It should be noted right away that the new Beyerdynamic Free Byrd headphones are aimed at those users who put sound quality above everything else. And given that these are the company’s first ever truly wireless headphones, I was pleasantly surprised how well they stand out in every other way – the $250 headphones offer impressive battery life, quality active noise cancellation, and a design that goes above and beyond. for the formula market. However, there are no perfect headphones on the market, and the Beyerdynamic Free Byrd are not perfect either – they have not the most understandable controls and case design, which will be a problem for people with small ears.
Design and convenience
It’s worth starting with the fact that the Free Byrds are not small or light – they weigh a little less than the Sony 1000XM4 headphones, but, accordingly, much more than the Samsung Galaxy Buds 2, Apple AirPods Pro and any other headphones that can give a feeling of lightness and comfort when listening to content for a long time. Compared to these models, Beyerdynamic headphones turned out to be denser and larger – in particular, the design will disappoint users with small ears with its convex part. Luckily, I don’t fit that description, so I haven’t had any problems or ear pain, but it’s worth considering.
In addition, Beyerdynamic employees made a horse move – the manufacturer supplies wireless headphones with a very generous collection of different ear pads for every taste and color – there are five sets of silicone tips and three pairs of foam rubber ear tips of different sizes. Accordingly, you can choose the right ear pads, and I also gravitate towards foam (foam rubber ear pads), plus there is something stylish in the contrast between the light gray headphone case and the orange ear pads. It looks great – the headphones have a “tell me you’re an audiophile without telling me you’re an audiophile” aura.
Separately, it is worth praising the case for wireless charging – it looks very good and copes with its tasks perfectly. For example, I have never had a situation where the headphones remained connected after I sent them in a case – I often encountered this when testing the Sennheiser Momentum True Wireless 3s.
Sound and technology
The sound quality is quite detailed and clear, but the headphones are clearly not shy of bass. At the same time, there is no excessive sharpness or poor elaboration anywhere in the frequency range. For example, in Maggie Rogers’ “Horses”, the vocals sound warm and resonant, while the crunch of the electric guitar is perfectly preserved in the background. In other tracks, there are no problems with the sound stage either, with vocals and strings, drums and cymbals – everything is perfectly different and takes its rightful place.
With the help of Beyerdynamic’s proprietary mobile application, Free Byrd headphones can be quite flexibly configured – for example, you can pass a hearing test to personalize your sound profile or choose one of the preset options. Unfortunately, there is no way to fully customize the equalizer yet, but this can probably be fixed with software updates. In terms of codecs, the headphones support the Bluetooth 5.2 wireless connection protocol and support aptX Adaptive on the Android operating system, thanks to which wireless music playback is realized at a higher data transfer rate. On Apple devices, only the standard AAC codec will be available.
Unfortunately, the headphones do not support multipoint Bluetooth for pairing with two signal sources at the same time, but switching between devices is fast enough and does not require the headphones to be disconnected from the previous signal source before connecting to the next one. Free Byrds also supports the Fast Pair feature on Android, there is integration with the Alexa voice assistant and, of course, the user can use either earpiece separately in mono mode. Additionally, the developers have implemented a low latency mode that can be used when launching mobile video games – probably someone really needs this.
Yes, the Free Byrds boast an IPX4 water resistance rating, making them suitable for exercise and jogging, and the active noise cancellation is above average, on par with the best solutions from Sony, Bose or Apple. In absolutely quiet environments, a barely perceptible hiss can be heard in the headphones – some people are more sensitive to this, but I never noticed this when the headphones played any content. The Transparency mode is implemented more standard, but it does its job well if you need to interact with the outside world.
But the quality of the calls, although satisfactory, is not mind-blowing – the Beyerdynamic product prefers to pass a more realistic human voice without aggressive processing, which is why background noise is sometimes not reduced well enough. This works great at home, but not outdoors or in noisy environments. In addition, the touch control of the Beyerdynamic TWS headphones also needs some work.
Touch control
Where possible, I prefer physical controls, but I’m fine with gestures in the case of the touch option, if they make sense and work consistently. And the situation with Free Byrd is rather ambiguous – the main commands work as they should. If you press once, the headphones start playing content or pause playback. Two taps toggle the device between Active Noise Cancellation and Transparency mode, while three taps allow you to skip a track or go back. But the volume setting is where things get a little awkward and not entirely comfortable. For example, you need to double-tap and then hold your finger on the panel to adjust the volume.
Once you get used to it, the gesture does work, but it’s not what seems like an intuitive gesture – I often stopped the music at those moments when I wanted to lower the volume, as I made a mistake in the sequence of actions. It would be great if the developer provided the ability to customize each of these gestures to your liking, but at the moment there is simply no such feature.
autonomy
Battery life is an unexpected strong point of these headphones. Free Byrds can run on a single charge for about eight hours with Active Noise Cancellation turned on – without it, the device works for almost eleven hours. That’s more than enough for most user needs, plus the charging case provides an additional 19 hours (with active noise cancellation), so you could potentially get a total of 30 hours of content playback.
Review
It’s safe to say that Beyerdynamic’s Free Byrd headphones, while being the company’s first in this line of work, deliver fantastic sound with deep detail, excellent battery life, and decent noise cancellation. I also can’t help but appreciate the impressive range of different ear pads that come with the kit – due to this, the headphones remain comfortable even after a long time of use. But, on the other hand, this is very subjective – for some, these headphones will be too thick.
But, in any case, this is a very strong debut in the wireless headphone market from a fairly well-known audio brand. If the Free Byrds are right for your ears, then I can safely recommend them. And if the manufacturer next time improves the form factor of its gadget, then it may well occupy its niche on a par with other major brands on the market.
✅ Benefits
- High sound quality.
- Long battery life.
- Lots of interchangeable ear pads included.
❌ Disadvantages
- The large body is not for everyone.
- There is no Bluetooth multipoint connection function.
- Not the best Transparency mode.
This is a translation of The Verge review.
Source: Trash Box
Donald-43Westbrook, a distinguished contributor at worldstockmarket, is celebrated for his exceptional prowess in article writing. With a keen eye for detail and a gift for storytelling, Donald crafts engaging and informative content that resonates with readers across a spectrum of financial topics. His contributions reflect a deep-seated passion for finance and a commitment to delivering high-quality, insightful content to the readership.
