TWS earbuds are becoming more popular every day. The term TWS (True Wireless Stereo) itself translates as truly wireless stereo and means headphones that are not connected by a wire either to the smartphone or to each other.

TWS headphones and sound quality

Obviously, one of the main criteria when choosing headphones, whether TWS or conventional, is sound quality. And there are a lot of nuances and misconceptions here.

By design, all TWS headphones are divided into two types: in-ear and in-ear. A lot depends only on this parameter, so let’s immediately consider what their differences are.

TWS earbuds

Their main advantage is precisely the fact that the ear canal remains open. Accordingly, such headphones do not create a feeling of “vacuum” in the ears, do not completely block external sounds and do not hear your voice loudly during a conversation.

The earbuds are very convenient to use as a headset. They are quick and easy to insert into your ears, are one size and do not cause discomfort to wear.

The main disadvantage of the earbuds is the same open ear canal. The fact is that only with complete isolation of external sounds can you achieve the deepest bass and the highest quality sound.

For this reason, earbuds are not considered “music” headphones in the full sense of the word. You won’t find any musician using earbuds on stage. In addition, it is very rare to find expensive earbuds (even wired ones) on sale, since in-ear models often prevail in the Hi-Fi segment (here we do not take into account over-ear and full-size headphones).

In-ear TWS headphones

In-ear headphones, as the name suggests, are inserted directly into the ear canal, isolating it from external sounds. These headphones always come with a set of replaceable ear pads (attachments) of different sizes to take into account the physiological characteristics of each user.

Of course, the type of headphones itself does not say anything about the sound quality at all, but at least in-ear headphones will give more bass on a noisy street than earbuds. All things being equal, in-ear headphones sound richer and richer, especially in noisy environments.

The speaker size of TWS earbuds does not affect the sound quality!

Many manufacturers indicate the size of the speakers of their TWS headphones, sometimes even emphasizing it. This is especially true for Chinese companies. In reality, the size of the speaker has nothing to do with sound quality and only misleads the buyer.

The speaker analogy suggests that the larger the speaker, the deeper and more powerful bass it will deliver. Accordingly, the smaller the speaker, the better it reproduces high frequencies (the same tweeter is several times smaller than the subwoofer). However, this does not work with in-ear headphones.

Many models with a tiny speaker (~ 6mm) produce deeper and better bass than headphones with huge speakers (~ 14mm).

Codec support and sound volume for TWS headphones

One mistake many people make is that the cost and quality of a smartphone can somehow miraculously affect the sound quality of Bluetooth headphones. This common misconception comes from the analogy with wired headphones.

The fact is that when we connect a wire, the signal from digital must be converted to analog, and then sent to the headphones through this wire. The quality of converting digital to analog is of great importance and is responsible for this special device inside the smartphone called the DAC.

But when we connect wireless headphones, there is and cannot be any conversion from digital to analog. The signal must be sent in digital format via Bluetooth to the headphones, and TWS-headphones, having received this digital signal, convert it to analog before being fed to the speakers.

Accordingly, the DAC and smartphone amplifier has no effect on the sound quality of wireless headphones. It all depends on the DAC and amplifier, which are built directly into the headphones. For the same reason, headphone volume is often independent of the smartphone. But, sometimes there are exceptions when the volume is limited by the smartphone programmatically.

And yet, something in a smartphone can affect the sound quality – this is the set of supported codecs.

Using TWS headphones as a headset

Many people buy TWS earbuds for use, including as a headset (for talking on the phone). It doesn’t matter if you are saving yourself from the radiation of phones in this way or it is just more convenient for you, you need to understand that not all TWS headphones do this task well.

First of all, don’t forget about the design of the headphones. The earbuds will be the most comfortable in this regard. On the other hand, there are quite a few in-ear headphones on the market with sound transmission functions. With this technology, headphones use microphones to pick up external sounds and deliver them through the speaker at a certain volume. As a result, it seems as if there are no headphones at all.

To work as a headset, it is better to use in-ear or in-ear headphones with sound transmission mode.

The second important point is the number of microphones in the headphones. If there is only one microphone on each TWS earbud, it will be very difficult to use them for a conversation in a noisy place. The other person will hear all the surrounding noise, perhaps even louder than your voice.

Two or more microphones on each earbud are used for noise cancellation to cut out all extraneous sounds.

What else is important to pay attention to when choosing TWS headphones

What else is important to pay attention to when choosing TWS headphones

In addition to all of the above, TWS headphones differ among themselves in additional functions. Let’s consider briefly the most popular ones:

Noise suppression

ANC (Active Noise Cancellation) is a special software and hardware algorithm that suppresses (suppresses) external sounds. With these headphones, you can comfortably listen to music even in the noisiest places.

The principle of operation of noise cancellation is very simple – with the help of microphones, headphones pick up all external sounds, and then play them in antiphase. That is, the rise of a wave of one sound signal (say, the sound of a car outside) coincides with the decay of a wave of another signal (the same sound of a car, recorded by a microphone and played in antiphase). Because of this, the effect of damping the sound wave occurs (since the waves are superimposed on each other):

Ideally, external sound should disappear completely, but in practice it is difficult to achieve this effect even with full-size headphones.

Usually, active noise canceling is found on in-ear headphones, but there are rare exceptions when this feature works on earbuds.

Built-in equalizer

An equalizer can be found in many music applications on a smartphone. It allows you to change the nature of the sound of melodies by increasing or decreasing the volume of certain frequencies. For example, you can add bass or make more high frequencies.

The problem with such equalizers is that they work exclusively in one application. As soon as you launch another application, the headphones will return to their original (factory) sound.

But there are TWS headphones with a built-in equalizer, which is not configured in a specific music application, but in a proprietary program that is released by the headphone manufacturer. By adjusting the equalizer once, the sound will be identical in all applications.