Intro
Contents
The vacation season has begun. Time to enjoy the nice weather outside and maybe do some outdoor exercise. Or of course just ‘hanging out’ in the garden or at the beach. The problem with being outside is, of course, for us music lovers: how do we play music! Well… you won’t believe it. But there is such a thing as headphones. We take a look at the new ‘Nothing Ear2’. An in-ear with bluetooth and noise cancelling. So no need to hear those birds either.
Our colleague @yunglie is actually ‘mr head-fi’. But sometimes your author gets to work with a pair as well. Fair is fair: your author has less comparison material and less ‘feeling’ with head-fi. That said, there are a few models lying around for comparison. Consider the Sony in-ears, a set of Teufel Airy True Wireless and the Yamaha TW-E7B. You wouldn’t believe it, but for everyday use, your author mostly grabs the Teufels: they pair quickly and are comfortable. But that’s about to change…
Comfort
The most important element in personal audio is – opinion of your author – comfort. Headphones just have to be comfortable. With over-ears, this means that they are light and clamp nicely around the head. The same goes for on-ears: they should be basically non-existent.
With in-ears, the fit plays a crucial role. It should sit comfortably in the ear, not fall out and, above all, not be too heavy. The Sony ended up in their box very quickly for that reason. These are too big and just aren’t comfortable.
The Yamaha did better, but was also on the large side. The Teufels are light and stay in the ear. They are not brilliant, but they are very nice to work with.
The Nothing Ear2 is without a doubt the most comfortable in-ear known to your author. For a reasonable amount of money, that is. Of course, there are custom in-ears that have an even better fit. But for 129 euros this level of comfort is simply impressive.
Apps and stuff
With in-ears come apps these days. For some time of course, but since a few years it is really necessary to install them to get everything out of them.
The app for the Nothing Ear2 is especially useful to see the status of the Ear2 (battery and connection status) and to adjust noise cancelling. That can also be done on the in-ear itself, – as can recording a phone call, starting and skipping tracks, etc – but frankly that just works downright poorly. Only someone with small fingers could manage that, since the contact area is very small. We hated it…