
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pre-sales inquiries or as I call it people whose money that we already have
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and people whose money we're still trying to get and a real person picks up
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in like 10 seconds their live chat was actually even faster they responded
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while I was on the phone for 10 seconds so much wow anyway it's conclusion time
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now and let's put it this way they will
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not be replaced ing my ie80s as my daily drivers but these cost three times as
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much no they're going to be my workout and gym iners and they absolutely Rock
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for that though honestly if I didn't already own mid to Upper tier imem then
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they would be a candidate for everyday use they're really solid I mean I was
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intrigued when a viewer sent me this review suggestion but I didn't have much
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hope for them because mainstream audio stuff is usually flashy junk but I
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figured I couldn't go wrong because in my conclusion for the video either I'd
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end up with a rock solid product that I could recommend with confidence to
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anyone who wants to listen to music while they work out or I'd end up
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getting to use the awesome punchline I wrote about how I just spent the last
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eight minutes mocking a jbird a joke that worked better in my head than it
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does in practice guys like and share this video
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