I’ve had a handful of pairs of wireless earbuds in rotation for the past few months now. First up, there are the tried and trusted AirPods Pro 2, which tend to be in my bag wherever I travel – ‘old faithful’, as I like to call them.
I also occasionally dip back into the Bose QuietComfort Ultra Earbuds. This is especially the case if I’m travelling for a product launch – their noise cancelling still comes in clutch even when faced with the loudest engine rumbles from a plane, train or any automobile I find myself buckled up in.
But when there’s a big chunk of listening to do when I’m working from home or in the office, I turn to the Bowers & Wilkins Pi8.
When I first heard these five-star wireless earbuds, it’s fair to say I was blown away.
But in recent weeks, I’ve found myself reverting back to the AirPods, with the Pi8 loosening their grip on me a little.
It’s got nothing to do with the sound quality on offer. I still can’t get enough of the resolution and detail that the Pi8 dig up. The control and texture of bass notes is brilliant too.
They are more audiophile earbuds than Apple’s offering – as we said in our Bowers & Wilkins Pi8 review, “they are pricier than your average wireless earbuds, but sonically they perform levels above”.
However, there’s one simple yet crucial area where I think there’s room for a little improvement (no buds are perfect, after all). And that area is fit.
It can take a bit too much manoeuvring to get the seal right.
They’re the standard twist-to-lock-in-place design, but sometimes the seal between the silicone tips and my inner ear doesn’t feel tight, and I spend longer than I should trying to work them in.
Occasionally, it feels like they’re going to work their way loose and let in ambient noise, which isn’t what you want when you’re about to embark on your daily commute.
Sometimes I'm standing on the train station platform wondering “can I hear too much ambient noise” or “is the eartip secure enough” or “have I twisted the buds round too far” which can be annoying, especially if you’re trying to do it while walking at the same time.
Eventually, I get a good seal, but with the AirPods and Bose, I can just plug them into my ears first time and forget about them. Why can't it be the same with the Pi8?
So what would I do? Well, I’d perhaps look at the material used. To me, at least, the silicone feels quite thin and flimsy, which I don’t think lends itself particularly well to creating a good seal.
I’ve talked about eartip design before and have already waxed lyrical about the tips offered by the JBL Tour Pro 3, in particular the memory foam ones, which worked amazingly well for me.
I still stand by the claim that they’re the best eartips I’ve come across for quite some time.
A different shape could make all the difference, too. Bose’s silicone tips, for example, tend to be a little shallower in profile and seem to spread themselves better against my outer and inner ear, making for a great seal.
The Pi8 come with four different sizes of eartip, including an extra small size with those for small ear openings - if changing the material or shape is out of the equation, I think an extra large option for those of us with more cavernous ear openings would be the next best thing.
My ears would certainly appreciate it.
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