Replacing my 6-year-old Anker with the REDMI Buds 8 Lite

I bought a pair of earphones called the Xiaomi REDMI Buds 8 Lite.

The list price is 3,280 yen, reduced to 2,480 yen on sale, which is among the lowest prices for true wireless stereo (TWS) earphones from a reputable manufacturer.

Despite this, they are equipped with Active Noise Cancellation (ANC), which reduces ambient noise using anti-phase sound.

It's a price-breaker, or rather, an earphone that redefines common sense.

Bass from another dimension

Since this is my first experience with noise canceling, I don't know how well these earphones perform. I'll talk about that later.

More importantly, I was most surprised by the bass.
I had been using Anker's Soundcore Liberty Air2 TWS, which I bought six years ago. Before that, I used the JBL TUNE 110BT, a neckband-style Bluetooth earphone. (And honestly, I mainly used wired EarPods.)

I was expecting something at best equal to the Anker or on the level of Daiso, but...
I was hit by bass from another dimension.

Thinking about it, it's no wonder; the driver size is twice as large (6mm to 12.4mm) based on the specs. But this sound quality was completely unexpected. It has more bass than the EarPods. My plan to use them as high-end earplugs was shattered at this point.

If I listen and compare them calmly, the sound quality in the mid-to-high range might not be that different from the Anker or JBL. But the deep bass is a clear win for Xiaomi. It's a range I've clearly never experienced, even with EarPods. Moreover, rather than just being unnecessarily strong, the bass feels well-controlled, and I'm very satisfied with just that. In addition, I felt that the bass was further emphasized when I turned on the noise canceling.

Fit

The reason I had been using wired EarPods as my main pair, setting aside the 8,000 yen Anker earphones, was the fit. (And the sound quality, too.)

The REDMI Buds 8 Lite even dispelled that prejudice I had against TWS.

From the moment I put them on, the fit felt completely different. This is, if anything, closer to the wired EarPods, which are an inner-ear type.If the Anker feels like it's held in place by the friction of the silicone ear tips themselves, these feel like they are held by the cartilage of the tragus. I intuitively felt that these would work.

The fact that the size of the 'ear udon' (stem) has become smaller might also be having a positive effect. I imagine that the weight or length of the stem part is one of the reasons why earphones tend to fall out easily (due to the principle of leverage).

Noise Canceling Performance

As for the crucial noise-canceling performance, as I mentioned earlier, this is my first experience with noise canceling, so I cannot compare it to others. However, precisely because of that, I would like to share my completely intuitive and unbiased opinion.

When I turned on noise canceling from the app, it certainly reduced the noisy hum of the fan heater in my room. That said, it doesn't make it completely silent; it feels like the sound is reduced by about 60-80%. It is strong against constant buzzing noise and tends to let human voices through relatively well. When I toggle it on and off, or take the earphones out while it's on, I am impressed by what is truly an amazing technology.

On the other hand, what bothered me was the ambient sound mode. It's a feature that plays the surrounding sounds picked up by the microphone directly into the earphones, but I personally feel that I can hear the surrounding sounds well enough even without this feature, so I didn't feel the need for it. Turning it on just creates an unnatural feeling, so I probably won't use it.

Summary

I was surprised that everything, from sound quality to fit, changed to a different dimension when I upgraded from my 6-year-old Anker (Kid) (This is insane for 2,480 yen down from 8,000 yen).
The sound quality and fit are almost the same as EarPods, and since it's completely wireless and has noise canceling at the same price point, I think it's the best (Kid).

I'll say it again, it's honestly insane that it has noise canceling at this price. It's crazy.

Supplementary Note

• Multipoint connection is super convenient. If you keep it connected to two devices, a smartphone and a PC, it's great to be able to change the earphone settings from the smartphone app even while listening to audio on the PC. It automatically switches connections if you play audio from a video or similar source.

  • However, you cannot do things like 'listen to Switch game audio while talking on the phone'.

  • It gets a bit complicated if you register 3 or more devices. You can keep it off until you get used to the behavior of Bluetooth itself.

    • Even with the feature off, as long as there is a pairing history, you can switch connections while 'remaining connected to the original device' and 'remaining out of the case'.

      • With the Liberty Air2, you couldn't switch connections unless you put them back in the case and held down the pairing button, or disconnected from the original device first.

That concludes the standard review.

From here on is just casual chatter.

• Noise canceling is certainly an amazing technology, but I didn't think it was something to keep on all the time. I switch it on and off depending on my mood. It's concerning that I feel a sense of fatigue for some reason, even though noise is reduced and fatigue should be lessened.

• Is it safe to use anti-phase sound? I've never been able to fully trust it.Wouldn't the burden on the ears triple with 'ambient sound + anti-phase + music'?It would be fine if it became 1x with 'ambient sound + (-anti-phase) + music'. (The way of thinking that it's 2x with 'ambient sound + music' for normal earphones.)

• It's hard to say whether noise canceling is necessary or not. People sometimes play noise on purpose to help them work, so in that sense, you don't necessarily need noise canceling. Even if it were completely silent, I wouldn't be able to concentrate anyway, and you can mask background noise to some extent just by playing music.

• However, I do want it in situations where it's too noisy to listen to music or watch videos.

If I were to classify it simply, it would be like this:

• If you use them in a noisy environment, noise canceling is better

  • McDonald's, food courts, trains, the city, along national highways, construction next door, noisy neighborhood kids, etc...

• If you use them in a quiet environment, you might be fine without noise canceling

  • At home, a nice cafe, a residential area, etc...

• Regardless of whether there is noise canceling or the shape of the earphones (canal type, in-ear type, ear cuff type),earphones as a gadget inherently place a physical burden on the ears.After all, speakers or headphones are best for long-term use at home.

Considering competing products

I don't think there are any competing products in the same price range for TWS with noise canceling, so I'll try thinking from other angles. I'll pass on higher-grade models since I can't judge them without auditioning.

The company's cheapest earphones, Redmi buds 6 Play (1,380 yen).
Comparing this with the usage scenarios above, if you don't need noise canceling, this might be the one. Looking at comparison reviews, there seems to be a slight difference in sound quality compared to the 8 Lite, and it's too crazy to get noise canceling for this price difference, so I would choose the 8 Lite. If we're talking about list prices, maybe this one is an option too?
If you compare them to Daiso, 3COINS, or GEO earphones, these seem superior.

Those who prefer wired should pay attention to this: acrivo ACR-ACX2ANC (3,278 yen).
The low-priced wired earphone x active noise canceling market, which hasn't existed for a long time, has finally been pioneered (though Audio-Technica was available if you spent a little more).
It's a very minor manufacturer and there are too few reviews, so it's hard to get my hands on them, but it seems good to at least keep the information in mind.