I finally feel comfortable with my L3P to offer an educated opinion:
TL;DR:
Great earbuds backed by a reliably solid company that cares about its customer base.
Longer:
As I’ve waxed poetic about the company, I’ll talk about the earbuds:
They are a great choice at their price-point ($130). Their value increases if you can find them for even less.
Although list price is $170, wait a few weeks a month or two - max - and you can find them discounted.
I have mild-moderate hearing loss and wear hearing aids (HA) much of the time. HA are great for day-to-day living and interacting with the world around me. For their price, (up to $6,000/pair), you might think they would blow away the best TWS. The don’t.
HA companies tend to focus on creating tiny devices that are extremely durable while being worn in very inhospitable environments all day, every day. They often provide up to a 20 band EQ focused primarily on frequencies covered by people’s speech.
Until recently, a small handful of companies have had near total control of their market. So … $6k/pair is not unusual. While insanely overpriced, this is the reality. Fortunately things are beginning to change.
While excellent for what they are designed to do, my HA are sub-par for listening to hi-fi music. Depending on the type, they’re not very good at cutting out environmental noise. To be fair, my ability to hear environmental noise is meh.
I love all sorts of music EXCEPT for music with a loud, thumping bass. I like jazz, classical, acoustic, world, blues and good ole rock and roll.
I have normal hearing for bass sounds.
L3P are one of the only TWS that offers any accommodation for people like me. While they have the ability to bring out the bass, that’s not their “thing”.
Rather, they have the hardware and software that enables one to hear distinct frequency ranges clearly. When adjusted to my hearing loss and set to “acoustic” or even “default”, I can hear the detail work of the mandolin virtuoso. Those sounds buried in the mix that provide the listen with layers of enjoyment. If you can’t distinguish the instrument, the sound adds to the texture. If you CAN pick out the instrument you hear the detailed conversations happening within the whole canvas of sound. A similar instrument on the other side also sounds distinct. The sounds ring with being tinny.
The bass is rich and moves the music forward without feeling like it’s the only action happening.
The ANC: It’s fine. I’ve experience better and worse. When properly tuned to your ears, it provides noticeable relief. Screaming babies still pierce the shield, but they are muted and much more tolerable. Engine growl? If you can position them just so, engine sounds disappear. Want less environment? Pick up a pair of better earplugs that will fit. With all that said, I’ve experience ear buds that create an isolation chamber with their ANC. These do not.
Fit: Okay. It depends on the shape of your ear. I’m getting 3rd part plugs to help with this as I don’t want them to fall out and roll away.
Phone call microphones: No one on the other end has complained (they used to). In fact, some have remarked how clear I sound, especially on video calls when there’s minimal background noise around me.
Controls: excellent. Much better than many but I’ve seen even better implementation on more expensive bids.
Software: more functional than buggy and getting better.
Conclusion: In my opinion, with a decent pair of 3rd party replacement ear tips, these are some of the best TWS available besting TWS that cost nearly twice as much.
ps. Thanks for reading this far. I wanted to post my general review somewhere and the thread I started seemed as good a place as any. While I know this is a little self-serving, if you got something out of my relaying my experience wearing these for a month and working out the kinks, please consider “liking” this comment (or whatever is done in these forums).
Thanks much.