amazon EARSTUDIO ES100 reviews
EARSTUDIO ES100 is the first child of Radsone, a company specializing in providing audio technology solutions based in Seoul, Korea. Unlike other manufacturers, Radsone is a very strong core technology company, not just a component assembly. Radsone has provided wireless and (Bluetooth) audio solutions for the two biggest Korean companies in entertainment, Bugs Music and Mnet Entertainment. In addition, Radsone’s engineering team has extensive experience and research in DSP (Digital Signal Processing), the achievements achieved in optimizing system design and board design circuit and especially the proprietary algorithm Radsone’s DCT. It is this algorithm that has helped solve many design problems in millions of products of powerful companies such as Audio-Technica, LG, Astell & Kern …
OPENING BOX OF EARSOUND ES100
The box of the ES100 has a super minimalist design. On the front we have illustrations, product names and taglines. World’s first studio-quality 24bit Bluetooth receiver means this is the first Bluetooth receiver in the world to achieve 24bit studio quality standard.
The hip is the RADSONE logo and the back is a bar code strip with a little product information.
On the inside of the box, besides the ES100, Radsone gives us a quick guide, and a charging cable.
The entire body of the ES100 is composed of plastic but gives a very smooth and firm feel. The front and back sections are painted gray. Surrounding the body is a silver-gray plastic strip. The left side has Balanced 2.5mm connector, stop play button and power button, 2 transfer buttons. Next to the right we have a traditional 3.5mm port, volume up and down keys and a small hole for the internal microphone. ES100 still uses the traditional Micro-USB port but not the Type-C port. However, this does not affect much to the product experience at all.
Overall appearance of the ES100 is completed well, the appearance is quite polite with gray tones and functional buttons are arranged logically, easy to manipulate.
where can you get a EARSTUDIO ES100 online
EarStudio ES100-24bit Portable High-Resolution Bluetooth Receiver/USB DAC/Headphone Amp with LDAC, aptX HD, aptX, AAC (3.5mm Unbalanced & 2.5mm Balanced Output): Buy it now
CONFIGURE EARSOUND ES100
About Hardware
Radsone has very strong hardware on the ES100. This is probably the first Bluetooth DAC / AMP in the world in this price range to have a full-balanced decoder and amplifier. Using up to 2 separate DAC / AMP chips of AsahiKasei code AK4375a. On a volume of only two fingers, we have enough 2 traditional 3.5mm play ports and 2.5 Balanced quality very impressive.
About software
ES100 inherits the essence of its DCT algorithm. ES100 has the ability to automatically eliminate background noise in the music and the ability to automatically upsacle music from 16bit to 24bit standard studio.
EXPERIENCE EARSOUND ES100
When you first hold it, the ES100 is like any other Bluetooth receiver.
Compact and convenient. Turn it on, connect, clip to shirt and play music, as simple as eating a cake.
I suddenly remembered the words on the box. “Remember to read the instructions on the web and download the accompanying app”
The bundled software is called EarStudio, it is available on both Android and iOS. Looking at the packaging and finishing of this product, how much it is minimal, the software and features of the ES100 are complicated. Turn on the app to find the life is bright. The application is divided into 4 main Tabs.
HOME: displays all information about the operating status of ES100.
EQUALIZER: adjust the sound graph EQ
SOUND CONTROL: interfere directly with the audio
AMBIENT SOUND: mode allows to hear surrounding sounds while listening to music.
To say more about this software maybe I have to write another article, but actually, it is too long to say here. In short with this software, Radsone has let us do everything with ES100.
Waves on the ES100 are extremely stable. During the experience even when I turned the latency to the lowest level, the signal interruption phenomenon is almost not appearing. The maximum distance I tried was up to 10m when streaming over LDAC but it still didn’t get disconnected. This proves that the plastic cover design has optimized the reception of Antena Bluetooth on the device.
As we all know, all the devices have a metal case, the advantage is the luxury feeling but the biggest drawback is the reception. Now we can understand why Radsone didn’t design a metal case on his pet.
As for the audio
“High quality sound can never be heard via Bluetooth” This is the prejudice of many current music lovers including myself. But really, I had to change this perspective after experiencing ES100.
When listening to SBC, AAC or other common codecs, although the resolution is reduced, the ES100 retains the soul of the music, the sound is still full and especially the background noise is extremely low by the algorithm. Radsone’s 24bit DCT up noise cancellation and upscale worked very well. But things will be different from LDAC. I’m a person who is also fortunate to hear quite a lot of expensive headphones and music players but still has to recognize the wireless and wired limit has almost been erased by the ES100. The resolution is kept almost intact, the instrument sounds, the small details of the fingernails touching the guitar strings or the cheers of the audience, all appear clearly once passing ES100. I had to try to connect ES100 with Shanling M5s because my phone does not have this standard. Even the sound of the ES100 is a lot better than listening through the 3.5mm port on the phone. The details can not be heard, the stage space is much deeper than ES100 recreated intact. A good point is that ES100 allows connecting 2 devices at the same time. Through the software, I can control the ES100 on my phone while the ES100 is still playing music on the Shanling M5s. An extremely interesting experience always.
About battery life:
I tested at the 3.5mm port, Gain x1, the volume is 50% and listening to the SBC standard, the battery usage reached nearly 12 hours continuously. According to the announced number of 14 hours on the product is completely grounded. NSX also recommends that the battery life depends on the headset, Bluetooth codec and Gain settings at the output.