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The Professional X, just like the Between 3ANC earlier than them, use a number of drivers: a dynamic unit for the bottom frequencies paired with a twin set of Knowles balanced armatures for the upper-mids and highs. Identical to in a tower speaker that has a woofer, a midrange, and a tweeter, multi-driver earbuds divide and conquer by sending particular frequencies to a driver that’s been tuned to deal with them.
Out of the field, the earbuds are set to Standing Signature—the Professional X’s default tuning. It’s a properly balanced EQ that enhances neither highs nor lows, but nonetheless possesses a heat tone. There’s easy element within the midrange, and the highs have wonderful readability. Bass is tightly managed; even when pushing the Professional X to 95% quantity, Billie Eilish’s bass-tastic “dangerous man” sounded good, with no discernible distortion.
Switching to the Knowles Most well-liked preset provides a giant bump to the higher mids and highs to point out off what these balanced armatures can do. Usually, this sort of tuning doesn’t do it for me, however on the Professional X, I used to be impressed by how fulfilling it was. In the event you’ve discovered your self drawn to Bose’s high-energy sound signature previously, this preset will get you very shut.
In the event you can’t discover your favourite steadiness from among the many 5 accessible presets, you’ll be able to roll your individual. In truth, among the best options is creating customized EQ presets by beginning with an present one. I goosed Standing Signature’s low-end only a tad, and bought precisely the combo I needed. On that observe, I’ve to present Standing props for its app; it’s tremendous clear and really simple to make use of.
The soundstage isn’t particularly broad—I’d place its extremities about 3-6 inches outdoors my head—nevertheless it’s bought wonderful precision. Particular person components stand out from one another so clearly that you would be able to mentally level on the varied musicians taking part in in entrance of you. A jazz traditional like Dave Brubeck’s “Take 5” advantages so much from the Professional X’s clear separation of sounds, letting you admire every instrument in its personal house.
I did most of my listening on an iPhone 16, nevertheless it’s value noting that the Professional X help Sony’s high-quality LDAC Bluetooth codec. In the event you’re on Android, be sure to’ve bought it enabled for a fair smoother, extra refined efficiency.
In opposition to the Crowd
{Photograph}: Simon Cohen
I swapped the Professional X with Sony’s WF-1000XM5, Bose’s QuietComfort Extremely Earbuds, Sennheiser’s Momentum True Wi-fi 4, and Technics’ EAH-Z100. The Standing Professional X greater than held their very own on sound high quality. I personally nonetheless want the XM5’s sound signature because of its extra resonant bass response, however that’s extra about my style than any shortcomings of the Professional X—they’re wonderful.
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