Oh, you want another five options? Well, seeing as you asked nicely. And it’s not as if you’re short of choice when it comes to true wireless earphones…
SONY WF-C700N
Sony has had the premium wireless in-ear market sewn up for a while now: its XM5s are just the latest in a long line of front-runners (see p85). But unlike quite a lot of its rivals, the company doesn’t ignore the less well-off among us –and with the WF-C700Ns, it might just have delivered the best pound-for-pound wireless ’phones it’s ever made.
You’ll have to make one or two compromises, of course. There’s no hi-res support here, for example, and the battery life can be charitably described as ‘ordinary’. The fact that they don’t pause your music when you take them out of your ears is a bit weird too. But in the end it’s easy enough to live with all that –because where the C700Ns are good, they’re really very good indeed.
They’re small and discreet, for starters, which means that unless your ears are very odd the buds will stay comfortable for hour after hour. The mildly textured surface means they’re simple to insert and extract, and they don’t easily slip out of your fingers when you’re getting them in or out of their charging case.
And as long as you’re not expecting the sort of ANC that ordinarily costs three times this price, they’re great in this regard as well.
Best of all, though, is the fact that they comfortably outperform every price-comparable alternative when it comes to sound quality. The long and short of it is, they sound like more expensive headphones. They unearth a remarkable amount of detail, power through the bass with well-controlled aggression, can do ‘tender’ just as well as they can do ‘muscular’, and have a real understanding of rhythm.
If you want more than just a hint of what makes Sony’s premium true wireless in-ears the world’s favourites, here’s how you can find out.
Price £80 /go.stuff.tv/C700N
Key specs
● Bluetooth 5.2 ● SBC, AAC ● ANC ● 10hrs + 10hrs case ● IPX4 ● 2x 4.6g, 31g case
STUFF SAYS Proper noise-cancelling, comfort and sound quality at a
