Based on first fit and listen of Gen3, I would buy a pair straight away - Thomas Mackisack review
March 07
Tom, based in Auckland, is an award winning product designer in his own right. He is a passionate runner and here is what he had to say about his testing.
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First Impressions:
Short Version: ‘Natural/real' transparency is just what I need as runner; after that first song, I’d have bought a pair right away.
Long:
- Was careful during setup to not bend or pull the wrong thing…
- Initially was confused when I could hear my surroundings once fitted;
- I’m use to experience of being ‘plugged in’ when using any other silicone tip based earphone.
- Came fitted with large, when connecting – it felt very responsive and no issues (had biased myself to be a bit more patient with prototypes)
- Putting some sounds on, it was great – listening to my first song of choice… no bass at start of song… as it came in, lots of smiles with lots of bass.
- The classic head nod, ‘yeah these sounds good.’
- If I was in a store, I’d have walked away with a pair based on this whole first experience.
- I had my running gear on ready to warm up, was excited to get going with how good they sounded.
- The balance of great sound and still hearing my surrounds was a really nice surprise, like I say, I expected it to ‘plug me in’;
- This whole pleasant surprise etc. reminded me of what I missed from my current earphones - Beats Fit Pro.
- I have to have them in transparency mode to hear myself surrounds, which is at mercy of the wind when running and un-natural/digital,
- Really felt like something to be marketed, like I’ve mentioned to you before.
MagFit:
Short Version: MagFit just works.
Long:
- In hindsight, I wasn’t really thinking about MagFit when first fitting;
- What this tells me, is:
- 1. It worked as I would expect, there was no movement at all, it felt the right amount of ‘magnet’
- 2. It wasn’t a shocker it worked, was probably because I’m too familiar with it all from having worked at Earshots.
- And I was focused on was fit and sound…
- For me, I’m thinking this is success because:
- If MagFit is doing it’s job, if the fit (earbud) and sound too - they will be things you don’t care about;
- They will just work, and you get to enjoy the product. To me, MagFit just simply works.
Sound & Fit:
Short Version: Sound & fit go hand in hand; I need a longer ear-tip.
Long:
- When I was starting my run, they sounded great - but they did lose the base (like switching from a Large to Medium tip) as they moved out of ear.
- This was very slow and hard to notice, but between reps I picked up on it because I could push them in a bit and then hear the difference etc.
- I had this nagging feeling of wanting to push the tip in further, when I did it didn’t stick - I thought it was maybe because the magnet was pulling it back?
- I feel like a longer tip model is maybe needed;
- Or maybe I needed the size of the large - for its length, but not for its width?
- I also wanted to tilt/angle the earbud down, like Gen2 - but this may be a personal preference.
- Prototype issue potentially - the left side felt like it didn’t fit as well as the left
- I couldn’t see why when I put them side but side on flat surface - but might be angle the magnet is glued on inside?
- Side note - Grace tried them briefly and thought they also sounded great;
- She also commented that she wanted to angle down like Gen2 and felt like left side didn’t fit as well (both unprompted comments from her).