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The Splendid Rowkin Ascent Micro Wireless Bluetooth Earbuds - REVIEWED
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May 29, 2025
There are a lot of competitors to Apple's segment leading AirPods, but it took Rowkin to get everything right with the Ascent Micro. Yes, the Rowkin Ascent Micro are a worthy competitor with long battery life, great ergonomics, terrific sound and even a good "hand feel". Tech expert Dave Taylor of https://www.AskDaveTaylor.com/ put the Ascent Micro through its paces and found them to be top notch, with every feature and capability you'd want. Even IPX5 water resistance! Check them out at https://www.Rowkin.com/
View Video Transcript
0:00
are these the best ear buds on the
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market let's check them out
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[Music]
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Dave Taylor here and I'm checking these
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out while we get them out of the case I
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am checking these out these are tiny
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little guys are the Rope Ian ascent
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micro and they are fully wireless
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Bluetooth ear buds and they're pretty
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darn sweet so let me tell you a little
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bit about the specs they run Bluetooth
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5.0 and ble Bluetooth Low Energy and
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they have super fast pairing so
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basically as soon as you take them out
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of the case they're paired to the point
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where you take them out and by the time
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they're in your ears they're already
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paired and ready to go with whatever
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device you have they have what they call
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this is very fancy laser direct
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structuring antenna technology what it
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means in practice is that not once never
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did I have the left ear go out while I
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was listening and I walked all over the
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place I was listening with my phone 15
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20 feet away I never had any drop out at
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all which is really an accomplishment
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because prior to trying these units the
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Apple earpods were the only ones that I
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could say that about every other
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wireless earbuds had some issue with
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that except for these very cool now each
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one is as you can say as you can see
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each one of these is really tiny in fact
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it's 0.23 ounces so these are pretty
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darn light the case itself is 2.3 ounces
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and let me tell you a little bit about
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the batteries so each of these guys has
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a 60 milliamp hour battery in it and
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then the case has an 870 milliamp hour
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battery and that means that each of
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these units will run for three to four
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hours on a charge but then when you're
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running low on battery you put them back
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in the case and they click in then
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there's a little tiny LED that shows you
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the status and it will charge
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four more times that means you get a
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total of 17 additional hours of music or
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audio or audio books or audio from
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movies or if you're on the phone it
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obviously will work for that all of that
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is like 24 hours of play off of the
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earbuds themselves and the case that's
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pretty sweet
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now case takes about two hours to charge
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fully from dead and this is something
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you want to know it uses a USBC
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connector now I like USB see that works
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really well but in the box and it's turn
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around give you the other side too in
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the box it comes with there we go
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it comes with a USB c2 USBC connector
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now for people that don't have USB C on
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both ends it does come with a USB 3.0
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adapter that's kind of interesting
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because I have the opposite adapter I
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don't have one that goes USB C 2 USB 3
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that's a lot of USBs but if you have
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old-school chargers this is what you're
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gonna end up doing but either way it
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doesn't really matter comes to the wire
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you need and the thing is you're not
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gonna be charging them that often so
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what I really like is the USB C is the
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charging cable of choice for most modern
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laptops like mac books for example and
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so it'll work just fine with this - and
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that is really great now since I have
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the box here I can tell you that it
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comes with three different sizes of ear
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tips and I always switch out different
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sizes and try them it makes a huge
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difference in the sound I will tell you
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that when I had the medium sizes on that
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a medium ear tips I should say then it
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sounded ok but then when I put the large
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ear tips on and put those back in my
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ears it was like holy-moly these sound
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really good and let's talk about that
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now the actual quality of the audio is
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amazing it's really good
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these sound really good they give you a
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full soundstage they give you a lot
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clarity there's a lot of bass I've been
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listening to some music where there's
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sort of that low reverb echoey bass and
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you can just hear it crystal-clear with
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these now what I will say is and this is
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true of everything of this design if
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you're in a loud environment these
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aren't going to make all that noise go
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away although they do have some noise
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reduction and echo cancellation I think
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that actually probably is more important
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for phone calls so these do not
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magically take you away from any
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environment you can be in but if you're
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in a relatively quiet environment and I
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think about like being in maybe a
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library or being at an office or
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something where it's fairly quiet these
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will definitely transport you with
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whatever music you're listening to and
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that's pretty nice now they also support
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a ton of different music profiles
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including hf p h SP AV r CP a2dp and SP
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p now there's a couple you don't see
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there is you don't see things like a PT
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X and you don't see a AC so they don't
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support those higher you know super
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clarity systems but you know what they
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still sound really really nice and
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additional to know I px5 sweat and
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waterproof so I'm not sure about the
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case but the earbuds themselves you can
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wear these at the gym and if you're
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sweaty because you've been doing a hard
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workout it's not an issue
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now whether they'll stay in your ear is
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a slightly different story so that might
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be something where a more traditional
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like hook or over the ear earbud for
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sports might work better if you're
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really aggressive in your workouts or
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you're going for a long run on mountain
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roads or something but I found that
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these stay in and they're very
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comfortable and really you forget you're
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wearing them it's just like here you are
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and you have this great loud rich music
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and other people look at you and they
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have no idea you have anything on so
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they start coming over and talking to
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you and you don't have to hear them it's
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glorious
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although eventually you do have to hear
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them so one of the nice things they've
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done although they haven't documented it
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very well is they have tap sequences so
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when it's in your
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year and left goes into the left ear
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right goes in the right ear exactly as
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you would hope so once it's in your ear
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it turns out that a DoubleTap on the
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left will get you next track a DoubleTap
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on the right is pause or play or answer
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or hang up phone call a triple tap on
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the right will get you to Siri or hello
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Google or whatever it is that you're
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using for your voice interaction system
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and then a triple tap on the left ear
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gets you the previous track so there is
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no volume control that is something that
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you might actually want to be aware of
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but that's true of almost all of these
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there's no slider there's no plus or
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minus it's just not that kind of
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functionality so for that you actually
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would use it with your actual audio
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source device or I suppose you could use
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something like Siri and triple tap and
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then say lower volume or something like
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that that would probably work I haven't
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tried that I will say phonecall
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experience the phone call was nice and
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they use both earpieces so your phone
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the person you're talking to seems like
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their side of you know in the center not
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just the right ear the person at the
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other end said there was a lot of
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ambient noise but I was in a very noisy
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environment and we did have an entirely
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normal conversation even though I was
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outside with a lot going on so they
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didn't report that it sounded fantastic
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but I think that when I tried a second
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call actually I know when I tried a
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second call it did sound better so you
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know if you're gonna use these for lots
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and lots of phone calls they might not
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be optimal to but they will certainly
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work and certainly give you the you know
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good results but I would say really this
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is more about music these are really
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more about listening and as opposed to
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talking and let's see what else can I
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tell you is that there is an app here's
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a quick screenshot of it using the route
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can app you could actually adjust your
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EQ curves and some other settings which
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is super handy I didn't find the need to
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use those I feel like out of the box or
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out of the little box that it actually
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worked just fine and you know let me
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tell you about the box is a really
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really nice feeling piece
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Electronics and it's a very hard plastic
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but it has ridges on it and it just has
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a really good hand feel as they say in
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testing and I like it I think they just
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got they got so much right here and you
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know I really want to give props to rau
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Caen because I have no criticisms I have
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no negatives about these these are
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really nice and even the price point
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makes these a really viable option for
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people you know particularly if you're
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not a huge fan of the Apple product line
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these work just fine and they don't come
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in white but honestly okay so they come
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in this black and they have a gray they
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call slate and then there's this really
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cool cobalt come color that's coming out
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but you'll have to do a little homework
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to figure out how to get a pair I'm
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being mysterious cuz they're being
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mysterious so before I tell you the
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price let me ask if you can go ahead and
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click that subscribe button and give me
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some feedback if you're listening to
9:51
true wireless earphones or earbuds let
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me know what you're listening to and how
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they work for you because I'm really
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curious what people are actually using
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in the field okay with all that these
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well these are the route can ascend
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micro Tru wireless earbuds they are very
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cool they are very worth you checking
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out and they will cost you $99 a trial
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can calm this is Dave Taylor and I will
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catch you in my next video
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[Music]
#Audio Equipment
#Consumer Electronics