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Klipsch T5 II ANC test: super-stylish buds are now quieter and smarter

RRP $ 299.00

"Smarts, great sound and a stylish design have put the T5 II ANC on our wish list."

advantages

• Chic design and materials

• Smart and helpful features

• good sound

• Excellent controls

• Wireless charging

disadvantage

• Mediocre ANC

• Bad battery life

• Inconsistent call quality

Klipsch's T5 true wireless earbuds have been our favorites since their introduction in 2019. The $ 199 T5 II from 2020 added transparency mode and better water resistance. Now, in 2021, the iconic American speaker brand is back with a new T5 – the T5 II ANC for $ 299 – the company's first set of active noise cancellation (ANC) earbuds. But instead of just adding ANC to the existing design, Klipsch went all out by incorporating advanced software-driven features like head gestures for control, the ability to automatically block loud noises, and some algorithmic magic that the company claims does Sound can greatly improve quality.

These improvements have to be more than just gimmicks: At $ 299, the T5 II ANC is in direct competition with four of the best true wireless earbuds on the market, namely the Sony WF-1000XM4 for $ 280, the Master & Dynamic MW08 for $ 299, the Bose QuietComfort earbuds for $ 279, and the Sennheiser Momentum True Wireless 2 for $ 300.

Can Klipsch prevail? Let's take a look.

What's in the box?

Simon Cohen / Digital Trends

Klipsch's boxes are as stylish as their earplugs, but in this case – with a lot of glued and coated cardboard and a large piece of protective foam inside – it's not exactly a good thing when it comes to disposal. Inside you will find the earbuds, their charging case, silicone earbuds in six sizes, a braided USB-C to USB-C charging cable, a USB-C to USB-A adapter and some paper documentation including a quick start manual .

draft

Simon Cohen / Digital Trends

The T5 II ANC is in a dead heat with the Master & Dynamic MW08 for the nicest earbuds you can buy.

The original T5, with its hinged charging case made of brushed metal, offered comparisons with the iconic Zippo lighter – and that is clearly a formula for success. The T5 II ANC takes the same classic shape and adds a touch of luxury with three highly polished metal options: gunmetal, silver and copper. The earbuds and cases are color matched, and the combination puts the T5 II ANC with the Master & Dynamic MW08 in a dead heat for the nicest earbuds you can buy.

The case is compact but heavy: at just over a tenth of a pound, it could do serious damage if you hurled it, but you're more likely to damage the case itself by simply dropping it. Still, that weight and nicely contoured corners make the case a joy to hold in your hand.

Klipsch is also selling a McLaren edition of the T5 II ANC for $ 50 more. It comes with its own wireless charging mat and the charging case is made of significantly lighter materials, but in every other way the two versions are identical.

Despite the metal cladding, the rubberized bottom of the charging case offers a firm stand when placed on a surface and at the same time enables wireless charging – another first for Klipsch. The lid of the case is easy to open and close (although this takes some practice with one Zippo-style hand) and the earbuds are very easy to insert and remove. The magnets of the charging socket are quite weak, but not a problem given the tightness of the lid when closed.

A row of three tiny LEDs peek through the seam between the lid and the case to inform you of the case's battery and charging status, while individual color-coded LEDs on the earbuds perform the same function. When buying the McLaren edition, be aware that the case's LEDs are much harder to see if you don't look at them closely.

The only downside to this beautifully polished metal case is that it is both a fingerprint and a scratch magnet. Trying to take smudge-free photos of our test unit made of gunmetal turned out to be difficult, and tiny scratches appeared in the first few hours after plugging in and using it.

The earbuds use physical buttons I much prefer to touch, and their location in the center of the earbuds oval body means you'll have to try really hard to accidentally press one. Unfortunately, Klipsch was unable to maintain the T5 II's excellent IP67 water and dust protection. The T5 II ANC still have an IPX4 rating, which is good enough to protect them from heavy sweat or rain, but you should definitely be careful when cleaning – avoid running water. To be fair, most true wireless earbuds don't offer much better protection at this price point.

Comfort, controls and connections

Simon Cohen / Digital Trends

With the oval earplugs from Klipsch in six sizes, you should have a good chance of a good fit. I found the pre-installed medium tips pleasant, but not particularly secure. Switching to the big ones helped a lot, and they also improved the bass response (this is why it is worth trying every size of earbuds – there may be many comfortable sizes, but the goal is to get the best possible seal and at the same time To maintain your comfort).

Go from immersive music to fully conscious conversations with one click. More true wireless earbuds should have this feature.

Many true wireless earbuds now come with a leak test built into the mobile app, but this is one of the few technical tricks Klipsch left out, so use your best judgment. The earbuds stayed tight during a trip to the gym, but I'm not that into high-impact activities like running. They may not be able to withstand strong bumps, as well as models with earhooks or stabilizer fins.

When properly seated, I found the T5 II ANC very comfortable, but I can see that some people don't like it. The small stem that connects the main body of the earphone to the earplug is shaped like a tube, with a surprisingly sharp edge at its tip where it meets the body. When you twist the earbuds to secure them in place, this edge may come into contact with the inner part of the clamshell. If it stays there it can hurt. For me, of course, the earphones are in a comfortable position.

Head gestures work well; I had no problem getting all three of them to respond to my head movements.

The controls are excellent. A single multi-function button on each earbud gives you precise control over every function imaginable, including volume, playback, ANC, calling and access to voice assistants. Aside from the tactile click, there is also a tiny audio chirp to confirm that you pressed the button correctly. In the Klipsch app, you can control what the left button does for single, double, and triple presses, but the right button always follows the factory defaults. The app has an impressive array of settings to play with, but it tends to be a bit delayed as it routinely polls the earbuds for their status, which can take a second or two.

But this is where things get interesting. Using software from Bragi – one of the first companies to develop and sell true wireless earbuds – the T5 II ANC can respond to head gestures like nodding and shaking and performing up to three functions: answer a call, reject a call, and jump to the next lane. They work fine; I had no problem getting all three of them to respond to my head movements. How useful they are depends on how often you find both hands busy when a call comes in. They're also handy when a Spotify playlist is trying to ruin your groove with an awkward track.

Oddly enough, the head shake to skip feature only works within the first 10 seconds of a song and may not work if the earbuds are used with computers.

Bragi software also introduces "sidekicks" – a series of intelligent, automated activities. At the moment there are only two sidekicks: turn on ANC automatically when playing music (and switch to transparency mode when you pause) and automatically turn on transparency mode when you are on the phone. These can be toggled on or off from within the app, but I recommend leaving both on. Since Klipsch did not provide the T5 II ANC with any in-ear sensors, your music tracks are not automatically paused when you remove an earphone. But the automatic ANC / Transparency sidekick is probably better anyway. There's no need to remove an earbud to hear what's going on, as it takes you from fully immersive music to fully conscious conversation with one click. More true wireless earbuds should have this feature.

They add shine to vocal performances and instruments like trumpets while avoiding harshness and sibilance.

You can use each earbud individually if you want, and the app lets you decide if you want the left earbud to take over the commands of the right earbud when used alone.

The T5 II ANC pairs and connects quickly. They're missing Google's fast pair option, but since most of us only have to pair once, I think that's fine. Bluetooth range is good, around 25 to 30 feet indoors and about twice as much as outdoors. As long as you keep these distances, the connection remains very stable. Klipsch leaves me saying I want bluetooth multipoint to connect two devices at the same time, but since Jabra seems to be the only company doing this, it's hard to beat the T5s for that.

Sound quality

Simon Cohen / Digital Trends

Klipsch proudly states that the T5 II ANC are the first true wireless earbuds with integrated Dirac HD sound. According to the marketing materials, it is "a state-of-the-art digital audio performance enhancement technology," which is designed to optimize the sound signature of the earbuds, resulting in improved staging, clarity, vocal sharpness and bass fidelity.

The reality is very different. Turning on Dirac HD definitely changes the T5's sound signature, but I don't see it as an improvement. It actually narrows the soundstage and causes really nasty compression on parts of the midrange so it sounds like some of the music is being pushed through a cardboard tube. Yes, the vocals become more pronounced, almost as if the singers are at the top of a triangle pointing towards you, while the rest of the instrumentation sits further back.

Rather than beating your eardrum with bass, Klipsch's sound signature takes a far more neutral approach.

But here's the good news: Not only can you just disable Dirac HD if you're like me, but you can also use it to hear the factory tuning of the T5, which in my opinion doesn't need any additional digital signal processing help at all.

As with previous generations of the T5, Klipsch delivers impressive clarity across the entire frequency range, but is particularly lively in the upper mids and highs. This adds shine to vocal performances and instruments like trumpets while avoiding harshness and sibilance. There's a ton of bass response too, but instead of beating your eardrums relentlessly, Klipsch's sound signature takes a far more neutral approach that keeps that low-end boom from coloring tracks it should never convey.

Depending on your taste, this balance can come across a bit brighter, especially if you are used to headphones with stronger bass emphasis. But if that's the case, the app offers an adjustable six-band EQ with multiple presets and custom options, giving you plenty of leeway to tweak the frequencies to your liking.

I tested the T5 against our current king of music quality, the M&D MW08, and was pleasantly surprised. I still prefer the wider soundstage and warmer tonality of the MW08, but the T5 offers an undeniable energy that makes it really enjoyable. Up and down the volume control there is no trace of distortion.

There is a small caveat, however. If you like it loud, the T5 can disappoint. I usually find that I cannot exceed 75% of the volume on an earbud without serious discomfort. But I was able to push the Klipsch to its maximum setting without flinching. On the plus side, this should save you from the worst of the effects of noise-induced hearing loss. However, there are times when these earbuds just don't get as loud as you'd like.

Noise cancellation and transparency

Simon Cohen / Digital Trends

This is the company's first attempt at ANC, and Klipsch gets it right most of the time. An adjustable slider in the app lets you choose how much noise you want to block. When set to the maximum, the earbuds attenuate both low and high frequency sounds well, but as with almost all ANC systems, it is the low frequency rejection that you notice the most. However, you need to keep your expectations modest. For better or for worse, the T5 II ANC does an excellent job of passive noise isolation. This means that if you don't use ANC or transparency, very little external noise will get into your ear. So when you activate ANC, you won't fully experience that magical moment of instant silence. It's more subtle than that.

The big aha moment happens when you step into transparency mode. Like ANC, you can control how much sound to let in, and when set to the max, the earbuds actually amplify the outside world a bit. The first time I did it, I was surprised to hear the crunch of my shoes on gravel – I didn't even know I was making that sound while walking.

When amplifying outside noises, there is a risk that loud noises will become significantly – perhaps even dangerously – louder. But Klipsch has a solution: Noise Shield monitors these noises in transparency mode and when it detects particularly loud noises (like the Harley that raced past me on the street), it temporarily switches to ANC. There doesn't seem to be a way to turn this off in the app, but it's so effective that I would be inclined to leave it on anyway.

Switching between modes is quick and easy – just click on the left earbud. On the other hand, Klipsch didn't give us the option to skip the in-between-transparency-off mode so we can go straight from ANC to transparency. I was told this was by design because the Auto ANC / Transparency sidekick does essentially the same thing, but I'm not sold. Often times I am not listening to music and want to quickly switch between transparency and ANC. Hopefully Klipsch will take this feedback and consider giving users the option to customize this feature.

Call quality

Simon Cohen / Digital Trends

Despite the packing of six microphones, the T5 II ANC is only suitable for phone calls to a limited extent. Your callers can hear you even if there is significant background noise such as traffic noise. But despite all these microphones, your voice will still sound a little thin. It lacks some of the resonances that make a human voice sound full and natural.

You can manually switch to transparency mode during a call or use the Bragi sidekick to do it automatically. Either way, you will have no problem hearing yourself clearly during a call.

Battery life

Klipsch claims the T5 II ANC gets five hours per charge in the earbuds and an additional 15 hours in the charging case when you use ANC. This increases to seven or 21 hours if you turn off ANC (and transparency mode). As far as I can tell, these numbers are overly optimistic. After just four hours of listening with the ANC on and at 50% volume, the earbuds were completely empty.

What's unfortunate is that while the non-ANC numbers are good (a total of 28 hours is more than enough for a full day of use), the ANC numbers are behind most high-end earbuds with the exception of the Bose QuietComfort. Earbuds are left behind.

Our opinion

Through the use of software, Klipsch's T5 II ANC expands the possibilities of using a set of true wireless earbuds with some really smart features like head gestures, sidekicks and noise shield. Add in Klipsch's signature sound quality and wireless charging and you have a worthy successor to previous T5 models. But their high price, mediocre noise cancellation, lackluster call quality, and short ANC battery life keep them from receiving our highest rating.

Is there a better alternative?

It is stylistically T5 II ANC are in a class of their own – they look as good as they sound. And we've never seen the kind of intelligence Klipsch built into other buds. However, since they can't quite keep up with their closest competitors in areas like ANC, call quality, and battery life, there may be better options:

The $ 280 Sony WF-1000XM4 have better ANC and battery life, and some will prefer their sound, especially given the LDAC codec support on Android devices (the T5 only offers SBC and AAC).

The $ 299 Bose QuietComfort earbuds have the best ANC and transparency you can get, but they're pretty bulky – the buds and their charging case are huge compared to the T5 – and their battery life is the shortest of any similarly priced models.

Master & Dynamics $ 299 MW08 have great battery life, great controls, and warmer, richer sound, but lack wireless charging. If that's what you want, you'll have to spend $ 50 more on the MW08 Sport.

How long will they last?

In terms of build quality, the T5 II should hold up really well as long as you keep an eye on the IPX4 rating and don't expose it to too much water. Battery life is more of a problem. As batteries age, they lose capacity, and since the T5 appears to give up after four hours with the ANC on, this could shrink to three or even two hours after two years of use. On the other hand, Klipsch offers an excellent two year warranty on these earphones. So, if you find that the battery life has dropped significantly during this time, you may be able to get a replacement kit.

Should you buy it?

Yes sir. While Klipsch is expensive, Klipsch put some pretty awesome features on the T5 II ANC that, when combined with its great sound quality and overall design, make it a good, if not perfect, alternative to the best true wireless earbuds you can buy.

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