Yep, another. This will be the last for a while as it turns out these things are bloody expensive.
This months box from a subscription box I subscribe to contained the Sudio Tolv true wireless earbuds (true wireless means there are no wires connecting both earbuds together).
You may have never heard of Sudio before and browsing their site they don’t seem to be willing to tell you anything other than the typical interest in great sound and their company’s personal interesting in being carbon neutral. I have however read that they hail from Sweden.
It is nice reading that they are at least designed in a more western nation as initially I thought it was a nearly correctly spelled “studio” by someone in China. No hate to China here. They can every once in a while make a quality product of their own (even if it is an accident).
The Sudio Tolv’s come in a nice box that contains the earbuds, a charge case, some instructions, extra earbud tips and the world’s shortest micro-USB cable.
The first thing to do was to plug in the charge case with the earbuds inside and top them all off. Sudio claims a battery life of 7 hours with at least 4 extra charges on the case itself. I actually can’t tell you if the case has that great of charge as I tend to plug it in again after doing a full charge of the earbuds. But Sudio? Why the Micro-USB connection? USB-C is a must for quick charging and overall convenience and at this price point it really should be USB-C. The buds on the other hand handily live up to their 7 hour charge claim which is incredible considering their size. I say this because the Skullcandy Push earbuds barely hold a six hour charge and they are humongous (though blessedly comfortable to wear unlike the Aukey EP-B60s I also reviewed recently).
The build quality of the case and the earbuds are quite good. Sure they are plastic but the case comes with a rubberised coating and inside the earbuds are magnetically affixed to their lodgings securely. They are also very easy to take out and put back in. The Skullcandy Push’s are a mess to pull out after charging. The lid for the charge case is also magnetically sealed.
Once you have the Tolv’s in your earholes they are very comfortable. You know they are there so it’s not like they melt away but they don’t hurt the ears after a while like the Aukey earbuds (of course your mileage may vary). And if you need smaller or larger tips they are included in the box.
Sudio recommends pulling them out at the same time for initial syncing to your devices. Pretty good advice when using any of these devices. Doing as suggested they synced up almost before the Bluetooth was switched on in my phone (I don’t keep any networking enabled that doesn’t need to be as it saves battery and limits tracking).
Initially the left earbud kept dropping out of sync but after a reset of the earbuds I haven’t had any real issues to speak of. All these Bluetooth devices get wonky for a short time every once in a while but typically are stable. As mentioned above, the Tolv’s haven’t had any real problems since resetting.
Audio quality is important. Not one of the earbuds I have test are going to be audiophile grade. They just aren’t. The Tolv is no different but what I can say is I really like the out of the box profile. They have decent lows but not boosted like the Skullcandy Push’s. The mids are surprisingly crisp but not overpowered. The highs are crystal clear. It really is a nice experience. Sudio would say this is due to their graphene driver. I honestly can’t say though it is a different style of audio reproduction than the typical earbud and if it is true, I want more earbuds like these. Also, as a special treat, Sega Genesis music played through the ZXTune player on Android sound great.
I have briefly used these in a call and the mic is fine I’m told by whom I spoke with but I am old school and prefer to hold the phone and talk that way. Audio coming in over a call is of course better than it sounds coming from the phone speaker but it’s still pretty compressed audio.
Can I recommend these? Absolutely yes. Even at their price tag of $129 CAD they are very good performers and battery life on board and in the charge case reserve is among the best. As a bonus they don’t look stupid like Apple Airpods.
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