Bragi Dash Impressions: Wireless Earphones Offer Enough Quality Features to Counter Small Battery

[rob_h]

While this is nice innovation....I guess....I'm really confused why the guy didn't even talk about how well they sounded, or if they sounded good at all. Hmm. Guess that was a sign....

I backed them on kickstarter, what a mistake. I got my headphones the other day. They don't sound bad, but they definitely do not sound good. They have connection issues on bluetooth and I wasn't running or moving at all, I was standing and holding my ipad in front of me. The control interface is not highly responsive, you have to give it a pretty good tap, and that means you are tapping something that is inside your ear, which isn't exactly a pleasant feeling. The 'noise cancelling' thing is crap, and the sound transparency function is also crap. The sound transparency is good though in the sense that the noise cancelling is not good, meaning you can hear things regardless of the features they worked so hard, and so long, to perfect. The fit sleeves are difficult to get on and off properly, and none of them seem to fit as snuggly as I imagined these things would, but maybe I have weird ears or something...

If Apple makes similar headphones, Bragi will be out of business within a year of the release date. These things are not worth $299, no way. This is really my fault for giving money to the development of a product that didn't exist at the time. I thought they were never going to show up, now I almost wish they didn't.

 

[T-R-S]

3 hours is horrible for wireless headphones, I listen to music on and off all day. That's not only horrible but unacceptable, I can't even imagine how incredibly annoying it would be to charge headphones on and off all day rather than just plug them in my phone, computer, whatever never having to recharge them. The battery life will depreciate the longer you have these too so after a year, as often as I listen to headphones they might not last half that amount. Again, I'll give you that the sound quality isn't even half as good as my shures but is "listenable". The battery life however is abysmal.

FWIW these do not sound very good at all and believe me if have these in your ears any longer than an hour or so your ears are going to sore from the very tinny sound of these. They are useless for biking because the wind sound in the mics will destroy your ears.

 

[jujufreeze]

FWIW these do not sound very good at all and believe me if have these in your ears any longer than an hour or so your ears are going to sore from the very tinny sound of these. They are useless for biking because the wind sound in the mics will destroy your ears.

You might want to try the Jaybird X2s, picked up a pair the other day. Getting 7 and a half hour battery life and surprisingly decent sound quality and isolation, with 3 buttons for basic controls. They've been great for running. Come with 3 comply memory foam tip pairs/3 silicone tip pairs / and 3 "wing" attachment pair sizes that fit inner ear and after some trial and error (and a bit of a hassle) are in my opinion the best bluetooth earbuds on the market.

 

[shortcut3d]

I received the Dash today and needless to say I'm disappointed. The wait did not fix the connectivity problem, well it may have fixed left to right connectivity. The Bluetooth to connection to the iPhone is horrible. It's probably not a meter from the phone and I get a choppy connection. Forget about the standard use case of front pocket. Now the positive. I didn't think the audio quality was fine when connectivity was good. It was better than the standard EarPods. I also found the Dash more comfortable and better fitting than both the Jaybird X2 and Jabra Pulse.

I'm debating returning these. The battery life is poor and the connectivity is horrific. I want to give Bragi a chance to improve the connectivity and I could then live with the battery life. I would have preferred better battery and connectivity and way less features.

I can see Apple over come challenges of the Dash by greatly simplifying the design.
[doublepost=1458362457][/doublepost]Has anyone tried connecting to their AppleWatch to improve the Bluetooth connectivity? I'll give it a try as a workaround after the first full charge. I notice the AppleWatch can cause interference with the Dash when my iPhone is in my pocket.

 

[s1m]

The bluetooth issue i not going to be fixed that easily - it is simple physics. For me the bluetooth is worst in the open air where the BT signal doesn't have a surface to reflect off. It is not great in shopping centres and walking along streets. I will be moving some songs to the onboard player for those circumstances.

However at home watching TV on the Apple TV or on the iPad these are great. No drop outs, no wires and great noise blocking (I slept through my alarm quite comfortably on Monday morning as I still had these in overnight).

I don't know what the future of these will be and the future of in ear wireless buds in general.

 

[sta1210]

I have been considering the Bragi Dash for some time, primarily for staying connected while running trails and commuting, overall the feature set seems rather impressive. I run with an armband carrying my phone on most days so connectivity may not be an issue? Does anyone have any thoughts on a comparison with the Kanoa wireless buds, perhaps larger, better bluetooth?, longer battery life?

Thanks (link to the site below)

https://www.getkanoa.com

 

[T-R-S]

The bluetooth issue i not going to be fixed that easily - it is simple physics. For me the bluetooth is worst in the open air where the BT signal doesn't have a surface to reflect off. It is not great in shopping centres and walking along streets.

Then how do you explain how my wife's cheap Phillips bluetooth headphones sound better and and have amazing BT connectivity and they cost $50.00 at Target.

 

[Justim]

Then how do you explain how my wife's cheap Phillips bluetooth headphones sound better and and have amazing BT connectivity and they cost $50.00 at Target.

Traditional bluetooth headphones stick out of the ear, which means the BT antenna is further away from your head. The theory behind completely wireless earphones is low profile listening. This creates a problem in connectivity because your skull is blocking the signal. Also, you've got double the issue here since each earbud must connect wirelessly. Bragi and Skybuds use NFMI to combat the connectivity issues, but it's not perfect.

Outdoor use is tricky. I am still shocked at how well Jaybirds work.

 

[bobob]

This creates a problem in connectivity because your skull is blocking the signal.

I would have thought the Terminator already has onboard audio.

 

[s1m]

Traditional bluetooth headphones stick out of the ear, which means the BT antenna is further away from your head. The theory behind completely wireless earphones is low profile listening. This creates a problem in connectivity because your skull is blocking the signal. Also, you've got double the issue here since each earbud must connect wirelessly. Bragi and Skybuds use NFMI to combat the connectivity issues, but it's not perfect.

Outdoor use is tricky. I am still shocked at how well Jaybirds work.

Someone who actually understands the situation! Great summary of the issues.

The latest versions I have of the Dash (one set died so they have been replaced) seem to have better BT connection when used outside/at the mall. I am not sure whether that better construction or software (running 1.5.1). The BT connection in my Jaybirds is better than my Dash - but they have a cable across the back of my head and offer worse sound blocking. The Dash are now pretty much perfect for my use (I don't swim with them and don't use the heart rate monitor) - once they fix the switching between devices which I think will come through the software update to 2.0.

 

[Justim]

I would have thought the Terminator already has onboard audio.

But his Jimmy John probably doubles as an antenna.

Someone who actually understands the situation! Great summary of the issues.

The latest versions I have of the Dash (one set died so they have been replaced) seem to have better BT connection when used outside/at the mall. I am not sure whether that better construction or software (running 1.5.1). The BT connection in my Jaybirds is better than my Dash - but they have a cable across the back of my head and offer worse sound blocking. The Dash are now pretty much perfect for my use (I don't swim with them and don't use the heart rate monitor) - once they fix the switching between devices which I think will come through the software update to 2.0.

I originally ordered the Dash at full price, but I didn't want to pay that price for technology that is so new. I really like Bragi as a company and I've read almost everything about them. The gamble was just too steep. Now I'm waiting on Kanoa to release it's headphones. They delayed them again today, this time until October. I couldn't pass up the opportunity to buy them for $139. The final specs are very surprising!