Thoughts on Sony Linkbuds Earphones

 So I have used Sony wired earbuds for a long time, since around the year 2000 and before, back in the Minidisc era. 

I bought a pair of Sony wireless earbuds, the XM3's a while after they came out.  They were a bit bulky, but they worked great and sounded good.  The noise cancelling feature was great for riding the subway, but they tended to fall out while jogging.  

Then Sony came out with the XM4, which had great reviews.  I bought those too, after waiting for the price to drop a bit.  (I was in no hurry, as the pair I had was, after all, fine).  The XM4's did in fact sound quite a bit better, and also came with a new type of ear plug material that fit better.  This had two main benefits: Firstly, they seal better, which resulted in better noise isolation.  Second, they don't fall out as easily.  

I should point out that while I use these headphones for taking the train, and sometimes for jogging, I don't use them when riding bike.  Despite the "Ambient sound" setting, where they let outside sounds in, bone ocnduction headphones are much better for that type of purpose, with the added benefit of not needing to worry about one of your earphones falling out while going 35kph down the road.  

Sony recently came out with the LinkBuds, which are a new type of "in ear" earphones.  The link buds don't actually stick into your ear canal, but rather suspend small speakers just outside of your ears.  Somewhat like a cross between earphones and headphones.  The down side is that with an open ear design, they obviously can't do noise cancelling, but the benefit is that you can hear what's going on around you in a natural way.  

I wanted to try these out to see how they compared to bone conduction headphones, but I again decided to wait until the price dropped since these were not a must have item for me.  As luck would have it, I was able to find a cheap pair sooner than I expected, since people are already selling them (slightly) used.  

So how do they compare?

Well, let me compare them to the WX4's first.  

The XM4's are a very sophisticated piece of kit.  Like The Airpod Pro and other "true wireless" earphones, they come with a case that is used for both storage and charging.  This hasn't changed with the LinkBuds, but the case is now even smaller - as are the easphones.  

In fact, both the case and the earphones are downright tiny by comparison.  

The case is still charged by USB-C, and the earphones are still charged by putting them into the case, but the case is so small that it is probablya lot earier to lose.  Luckily, as with the XM4's, there is a "find earphones" feature if you elect to install the Sony headphones connect app.  

I expected there to be a drop in sound quality when compared to the XM4, and I was right, but it's mainly in the bass range.  Higher pitches aren't a lot different, though they do seem less detailed.  

There is no announcement of the battery levels when you put them in your ears, and seemingly no tough to pause or other similar features I was used to with the WX3 and WX4 models.  Where the WX4 seems very sophisticated, the LinkBuds are very basic.  It seems that all of the engineering effort has gone into developing something smaller and novel, as opposed to features.  Obviously there is no noise cancelling with the LinkBuds, and ambient sound mode is not really necessary since they don't block your ears t obegin with.  

The volums is quite low to use these outside, and using them in the train means that the announcements and train noise easily overpower the sound on the earphones even at maximum volume.  You might be able to enjoy some tunes while in transit, but making out voices is difficult in noisy environments.  In a quiet room, they are perfectly okay.  

Then agian in a quiet room, why not use the XM4s?  One reason might be simply because of the less intrusive fit.  Based on my experience so far, you can probably wear the LinkBuds for much longer than the XM4's, without fatigue.  In a quiet environment where people occasionally talk to you, such as an officem they might be perfect - though I have yet to try that out.  

  One thing I actually find them perfect for is bed time.  Most earphones stick out of your ears, which means they are not good to use while your head is on a pillow.  The LinkBuds are much better in that respect, and although i am sure there is some sound leakage due to their open design, I am fairly confident that you could use them at a low volume in bed next to someone who was already sleeping without bothering them.  

So how do they compare with bone conduction headphones like the Aeropex?  Not well, I'm afraid.  There are three main differences I have found so far:

1. Volume - They are simply too quiet for outdoor use.  The sound of the wind, cars, etc. simply drowns out the sound.

2. Connection Stability - while I have had no problems with this at home connecting to my smart phone, on the road it is a different story.  At least with my Leomo cycle computer the connection is very weak, with one of both ears dropping out occasionally.  

3. Sound Mixing - I am not sure how to explain this, and it is somewhat related to volume I am sure, but I feel like the sound from these earphones is fighting with the outside sounds.  Assuming that they could go louder, and you made them loud enough to really enjoy, I feel like they would conversely drown out the sounds aruond you.  Bone conduction headphones allow you to listen at a decent colume and still hear the sounds around you - perhaps because they aren't compating for your ear canal.  I can not only hear my music better with Aeropex, but also hear the cars around me better.  

Besides the above, I am still not entirely confident that they won't fall out, although it hasn't happened yet.  There is also the fact that to someone who seees you riding by, it looks like you are wearing in-ear earphones.  This means it is more likely that you will have to explain yourself to some random police officer.  (Having said that, I see people with in-ear earphones all the time.  I think they are crazy, but I even saw someone with over-ear headphones yesterday!).  

They might be decent for jogging in quiet areas such as along the river, but I am not sure what the advantage would be over bone condtion headphones even in that use case.  

So, while I laud Sony for trying something new, and the LinkBuds are a neat toy that might be good for specific use cases like listening in bed, they are not a replacement for the normal in-ear style earphones like the MX4 in terms of audio quality, nor are they a decent replacement for bone conduction headphones for cycling.