The high degree of "inner volume" in the field of true wireless headphones must be obvious to all, in the years of market competition, the price of multi-device connection, active noise reduction and other functions has dropped to a price of about 200 yuan. If there is any brand that does not support the noise reduction function of a thousand yuan TWS headphones, it is even embarrassed to say hello in front of domestic counterparts.
But what is surprising is that in addition to airPods, Beats and other high and low products dare to test consumers at a price of thousands of yuan, Sony, which released new headphones some time ago, also joined the ranks of "thousand yuan TWS without active noise reduction" with its own new products: On February 16, 2022, Sony released its own new audio products on the network platform - Sony LinkBuds (or WF-L900). Yes, as a big-name true wireless headphone product priced (pre-priced at 1199 yuan), LinkBuds does not have active noise cancellation.
Before you can't wait to pull the LinkBuds out for criticism, I think I still need to clarify for Sony: LinkBuds' product positioning is an open headphone suitable for long-term wear, and the open headphones have not been necessary to actively reduce noise from the beginning.
In fact, LinkBuds is not Sony's first attempt in the field of true wireless, in recent years, Sony's products, as early as 2019, Sony launched the Xperia Ear Duo (XEA-20) with an open design. Subject to the technology of the time, in order to achieve an open structure, Sony needed to place the sounding unit of the headset in the back of the ear headphone body, and then use a metal sound guide tube to transmit sound from the body behind the ear to the open earbuds, this complex design also makes the headphones wear somewhat similar to hearing aids.
At that time, the open structure of the XEA-20 had the problem of sound leakage, and at the same time, the sound played in the headphones could not be heard clearly in a noisy environment, coupled with the unstable near-field magnetic induction communication (a low-latency technology used by Sony to connect the left and right ears during the TWS pioneering period), from the product point of view, the performance of the XEA-20 was not successful, but from the concept point of view, the open headphones still have a lot of merit.
Even in the ideal case, the applicable scenario of open headphones will be more practical than the current variety of active noise-canceling TWS headphones, which is believed to be the reason why Sony will continue to delve into open headphones in the following years and launch LinkBuds "against the market" in 2022.
Open-ended does not equal inaudible
Since Ray didn't get LinkBuds, there was no way to share the product from the perspective of LinkBuds sound quality. But from the video and product pages of the conference, we can still see the details that Sony poured into The LinkBuds and the vision of the future of headphones.
First of all, the headset wants the user to "reluctant to take it off", and the first requirement to be met is not sound quality, but ergonomics and comfort, quantitatively speaking, weight and design. In fact, Sony no longer launched those "ear plug U disk" TWS headphones after the WF1000XM4, but LinkBuds obviously went further in terms of shape and weight: the spherical body + double ring design can stably fix the headphones on the user's ears, and use the external ear wings to share the pressure of the earbuds. The cutout design and 4.1 grams of weight also don't put an extra burden on the ear, and for reference, the AirPods Pro alone weighs 5.9 grams.
In addition, because the open headphones can achieve the balance of air pressure inside and outside the headphones, even if you wear open headphones such as LinkBuds for a long time, it is not easy to have a dizziness when the in-ear headphones are worn for a long time. As for the point that the handleless headphones do not affect the earrings, it can also reflect that Sony is indeed a product designed towards the angle of "allowing users to wear them for a long time".
Of course, the main selling point of LinkBuds is that it implements the form of open headphones. Because headsets are not limited by size, they can easily achieve an open design, but they cannot avoid the problem of sound leakage and cannot be applied in in-ear headphones. In the past, Sony's design scheme was to put the power supply behind the ear and use a sound guide tube to direct the sound directly to the external ear canal. Although this design solves the problem of sound leakage in open earbuds, it is not convenient to use, and the overly long and curved sound guide tube also has a certain impact on the sound.
To solve this problem, Sony adopted a new ring unit design, omitting the step of the sound guide tube and directly allowing the ring unit to sound towards the external ear canal. Since I haven't audited it, I can't comment on the sound quality. However, from the structural point of view, the phenomenon of sound leakage can theoretically be eliminated. Of course, if you put your ears up to listen, you can hear some subtle sounds.
Reality augmentation technology that belongs to the ear
So the question is, why does Sony have to go to great lengths to achieve open demand with the "black technology" of the ring drive unit? The AirPods Pro or Bose's transparency mode, or even Sony's own quick attention mode, is doing a pretty good job, so why rebuild the wheels like this?
One thing to say is that the "transparency mode" of each brand is really good, and it can indeed achieve the function of open headphones. But the problem is that the "transparency mode" of active noise cancellation is the simulation effect reconstructed by hardware (noise reduction microphone matrix, active noise reduction chip, larger battery) and software (noise reduction algorithm, pickup algorithm) when the headphones are isolated from external noise. Transparency Mode consumes extra power, but only restores the sound effect, and does not improve the balance of in-ear pressure.
Open headphones are fundamentally different from each other, the true open structure allows LinkBuds to achieve a full-time transparency mode without compromising wearing comfort, and LinkBuds at this time is like "AR glasses" for the ear. This point was actually mentioned by Sony as early as the XEA-20 period. Under Sony's vision at the time, open headphones could bring users a sound effect similar to "game BGM":
You can hear both the songs playing on your phone and the voice of the colleague in front of you talking to you. At the same time, the "cocktail party effect" or "selective listening" of the human ear can also ensure that you can clearly "hear the sounds you want to hear, while blocking out the sounds you don't want to hear."
Plus LinkBuds has the same conversational features as the WF-1000XM4, automatically pauses music during conversations, and vice versa, creating a headset that's perfect for all-day wear without taking it off from both software and hardware perspectives.
Who does LinkBuds "connect"?
So the question is, why does Sony go to great lengths to get users to wear headphones throughout the day? Isn't it good to wear it when you listen to it like the AirPods, but take it off when you don't use it? As far as the current user scenario is concerned, open is indeed an optional option. But from the perspective of the development of the Internet, open headphones are likely to become a new trend in the future.
In Sony's vision, all-day-wear LinkBuds could connect the worlds offline and online: audio from online doesn't interfere with your chats with friends, nor does it block outside sounds. But when not speaking, music or other sound content from online can be played directly inside the headphones. No need for users to manually switch to open up the two worlds offline and online, which is the meaning of "Link" in the name of LinkBuds.
However, if you like the product concept of LinkBuds, but really do not like the appearance or price of LinkBuds, then in the Model of LinkBuds, Sony actually left a small detail:
The model of LinkBuds is WF-L900, and Sony's previous XEA-20 or wearable speaker on the shoulder used the number of the mobile phone system or the home audio and video system. Sony's choice to enable the L sub-category in the WF product line not only reveals Sony's emphasis on open audio, but also may mean that Sony will continue to launch L series products in the future, and it is more likely to continue to the headset (WH) product line. At that point, consumers will naturally have more choices, which is a better outcome for both users and Sony.