Good wireless noise canceling headphones are a loose concept. There are a lot of offers, such TWS models can be found in all brands, large and small. Take, for example, the Sudio E2 headphones. Until recently, I did not know about the existence of the Swedish company Sudio, but it has been working on the audio market for several years and offers its own view on familiar things. Chip Sudio E2 – support for Dirac Virtuo surround technology, and what else they remember, I’ll tell you later in the text.
Pleasant, but easily soiled soft-touch
For testing, I got headphones in gray with small glossy pinkish inserts on the sides. The design idea is strange – the male conservative audience is immediately cut off. But for the bold and original, two delicate colors remain: mint and beige. The fourth is the most modest, just black.
The body of the headphones, as well as the cover, is covered with soft velvety plastic. In the pros – pleasant sensations, in the minuses – soiled. You can’t find fault with the assembly, the case is assembled tightly, the headphones are also made neatly. The lid is fixed securely, there is no backlash, it closes with a loud click and is securely held on magnets.
The case is not the smallest, but not large either, it has medium dimensions, moderate weight and a comfortable shape. Moreover, it can stand on the surface without supporting objects – it was very convenient to take pictures.
A diode is located on the front surface of the case – it signals the need to recharge accessories in orange, and as long as there is enough energy, it glows white.
I liked the shape of the headphones, standard nozzles came up. I note that they have a fairly modest passive noise isolation. Also included are additional interchangeable ear pads. And usually there are three or four nozzles, and here there are as many as five. The earphones are medium in size, they fit snugly and confidently in the ears. You can wear them all day long without feeling tired or uncomfortable. In my opinion, they are well suited for sports – they are thoroughly fixed, and also protected from moisture according to IPX4.
Specific Management
After you take out the headphones from the case, an automatic search for the sound source starts. I advise you to immediately install the Sudio application on your smartphone, so it will be easier to adjust the operation of the headphones and change the sound settings. The application adjusts the operation of noise reduction, launches the Dirac Virtuo spatial effect, and adjusts the equalizer. As soon as I started connecting the accessory and launched the application, a new firmware immediately arrived. I immediately updated the headphones, the process took about five minutes, and then I started using them.
Headphones support touch control: one touch of the left or right earphone pauses the track, and with another touch you can start the song. When a call comes in, you can answer the call by touching one earphone, and if you hold your finger, the call will be dropped. Sometimes the headphones respond to commands with a delay, a pause per second is not fatal, but you want a constant instant response.
The right earpiece double-tap switches to a new track, and the left one sends back. Triple pressing the right earpiece increases the volume, triple pressing the left one decreases it. If you hold your finger on the right earcup for a couple of seconds, then the noise reduction mode changes: the noise reduction is turned on or off, the transparency mode is activated. As I understand it, you can not change the settings for controlling the headphones.
In the process of using the headphones, I did not like a few things. The headphones automatically turned off the noise canceling after use, so it had to be activated every time you took the headphones out of the case. Another point – the Sudio E2 does not have proximity sensors. Therefore, when you take out one earphone or both, playback does not stop. There were cases when I forgot to manually stop the song, the headphones lay and were discharged.
Interesting dimensional effect
The Sudio E2 has 10mm drivers and six microphones: three in each earbud. The top pair is responsible for processing and cutting off ambient noise, and the bottom one is used during headset calls. I hope that one day it will be possible not to mention the issue of connection quality in the reviews at all, for a long time there were no headphones with a bad connection on the test. This is me to the fact that the headphones are doing well and do not lose connection via Bluetooth 5.2. But there is not enough multipoint mode, they will not connect to two devices at the same time.
Headphones stand out with powerful bass, and these are the default settings. If this seems not enough, then there are several ready-made profiles in the application, and if you wish, you can create your own. For example, to calm the bass and focus on the mids. I can’t complain about the volume reserve, it’s enough for the eyes. Some bright and special sound Sudio E2 do not stand out among their own kind. Deep dirty basses, mids and highs without bright accents. But what is strange is the very limited support for codecs: there is only a basic SBC, and that’s it.
I also tried Dirac Virtuo spatial sound, the effect is activated via the application or by long touching the left earpiece. The option separates instruments and vocals, it seems as if you are standing in front of a stereo system, there is a feeling of volume, which is often so lacking in headphones.
Noise canceling works well
I liked how the headphones muffle the sounds, in the office you sit in a complete vacuum when you turn on the music and hear nothing at all. Neither the voices of people, nor the clatter of keyboard buttons is cool. In the metro, the situation is changing, here extraneous noises are already clearly audible while the train is moving. But for earplugs, this is a common occurrence, in such conditions even overheads give in. When listening to music on the street, there is no rumble of wind and noise, it is comfortable to use, I was satisfied with everything here.
Pleasant conversations
It is not very convenient that during a conversation on the headphones you cannot switch between noise reduction and transparency – sometimes this can be useful. But in general, there are no questions for Sudio E2 – they transmit voice well, there are no distortions, the interlocutors like everything. Moreover, if the Dirac Virtuo mode is activated during the dialogues, you will be pleasantly surprised by the quality of the conversation, the voices sound gorgeous.
Working hours
The case is charged via USB-C, the cable is included, and you will get the charger yourself. The case charges in about an hour, plus fast charging works when, after 10 minutes in the case, the headphones will work for a couple of hours. I will write down the support for wireless Qi-charging as an advantage, it is not found in all cases.
As for autonomy, the results are average: about 4.5-5 hours with active noise cancellation and about 6-6.5 hours without it. If you use Dirac Virtuo, then it has a decent effect on autonomy, with the active mode, the operating time is reduced by an hour. Taking into account additional recharging from the cover, in total, about 30 hours of life are obtained.
Results
In Russian retail, headphones cost about 10,000 rubles. By the standards of TWS headphones, this is not a lot and not a little, the middle of the market. Sudio E2 has a lot of competitors, I will try to highlight the main features of the headphones.
I really liked how they sit in my ears, this happens not with all models. Excellent voice quality in conversations. Decent noise cancellation in an office environment, outdoors too, it effectively eliminates background hum.
However, support exclusively for SBC, by the standards of 2022, looks very strange, yet these are not the cheapest headphones. There is no multipoint, noise reduction has to be activated every time you take out the headphones – this is inconvenient. There is also no automatic pause mode. To some extent, the shortcomings are compensated by the interesting Dirac Virtuo mode, but everyone decides for himself which functions are more necessary and more important.