Low latency IEMs

adrichardson81 · 22 May 2019 at 12:13

Hi all

I’m having a bit of buyer’s remorse after jumping on the Sennheiser Momentum True Wireless bandwagon. In particular, sound quality is a bit meh for £280 (it’s not much better than my Soundmagic E11), they don’t play nicely if you need to pair them with multiple devices, and battery life does some weird things. I hoped they’d settle down after a few firmware updates, but the updates haven’t improved much so far...

I use them for music (Galaxy S10), gaming (Switch via an APTX LL adapter) and video/gaming on my iPad. Are there any alternatives that are worth looking at? The only real requirement is in-ear and low latency... I was thinking possibly picking up some Shure or Westones and using their 2nd Bluetooth adapter, but I’m struggling to find out whether either brand supports APTX LL.

Thanks!

dt97583 · 22 May 2019 at 20:31

Well that's not good to hear, I was thinking about buying these.

Regarding low latency, an Amazon reviewer suggested:

I am a professional musician working in recording studios so my requirements are probably a bit unusual. For years I have been looking to ditch the bulky studio 'cans' and find a wireless solution. Normal Bluetooth is out of the question, as delay is of the order of half a second (about 500 milliseconds). Bluetooth 5 so-called low latency is also too big at about 1/4 second. (250ms)
These Sennheisers are true 'aptx low latency' and (coupled with the right aptx-ll transmitter) are the only set that work well enough. I estimate the delay is about 25-30 ms, not perfect but good enough that I am prepared to give it a serious try.
...
All in all, this is by a long way the best option for true low latency that I have found, and I hope the sofware will be updated to improve usability.

I saw a mention about firmware too but was under the impression this'd probably be fixed by now:

In terms of other options, I was considering Master and Dynamic MW07 but most people seem to suggest sound quality is just a smidge below the MTW. Plus they use BT 4.2, which may not be ideal for the latest and greatest improvements from BT 5.

hornetstinger · 23 May 2019 at 13:24

Ummm stay with wired?

adrichardson81 · 23 May 2019 at 17:37

@davidmt83 - Yeah firmware has been very disappointing - they make a lot of promises, but even the pairing improvements haven't materialised yet. This morning they lost 20% charge overnigh, so I'm wondering if I have a bad pair...

Westone have just conformed that their v2 adapter supports aptx ll so I might give that a go instead.

@hornetstinger - I'd prefer to stick with wireless. Wired is a hassle I could do without on my commute.