Sony Link Buds - How do TWS headphones work?

[Fragment323]

Hi guys,

I have been looking around for TWS headphones and Sony LinkBuds (those donut ones) seem to be great for me (I'll have to test the fit for my ears though).

They are currently on pretty good sale on my area, but only for a day or so.

So please, if anyone knows the answer, anwer me quickly

 

Since I have never owned TWS headphones, I have one question relevant to my use-case. How do they connect to phone?

Is it earbuds->case->source, or it can be directly earbuds->source?

I want them for running and as I hate to bring my phone or anything with me (event home keys bother me), I want to connect them to my Watch4 and play localy stored music or spotify. Problem is, I don't want to bring the case either, since it defeats the purpose of having nothing with me, but watch and earphones.

 

I have watched reviews and read some threads about them and other TWS, but nothing I saw seems to mention this. Maybe it is general knowlage, but i simply don't know.

 

So: Can I use Sony LinkBuds for my runs and leave the case at home?

[Origami Cactus]

Yes, the headphones themselves connect to phone/watch, the case is most usually a simple charger.

 

[Fragment323]

14 minutes ago, Origami Cactus said:

Yes, the headphones themselves connect to phone/watch, the case is most usually a simple charger.

 

OMG thank you so much, that is what i wanted to hear.

I was confused about this, as most TWS heaphones have pairing button on the case, not on buds themselves. So I figgured there must be some communication between case and buds, not only charging

[Origami Cactus]

1 minute ago, Fragment323 said:

OMG thank you so much, that is what i wanted to hear.

I was confused about this, as most TWS heaphones have pairing button on the case, not on buds themselves. So I figgured there must be some communication between case and buds, not only charging

I still haven't fully figured it out, but for audio pipeline, the earphones connect directly to the phone, as going through the case would offer no benefits, and extra latency. There definitely is some communication between the case and the buds, as that is also needed for charging but I don't think that is bluetooth, but could be.

[Fragment323]

15 minutes ago, Origami Cactus said:

I still haven't fully figured it out, but for audio pipeline, the earphones connect directly to the phone, as going through the case would offer no benefits, and extra latency. There definitely is some communication between the case and the buds, as that is also needed for charging but I don't think that is bluetooth, but could be.

OK, thank you so much. Now I only hope is that they fit my ears properly, as I have ordered them just now.

[Fragment323]

@Origami Cactus

For anyone else wondering the same:

They do work without the case.

Pairing button works only when buds are in case, so all communication between case and buds is via pins.

[Origami Cactus]

4 hours ago, Fragment323 said:

@Origami Cactus

For anyone else wondering the same:

They do work without the case.

Pairing button works only when buds are in case, so all communication between case and buds is via pins.

Nice, that is exactly what i thought, but some earphones show the battery level of the case on the phone, so I didn't want to straight up say it uses the pins, because some also use bluetooth.

 

But how are the earphones themselves? I have read that if you have them properly seat them, they sound really good.

interested in them for running/biking, or just wearing them around the house

[Fragment323]

21 hours ago, Origami Cactus said:

Nice, that is exactly what i thought, but some earphones show the battery level of the case on the phone, so I didn't want to straight up say it uses the pins, because some also use bluetooth.

They do show case battery on phone - but as far as I can tell, it updates only when you put buds in or out of the case. Need to test this.

21 hours ago, Origami Cactus said:

But how are the earphones themselves? I have read that if you have them properly seat them, they sound really good.

interested in them for running/biking, or just wearing them around the house

They are not bad at all.
Sound is really good in quiet environment - home or office.
When walking around the city I have tendency to turn the volume up - since they let all the sound in. But it is easy to resist, since when it get a bit quieter again, i dont have to turn them down.

They are a bit flatter than what I am used to, but it is a fair trade of for environment awarness. They dont blow away, but sound better than i expected.
They are great for simpler music like disco, electric music, moder pop, maybe some calmer rock songs and rap. Metal, heavy rock, calssical musich and anything someone wants to enjoy fully are not great in them. But I dont care - it is not what I bought them for.

 

App is usable, EQ presets suck, but you can customise. There is switch named "DSEE" - no idea what it means, but without it they sound like garbage.

Wide area tap works awesome. Like really awesome.

 

They sit in ears like glued. Very suprising. Get that silicone earpiece one size bigger than you feel is right for you - same comfort, but hold in ears better.

I just need to wiggle them a bit in my ears when playing music - since my ears are not the same - to get them seated proprely. Else one would be louder.

Great for running basically everywhere - they dont make that "thumpft" noise when i hit forrest ground a bit harder. All my older headphones did it, just bone-conductions were fine.

 

I also use them for calls while in office - everyone said they the mic sounds great. And my hands are free.

There are some problems:

- Setting "prefer music quiality" sounds exactly the same as "prefer connection stability" unless sitting in really quiet room.

- Setting "prefer music quiality" causes buds to drop out randomly unless I put my phone on desk in front of me. Unusable for walking / running.

- Settings of taps has only 4 things - left double and tripple tap, same for right. That is OK, but I cannot set them however I want - there are presets for every bud with predefined combinations of actions, which heavily sucks. Now I have:

double tap right - play/pause

tripple tap right - next song

double and tripple tap left - sound + and -

I cannot set left bud to be tripple tap last song and double tap to google assistant, just double tap next and tripple tap back. Why? No idea, just plain stupid.

 

There is stupid notification that buds are connected - it wont go away and I cannot disable it in the app. If I disable all notifications from the app in android settings, I wont see battery status quickly in notifications. Just why.

 

Sorry for mistakes, i typed it in a hurry.