Cripplingly Flawed - Technics EAH-AZ60 Wireless Earbuds Review

 

For anyone under the age of 30, Technics probably isn't a name that comes to mind when thinking about headphones. They're mainly known for making outstanding turntables and stereo equipment, but not so much for speakers. Anyone who bought a Technics rack system back in the day will probably tell you that the giant floor speakers it came with are either best suited for the garage - or the dump. So, does a storied turntable manufacturer with a not-so storied background for speakers know how to make a decent pair of noise cancelling Bluetooth earbuds? Let's find out.

Seeing Panasonic push the Technics brand into the very saturated Bluetooth earbuds market is equal parts unsurprising and baffling. Being their premier audio brand however, it makes sense to front Technics against the well-established players, but it's a now a name only recognized by your parents and the most hardcore DJs and audiophiles - mostly because of one turntable. When it comes to Bluetooth earbuds, you're probably more likely to hear "Klipsch" slip out of somebody's lips than Technics.

 And yet, here we are...

The Technics AZ60s retail at $228, but I was able to pick mine up on sale for $145 before tax. At their original price point, these buds dip into the premium territory and are in direct competition with the likes of Apple's second generation AirPods Pro, Bose's QuietComfort earbuds, and Sony's WF-1000XM4s. That's some stiff competition, but granted, I haven't tried any of those buds before. For parts of this review, I'll be comparing them to my old, non-ANC Bose SoundSport Free buds which retailed for $250, and the very good valued JBL Tune 230NCs at $100.

Diving in, let's start with design. Technics opted for a pretty conservative design with the AZ60s, which is nice if you're somebody like me who thinks the whole AirPods 'stem' design is too played out - and ugly as sin. They're pretty small and inconspicuous, with the outward face being not much bigger than a dime. As for the fit, the AZ60s sit pretty deep in the ear, and the shape "hooks" into the ear. Technics gives you whole slew of tip sizes to ensure this fit is comfortable, yet snug since it's important for the ANC to work properly. Despite the deep fit, I found them pretty comfortable - kind of like wearing a good pair of earplugs, though users with smaller ears might not like the fit as much.

This small size comes with a caveat, though: you can't fit buttons on the buds. 

As comparatively huge as the SoundSports are, it still had buttons, as terrible and stiff feeling as they were. The AZ60s, like most wireless earbuds nowadays, use touch controls for volume control and mode switching. It's a necessary evil to keep the size down, but man, do I think they suck. It's an exercise in remembering which number of taps, or a hold does what, and which earbud to do it on. For example, changing volume is time consuming and clumsy, requiring you to double or triple tap the left earbud to increase or decrease volume. You can customize the controls, but at that point, you're just dedicating other important functions to the more horrible controls. 

The charging case is also a small, but noticeable weak point. It feels... kind of cheap? It has a nice matte finish to it, but it's also very plastic feeling. Yeah, I'm aware almost all wireless headphone charging cases made of plastic, but the AZ60 charging case does not feel like it's of the very sturdy variety. Every time I handle this thing, I feel like I'm going to break the lid off it, even while it's shut. With wireless earbuds, I do expect the charging case to take the most beating in day-to-day use, being thrown in your pockets or backpack with keys and whatnot. The build quality of this one, does not really instill me with the confidence that it could handle the occasional 'whoops' moment.

Call quality is also not great. It's rare that I find wireless headphones with a great microphone - this certainly isn't one of them, but it also makes the people on the other end sound weirdly bad. Like they're talking to you through a tin can. The buds also don't announce who's calling you, which in this day and age is kind of important when half the phone calls I get in a day are coming from a computer in Shanghai.

But let's be honest; what really matters here is how the music sounds - and believe me when I say Technics nailed it.

Source: Technics

These buds sound really good. Like, seriously good. The bass response is tight and controlled, never really overpowering the mids or highs which are well-balanced and never muddy or harsh. The finer details in a song do sound more prevalent with the AZ60s than with the SoundSports or the 230NCs, but they're not sterile. These things thump and sing like you'd expect out of a $200+ pair of earbuds and are a whole lot of fun to listen with. You'll be happy regardless of what type of music you listen to.

The active noise cancelling is pretty solid with these buds as well and they do a good blocking of dulling out the majority of unwanted noise. It could certainly be little stronger - higher pitched noises such as people talk, especially in busy places still creeps in a bit, but with music on it's pretty close to imperceptible. One the other hand, the ambient passthrough mode sounds a little rough, as if white noise being played over the sound of your surroundings, but it works well enough.

The app side is fairly basic, but offers more or less all the essentials like equalizer tuning and a find headphones function. I didn't think the sound emitted by the buds when paging was very audible so I could imagine myself having a pretty hard time tracking these down in a noisy environment. It also allows you to adjust the strength of the ANC but I found that it didn't really make a huge difference in the ANC performance to my ears. The EQ is solid though, and I particularly enjoyed the 'Dynamic' preset out of the bunch.

I was ready to chalk the AZ60s up as rough around the edges, but still thoroughly enjoyable. That was until I spent more time with them outside of the house...

The Bluetooth connection strength is absolutely terrible. What's weird is that these buds have really good connection range, but they perform quite poorly when it comes to obstructions and movement. Like, something as simple as reaching your hand into your pocket for your phone or leaning against a shopping cart is enough to cause the signal to drop. Going for a walk with them is annoying and trying to run is flat out hopeless. Changing the codec between SBC and AAC doesn't help matters either. Unless you plan on using these strictly with your phone out of pocket and within 'sight' of these buds - like sitting at a desk, it's a complete deal breaker. 

Were it not for the connection problems, I'd say the Technics AZ60s are pretty close to being some of the best earbuds on the market. I really wanted to like these, purely for their sound quality and comfort but it's just so hard to ignore the inconsistency of the Bluetooth connection. It almost defeats the point of these being fully wireless, and I ended up sending them back after almost a month spent using them. I wouldn't pay more than $100 for these, and even then you have plenty of other options at that price point - like the JBLs, that might offer a more stable connection.

A big chunk of time spent using wireless earbuds is while moving about and being this sensitive to minor obstructions wrecks a big chunk of the experience listening with them. The connection woes of the AZ60s are completely unacceptable, and especially frustrating because Technics nearly had these buds nailed! These could've been Panasonic's ace in the hole for the wireless earbuds market, but instead they screwed up their most crucial component. Instead, we're right back to 70s-80s era rack system hell. Literally anything that can hold a strong signal is preferable to these.

What's Good

• Excellent, rich soundscape that makes listening a lot of fun.
• Good ANC and decent pass-through quality.
• Comfortable, deep sealing fit.
• Slick, unobtrusive design.

What's Crap

• Horrendous Bluetooth connection stability.
• Cheap and fragile feeling charging case.
• Clunky touch controls.
• Bad call quality.

Verdict

They sound incredible, but unless you plan on exclusively using these while sitting still and with your phone out of pocket, I can't recommend the AZ60s over anything else at their price point.