Other companies need to take note! - Fairphone Fairbuds XL
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Fairphone is back with a new super repairable gadget -- the Fairbuds XL! After the original Fairbuds were almost not repairable at all, they're back to their roots with headphones that feature cool eco-friendly styling and are built to be repaired. Will Adam be impressed or are these a swing and a miss?
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CHAPTERS
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0:00 What IS an earbud?
1:02 Taking a look at the box
1:42 Unboxing
3:09 Design impressions
5:08 Fit and feel
5:51 Sponsor - Newegg
6:25 App and transparency mode test
9:34 Listening impressions
11:02 Labs results and built-in microphone test
11:41 Teardown and repairability impressions
14:04 Pricing and overall thoughts
15:17 Outro
Here in Brazil we have a headphone called Kuba Disco and it's from a local company. It's a fully modular headset, and you can swap and fix everything like the drivers, ear cups, cables, and even the headband. In 2023 they will launch a headband with a bluetooth module and if you already have the headset, you can only buy the bluetooth headband. Plus it's a good headphone and musicians love it.
Came here to see anyone citing kuba disco :)
It's really great, have mine for 2 years
I've bought the Bluetooth version on preorder
Dam son. Thanks for this.!
Wow!
Small correction on the price: European retail prices always include VAT which is - depending on the country - somewhere around 15% and 27%, on average 20% VAT. That means the Fairbuds XL would cost 250€ incl. VAT, 208€ excl. VAT, or USD 225 plus your local sales tax.
Completely correct. They should mention this in the video. In this case it's a Dutch company, so 21% VAT. That makes it €205.79 or $220.82.
A latency test for a Windows machine would be awesome
I doubt they are good for competitive FPS, if they don't advertise low latency they probably weren't going for it
I think any bluetooth audio device is going to have latency problems unless a low latency codec is used? IDK, that's how it was back in the day. You had to use aptx low latency, otherwise there would be sync problems. I also remember that Apple devices will automatically fix the sync issues in music and videos, but I don't think it worked well for gaming,
They claim analog audio is possible over the usb-c (cables not included)
Ye
@@DarkTrapStudio Intel AX200 has quite a wide adoption i think (my notebook and my ASUS Crosshair Impact use this wireless chipset)
Oh boy, I hope the 3D printing community finds out about these, it would be awesome to see what people come up with 😮
there's already a 3D printable headphone kit, it's mostly wired tho
Trust me dude they will
Transparent parts!
3d printed headphones or replacement parts already exist.
Yeah my wife constantly breaks her headphones. Any of them that I can 3d print parts for would save me a fortune
One important thing to note is that European companies (almost) always show prices including VAT, because that is what you will pay as a consumer. As far as I'm aware Murrica is one of the few places that shows prices without VAT as a default. So that price will probably be lower than just the conversion, depending on the VAT of the place you order.
That's partly because it varies widely. Each state sets it's own base level and counties within a state can add on top of that. For instance I can pay between 6% and 8% within an few hours drive.
Yeah they should mention that. The €249 includes 21% VAT, so excl. tax it's €205.79 or $220.82, instead of the $270 metioned in the video
The beginning where you explained why names are irrelevant and full of marketing deception was amazing keep up the great videos
If I can upvote your comments twice, I would up vote thrice. Well said.
worst annoying voice
It’s always felt *particularly* irrelevant and deceptive in audio-related markets tbh
When there's a term There's a term If you use a term incorrectly You are either intentionally misleading, or you are just bad In both cases, that reflects on the quality of the products, as in, lying = bad.
@@Sinaebtelling us you're on the spectrum without telling us you're on the spectrum
Can I just say how sensible the joystick is for headphones instead of any touch oriented navigation? Having had similar headphones (Urbanears Pampas) with a joystick for controls is something I've wanted other companies to use as well. Especially if the joystick itself is repairable/replaceable. Physical controls will always be better than touch controls.
So true! I have a pair from Sony and the touch part is not great. It's easy to change track instead of volume, and the holding of your whole hand over one of the cups to get a fast transparency mode is a good idea in theory but when it keeps activating when I lay on my side it's just annoying!
Agreed, touch controls are annoying and an unnecessary technology in headphone controls, especially when buttons are so handy
I thought this feature was exclusive to Marshall on/over-ears. Truly awesome UX with a little joystick knob.
The easy to replace battery is a Huge Plus , you can buy a 2nd one and have it charged and just change the battery when it gets low
Or just recharge it once a while?
If you have two just swap the headphones. Why bother with the battery?
Carrying a loose battery is a bad idea. If it shorts, you've got a fire. Just carry a powerbank and charge the headphones. Just a few minutes on the powerbank will give you hours of juice.
@@erikpoephoofd Just the fact that you cab change the battery whenever you want makes the headphones las much longer, changing the battery on a headphone which hasn't been designed for it is a hassle
@@jordi95 Yeah it's an absolute game changer for product longevity and should be widely celebrated! Swapping it on the go just doesn't have that many advantages over topping the battery off quickly with a powerbank
Considering the price, I was honestly expecting a little better when it came to noise canceling. But I do appreciate how easily repairable it is.
unfortunately making sustainable devices is much much more complicated and much more expensive than normal products, and so is making products as a much smaller company. they're just not able to match the performance of other headphones at this price, the same as the fairphone is nowhere near the performance and quality of other phones at that price sadly
I do wonder if they will offer upgrades in the future. Could be cool to see them iterate and offer some improved drivers or better ear pads.
@@jono6379did you hear it?
@@lilyemma3382 These products aren't sustainable in any way, they had major design flaws with FP1 and instead of fixing them and providing replacement motherboards they just quickly discontinued it, FP2 replacement parts were also quickly discontinued. For FP3 and FP4 only a handful of replacement parts are available and for things that usually do not get damaged, there are no replacement motherboards available and not schematics you have to use their repair service if you need to replace a motherboard. The price for most replacement parts is also pretty atrocious even when compared to iPhones.
Get a pair of Beyerdynamic or Sennheiser. They have manuals and official replacement parts as well.
It's nice to see a repairable bluetooth headphones, but being honest if you want an long lasting, more environment friendly headphones, a good wired one are the best. Less parts to break an good sound that you can use for decades.
for sure. I use IEM’s (in ear monitors) with detachable cables, and I attach them to a bluetooth receiver. That way both the cable and the bluetooth receiver can be replaced separately if the battery goes bad - means I shouldn’t have to buy actual new buds for a very long time.
But Fairphone removed the 3.5mm headphone jack on their phones for “sustainability” 🤡
That's not going to fix the *UNsustainable* and earth-destroying way CURRENT bluetooth earbuds/phones are being made, similar to how FairPHONE is trying to change the unsustainable and earth-destroying smartphone manufacturing process. Also, it's practically IMPOSSIBLE to have wired earphones and have good *active noise cancellation.* You're gonna have to put a battery on the thing to power the ANC-ing microphones, it's only one step away from turning them into bluetooth cans.
@@odeiraoloap it is if everyone would use wired there would be no e-waste and imagine being such a sheep that you believe „fair“phone even tries to change it they only care about money because they’re capitalist scums
True! Wired headphones are also so easy to repair. Recently replaced the headband, ear cups and cable on my dt880s and now they are good for another 7+ years
Id like to see graphs in future show how eq presets affect the sound curve.
Same, right now we don't even know which preset the FR graph represents
I reviewed these last week, and gave them 8 out of 10. Also, note that many headphones' ANC will let human voices through by design, so people can talk to you while the ANC is on. Also, all the parts are available as spare parts, except for the circuit board, so you canæ't build it yourself.
Who are you?
Can we read or watch that review?
@@jonathancormack Norwegian tech journbalist.
What are you talking about "by design"? No one wants ANC that allows human voices to pass through, the entire point is to noise-cancel ambient chatter not just low-frequency hums on an airplane.
@@rydude998 That's definitely a feature and not a bug! /s
The Needle Drop reference was unexpected :D
Fun fact: Keeping my current "non-sustainable" headphones is more sustainable than buying a new sustainable headphone!
Don’t buy a Fairphone then, because they removed their 3.5mm headphone jack to force you into buying new headphones.
@@gotoastal instead of buying a *3.5mm to type C adapter* that you can take on and off so you can use it on LITERALLY ANY DEVICE with a Type C port? Isn't that a win-win for usability with ancient stuff with a 3.5 port and new stuff without?
@@odeiraoloap By “ancient” you mean “simple & reliable”? You don’t need anything as complex as USB-C to just deliver audio. It’s not like there is a quality, bandwidth, or latency limitation that warrants a upgrade to the spec like moving from USB 1.0 up to USB4 when it comes to the signal. It can have the advantage when the built-in DAC is low quality, but there are still two objections I have to this. 1) many devices, especially phones, only offer 1 USB-C port and this can often times make you choose between audio or power delivery while older devices don’t have USB-C at all even if they function fine (since the topic is sustainability). 2) audio is such a primary peripheral that it’s ubiquity has carried the jack across decades, and being as small and cheap as it is to include, there hasn’t been much of a reason to seek an alternative. The current push for USB-C was fabricated by phone manufacturers; they don’t take up a lot of space, they’re not difficult to waterproof, they allow users to continue using their perfectly fine current hardware--but it _does_ give manufacturers an excuse to artificially force users to buy new products.
@@odeiraoloap These have been proven over and over to break easily/break your port easily as this was not what the usb c port was made for. The 3.5mm jack has been designed to be EXTREMELY durable hence why its a cylinder that can rotate to relieve one of the biggest forms of cable stress that wrecks usb c headphone adapter
so true, using my shp for 3 years now, i guess it is sustainable
7:30 "I love talking. I'm not going too stop talking. You cannot stop me from talking" -Jake, LTT 2023
Honestly, these seem pretty great. I'd be willing to pay a bit of a premium for a pair of headphones even if they weren't the best at their price range just for the repairability factor. I've had so many headphones give out on me that just ended up sitting around the house or straight into the trash it's ridiculous. Plus supporting the concept of better repairability/reusing resources is always a huge plus in my book
Though the lack of an actual eq is a bit disppointing. Hopefully that gets added soon.
Then don’t buy fairphone then. Building one one these crap Bluetooth fairphones is far less environmentally friendly than just adding a headphone jack in. Which is something they removed to get you to buy these to think you’re “helping” the environment. But it just becomes a more contrived way of NOT doing that...
@@alessandrolira4035 You can use the Type C connector to use them as a wired set though. Windows natively supports Type C audio, as my mobo has a C port, and I connected a C to 3.5mm adapter just to see and it immediately worked as an output. Worst case you get a USB A to C adapter, oh no, the horror.
Even though some companies that do this already exists for a while, it's important to have a more "know" one do this kind of product. Also, if you're from Brazil (or have a way to buy from there) there is a company called Kuba Audio that makes a headphone like this (no ANC sadly and the wireless version is very recent yet).
God, I love how much Adam has grown. He has full on Linus energy now
and even drops TheNeedleDrop references full on lol 😅
I would imagine the workplace atmosphere is positive like that and it's probably very contagious.
You have no idea.
This comment is creepy.
@@ferrousmcgarrus3431 how tho? they’re talking about Adam’s growth as ahost
This already existed for years: Repeat Audio (formerly called Gerrard Street) which even comes with a lifetime free replacement parts warranty and you can send them back your old parts to be recycled. Source: I got one straight from the beginning and have already had two ear cups replacement so far. :)
thanks for mentioning them. Company, and product, look very interesting. Definitivelly will consider them.
thats a different product though. no fairtrade parts, no recycling, removable battery, etc. and no IP rating.
Also Beyerdynamic and Sennheiser. You can still get replacement parts from headphones you bought in 1980
@@Entertainment- you're compating passive things to active noise canceling wireless headphones. Its a bit apples to oranges.
🏅🏅 take this poor man gold. awsome sugestion.
To be fair, a lot of higher end headphones are quite repairable and have widely available parts. For example, I've repaired sets from Beyerdynamic and Sennheiser in the past, and they both had pretty extensive varieties of parts available for reasonable prices (inc older models too).
Yeah but those (your senn and Beyer) are not the same market as beats, boses, Sony whx0392919 and stuff, which are a pain to repair tho possible only thanks to the sheer amount of units in circulation
I mean beats, Sony and bouse costs about the same as most Sennheiser and Beyer headphones. Yeah the highest end costs like 600+ but most are in the 150-450 range same as Sony etc. Sony could make them repairable they just don't. Heck Sennheisers drop headphones are $200 and are amazing for their price and are repairable.
When it comes to modular design to headphones, TMA-2 by aiaiai comes to mind. Quite a few parts to make it to your liking. I have yet not found if the wireless module has replacable battery like Fairphone has on the XL. Battery usually the part that dies first in my wireless headphones.
@@Smothtiger The battery is also the most dangerous part of the product. If you screw it up replacing it or use a less than reputable replacement it can explode or set on fire... I don't have to explain why that's a bad thing when it's in your years or on your head.
Yup, along with extensive documentation on mods as well for more popular headphones and brands. I just use bluetooth receivers with my wired headphones. Basically anyone can fix a headphone, a bluetooth one is going to be more tricky depending on what's actually wrong.
You made a mistake with the conversion of the price for the Fairbuds XL. Considering the american price it is quite sheaper with 225-230 USD at the current exchange rate. That's because we include the tax in Germany (19% MwSt) which makes up about 16% of the total price.
One interesting thing is if in the future they’d sell parts so you can upgrade the headphones. Kinda like how with a framework you can upgrade the motherboard and stuff. Maybe you use them for 5 years and somethings wrong with the sound and instead of just buying the replacement part you buy the better quality replacement part.
Audio hasn't changed much in the last 50 years, so don't expect much better 5 years down the line.
9:36 - I think the Amsterdam setting was made for EDM; EDM is very popular in the Netherlands
They missed a huge opportunity to call them "Fairpods" LOL...Apple would've been so mad :D
My idea would be "Fairphones"
@@KptnAutismusHard to distinguish that naming scheme from their main product.
@@Supermath101 What do you mean? Apple’s products? Yeah I know. Lawsuit in the making. Still would’ve been hilarious. And since they don’t even sell to the North American market anyway, maybe it would have worked.
@surgeyX I was referring to the first reply to your comment. "Fairphones" (headphones) sounds too similar to the "Fairphone" (smartphone).
@@Supermath101 Oh
I really do like the repairability, which made me think of getting a pair... until I saw the price tag. I mean, I get using recycled materials adds to the cost, but here in Sweden these are almost $300 (give or take, depends on where you get them - not including shipping). I hope they come out with a bit cheaper model later on, maybe an on-ear version? I am a big fan of that green color though, would match my recycled Nike sneakers... (that was quite cheap!)
Someone needs to offer a colouring service, so one can buy any pair and get them painted by 3rd party for like 40 bucks.
Repairable devices are often more expansive to buy, but considering they can last longer in the long run, it is often a good investment.
@@dexter9313 One of the reasons they're more expensive (other than the engineering needed to make them easily accessible while maintaining strength etc) is because they're often smaller production runs too. A lot of modern kit has more integrated parts to make mass production quicker and easier and to scale better, so it's often the case that things aren't designed to be hard to repair on purpose, but to be easy to manufacture. Some stuff is designed to be hard to fix though, of course.
@@dexter9313 Headphones usually last a long time. You'd probably be better off buying a cheaper pair of normal headphones and a cheaper bluetooth receiver. The headphones are likely to be much easier to repair, but the receiver won't be, but it'll be under $50 anyway.
the only reason why general use headphones are $300 is because "Beats" became a status symbol. and made you normies think thats the going rate...thus exploded the whole arms race based on brag-ability rather than substance...and all the prices went up. premium quality recording studio headphones are worlds ahead of these and are only missing about $40 of old well proven wireless tech...wireless headphones are NOT high tech or bleeding edge. these are worth $100 at best and the snooty posers did a good job of getting the normies used to being robbed blind.....the drivers are basic tech commodity grade and almost NONE exist that are actually researched engineered and tuned...these are picked off the shelf in china and tuned after the fact like almost every single other headphone in existence...and china will change them any way you want with no F's given on how or why you want them "with dents and shiny silver"(cuz thats how a lot of it is done even by major brands)....speakers are tech from the early 1900's and virtually unchanged but for marketing purposes since the 70s....its all marketing and bs but for a very very few....you are all being ripped off
LMG with labs should start working on a green rating for products to tell us how green packing and product are
Can't wait to see them on Dankpods Plus repair after 1 Grit hit them
I've replaced a battery once on a wireless headset and the job wasn't hard at all, had to unscrew 3 triangle head screws and solder 3 wires. The difficult part about it was that the headset used 603040 1S2P battery, which was a bit odd 2 cell configuration and you couldn't buy that particular battery anywhere anymore. I guess that's how they got the higher capacity on them back then when there wasn't too many different battery sizes. I just measured the battery compartment and ordered as big of a battery that would fit and it also had to have the thermistor. And they've worked for a couple of months now when I occasionally use them.
I loved the Vsauce opening lol. So fitting, and I'm shocked it's taken so long.
Cant believe i had to scroll so far to see someone mention this
@@Wychfyre_ This!!!!!!
Hope other companies do that battery compartment thing. My Corsair one can be replaced but it's not this easy.
I'm more interested to get this because of knob controls. Good to see this control scheme adopted instead of buttons or touch sensitive.
Also check out Repeat Audio from the Netherlands. Seems like nice repairable headphones.
framework and fairphone hopefully change industry standards
They won't. They're just marketing gimmicks. By the time people actually need to repair their stuff, usually the technology has moved so far forward that they will want to upgrade.
95% of world wide consumers don't care about repairability sadly.
Framework still only offers bad display panels and no upgrades. Fairphone removed then headphone jack and then turned around to sell you headphones. *Needs improvement.*
Just like with Fairphone review, you keep forgetting that they are not only using sustainable materials but also Fairtrade certified. In plain English, in Chinese factories where the same stuff is made for all brands, workers get higher salary per hour when they assemble Fairbuds compare to any other brand . This is done to match livable wage in China and not just minimum wage. This is why they are more expensive.
You ACTUALLY believe that? Lol. It's China, they can legally lie.
How about the sustainability of headphones with less moving parts? No Bluetooth, no noise canceling (just a good seal). But they removed the 3.5mm headphone jack from their phones for “sustainability” so you can move from your old, “non-sustainable” headphones and consume and brand new pair from their company.
@@gotoastal good job completely missing my point.
@@gotoastal p.s. i don´t have to move anywhere, I owned fairphone4 since it was released and plan to stop using it only when it breaks (and not repairable at all). when my current headphones break, I might consider buying fairbuds. if a new model is out there it does not mean I absolutely have to buy it. this is European mentality, learn from it.
Just the replaceable battery is more than enough. Easy replacement cable between the 2 earcup are also great.
It would be nice if there would be graphs for the different presets especially when there is no band eq.
Props to Adam for mentioning how good Boston (band) sounds. That debut album is an engineering wonder.
Best part about sound quality, is that we can always code for it.
I think FP had to quickly push the unrepairable buds with their AUX-less FP4 to have a compatible audio solution on offer while they were finishing producing the XLs. I can see them drop the regular pods altogether fairly soon just to get rid of the bad brand synergy.
Loved that fantano reference
10:10 Thank you for this question! I hate when companies say that something is two opposite things at once
01:43 lol at the little explosion 😂
In therory, headphones aren't hard to repair as long as there are parts available. I hope these get some nice support and upgrades down the line. PS: They also offer TWS, but they arent repairable at all, which is a big shame.
Exactly, Beyerdynamic and Sennheiser have been doing it for decades
@@Entertainment- Yeah, I have a pair of Sennheiser HD25sp headphones from 2001 and still going strong. Replaced like 2 cables and cups.
The Fairphone true-wireless earbuds make sense in the way that you can buy and pair replacement charging case or earbud when you loose it, so you don't have to buy whole new set. I had this issue when I lost case for my Sony WF-1000xm3. I managed to buy case from someone who lost their earbud, so I can charge and use mine, but the box's NFC pairing feature doesn't work.
Ehhh pretty sure u can get a replacement case from Sony themselves
Apple also offers that so that product is a pure money grab wich proves they don’t care about repairability or the environment, only money
Could you please do an ANC comparison to other headphones? I'd really like to know which frequencies it does better or worse than my Bose QC25.
Sad that they don't have a 3.5 mm jack... Looking forward to more sustainable tech from ShortCircuit!
Beyerdynamic (from Germany) does offer basically every part from their headphones separately. So you can repair whatever is broken. Or, if you feel like it, build your headphones from scratch (at a much higher cost, though). ;-)
This is repairable which is great! I'm not sure about you guys, but I've never broken a wireless pair of headphones. The only wired pair I had were the m50x with detachable cables. I say this because will this company even exist in 10 years to supply the part you need? Audio products for me seem to just keep going and going.
Good audio remains good, if the audio quality is all you care about then if you like these now you'll like them in 20 years as well. As for the parts, most are easy to find from other companies. The batteries for example look pretty standard to me and can be found elsewhere. The logic board is proprietary, but given their track record as a company I don't see how they won't just make the designs open source if they can't produce them anymore. I suspect the 3D printing community and PCB designers are gonna have a field day with this one anyway, if it sells well enough
A nice big XL polyester egg bag. Looks like a five egg capacity. Good value.
For a company who's all about sustainability, they *really* hate headphone jacks...
Yeah, they lost all credibility by removing it. Really shows what their priorities still are, profit
Just get a 3.5mm to type C adapter so you can keep using your wired earphones with or without that port until the Sun swallows the Earth (i.e., become totally future proof) instead of whining about the loss of an ancient port.
@@odeiraoloap then it wouldnt be sustainable anymore, u need to buy another thing to compensate for another, we dont want to throw away old devices too, that is the point of sustainability
@@LuminousSpace well or, hear me out, use the bluetooth connection of the bluetooth headphones. I know, it sounds crazy, but it might really work! You could listen to music without a cable! Insane, isn't it?
Gesundheit as they've shown means Health but also means "Bless you" when someone sneezes
I can't believe no one else has done replaceable batteries on wireless headphones, that's already like the biggest thing to make them last longer (in combination with replaceable ear pads but that's pretty standard) Which is also why companies don't wanna do it cuz people buy less new headphones.. :(
Yep. It's pretty easy to believe, making them have a user replaceable battery would be easy but it would mean you turn a 4 year cycle product into 6-7. Completely unacceptable!
Imagine posting content to KZhead before Floatplane where people pay to see things first, or at least commercial free.
I would love to give these a try. I actually really love the repair ability of these.
9:29 Adam is a melon fan
Thats why I love Beyerdynamics. Great Sound, built like a tank, and you can order many many replacementsparts from them. It helps that their design is prolly old enough to drink at this point. And as a user of the Fairphone 4 I can say I am very happy with what they do. It works like a charm, and does what it should. Might not be the most impressive hardware or the best speakers or the crispest screen, but... if I want to play games I have a PC, if I want to listen to music and sink into it I have headphones, if I need to watch movies in great quality I watch them on a tv. For everything else its more then enough. Their pragmatic "no frills or tyos, just what you need, sourced fairly" is so great. I am a fan.
The designs kids are getting old enough to drink by now
These are currently being bundled for free with a Fairphone 4 in the UK.
Can a firmware update improve quality or would it need a hardware update ? Just replacing the circuit board for a newer edition would be cool
"repeat audio" already did this years ago. In a subscription format. Take a look! Might be cool to feature them in a video! Also a Dutch company, just like Fairphone!
I think what fair phone is doing is really cool, I wish they would sell in India as well. my iPhone SE 2nd gen is 2 and a half years old now, when the time comes when I can't keep using it anymore, I would love to buy a fair phone over another iPhone
What I want to know that I didn't know I wanted to know after buying the Momentum 4 Wirelesss is Latency and stability. You launch MS Teams with the Momentum 4 wireless, and you use like a desktop microphone and that thing chucks a hissy fit with the matching brands Bluetooth adapter and some other applications, but the latency is incredible compared to the creative BT adapter which actually doesn't chuck a hissy fit, but the latency isnt as good even though creative BT adapter has the aptx low latency codec. TLDR; software/firmware screws with wireless headphones in that upper quartile price bracket. Even with the Corsiar Void Pro Wireless I had to uplug and replug the adapter on a few occasions. I want stability reviews.
You should take a look at Meze audio really great quality and they also sell parts to repair headphones in the future
In-ear, on-ear, over-ear (supraural) and around-ear (circumaural). That's all I need.
That intro was dope 😂
I'd love additional tests for use on windows and microphone quality.
I’d happily part with a grand if I could get a set of headphones with the repairability of the Fairbuds XL, the sound quality of the AirPods Max, and the ANC of the Sony WH-XM5s. That would be a dream come true.
Just for some correction, the price is € 249 which includes vat, assuming the Dutch vat that would be $ 223, not $ 270. A common error, but still.
yeah I also wondered, and sure, 19% VAT included....
Now make it one of the best sounding headphones, good ANC, good build quality and amazing battery life and I'm sold!
the Vsauce reference is already on point IF ONLY the editor use footage from the front-facing camera
Loved the Mic and Noise Cancelling tests! Do you guys ever plan on reviewing the Neckband Earbuds Market? I'm rocking a Bose quiet control 30 for the past 7 years and they're only now starting degrade. I work in a machine shop and they pass Health and Safety's standards for ear protection, but theyre discontinued 😢 please help
Regarding replaceable batteries. It makes (some) sense that in-ear buds might not have easily replaceable batteries in them - given that there’s a LOT crammed into such a tiny space. However, any full-size headphone - on-ear and over-the-ear types - … there’s no reason why they don’t have replaceable batteries.
I wonder if the ANC works wired while it's still charging as well. I'd love to get ANC headphones for computer use but don't want to bother with charging separately.
I'll stick to my two pairs of Beyerdynamics (both bought broken and fixed up, then modified to have removable cables) as well as my vintage Sharp HP-400H's (bizarre 70's headphones with two drivers on each side, lots of chrome and mahoooosively big earcups. They also included crossovers which had failed, now fixed and they sound amazing for the age).
I'm probably not the only one here who has said this, but I would love to see this featured in an LTT labs comparison to other brands. A stand alone LTT video would be awesome too.
I too like that speckled plastic. and that green.
for what it's worth, the Sony XM4s aren't that much more difficult to repair - a few more screws and adhesive involved, but far from impossible. i, with no real knowledge, still managed fine buying a broken pair off ebay and repairing them myself (though the spare parts are pretty expensive). the differences here aren't huge overall, but provided fairphone are able to price them well, i think the fairbuds xl are still a big step forward.
Wow an actual music nerd reviewing headphones. I saw that flash of Black Country New Road (10:12). Good stuff.
6:00 motherboard with bent pins LOL
Sont forget 250 euro is often including the sales tax over here. 21% or 19%. So it's 250 euro with sales tax, around 206 euro without. That in USD according to google sits around USD 225. But i guess there will be some kind of import cost somewhere. I actually don't know if it's more common to compare prices with and without sales tax in the US (and also in Canada for that matter ).
In cases where the manufacturer says they have replacement parts I would like to see how many pieces out of the device can be purchased and the total cost of getting every part to make a new device. Sure you can get an iPhone screen replacement part for a broken touchscreen but it costs as much as a different phone
Does the ear cup material fall apart with the slightest bit of ise like 90% of headphones these days or does it, ya know, have any semblance of quality to it?
i was really interested... right up untill the slap in the face price compared to the performance of the headphones, repairablity is a nice to have but not if it adds that much compared to comparitively spec'd alturnatives on the market
Was hoping you would take a look at these
If someone sneezes in you say "Gesundheit!" and it is pretty much "bless you" in German, but the literal meaning is in fact "health" (in other context).
repairability makes most sense for a wireless headphones, since the battery will degrade and require replacement every few years. For the wired market, you can just buy one from the Sennheiser HD6x family. Not only they sounds great, they're indestructible so no expected repair in the first place
funny thing is Fairphone has had issues supporting the decent Bluetooth codecs and my headphone dongle just crapped the bed two weeks ago after only 3 months of usage
I mean yeah, it's kinda mental that they dropped the headphone jack from the phone, forcing you to use a jack or Bluetooth, but their Bluetooth codec support initially was only for SBC and AAC, not LDAC or any of the AptX ones. They apparently introduced support for more codecs, until the Android 12 update broke compatibility with some of them. It's pretty dumb. I have been using a USB-C adapter for 3 months now and it no longer works that well. I don't think the adapter itself is broke, but it's just that even the tiniest movement inside the USB port will disconnect the adapter, it's just so sensitive. Could be that the Samsung adapter I'm using is a POS (sound quality is great), but I'm not sure if I want to risk it by buying a higher quality adapter from a more audio dedicated brand.
@@shotgunmasterQL I had the same-ish problem with my dongle. Sound on the right channel was on and off depending on how I bent the dongle, now it's completely intermittent. Ordered a new one from UGreen, it's been in shipping since the 5th.
Seems another nice Product from Fairphone. Ive recently wanted to repair my AKG, but it was a mess with glued battery, clipped headband..someone with more expertise might repair them more easyily, but im done with them. Really considerig to get either a repaired Valco VK20 or the Fairbuds. To the audio experts: How would you EQ these best?
As someone who used to work in a plastic plant they make it that texture and speckled look just to make you more convinced it's recycled. I'm sure it is but a decent amount of plastic is recycled and is grounded up and sorted and come back to the same plant and can be melted and have any texture/color you want.
You were close but wrong. It's speckled to hide the imperfections in the recycled plastic. It has nothing to do with making it "look more recycled"
Is it normal for the videos to come out on KZhead hours before floatplane? I only recently signed up for floatplane
AIAIAI has existed in this sort of space for a while, but they don't do ANC, which is unfortunate.
Big fan of the replaceable battery, it's why I bought the Arctis Nova Pro headset for gaming. Without replaceable batteries, rechargeable stuff like this start to lose usefulness way faster than they should. I like the idea of these headphones, but unfortunately it seems like their performance/functionality just isn't quite where I'd like them to be (especially for the price). Ideally though products like this can force the bigger companies to do something similar.
I really think they should allow full control of the EQ, for people who know what they want and are a bit more serious. I feel like the boominess could be nicely rectified by adjusting the frequencies to ones preferred settings.
11:25 how is the green line above the red line between 1k and 10k? Is the ANC having a detrimental effect in this region?
Impressive - I'd buy one if they were potentially upgradeable in the future. New drivers, new cirtuit board, larger or smaller earcups. Make a framework for headphones I guess.
What made you do your own headphone target instead of Harmon?
*_W A N T_* This headset basically ticks all of the boxes for me.. _for listening._ Some suggestions to Fairphone; 1) Semi open-back design with cylindrical cells at expense of total output, 2) Detachable microphone, 3) Headband Qi charger
The Anthony Fantano outro actually scared me. I wasn’t expecting it 💀
FairPhones, make a wired repairable and detachable headphones. 3.5 jack is more sustainable.
I hope they do sell larger ear pads, I like my headphones to be comfortably around my ears rather than on or touching them so that they don't sweat as much and provide a good seal.
The cups being linked via usb C is so awesome and I'd love to see more replaceable things move to usb c because they can handle so much data and power now
USB-C is just a connector. And I’m pretty sure that cable between the earcups doesn’t comply with any standard and just uses the USB-C connector for easy detachment and replacement.
@@Entertainment- Yeah, but I wonder if a basic store bought USB-C cable would work? Since there's not really much of a reason to wire that thing weirdly or anything, I would still expect the pins to connect in a pretty straightforward manner. But obviously, since it's just a USB-C cable and you can figure out the wiring if there's something different about it, you can even make your own replacement cable if you wanted to. Pretty neat even considering that part of the cable is visible, so if you wanted to customize to looks, you could do it.