Sometimes I wonder if earbud designers in Sweden ever rest at night. Hardly a week goes by without another pair of true wireless earbuds coming out of the land of Abba, Volvos and Ikea. It’s a hotbed of earbud activity and one of the coolest brands in Sweden right now is Urbanista.
Urbanista has produced some great products over the past couple of years, including the noise-canceling London earbuds, and now the company’s Stockholm true wireless earbuds have received a makeover which sees a boost to the battery life of the charging case, an improved microphone, plus IPX4 protection against water splashes. The update addresses a few of the issues that fell short in the first iteration and the sound has been significantly retuned for a much better bass response.
The Urbanista Stockholm Plus earbuds use large 12 mm dynamic drivers that can deliver a truly impressive level of bass. But it’s not just in the bass area that the earbuds sound better; the separation between the midrange and treble has been extended to create a more heightened soundstage. The profile has been tweaked by sound engineer Axel Grell who has tuned the Stockholm Plus so that they are ideal for placement at the opening of the ear canal rather than being pushed in it.
The new earbuds are available in five fashionable colors: Midnight Black, Fluffy Cloud, Rose Gold, Olive Green and Titanium. Makes a nice change from plain old white. Importantly, Urbanista has gone for completely plastic-free packaging, so Greta Thunberg will be happy.
Although Stockholm Plus still only offer around 3.5 hours of listening time, that is 3.5 hours of playing time at 70% volume which is much more of real-world figure. It’s hard for earbud manufacturers to be honest about battery ;life as there’s a temptation to inflate the quoted playing time, it’s good to see Urbanista taking an transparent approach here. The charging case holds a total of 20 hours of backup power before it needs recharging. That’s five full recharges. The case is topped up using a USB-C charging cable but there’s no option for wireless charging. The front of the case features four white LEDs that indicate how much power is onboard.
Bluetooth 5.0 is the wireless protocol used on the Stockholm Plus and there’s support for AAC and SBC audio codecs. There’s no option for Qualcomm’s aptX codec, but as iOS and Android both now support AAC, this shouldn’t be a big issue. The earbuds start looking for a Bluetooth connection as soon as the lid of the case is opened, and this means the earbuds are raring to go by the time they reach the user’s ears.
The wearing style of the Urbanista Stockholm Plus is similar to Apple’s AirPods, that’s to say they sit at the entrance of the ear canal instead of using silicone ear-tips to push into the ear. This could be an issue for some people. I find that earbuds with ear-tips stay in my ears well, but AirPod-style earbuds always seem to work loose and that can affect the sound quality. That said, I’ve already listened to a pair of Stockholm Plus and I think their sound is excellent. The drivers produce a superbly balanced character that’s packed with detail and serves up plenty of volume. The 12 mm drivers Urbanista has used really deliver in terms of sound quality and clarity.
Each earbud incorporates a touch control that can be used to do things like adjusting the volume, answering phone calls, playing and pausing music, skipping tracks, and activating voice assistants such as Siri or Google Assistant. It’s quite a sensitive control so be careful when adjusting the position of the earbuds in the ear as I ended up pausing the music and returning a random phone call when I had no intention of doing so.
Unusually, the Stockholm Plus charging case includes a reset button which is a great idea. Sometimes true wireless earbuds misbehave when pairing and need to be reset. A lot of earbuds require a complicated series of button presses to get the earbuds to reset, but the Stockholm Plus now have a dedicated button. CEO of Urbanista, Anders Andreen says he added the feature after customers contacted Urbanista’s help desk trying to find out how to reset the earbuds. Rather than talk them through the process, the Urbanista team sidestepped the problem with a reset button. Now that’s what I call lateral thinking.
Verdict: If you like the Apple AirPod style of earbuds, then the Urbanista Stockholm Plus are a fine alternative to Cupertino’s offerings, and they cost less. The battery life may appear a bit low at 3.5 hours, but I can’t remember the last time I listened to earbuds for more than three hours at a stretch. The Stockholm Plus sound profile is refined with all the frequencies nicely separated and elegantly defined. The bass level is full but not overblown. There’s no support for aptX audio codec, but the AAC is supported which will please iOS users. The Urbanista Stockholm Plus are a refined pair of true wireless earbuds and this latest version improves on a great pair of earbuds.
Pricing: £69 / €69 / $69
More info: www.urbanista.com
Specifications:
- Driver unit: 12 mm
- Bluetooth version: 5.0
- Charging time: 1.5 h
- Total playtime: 20 h
- Standby time: 60 h
- Battery: 30 mAh earbud, 500 mAh charging case
- Working range: 10 m
- Mic distance: 0.5 m
- Frequency range: 20 Hz – 20 KHz • RF
- Output Power: 8.00 dBm
- Impedance: 32 Ω ± 15 %
- Sensibility: 107 +/- 3 dB at 1 kHz
- SNR: 91 dB
- Audio codecs: SBC, AAC
- Finishes: Midnight Black, Fluffy Cloud, Rose Gold, Olive Green and Titanium
