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The FREENOD Earbuds from Studio Nod are some of the most beautiful in the market, with vibrant colors, a slim design, and no eartips to fuss with. But do they sound good? And how do you sound when you're talking to someone while on a phone call? Tech expert Dave Taylor puts the FREENOD earbuds through their paces and finds some strengths, and some weaknesses...
Check it out at: https://www.StudioNod.com/
Then check out Dave's Q&A Web site at: https://www.AskDaveTaylor.com/
#freenod #studionod #earbuds #airpods #askdavetaylor
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0:00
These earbuds look cool, but do they sound good? Let's check it out
0:11
Dave Taylor here and I'm checking out these. Well, let me open it up and take one out
0:16
These are the studio nods, free nod earbuds. Let me start right out with a close-up so you
0:22
can see what they look like. They have a really great design. It's a very distinctive look and they fit
0:30
super easily with magnets into the case. The case is small, has an aluminum exterior, and it comes
0:37
in four bright, vibrant colors. This is neon orange. I love the color. I'm so tired of black
0:45
and white electronics. It's so nice to see some colors injected. Now, let me tell you a little bit
0:51
about them. So they feature 13 millimeter titanium drivers with an additional base tube. So they
0:57
actually have surprisingly good base response, which is nice. They have anti-occlusion air vents
1:04
The heck's an anti-occlusion air vent? I'm glad you asked. So this is something where it makes
1:09
sure the air pressure inside your ear doesn't end up different to the environment around you
1:16
Now, usually not a big deal, but you can imagine if you're wearing these on an airplane during takeoff
1:21
you really want to keep that air pressure balance. That's what these do. That's a really great
1:27
feature. They're driven by Bluetooth 5.0, which is the latest generation of Bluetooth, which
1:33
means they pair easily. They stay paired. You only see one thing show up on your device
1:40
It's everything you want from Bluetooth. Nothing ever like gets disconnected. So they also have
1:45
AAC, which is great for people with iPhones because the iPhone uses AAC for its more advanced
1:51
music codec. And this is an iPhone 13 pro. But if you have any
1:57
Android and you have APTX or APTX HD or something, they don't support APTX at this point
2:04
So great for iPhones, good for Android, but really I feel like their choice of having AAC but
2:11
not APTX sort of says that they really want to compete directly with Apple AirPods Pro and AirPods They don have ANC so I guess they compete with Apple AirPods directly So they also have a couple of things
2:24
I haven't quite figured out what their purpose is. One of which is the motion detecting accelerometer
2:29
They have optical sensors, and they also have what they call a Hall effect sensor
2:34
So not entirely sure how all of that fits together for your listening experience
2:39
but I'm guessing it's something to do with the way they try to do noise canceling on the
2:43
microphone for when you're talking. So entirely reasonable. And then you pull the right one out
2:50
that goes in your right ear. And in fact, the earbuds themselves look exactly like the Apple AirPods
2:57
design. So they clearly were, we'll just call it inspired by that. And I put them in and I'm already
3:05
listening to music right now. And then there's tap sequences. So I can double tap. I can triple tap to
3:13
get different functionality. And what that did is that gave me a pause and a play again
3:18
Battery life is so, so. They're four hours listening, but then when you put them back in the case
3:25
then you get eight more charges. So the case itself is really nice and light, but that gives you a
3:33
total of 32 hours of listening. And as with so many of these, if you put them in for 15 minutes
3:40
you get an hour of play. And this case will take. charge fully in 90 minutes. So, you know, once every week or so, make sure it's plugged in via
3:50
USBC. And then there's a button on the front for pairing. And that button you push and it also will
3:56
show you battery status. I have green, which means my case is fully charged. So let's look in the box
4:03
And then I'm going to give you a quick demo of the microphone. So in the box. And again
4:07
really great box design. This company definitely is like really nailing the sort of a
4:13
aesthetic experience. So comes with a user guide, which surprisingly doesn't actually detail all the
4:19
different tap sequences. I would think that would be a very logical thing to put in there
4:24
but it is on their website, or you can just sort of experiment and try to figure it out
4:29
And then underneath that is the charging cable And this is an atypically long charging cable I haven actually unpacked it but this looks like it about a six foot cable with USBA the rectangle on one end and USBC on the other end And then underneath that
4:47
is another envelope, and in that envelope was the safety and handling. And remember, if you're
4:55
listening to earbuds and your ears are bleeding, turn the volume down. You think I'm joking. You should
5:01
read the kind of stuff that's in these. documents. That's a whole other story. Anyway, let me just reassemble this real quick
5:08
And the box is so well engineered that you'll notice I didn't close it because it's a really
5:15
tight fit. Don't be surprised if you're wrestling with it, just a tiny bit to get it to open
5:20
initially. But all well and good. Let me go ahead and put these back in. And the aesthetic of
5:28
them is there a little bit more square edged than the Apple design. But overall, as you can see in this
5:34
close up, very similar look, very similar feel. I'll get to the music and the sound in a minute
5:41
but let me just sort of go to voice memos. And what we're going to do is now you're hearing me talking
5:51
through these earbuds. These are the studio nods, free nod earbuds. And they do have some sound
5:58
cancellation so that my voice should sound the best it possibly can. What do you think? All right
6:05
let me switch back. So there's really a lot to like and I definitely like the whole case design
6:13
It's just super easy to work with. I like that the magnets hold them in that the whole thing is
6:20
small and has a really nice hand feel to it. It's just a really nice design. But then you get to the
6:27
sound. And the sound is good. It's not as good as the Apple AirPods. And again, I'm not saying
6:33
pro because we're not talking ANC. We're just talking the regular AirPods as a comparator. So these sound
6:40
good. They have a nice crispness to them. And I would say that they have a good sound stage
6:47
and good bass But I found if I turned the volume up a lot on my music it really couldn followed that level of complexity of the music and it just sort of lost its sort of dynamic space So as I made the music louder and louder it just sort of felt like I was getting
7:06
into a smaller and smaller sound space, which is the exact opposite of how most drivers work, where
7:12
as you turn the volume up, you tend to get a larger, more expansive sound. Sometimes you'll get
7:17
clipping, which is where you lose the very top end of like symbols or something like that
7:22
that but these the sound was good I think it would be great for phone calls I think it
7:29
would be entirely listenable at a low to medium volume level but if you're really
7:34
looking for something that's gonna just let you jam and just you know shut
7:39
out the world by having your music really loud then I'm not sure these are up
7:42
for it and you might check out some of their other products so that's all I got
7:47
you know overall I really like them I love the color I love the design
7:52
and I think the sound reproduction is okay. It's good, but not great
7:57
So it's all I got. We need to talk about the price, but before we get to the price
8:02
I'm just going to ask if you could subscribe to my channel, as is hopefully very obvious
8:06
I'm really candid and honest to my reviews. I don't just shill products
8:11
I will tell you the good and the bad because I don't want you to make a bad buying decision
8:16
So please subscribe, a click or a tap on that subscribe button
8:20
and we're connected. Great. These are the Studio Nods, free Nod earbuds, and they're $99, actually discounted on their website down to $79 at StudioNod.com
8:33
And they come in neon orange, which is this color, dusty pink, classic blue, and charcoal gray
8:41
And all four of those colors are just really beautiful. There's, you know, great design, lots to check out
8:49
That's all I got. I think I'm going to head back to my music, so I'll catch you in my next video
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