Under 2000 IEM & Under 5000 TWS for Beginner Audiophiles - My Favourite Audio Products Ep. 6

Alright folks, so I have found two products, this IEM under Rs. 2000 and this TWS under Rs. 5000 which I think are going to be perfect for beginner audiophiles. Welcome to yet another episode of My Favourite Audio Products where I scour the internet for the best value for money audiophile products so that you don't have to. Hi, I'm Aishwarya and you're watching Track and Take English, your destination for detailed, incisive gadget reviews. Now for this video, you can tell that I have three IEMs and two truly wireless earbuds. I'll start off with the truly wireless earbuds first. Initially when the Pixel Buds Pro 2 came in for review, I wasn't very impressed. But there are certain products that grow on you after you've used them for a considerable amount of time and the Buds Pro 2 is one of them. So much so that these are currently my daily driver TWS buds of choice and there are two main reasons for it. The first one is the fit which is fantastic and secondly the sound quality which is surprising to me as well considering the fact that these do not have LDAC or LHTC or any other high-res codec for that matter. The reason why the fit is so good is because they're extremely tiny and secondly because you've got this new twist to adjust stabilizer which basically locks into your ears once you put them inside and it won't fall off come what may. I've been using these for, you know, my walking and running sessions that I've been doing lately and it's a very secure fit. As for the sound quality, the Pixel Buds Pro 2 is the king of micro detail and customization. In the song Playing God by Polyphia, there's this intentional noise effect that has been added to make it sound raw. The Pixel Buds Pro 2 reproduces that with utmost clarity something that I haven't even heard on IEMs in the Rs 10,000-15,000 price category. Also the Buds Pro 2 in general has a balanced sound signature that doesn't favor any single frequency and none of the frequencies sort of overpower each other in the mix. But the best thing about the Buds Pro 2 is that the 11mm drivers inside them can be EQed with the default EQ option in Android phones. On Pixel phones, it's built-in. On other Android phones, you'll have to download the app separately. So you get a 5-band EQ which you can of course customize as to your choice but you've also got preset EQs in which the clarity one is my favorite. Basically in the clarity EQ, the upper treble gets a bit of a boost. Even the treble gets a bit of a boost. And immediately what happens is that the soundstage becomes wider and it doesn't sound as dark and closed off anymore. And the kind of treble quality that you get with the Buds Pro 2 is unlike that I've heard on any truly wireless earbud that I've tested till date. The bass is not like a big booming bass. It's very controlled, it's punchy and it's very impactful and the decay is not too much and there's fairly decent fast attack as well. In fact, even the mids don't hold back in the mix and finally the imaging is absolutely divine. Overall, it's definitely in my top 3 best sounding truly wireless earbuds that I've tested till date. And I know that a lot of audiophiles are not getting very excited about the Pixel Buds Pro 3 because it doesn't have the high-res codec support. But trust me, you don't need it. It's that good. Apart from the sound, the ANC is decent, the battery life is pretty fantastic and the mics are exceptional only with Pixel phones mind you because with other phones that I tested, the mics were not as good because I think Pixel phones use some sort of AI upsampling to sort of make it sound better. You also get multi-point connectivity and the touch sensor on the Buds themselves have like volume control as well so you can swipe up and down and once you get used to it, it's not that difficult honestly. And finally, I really like the design of this case. You know what, Google's product designers are some of the best in the industry right now. They just make these really cute products, yeah. Alright, now moving on to the Astell&Kern UW100 Mark IIs. Of course, it's quite a mouthful but these are probably the most requested in terms of When are you going to review them? Primarily because they've been deeply discounted. Initially when they launched, the price was about Rs 25,000 and now it's available for under Rs 5,000. That's one-fourth the price. Now of course, at Rs 25,000, a lot of us reviewers probably didn't take a look at it because there were many issues, there were features that are missing and you're like, can we even recommend this? But at Rs 5,000, you can overlook all of them and let me explain why. Just like the Pixel Buds Pro II, the UW100 Mark II is also a resolution monster. I mean obviously, it's not as good as the Pixel Buds Pro II but it's pretty close and right up there. And the main reason for that is because the UW100 Mark II has technically superior hardware. So what you get are a pair of Noel's balanced armature drivers and you also get a 32-bit DAC built inside these. And there's an acoustic chamber as well. Plus you get support for at least aptX Adaptive, if not LHDC and LDAC. So these are definitely high-resolution monsters, especially if you have an Android phone. And all of this hardware put together actually produces a sound that's rich, that's very detailed and definitely very treble-focused as well. So I would classify this as bright sounding with also a good amount of emphasis on the mids. So the mids are very smooth, they're clean and refined. Plus the imaging on these, just like the Google Pixel Buds Pro II, is immaculate. I just found them very good. But the problem with the UW100 Mark II is that the quality of the bass is good but the quantity is definitely not enough. Even for somebody like me who doesn't want that much quantity. But the bass response in general, at least the mid-bass response is fast and there's plenty of attack as well. But I would have liked a little bit more sub-bass rumble. By the way, since this has a built-in DAC inside the app, you've got the option to adjust the roll-off and the decay. And these are filters basically. And this is something that you will not find in any truly wireless earbud for that matter. Which is damn nice, pretty impressive. But that's where the accolades stop. Because the app itself, if you look at it, it's very badly designed. There are compatibility issues. Now while the design does look very interesting and very, very unique, there is a problem with it. It does not have the best fit, in my opinion. And it keeps falling off. So if you're considering buying one for workouts, then I wouldn't suggest this. And the most important reason why most reviewers didn't touch it when it was Rs 25,000 was because it doesn't support ANC. Despite the fact that the passive noise isolation is the best in the industry, it's really good. Also the touch controls are a little fiddly because of the design itself and the mic is average at best. But see, let me remind you one thing once again. These are Rs 5,000 now. For that, even if you get the best sound quality in that price range, I think you can overlook the other aspects if sound quality is the only thing that you care about. Alright, now it's time to talk about the IEMs and I'm gonna start off by talking about the Roselsa Aurora Ultra. Now it's quite a mouthful, so I'm gonna be calling it Aurora for the rest of the review so that, you know, I can maintain my sanity. Now it currently retails for under Rs 2,000 and it's available at your usual suspects and it's got a very decent packaging, I must say. So inside the box, you of course get the buds themselves and you get this cable which is a nice fibre cable at least at the bottom end, which is good. Apart from that, you get a bunch of wide-bore silicon tips which are very good fit, at least for my ears. The only problem with the case is that the build quality, the fit and finish of that case is not very good. But considering that under Rs 2,000 you don't even get a carry pouch let alone a case with many other brands, I think this is fine. Now the housings themselves are of decent quality, I'd say. They're not the best, but what I like about them specifically are the fact that they're extremely small in profile. So the small profile, what it does is that it ensures that you get like a very comfortable fit in your ear. At least for me, it was one of the most comfortable IEMs that I've tested in a long time. Also, just play around with the tips a little bit, the wide-bore tips. You might want to size down primarily because these tips are really wide. So generally I use the large tips but this time around I'm using the medium ones. And apart from that, you also get an inline mic and remote with the wire itself which means that you can obviously play and pause your music and even change the songs according to your wish which is good. Alright, now let's talk about the sound signature. That's what you've been waiting for. So what I define the sound signature as is fun and musical. It's definitely not reference grade. It's a proper mild U-shaped sound but I'm sure that it is very inoffensive and a lot of people will definitely enjoy listening to it. So the Aurora Ultra actually excels in two aspects of the sound which is basically in detail retrieval and in imaging. Up until now in the 2000 Rs price category the Moondrop Chutu was my details monster. Now this one comes really really close and even the imaging is so good. In Skrillex's really awesome bangers, Zena you can actually hear a cacophony of instruments in the penultimate section of the song. And in that specific section there are a lot of sub 2K IMs that will not be able to reproduce all of the instruments clearly. That is where the Aurora Ultra actually comes forth with a fairly good sort of reproduction. The sound also feels very full bodied and it's got a very lush response so of course you've got dollops of bass going on so if you're like a bass head you'll definitely appreciate the kind of bass that's available but the only problem with it is that it's not the best quality bass. I would have preferred a little bit more attack, a little less decay as well. The treble also has fairly decent extension and it's got a little bit of shimmer and sparkle that might give you the illusion of detail but it's not very refined treble. Again, keep that in mind. Not just me but a lot of people have also said that at higher volume levels the treble peaks can get slightly sibilant and you know, slightly irritating and the mids are slightly recessed but not too much for it to be that much of a problem. Now these are characteristics that I generally expect from a sub 2K IM's sound signature and that's exactly what we can hear from the Aurora Ultra. Now why am I recommending the Aurora Ultra is because it works for popular mass genres of music. It works very well for Bollywood, Pop, Rock, Hip Hop and of course your EDM as well. Which is why I feel like if somebody is stepping into the audiophile hobby and doesn't want to spend too much money and is not looking for something like reference grade because reference grade can be boring then this could be the right step into the hobby for them. The Aurora Ultra would be a very good beginner audiophile IM under 2,000 rupees. Alright, so the next one on my list is this one, the KZ Caster Pro. I'll keep it short for this one, it's also available for under 2,000 rupees and the main reason why I'm recommending it is because it is KZ's most smooth, most refined sounding IM under 2,000 rupees. It's actually kind of smooth and refined to an extent where I thought that Moondrop has tuned it but that's not really the case KZ has. So what you get is a mostly balanced sound with no sharp treble peaks which is something that we associate with KZ products in general. And since KZ is like this OG sci-fi champion which has got a very good brand value and recall in India at least within the audiophile community, it's like an easy recommendation for me. So yeah, if you're looking for the best KZ IM under 2,000 rupees, you really cannot go wrong with the KZ Caster Pro but remember this that it will have a bad quality cable, you would not get a carry pouch within the box itself. Yeah, the negative aspects of KZ that we generally associate with the brand, yeah that stays here. Now for my final IM in the list, I have picked out the Meze Alba. I did get a lot of comments on the channel asking me to review this and I've got this for you. In fact, you know what Meze is a brand that I've been following since their inception, since they first launched the 99 classics which even today is a fantastic headphone. Now, this Romanian brand has also got the Alba and this Alba is a pair of IMs that is priced under rupees 10,000 right now. And I routinely see them for go under rupees 7,000 and there are some things that are pretty awesome about these. Firstly, the zinc alloy structure and just the way they look and the way they are built is absolutely gorgeous. And since this is tiny, the fit is also fantastic and the seal is really good for my ears. What I'd suggest is that swap out the silicon tips for foam tips so that you can get a better seal. The cable is actually a very high quality but the only problem with it is that it tangles a lot so keep that in mind. Now even if it's priced at 10,000 rupees which I know is high for the Indian market, why it feels value for money is because of the inbox contents. Of course you get the earphones themselves but you also get a case that's not it. Meze also bundles a type C DAC along with it so you don't need to buy one separately. Alright now let me tell you about the sound signature. It's a mild U shaped sound and the focus is purely on refinement. In terms of car analogies the Meze's drivers are so refined that they remind me of Honda's engines in the sub 10-15 lakh price category as opposed to something like a Hyundai. Now which I am in that price category could be a Hyundai, let me know in the comments. And when talking about refinement and audiophile refinement then what stands out is the refinement in the treble. The peaks are right and there's just so much quality in it you know. In Stairway to Heaven by Led Zeppelin, every single instrument above that you know 6 kHz frequency range, what I notice is that it's got a lot of resolving detail there. Now as for the bass, the extension in the sub bass region is not that great so you don't get the kind of rumble that you can get with some other bass focused IMs but the bit bass quality is impressive. There's this song in Going Through the Motion by Frank Moody, a song that I've added just recently to my playlist and in that there's a proper bit bass sort of underlying beat that's going around and it just sounds so divine on the Alba. You must be wondering, okay Aishah, tell me the difference between buying something under Rs. 2000 or Rs. 5000 like something like even the Aurora Ultra or the KZ Caster Pro. What is the difference between that and a Rs. 10,000 IM? Then I would say its tonality. So basically instruments need to sound a certain way for you to feel like it's lifelike and that's exactly where the Alba shines. So it feels like you're sitting with the artists themselves. Now with the Alba, the thing is that it's pretty refined and it's very premium sounding for it to sort of deserve the price tag in my opinion but I'm sure that it's not for everybody especially for somebody who's looking for reference grade. It's definitely not reference grade and it's also not for somebody who's looking for something lively and energetic. It's just good, very good. You know what, in fact I'm gonna be probably driving these as my primary IMs for a little while. Alright, I hope that you liked this video's recommendations. I did test a bunch of products and picked out these 5 and there is one product that I tested that kind of disappointed me and that is this one. The Audeze Maxwell gaming headset. Audeze for those who are audiophiles and who've been in this space for a while will know that it is a proper audiophile brand which makes planar magnetic headphones. So now these headphones have 90mm planar magnetic drivers and they're tuned for neutral sound signature which is great for music but not for gaming. The good thing about the Maxwell is that it does have support for Dolby Atmos but the surround sound effect it wasn't as impressive as I thought it would be especially when I connected it to my PS5 so that's one problem and the other problem is that these are sure mics by the way but when you switch on side tone I noticed a lot of interference and static especially when you are using it in intense fights and that is a problem. And it's not just me, it's a common problem reported by a lot of users so that's something that Audeze definitely needs to fix. And most importantly these are big bulky and heavy so not really comfortable for long gaming sessions therefore it didn't make the cut. It's not a bad product but I expect it better. Now all the links to all the products including the Audeze Maxwell I will put them in the description below. Go ahead and purchase them if you have to from there itself and I'll see you guys in the next one. Until then keep tracking and stay safe.