Current wishlist

So to keep this top of Soundcore engineer’s minds. Never rest!

Here’s a summary of musings, ordered in what I want most at top:

  • Slim wired buds uprated. Add Ambient and ANC and Partycast II. I don’t want TWS.
  • A small speaker - Nano II, with IP rating, smaller than the Icon Mini. You can then with Partycast II have a swarm of them having left channel in left side of a big room, right channel opposite, and some mono in other rooms.
  • A slim elegant version of Bose Frames. “Soundcore it” with a reasonable price. Edit: Done. First iteration is standalone, 2nd iteration has partycast.
  • Bluetooth 5.2 everything, this has features which enable Partycast II.
  • Partycast II - each speaker is controlled via the app, each speaker can be left channel or right channel or shared mono. I’ve read the way it is done, I don’t see this as difficult, so it’s just a matter of community ask for it so it happens earlier.
  • ANC version of L2P. Codename L3P but we’ll see. I’m more interested in ANC than others here. Edit: Done
  • All products converge in a roadmap over next 12 months to be Partycast II. So the Soundcore equivalent of Bose Frames can be stereo or mono and share with speakers etc. Buy anything modern from Soundcore and they work together. So end of TWS which merges with Partycast as Partycast II.

Until all this is done, I’ll just wait and remind you later. :sunglasses:

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very much so second all of this and really hope soundcore listens!

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Thanks very much for the suggestions. May I know how would you like to use partycast?

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BTW, our frames is coming on Nov 1st. Let us know how do you like it?

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So this is just imagination.

The Rave concept is where you have a loud centralised sound.

The Frames+Partycast concept is where you have a quieter decentralised sound.

Bluetooth 5.2 has features to support this.

Your name looks very familiar. Are you the same Richard Wu in the L3P and L2P launch videos?

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Yep, I know how Partycast plays in speaker but not sure how to use it with Frames. I like this idea though! The frames is applying Bluetooth 5.2 for sure. We will look into that.

That’s me! I am very surprised and honored to be recognized here.

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So I see Partycast in Frames in both a fun and a function setting.

Fun setting would be basically this.

Where a group is enjoying shared sound where a speaker does not make sense.

Then there’s

Functional would be education type situations, like museums where you walk around looking and share an explanation of the situation.

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Thanks! That makes a very good point. We will research on that area and see if we can bring it to life soon. I appreciate your contribution a lot!

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Likes:

  • much better than anything else. Slim.

Dislikes:

  • no reviews (not a design issue, just a timing issue)
  • concerns on product family, how interoperable will be the connection between the arms and the frame itself. Say you have a family of products, would the connector work between them all so your investment in different lenses be able to be used on different arms?
  • Microphones. Seems to have only 2? I would have thought 4 would do a better task of filtering sounds out?
  • Not USB-C cable.
  • Need to be able to buy a spare charging cable at launch time not via asking support. Anything separate eventually gets lost. Not an engineering / design issue but a sales issue.

Trying to find a video of you… I have a memory of you… give me a few minutes…

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Glad you like the slim style. As for dislike,

  • Sale Day will be on Nov. 1st so there will be no reviews before.
  • We only have one arm, but with interchangeable design, you can switch between all Soundcore frames.
  • Yep, only 2, since we thought no one is going to use one arm at a time. However, I can guarantee the call performance will be one of the best gear you have.
  • The slim design gives up the USB-C one. But we will keep an eye on taht.
  • Good catch.
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I mean, suppose you made a different arm, the ask is the same connector so an existing investment in the lens can be used.

Avoiding the issue of present that every TWS buds case is unique to the buds they come with.

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May I humbly suggest you will need to evolve past 2 microphones to 4.

I’m suggesting that when you evolved the Q30 to the Q35, you evolved the ability to detect sound from the rear and filter it out and prefer the sound picked up from the front. I asked an owner of the Q35 to check that for me and I think it was @TechnicallyWell Ryan did show that.

watch at 1m50s how it works.

@TechnicallyWell Ryan I remember you did a video of doing sound from behind the Q35 was filtered out more than sound in front? Can’t remember where is that?

So speed of sound being substantially slower than speed of light means the human brain can sense left/right audio source from the lag between received in each ear. We use that to filter out voices in crowded rooms.

So with a Soundcore product you have microphones picking up sound in all directions, how do you filter? Well you can filter sound from other than the mouth via:

  • sound arriving in the left / right different time from right / left must not be from the mouth as the mouth is central. That is why a left and a right microphone.
  • but sound arriving from behind - say traffic immediately behind you - without a front mic near the lens connector and a mic just behind the ear, you cannot filter.

Hence why I suspect in a future iteration of Frames you will need to evolve to 4 microphones. And then the ask is you maintain the same physically connector design with the lens front so investment is preserved by the owner.

I don’t doubt you that microphone pickup will be good, it is very forward and facing the mouth, nearer the mouth any recent Soundcore products, but I am imagining in my mind’s eye, you have the advantage of hands-on that will evolve to 4 mics and then ask to maintain a family interoperability.

image
image

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Catching up.

Yes I understand why the arms have the magnetic connector for exactly that engineering reason.

I was referring to the magnetic charging cable, the end which goes into the charger is USB-A not USB-C.

USB-C everything.

Happy to virtually meet you Richard. Good job!

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I agree with this as well. I thought some folks would buy more than the one. I thought maybe one for the car and one for the house.

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What about if there was a stick-on magnetic small portable powerbank where the magnetic connections lined up? Would be a compact way to make batteries last all day?

Something shaped like this

And the case for glasses aligned with the above so a merger of these

image

with

the above so you put the glasses in the case and they’d charge?

I fully expect a range of products to exist, not for this to be the only one, but the ask is they share some common basics:

  • the magnetic points where cable attaches is kept the same throughout the entire family.
  • the accessories of spare cables and this idea of a charging case work across at least two products in the family. If the magnetic connector is kept the same distance apart then you can still vary everything else.
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I see. Actually, we have a debate about this one, even with our Charging department. What we know is that the USB-C is not widely used today. To avoid making our customers purchasing one more USB-C charger. We use USB-A.

However, I agree that USB-C is the trend. Next generation is USB-C for sure, but we will also check the comment and see if we should bring a USB-C version to life in this generation.

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Well as an idea what about allow the choice? Or sell with a dongle attached to make it USB-A?

But its these small details which make the difference. Most people who are outdoors mobile focused are carrying a Powercore. In my case if I’m just out for a regular day a 10000 PD. I want the fewest cables.

I can see the inherent conflict in Frames between battery life and weight. If you weight them with bigger battery they will dig into the ears and nose and score negatively on comfort. So being able to charge easily on the go is key. For TWS you solve this via a charging case. Consider doing similar in the next iteration of Frames.

The Frames have many styles. Good idea. But as we enter into winter in northern hemisphere you will get cyclists wanting clear lenses. The style for bright sun is good, a type which a plastic full height nose grip - those are needed so there is no gap between nose and glasses - that stops wind blowing in the gap and helps stop eyes watering. The clear lens versions for the Frames don’t do that.

Richard I know you are an acoustic engineer so I set you a challenge! A typical cyclist is doing 10mph-20mph and is not breathless at <15mph. So most cyclists will be in a continual 10-15mph wind. I have no doubt you have designed the Frames sound to be excellent but the microphone problem has yet to be solved. I’m pretty sure in tests if you placed in a 15mph wind the voice pickup will not be brilliant as have to filter the wind noise out. Filtering can be helped in software - focus on the frequencies of human voice, but the wind is straight ahead central just like the voice so is hard to filter.

In an urban environment, cycling is the same or faster speed than driving or public transport, so being able to join meetings and talk while biking would be one of the cleverest problems to solve.

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Is there a photo for the “a plastic full height nose grip” that you want?

Isn’t it forbidden to use earbuds when cycling?
Here it is allowed only at a low volume.
But what is “low volume”
I would NOT do at all!

Something like this where it’s a full length nose bridge so air doesn’t get forced towards the eyes.

For summer these are polarized dark, in winter just clear. They do need to be quality plastic to not get scratched, often they fall and so my typical spend is around £20 every couple of years on replacements. That’s the sort of order of cost for replacements you should aim for - as well as keep the connector interoperable so lens investment is maintained across a family of evolving Frames.

Idea: if you do this you create a wind-less area just above the mouth. Great place to put a microphone? Hint!

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