[ HONOR EARBUDS 2 Lite Review ]- The evolution of sound

After a very first approach with the new in-ear headphones from HONOR https://community.hihonor.com/global//topicdetail/honor-span-stylecolor57cbffearbudsspan-span-stylecolor57cbff2span-span/topicId-70468/ I had time to test the headphones from an audio point of view. Satisfied? Keep reading!

THE DYNAMICS OF SOUND

When we talk about "sound dynamics" we mean the range of an audio signal, that is, the measurement of the difference between the maximum and minimum volume.

Since the 90s, the dynamic is in many cases non-existent, by the very choice of many authors. The reason? Everyone wants to make their songs sound "louder", or at least give this illusion, so that they can stand out more easily when listened to on the radio, but also to adapt to new listening habits: until the 80s those who listened to music did it from the stereo, while today they listen with earphones, on the plane, in the subway, or in the car radio,  in the middle of traffic. In these situations the background noise is high, and unless we use headphones that isolate us from the world, it will cover many nuances of the music, especially in the less agitated parts of the songs. That's why over time sound engineers began to compress the dynamics so as to overcome these problems. A result not always appreciated by those who love good music, who find themselves listening to "flat" music, with few dynamic variations and, consequently, less engaging, with the same artistic quality.

THE GREAT WORK OF HONOR ENGINEERS

In this new audio landscape, it must not have been easy for Honor sound engineers to meet the new audiophile needs of eager consumers.

A case in point is MP3, but also OGG or other compressed audio formats, which manage to reduce the size of an entire CD to a few MB without an obvious impact on quality, at least if you do not lower the bitrate too much (ie the amount of bits that is transferred or recorded in a second). An MP3 at 192 Kb for a person with normal hearing is practically indistinguishable from the original audio file captured by the CD, while having a size about 7 times smaller. To make this possible is precisely the psychoacoustics, which eliminates what would not be perceptible, a bit like what happens with the shots of the RAW camera converted to JPG.

FROM THIS CONCEPT

We have tried to maintain the dynamic by adapting it to new needs. So we worked on the 10mm driver making the bass adequately full-bodied, maintaining a balance between mids and highs never annoying.

In this way we tried to adjust the sound level while keeping the dynamics intact, thus avoiding making the Tannhäuser directed by Karajan seem as if it had been worked by the metallica sound engineer (who notoriously renounces dynamics and puts everything at the maximum possible volume).

IT'S NOT EASY

Satisfy the widest range of listeners: some prefer to listen to a full and loud sound always, without dynamic excursions, and others (those that most satisfy audiophiles) instead love to play with highs and lows, creating a decidedly more pleasant and realistic atmosphere, like the one that emerges from the records (especially the first) of Tom Waits for example.

GREAT JOB

Apologizing for the digression, after two months of use listening to every kind of music I can say that the compromise obtained is more than good;

CAN BE USED IN NOISY ENVIRONMENTS

Active Noise Cancellation (ANC) uses a noise cancellation system that can reduce unwanted background noise. The system is based on microphones that "listen" to sounds outside and inside the headset, an ANC chipset that reverses sound waves, and a speaker inside the headset that cancels out external sound by neutralizing sound waves. A bit like taking +2 from the outside and adding -2 from the inside to get zero.

In this way we can use them safely on the metro; I tried on the scooter, but the result can certainly not be appreciable even if going slowly you can make a phone call.

Satisfied? A lot.

Starting from the assumption that you can not have the audio quality of the legendary TECHNICS dishes associated with a Hi Fi system, for what they have been designed they do an excellent job guaranteeing hours and hours of good music without ever tiring the eardrums.

A comparison with the other Honor earphones and battery consumption analysis will follow. 

After the last update:https://community.hihonor.com/global//topicdetail/earbuds-2-lite-now-available-in-the-span-stylecolor57cbffaispan-life/topicId-72118/ the headphones finally pair with the AI App, in this way you can set the "touch" commands and control the single charge of the two earphones. The Battery Drain partly present in the Earbuds1 has been definitively eliminated, you can leave the headphones unused for several days without having to find themselves with the same discharges when needed.

DEGREE OF WATERPROOFING

Perhaps it is the only question that remains, whether they can be used in extreme racing conditions or not; I use the Honor Choice TWS to be safe. I trust that in the next reviews someone will be able to reveal the mystery.

I hope I have been useful for those who decide to purchase.