The 3 Best True Wireless Earbuds Under $200.
My comprehensive review of the best true wireless earbuds in the sub-$200 range.
The Short answer:
I’ll cut straight to the chase for those in a hurry to find the best pair of true wireless earbuds under $200. The Nuarl N6 Pros are head and shoulders over the competition if your main concerns are sound quality and battery life. They’re what I’ve chosen as my new personal pair of true wireless IEMs. Their incredible soundstage, precise midrange, treble, and bass that doesn’t overemphasize any one frequency, and high volume headroom make these the best wireless earbuds I’ve tried at any price, and certainly the best under $200. Keep reading for how they compare to my two other favorites, the Jabra 75T, and the Master & Dynamic MW07 compare.
Introduction
You’re probably here because like me, you’ve read half the reviews on the internet and maybe even have a drawer full of various cheap true wireless earbuds and still haven’t really found a pair you get along with.
Why you should care about my opinions: I’m a Tampa based Advertising and Portrait Photographer who has been dabbling in the audiophile world for the past 10+ years as an escape from staring at monitors all day. Contrary to popular fantasy, being a photographer is mostly sitting in front of a computer screen, much to our chagrin!
During this pandemic downtime I’ve been working on building a home darkroom for printmaking, planning future personal projects, and, lastly, developing a slight obsession with true wireless IEMs or earbuds, as they’re more commonly known. I listen to music/podcasts/audiobooks for 10+ hours a day typically while working from home or at one of the handful of co-working spaces I’m a member of. That sheer amount of time has made me rather picky towards earbuds. I do also rock a good pair of cans from time to time, though I’ve yet to find a pair of over the ear headphones comfortable over this timespan. My Audio Technica ATH-M50x headphones do perform admirably for 2-3 hour listening sessions when working on video edits.
Enter wireless earbuds.
Like most small business owners, I’m on the phone a lot. My search for a good pair of true wireless earbuds actually started after the mic in my trusty Marshall Mode earbuds died after a few years of heavy use. So my primary initial interest was decent call quality. I started with a wireless pair around the same price as the Marshall’s, a refurbished pair of Jabra 65t’s. While their call quality proved to be a significant step up from the Mode Eq’s, the sound quality wasn’t in the same league, and they suffered the teething issues of early generations of true wireless earbuds, namely, signal that dropped in and out, and a left earbud that cut out if moved too far from the right earbud.
Even with those failings, they really showed be the potential of this form factor, and I moved on to the B&O Beoplay E8 to try and add great sound quality to the mix. These definitely improved on the sound quality of the Jabra, but still had the same troubles with connectivity, and managed to have somewhat worse battery life as well. From there, I bought the Phaiser Fusion One which at $50 at the time of purchase, actually managed to best the much more expensive Beoplay E8’s in overall sound quality, and connection strength. The battery life was almost twice as long to boot! If you are on a tight budget, these are worth looking at.
Sadly, these fell apart after about a month, and being both impatient and leery of a replacement pair having the same build issues; I moved on to purchasing all three of the titular IEMs after having spent an embarrassingly long amount of time spent reading both expert reviews and user feedback on forums.
Nuarl N6 Pro vs Jabra 75T vs Master & Dynamic MW-07
Now we get down to the three final competitors. I’ve spent 2 months comparing these, using them on plane flights, long drives, and around the office, and overall find that each of the following is best in this price range depending on your overall preferences.
If you place the highest value on sound quality and battery life: The Nuarl N6 Pro’s are the undisputed winner. It was shocking pressing play on Iron & Wine’s “On Your Wings” and hearing more detail that I’d ever heard in the softly plucked guitar strings, pulsing washboard rhythm, and whispered vocals. Genuine delight. I dropped what I was doing and spent the next hours listening to the whole album I was so enthralled. More complex music benefited too, with dense rock arrangements like Anberlin’s final record “Lowborn” showing great instrument separation a slight, very pleasant warmth. My standard bass heavy track, Deadmau5’s “Superliminal” had the proper subterranean lows one expects for the track with exceptional detail, though perhaps bass heads may find themselves pushing the low end EQ up a bit.
Call quality has been perfectly fine, I’d give a edge to the Jabra 75t’s here, particularly in noisy environments, but in everyday scenarios the differences are minor. Battery life is exceptional, I haven’t managed to kill these yet, their quoted 11 hours seem entirely accurate.The only area I’ll really knock these is comfort: the included rubber stabilizing arms don’t fit my ears very well, causing discomfort after a few hours of listening. I get around this by leaving them just outside of my ear canal, the earbuds stay in just fine. An easy fix for this would be for Nuarl to ship these with different sizes, similar to what Master and Dynamic does. overall, 8.5/10 in this department, they’re perfectly fine comfort wise but they never quite disappear in your ears like the other two. I’m sure the somewhat larger size and weight have a fair bit to do with this.
If you place the highest value on compactness, call quality, frequent travel, and having a built in app to tweak eq: The Jabra 75T’s are for you.
In a full day of travel, I found the Jabra’s absolutely tiny quick charging case, super smart features (auto on and off, app based EQ with multiple quick select modes based on kind of content, and “hear through” technology) and great battery life to be the most compelling argument for these. If you travel a lot and care more about the above features than having the absolute best sound quality, these are a no brainer. I will say however, they sounded the worst of my final three, with bloated, almost annoying bass and heavily recessed midrange. Thanks to the Jabra app, I was able to configure an EQ profile that tamed these two negatives to the point they were quite pleasant sounding, but not really exceptional in any aspect. You’ll not find yourself complaining about the sound once eq’d, which depending on your level of pickiness might be just fine. Battery life is excellent, a good 8 hours plus one extra full charge in the case. It’d be neat if jabra would offer a larger battery case for those looking for more freedom from wall chargers, but they get through a full day just fine. Another major plus, these are super light and you can pretty much forget they are there. 9/10 comfort here.
If you place the highest value on comfort and style: The Master & Dynamic MW07’s are for you.
I’ve never had a more comfortable pair of earbuds! The “Fit Wings” are an incredible invention. The soft surface covers the whole back of the earbud, providing a bit of padding for every area in contact with your ear. The various sizes included helped tremendously for getting a tight, secure fit, and the more plush tips kept isolation at proper levels without requiring you to cram them in your ears. 10/10 for comfort here.
Sound quality is half way between the Jabras and the N6 Pros, with a bit more forward base, less detailed (but still excellent!) mids and treble, these would be my favorite pair of wireless IEMs sound wise if I hadn’t happened upon the Nuarls. Ease of connection was also nice with these, the indicator lights were genuinely useful and they aggressively connect to your phone. The dealbreaker for me with these was the battery life, at only 3 hours, these are never going to be a good pick for me. I did also try the MW07 Go, which are reputed to have the same sound in a slightly smaller package with double the battery life, unfortunately after two DOA pairs, I gave up, best to stick with this model or the MW07 Plus if you are in love with the gorgeous looks of these.
Whew! You made it! Thanks for taking a few minutes to read the fruits of my covid-induced obsession!
If you decide to purchase one of the products mentioned above, please do click on the affiliate links when doing so, it puts a few bucks in my pocket towards continuing this expensive hobby. Thanks and happy listening!