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Speck Products has been making great phone cases for many years, and now it's adding audio gear to its catalog. Fresh out of the factory are the shiny new Speck Gemtones Play TWS Earbuds, and, as tech expert Dave Taylor finds out, there's a lot of smarts in the design. The design and good sound are also coupled with a very affordable price, making these earbuds to check out for yourself.
Check them out at: https://amzn.to/3SrM9nr
Visit Dave's Q&A Web site at: https://www.AskDaveTaylor.com/
#speck #gemtonesplay #earbuds #gemtones #tws #speckproducts #askdavetaylor
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0:00
Earbuds from a phone case company? Let's check these out
0:10
New Taylor here and I'm checking out these. Well, let me push the button and open the lid so you can see this is the spec, Gemtones Play
0:21
TWS, or True Wireless Stereo earbuds, and they're pretty sweet. Now you're thinking, spec products, don't they make phone
0:30
cases and the answer is yes they make a ton of phone cases very nice ones actually
0:35
but they now have introduced a line of audio playback gear starting with and
0:42
including the gem tones play and these are pretty straightforward earbuds so each one is shaped like that they go in your ear super easy that one's
0:53
already ready to go the surface of the earbuds are actually touch sensitive so
0:59
you can use that to control things. They're powered by six millimeter drivers and they come with four sizes, four sizes of ear tips
1:09
so you can dial in exactly the right size and that's important
1:13
So when you get any earbuds like these, the first thing you want to do is try the different
1:18
sizes and the difference is that if you have them too small, then you're going to say, hmm
1:25
no base. But once you get the right size, suddenly that base
1:29
just shows up. And these, especially with the EQ setting in their app, we'll get to that
1:34
actually gives you pretty impressive base. Now, like I said, touch control on the outside
1:40
and they have what they call the spec gemtones app. I'm going to come back to that in just a second
1:45
I want to tell you, they feature 28-hour battery life with eight hours on the earbuds alone once
1:51
they're fully charged. The case is super easy to work with. They just drop them in and they stay in
1:56
because they're magnetic, but of course, one of their big innovations is that the lid isn't going to pop open
2:03
So you can have this bounce out of your pocket and you're not going to have a lost earbud
2:08
And they do one other thing that's really kind of cool is they have a contrasting charge well
2:15
So if I look down and see a big white space, then I know I lost my earbud
2:20
So this is all very conscious on their part because they've obviously been listening to the complaints
2:26
that people have about other devices. So Bluetooth 5 and it has AAC and SBC but it doesn have APTX I didn find out what was a huge issue especially since I using it with an iPhone 15 Pro which has a AC
2:43
These are IPX5 water resistance, so you can wear them on a run
2:47
and if you're sweaty, it's not a problem. The case, of course, is not IPX5
2:53
That's true across this entire genre or category. Locking lid, contrasting earbud wells, two-year warranty, all good
3:02
Now, also in the box is a USBC to USBA charging cable because on the back there's a USBC charging port
3:13
No big surprise there. They do need to dial in their light system, however
3:17
So when you're charging the earbuds, if the light is on on the earbud, that means it's charging
3:24
When you're charging the case, if the light is on, it means it's fully charged
3:30
So having those have opposite meanings. might be something they need to dial in a little bit, but on the other hand, just leave this plugged in overnight every so often and you'll be good to go and your earbuds will always be ready to go
3:42
So the different size ear tips, charging cable, instructions, and this is their, you know, that usual trifold sort of thing
3:51
And it'll get you started and it's easy to work with. So what I want to do is I want to give you a quick demo of the app itself
3:58
So let me get my earbuds in. And it is, as you would hope, when you're looking at it, the side to your right goes in your right ear
4:10
And the side to your left goes in the left ear. And because it's Bluetooth 5.3, I had zero issues with them not being paired or having like one connected and the other one not
4:24
Just goes away. That's, again, part of the big upgrade of Bluetooth 5
4:28
And Bluetooth 5.3 also gives you a nice range. So you should have 30, 40 feet range from your music source
4:35
And so now you can see it's already connected. It was all automatic when I just put them in my ears
4:41
And now I'm in the Gemtones Play app. And my earbuds are in pretty good shape, 70 and 72% charge
4:49
And Equalizer, it's remembered what I had as my previous setting. I can do default
4:54
I will say that some of these probably also need a little dialing into
4:59
In particular, I found balance to be. pretty airy. There wasn't much depth to that particular EQ
5:06
Dynamic bass seemed to work the best of my choices for my kind of music
5:11
And volume limit this is a great one So volume limit if you get these for a kid you can actually limit the maximum volume So you can actually help them not have impact on their hearing long term You can of course do this yourself too So if you get really excited and turn your music way up it going to just max out at a certain point and make sure that you not damaging your hearing which you can do with earbuds So that I think is a super important feature
5:42
and they have find your earbuds which is another nice thing and you can see don't do
5:47
this while you're wearing the earbuds because they're going to emit a really loud beeping
5:51
sound and i don't really want to do that to my ears so let's actually do let's try it though
5:57
nonetheless so i'm going to take the right one out and we'll say play sound right earbud please be the
6:01
right one okay okay not super loud but it would help you
6:12
find them if they fell in the couch or something. So that's good. Let's stop that
6:16
Okay, so I'll stop that. So I'm going to put this back in. And again, one of the more
6:23
important features in apps like this is it also gives you that firmware update, but luckily
6:29
my version's up to date. I can also go and get a review of the touch controls and you can
6:35
change what these are. And these sort of things tend to be fairly complicated. So I find if you
6:41
have to double tap or triple tap or remember right versus left, then I'm probably not going to
6:46
remember to do that. So you can choose to study this and practice and learn that, or you can just
6:52
use the controls on your actual source device. That's up to you. And then finally, the spec app is
6:59
pretty new. You can see it's version 1.0.3. So it's just about first release, which is great
7:06
because that means that this company is pushing hard to move forward with this
7:11
So lots to like here. I really think these are a great addition to the landscape of earbuds in the market
7:20
And I like the design. I especially like the locking lid. I have definitely had my case fall just like that
7:28
And then an earbud just skitter along the floor and it's like, oh, great
7:32
Now it's underneath someone else's table and I have to get to it. So having this stay closed is a really nice feature
7:39
So let's talk about the sound because obviously that's the most important thing
7:44
And I will say they sound pretty darn good for the price
7:48
So these are not the fullest luscious sounding earbuds because they not designed for that Six millimeter drivers are fine but you going to find that especially if you don monkey with the EQ
8:03
settings, which you really should, but once you've, you know, if you just take them right out of the
8:09
unit and put them in and put some music on, you'll be like, they sound pretty good. So you can dial it in
8:14
to go from pretty good to these actually sound really good. But I found that the sound standard
8:20
was relatively intimate, which is a way to say relatively small. But the sound reproduction was good
8:28
I did enjoy it. I was listening to some various old blues music
8:33
and it did give me a sense of presence there. The highs were pleasant
8:38
The bass was there once I turned on that bass EQ. And overall, I think that these have some really nice sound
8:45
So, as I already said, definitely worth checking out. and I'm going to invite you to subscribe to my channel
8:52
So, there's a perfect moment to have a tiny pause here and invite you to click subscribe
8:57
click that notification bell icon. Give me a thumbs up if you found this video to be helpful
9:02
Leave a comment if you have some feedback on it. All greatly appreciated
9:07
Sweet. Now, these are the spec gemtones play, TWS earbuds. They come in black, this color
9:16
or purple or blue or white, They're really nice colors. They did a very nice job with that
9:22
And they are 4995 at Amazon.com. So for under 50 bucks, these are a solid option
9:29
And in particular, these could be a really great option for your teenager
9:33
who's probably listening to music way too loud right now. And just setting this up for them and then just, you know
9:40
you can be safe knowing that they're going to forget about the app and they're going to forget about those volume limits
9:45
And they'll just listen to what they think is max volume turned it up
9:48
up to 11 dude but in fact you're actually at volume 7 or something so that's a great feature
9:54
and the fact that i can drop these without the earbuds falling out obviously another great feature
10:01
so these are ones to put on your radar for budget tws earbuds that's all i got i'm gonna go back
10:08
to my music which means i hope to catch you in my next video
#Audio Equipment
#Gadgets & Portable Electronics