Emily Dickinson once said that “development is a comfortable disease.” When I read that, it means to me that social “progress” in some areas often comes at a cost that is detrimental to what it was. In this case, we are talking about the sound quality with Bluetooth earbuds. For them, “progress” was the consumer benefit of: wireless connectivity, active noise cancellation, water resistance, AI-enabled smart features, and convenience.<\/p>\n
However, what have we lost and is the technology of yesterday worth resurrecting? To find out, I ditched my last pair of earbuds, Sony’s excellent WF-1000XM6, and picked up Final Audio’s newly introduced $80 A2000 in-ear monitors (IEMs).<\/p>\n