We recently saw the audio market being overwhelmed with true wireless earbuds at various price levels, but you know it is getting harder to find the best value for money earbuds each day.
Audio Technica has recently released a pair of $99 truly wireless earbuds (ATH-CKS3TW) which is considered to be a contender of the best value for money truly wireless earbuds. This is not actually their first foray into the wireless earbuds market. They previously released another pair of wireless earbuds, but they had their fair share of issues. There is a $149 version (ATH-CKS5TW) as well. Both of these models have USB-C for charging which another big upgrade compared to their previous model.
The Tale of Two Versions
There are some key differences between the two sets to justify their price gap . Firstly and most importantly, the pricier one has more battery life compared to the cheaper one. Secondly, the control of the more expensive earbuds are using physical buttons whereas the cheaper one is using touch control. Surprisingly, only ATH-CKS3TW $99 cheaper version features Google Assistant. That’s because Audio Technica wanted that the more expensive earbuds have extra battery life compared to the cheaper ones. On paper, the more expensive one should also have better audio quality since it has bigger drivers. The ATH-CKS5TW has 10mm drivers and the ATH-CKS3TW has 5.8mm drivers. Only the expensive version supports AAC playback. So if you are into lossless music playback, you need to fork that extra cash.
Audiophile Level Earbuds or Best Value for Money Earbuds?
Those who are serious about audio quality might like to try out the ATH-CKS5TW but if you want the best of the best, the offer from Sony(Sony WF-1000XM3) is only $70 away. Galaxy Earbuds are also other cheaper options. In the fight for value, consumers can go for the ATH-CKS3TW which provides a very good audio quality with AptX and SBC audio codec support at a very reasonable price and the audio quality is better than many expensive earbuds from the competition. The battery of the earbuds themselves lasts for 6 hours and the case provides 24 more hours. On the other hand, the more expensive ATH-CKS5TW has an impressive 15 hours of battery life while the case has a backup of 30 more hours.
These earbuds can also be used with Audio-Technica Connect, a mobile app designed for these earbuds. They are not only for fine tuning your settings. You can also find your missing earbuds using this app.
Even though there are thousands of options available in this price range or even lower ones, Audio Technica is one of the best because of their care for balanced audio with proper attention to lows, mids and highs. At this price range, it is almost impossible to find earbuds that can claim a similar level of clarity or audio quality which makes it one of the best value for money truly wireless earbuds. These earbuds are not in the market yet. So if you are looking for the best value for money earbuds, you may have to wait till November. On the other hand, if you are desperate to try the new earbuds from Audio Technica, you can go for the more expensive ATH-CKS5TW which will go on sale this month.
