This and That:
“True wireless” Bluetooth in-ear. The EarFun Free has got one 6 mm graphene-coated dynamic driver per side.
Bluetooth 5.0 with AAC and SBC codec support. Unfortunately no aptX, but that isn’t really to be expected at this price point anyway.
Doesn’t come with many accessories, but enough so that it’s a complete package – three pairs of silicone ear tips, a charging case that’s also used for storing the Free, and a charging cable.
The charging case itself can be charged wirelessly.
It is compact, looks very nice (in my opinion) and has got four white LEDs that light up when the lid is opened and indicate the battery status. I like that the surface is hard matte plastic and not shiny (should reduce scratches).
What’s very nice is that the lid doesn’t fall shut unintentionally but is held in place in any position that it is opened.
The in-ear pieces are strongly held in place magnetically – a bit too strongly, in my opinion, as removing them requires some more force than I’d like.
The ear pieces themselves look rather generic and don’t have any special design elements that are unique.
Design and build quality are okay for the price but don’t feel premium, although not cheap either.
The faceplate with the EarFun logo is made of rubber as there’s a small button under each that’s used for playback and phone call controls. Even though the accentuation force isn’t too high, it’s not a pleasant thing and an inferior solution to using a touch-sensitive surface.
There’s no volume control on the Free – the volume is controlled by the source device (I personally don’t mind, but some might).
The fit and seal are good as the insertion depth is surprisingly deep even though the nozzle and ear piece shape don’t look like that (which is also why the ear tips that look smaller than expected and usual fit and seal easily and well in my large ear canals). The comfort is good and since the fit and seal are good, the Free’s ear pieces stay in my ears securely and don’t fall out.
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The right ear piece is the master unit.
The Free turns on and off automatically when taken out of the charging case respectively back in.
The status reports (“connected”, “disconnected”) aren’t overly loud, which is nice, but they are not very quiet either and I wish they were just somewhat quieter; they only come through the right ear piece.
The signal quality and stability are excellent when used with my Apple iPhone 4 or BlackBerry Classic – no dropouts or the like.
Sound:
Bluetooth sources used for listening to music: ZOTAC ZBOX CI547 nano, BlackBerry Classic, Apple iPhone 4. (Bluetooth sound quality with the EarFun Free: BlackBerry ≳ iPhone >> Zotac.)
Largest included silicone tips.
The Free hisses slightly in quiet and silent passages of the music, so the amplifier chip that’s used probably doesn’t have the state-of-the-art signal-to-noise ratio and/or the dynamic driver that is used is very sensitive.
Unfortunately, the Free also suffers from the same problem that pretty much all Bluetooth in-ears suffer for me: the quietest possible volume setting above mute is much too loud for me personally and clearly above my normal listening volume.
Tonality:
Heavily consumer-oriented fun-oriented v-shape sound signature (with the main focus on the lower bass and upper treble), which isn’t a surprise given that it’s an affordably priced dynamic driver in-ear. Really good and natural midrange.
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Heavy bass elevation that peaks at 30 Hz in the sub-bass with a quantity of 16 dB over the central midrange at 1 kHz.
The upper bass at 100 kHz is already elevated by ca. 12 dB.
The root at 300 Hz is elevated by ca. 5 dB over the central midrange.
The bass elevation starts to climb at around 600 Hz.
The lower mids and fundamental range is, not much surprisingly given the heavy bass elevation, on the warm and full side and gives the sound an undeniably warm and full tilt, but doesn’t overshadow the midrange (since its elevation rises towards and peaks in the sub-bass), which is nice.
Other than that, the central and upper midrange mostly follow a slightly-less-than-flat-neutral target and are not far off the Etymotic ER2SE, wherefore the mids sound realistic and natural.
The lower and middle treble are mostly neutral, with the 5 kHz range showing a moderate dip, followed by the highs rising again just a little below 7 kHz, forming a strong and bright peak around 8 kHz.
The super treble above 10 kHz shows an even down-slope/roll-off.
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So yeah, a strong v-shape that however sounds good since the midrange is tuned very well and doesn’t stand subjectively behind in the mix/doesn’t sound subjectively distant or recessed. The tonality appears, of course apart from the powerful and warm bass elevation, even natural and the only thing that can appear artificial/plasticky is the bright 8 kHz peak that, even though it doesn’t come across as too sharp as it acts as a counterweight to the strong bass elevation, adds an artificial touch to the otherwise neutral treble when a note hits the area directly around it (between 6 and 10 kHz).
Resolution:
Good. Doesn’t sound like a typical wireless in-ear of a few years ago (e.g. clearly better than the MEE audio X7 Plus), and is more controlled than something comparably priced such as my SoundMAGIC E10.
Aside from the bass quality that is superior on the Shure, the Free isn’t much behind my (non-wireless) Shure SE215m+SPE in terms of resolution, which is definitely a good thing, however as the Free lacks aptX codec support, its sound quality will ultimately depend quite strongly on how good the streaming source’s Bluetooth audio transmission quality is (it is rather bad on my Zotac desktop PC, but very good on my BlackBerry and iPhone).
Especially surprising is the bass control despite the very strong elevation.
The lows soften towards the sub-bass and lose some texture but without becoming muddy, and the bass doesn’t feel uncontrolled even with more complex tracks.
The midrange resolution is good for the price and doesn’t show any weakness; there’s also no sign here that the Free is a wireless in-ear.
Treble separation is slightly on the softer side but still defined and precise. This, however, also helps with the 8 kHz peak.
Transients are a bit on the softer side but far from blurry or the likes.
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Yeah, the Free performs well in the technical department. Shows that the dynamic driver that was used is a good and capable one.
Soundstage:
Expands wider than the base between my ears and stretches almost to the outside of my shoulders. Therefore definitely wider than average and not congested in any way.
Subjectively, the spatial depth is almost similarly present wherefore the soundstage is almost perfectly circular; it appears realistic and three-dimensional.
The imaging is nicely accurate and still remains intact even with fast, dense and complex material, although some mild to moderate blur then occurs.
Conclusion:
A good sounding and affordably priced in-ear with a strongly consumer-oriented v-shaped tonality (but well-tuned midrange and generally tuned well for what it aims for (personally, I like the tuning and sound)), but it unfortunately suffers from the same problem that pretty much all Bluetooth in-ears do: it is much too loud for me.