Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

Pre-ordered prior to release- couldn't wait to get one. And now I can't wait to return it. Design wise they're gorgeous. If you're sitting still and right next to your phone, the sound quality is beautiful. But that's about it. A test at the gym (don't dare to sweat though, because they're not sweat / water resistant) summed it up. Virtually nothing north of mid-bass or maybe 600Hz felt like it was being reduced at all. That's wildly different than my 2 year old Bose (wired) in-the-ear noise canceling earphones and it's lightyears away from Sony's own over-the-ear models. In those models, flip the noise canceling switch and your ears experience that awesome altered state where the sound pressure changes and the outside world fades. Not here. At this price, they barely performed better than my TRANYA $40 set of in-ear earplugs I usually use at the gym (passive noise canceling from plugs only). The $40 Tranyas are sweat proof too, much lighter, have a smaller case, smaller form factor and longer battery life. Pairing it with an iPhone wasn't fool-proof. Sometimes it paired and sometimes it didn't, requiring me to select it on the iPhone or turn it on / off or put it in/out of the case. Sound quality is gorgeous, especially if you select sound quality vs. connectivity (set through the app). I did that, but in a basic gym workout of doing squats with my phone in a side pocket, the signal would cut out or one ear would stop working. I couldn't believe it. I tried using it as a way to meditate while others were in the room- it really doesn't cut the voice frequencies out in a pleasurable way. The rest of the features (like activating ambient sounds) are forgettable if the primary function is mediocre. So they're going back just 3 days after I got them. It's all hype I think. Yeah some people will buy them because the DO look cool and why not. But performance-wise, the don't come anywhere near my wired noise canceling Bose, and for wireless, at $229 they don't offer enough to compete with my tiny, water-resistant Tranyas. The Sony gets tiring to wear, the Tranya does not. I wish this was one of those "I liked the product so much, I bought the company!" reviews but instead it's "Oh wow this thing is gorgeous but doesn't deliver in the least and is going back." Sad.