Every pro audio company wants a piece of the consumer pie. The likes of Audio-Technica, Presonus, and others have started pushing into the consumer space, leveraging their decades-long experience in pro audio to deliver great consumer choices. Beyerdynamic has been doing the same — and its latest attempt comes in the form of the Beyerdynamic Free Byrd wireless earbuds.
The earbuds start at $249 — which puts them in competition with the likes of the AirPods Pro and Sony WF-1000XM4 earbuds. But how do they actually stack up in a world of increasingly smart buds?
Beyerdynamic Free Byrd Wireless Earbuds
Pros
- Solid sound quality
- Good fit
- Good touch controls
Cons
- A bit pricey
Beyerdynamic Free Byrd earbuds design
The Beyerdynamic Free Byrd earbuds aren’t the most unique or interesting to look at, but they’re also far from ugly. They have a black-and-gray color-scheme, with a kind of teardrop shape that tapers towards the ear tips.
One of my favorite things about them is actually related to the ear tips. The headphones come with a huge selection of tips, including four pairs of silicone tips and three pairs of memory foam tips. That ensures that you can get the best fit for your ear shape.
The earbuds are controlled with touch surfaces on their faces, and it’s very easy to tap the surface. That’s because of the fact that the faces are relatively large — meaning that even if you’re not super accurate, you’ll still be able to tap the surface with ease.
The charging case is relatively sleek and thin. It’s not quite as small as the AirPods or AirPods Pro, but given it’s slim shape it should still fit in most people’s pockets. On the back of the case, you’ll find a USB-C port for charging — but you can charge them wirelessly too, if you want. That’s becoming a must-have feature for premium earbuds, so I’m glad to see it here.
Beyerdynamic Free Byrd earbuds comfort
As mentioned, the Beyerdynamic Free Byrd earbuds offer a plethora of ear tips to make for a comfortable fit. The memory foam tips in particular mean that the buds will stay relatively firmly in the ears, while providing a good seal for noise cancellation.
That said, I still wouldn’t use these earbuds for things like running. Even with a good fit, the buds themselves are a little heavy, and they’ll fall out with heavy movement. But in day to day use, they stay in your ears without much issue.
Beyerdynamic Free Byrd earbuds features
The Beyerdynamic Free Byrd earbuds offer some features that make for a more modern and premium experience. Notably, the earbuds have a noise cancellation and transparency mode that is relatively easy to activate as needed. We’ll get into how those features sound a little later.
The earbuds also work with a smart app that allows you to tweak some settings. The app is quite well-designed, and gives quick and easy access to the noise cancellation modes, and the voice assistant that you want to use with the buds. By default, the earbuds will use your phone’s assistant, but you can configure them to work with Alexa too.
The app also offers an EQ, which allows you to select from different EQ presets. I was using a pre-release version of the app, on the iOS 16 beta, and wasn’t able to test the EQ due to bugs. But I’m assured that it should work for customers who aren’t using betas.
Beyerdynamic Free Byrd earbuds sound
Because these earbuds are built by Beyerdynamic, you would assume that they would offer a premium sound. After all, Beyerdynamic has a long history of building professional-grade audio equipment, including studio microphones and headphones. Thankfully, the earbuds sound great.
The headphones boast excellent bass response, especially for a pair of earbuds. The bass extension obviously isn’t quite as impressive as what you might get from a pair of over-ear headphones, but it’s still deep and powerful — perfect for those who need a bit of an extra kick at the gym.
The mids are a little scooped, and the result is a frequency response that isn’t quite the most natural out there. That said, it still sounds very good, and as long as you’re not looking for precision, you’ll appreciate the laid-back mids.
The highs sound pretty good, but there aren’t enough of them. The highs are very laid back, and a little overshadowed by the bass.
The noise cancellation tech on the earbuds is quite good. It’s not as good as you would get from a pair of over-ear headphones like the AirPods Max or Sony WH-1000XM5 headphones, but it still beats out much of the competition in the earbuds space. That said, it’s also not quite as good as the AirPods Pro, which are among the best when it comes to earbud noise cancellation.
Conclusions
The Beyerdynamic Free Byrd wireless earbuds are a great attempt from the classic audio company — but as is the case with most third-party offerings these days, they face tough competition from the likes of Apple and Google when it comes to features. The AirPods Pro offer many of the same features, but with tighter integration with the rest of Apple’s products. But if all you care about is a great sound quality, these are an excellent option.
The competition
If you want to make sure you get earbuds with lots of features, then it’s worth considering the AirPods Pro or Sony WH-1000XM4 earbuds. Otherwise, however, you’ll love what the Beyerdynamic WH-1000XM4 earbuds have to offer.
Should I buy the Beyerdynamic Free Byrd earbuds?
Yes, but only if sound quality is way above features in your list of priorities.
More coverage: Check out our SoundPEATS T3 wireless earbuds review.
