Drop + grell TWS1X IEM
$199
01 / 16
Drop + grell TWS1X IEM
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$199
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Product Description
We partnered with Axel Grell—legendary engineer behind some of Sennheiser’s most sought-after headphones—to create a true-wireless IEM with unprecedented audiophile-grade performance. Working closely with Axel’s new brand, grell, we left no feature unrefined. Noise-canceling is revolutionized with grell’s innovative psycho-acoustical Noise Annoyance Reduction (NAR) system. Connectivity is optimized with Bluetooth 5.2 and support for the latest codecs. Communication is crystalized with an advanced microphone array and patent-pending Multilayer Turbulence Eliminator (MTE). And sound quality? It’s best-in-class, thanks to custom-designed dynamic drivers. Introducing the Drop + grell TWS1X IEM: your new true-wireless staple.
Here's what our community has to say
All of our reviews are from verified customers.
2.9
42
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45%
would recommend to a friend
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Majorass0
0
Jan 16, 2022
Audio Enthusiasts
The sound quality stands out with solid ANC, transparency, and NAR seems promising. The standard sound is clear and balanced. I did a Beats tune to get some extra bass and highs and the hip hop and hard rock were noticeable improved per my liking. SoundID has a preference (A or B) and direct EQ adjustment so I was able to switch to a vocal and acoustic profile pretty easily. ANC is better than Samsung Buds Pro, not Sony good, and maybe closer to Jabra 85t. The build kind of reminds me of Jabra with lighter weight and less protrusion from the ear with a very similar case. The right and left dock position is awkward. The buds come with tons of tip options including foam. Touch controls are about as responsive/unresponsive as most brands with no customization. Overall, this seems to be targeted to more of the BMW enthusiasts of sound where it excels with the performance including SoundID for lots of features. Like a BMW the plastics, comfort, and ease of use are sacrificed in priority. At the $199 price point this is very understandable particularly if you want to customize your buds and don't want something designed for most people.
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Would recommend to a friend.
Scoobmx
68
Jan 12, 2022
Very good with 2.3 firmware
Rough start, but with the newest firmware,
the sound quality, microphones, comfort, and touch controls are great. I tried a few wingtips and foam tips before finding ones that give a secure fit. Noise canceling is just ok - both ANC and NAR let a bit too much noise through but that might be better with the silicone tips.
Lapley
18
Jan 10, 2022
It's pretty good
it's sound good when is connect to iPhone 13 ,but can't connect to soundID .But the fiting not so good when I walk the dogs or walk around at work it's easily come loose .I try everything that come with .still not fit probally while moving around.i still prefer my headphone more because is louder .I wish is louder but it is what it is it's a blue tooth IEM.
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Would recommend to a friend.
IxFLAMExI
0
Jan 9, 2022
I was looking forward to this
I was looking forward to this, but i was disappointed. The volume is too low and need to EQed. I don’t know about the original though.
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Would not recommend to a friend.
T.Fernandez
495
Collabs
Jan 12, 2022
Quick followup, the new firmware version 2.3 is out which improves the max volume among some other items. You should see the update under "Devices" in the SoundID application. Let us know if you need help updating.
IxFLAMExI
0
Jan 15, 2022
Thanks for the reply. I updated my headphones it's better than before but still, I can't hear voice when he said NAR... etc. very well. I will try different ear tips and see. Before the update I tried the default ones and the small ones. I hope that the ear tips are the problem.
qfwfq142
1
Jan 8, 2022
experimental true wireless earphone
(compare with AirPods Pro, using iphone11)
Pros:
- sound quality is good (with SoundID)
- ANC (>>> AirPods Pro)
- touch control is unstable, always sense mistouch
- connecting issue, will interrupt by other bluetooth devices
- sometimes needs to re-pairup
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Would not recommend to a friend.
T.Fernandez
495
Collabs
Jan 13, 2022
The new firmware for the TWS1X has been released which amount other things improves the touch sensitivity. Please let us know if the firmware improved your experience using the IEMs.
AlmondTea
0
Jan 7, 2022
Great Sound, bad connection
Good: Sounds great, even better with SoundID. Easily on par with the Sony xm4.
Bad: Connection issues. I would completely disconnect if I took them to the gym, the store, down the street to a friends house, etc. Absolutely unacceptable. The only time they work is when I'm at home in my office less than 3 feet from whatever they're connected to.
Neutral: The fins do nothing for my ears, or the ears of anyone in my household. No in ear detection isn't a deal-breaker but it would be nice.
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Would not recommend to a friend.
Chuckacious
2
Jan 5, 2022
Dead On Arrival. Didn't Work!
I just got mine. And it's been a completely awful experience. They took forever to connect. And once they connected. My music was very harsh and it slowly lost connection over about a 15-second span. Then they would completely cut out. The music would keep on playing but nothing would come out of the earbuds. Then after that no matter how many times you would try to reconnect them. They would not connect. So after about an hour of back and forth. I probably only listen to about 45 seconds worth of music.
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Would not recommend to a friend.
Galilchan
37
Jan 4, 2022
Came in with high hopes but this feels like an unfinished product.
TLDR
I purchased these to replace some MW07 Go's (also from drop) that had some issues. I purchased the TWS1X alongside a pair of AKG N400NC buds which were on sale for 50 bucks and I bought to be a knock around pair for the gym where I wouldn't want the Grells to get damaged. To be honest I spend more time listening to the AKG's and they've become my daily driver and I'm very tempted to return the Grells.
Sound:
This is where I was most excited to get the Grells. I love Axel Grell's work. The 580 series and 800 are fantastic headphones and I was hoping to get a sound that had some of the hallmarks of his previous headphones. To my disappointment, the sound out of the box sounded just kinda OK, something I would expect from a 100-120 dollar pair of earphones. I may be spoiled in this regard because I was listening to the AKG's at the same time which is apparently lauded among a lot of reviewers for sounding really good but the Grells just felt that they were missing something. It sounded fine and I could easily listen to music on them for a while but for critical listening, they felt kinda hollow.
Sound with Sound ID:
This was another point that was very exciting on the tin. A hearing test that would be able to help customize the sound to my preferences. I was really excited about this. I went into the hearing test and took 30 minutes to fine-tune my hearing, then did the sound profile test (it functions like an eye exam where you choose between A or B or no difference). I went into it hoping to put together a sound that would be similar to 6XX. Warm and a bit more focused on the midbass where if felt the Grell was especially lacking. All of the test tracks made it tough to tell the difference but I ended up answering the questions to fill that hollowness that the out-of-the-box sound felt. In the end, the profile ended up with the bass blown out and the entire sound felt muddy and sluggish. I went back and corrected for it with some custom EQ but it ended up being a 2-3 hour process. In the end, I'm not sure if I'm to blame for it by overthinking the "sound profile exam" but I never really found a sound with the Grells that I really vibed with. To be honest, I normally come to headphones looking for a nice house sound. Things for example that I've found with the previous master and dynamics and the AKGs as well as a lot of over ears from HifiMan and Sennheisers. Using EQ on top of that to fine-tune the sound is fine but it feels like kind of a cop-out to make a middling house sound out of the box and leave it to hours of user tinkering to try and find a sound that works for you. I thought the "sound profile exam" would help but it really didn't. But then again I could just be old fashioned.
Fit:
This was another area that's fine. It doesn't feel as secure as other earphones I've listened to but overall for sitting at my desk it's fine after finding the right tips and wings but it's not something I would trust for anything active. It's comfortable, I tackled a 10 hour work day of calls and zoom meetings without any discomfort. They're a bit heavier than others but it's perfectly acceptable.
Build quality:
This is a very well-made set of earphones. The case feels nice, the materials in the headphones feel premium. There's nothing on the build that I don't think would hold up to everyday life. They look stylish and turn heads. Zero complaints and a lot of praise to the design team for how well built they feel and how nice they look.
Noise-canceling:
The noise-canceling is adequate, it's on par with the AKGs if not a bit better, and suits my purposes well. I work in a small office, there's a lot of chatter and crosstalk and background noise that makes it hard to focus. The NAR and Noise-canceling of the Grells block out the majority of background noise. Transparency mode is also great.
Controls:
This is a disaster. No easy way to put it. The touch controls do not feel properly calibrated and something as simple as adjusting one in my ear to get a better fit feels like the old joke about moving an image in a Microsoft word documents and causing an apocalypse. You twist them slightly to get a better seal and it feels like you've started a nuclear launch, noise-canceling turns off or to transparency mode and you need to remember the manual of what press on what side activates noise-canceling or NAR or skips a track or changes volume or any simple operation. Honestly, I just ended up picking up my phone to make adjustments to volume or skipping a track. Hardly convenient. This is where I miss the controls on the Master and Dynamics and physical buttons. They were ergonomic and you knew that when you pressed a button, you were getting an action.
Mic Quality:
This and the noise-canceling are the two things keeping me from immediately returning these. For zoom calls it's fantastic. People can hear me clearly and easily, even in busy environments like my office. Phone calls walking around town sound good, even in high winds. They are much better than my AKGs in this regard and that's the main thing keeping me still on board.
App:
I have yet to find a company that makes a good TWS app. Maybe the AirPods but to be honest I haven't tried them. This one feels particularly troublesome, it has difficulty finding the headphones even when they are connected, updates take forever. The layout of the app is better than most though, and the UX feels well thought out but there are a lot of bugs and glitches. On IOS it also crashes a fair amount too. I'm on a newer iPhone and this seems to crash a lot more than my Bowers and Wilkins app as well as my AKG app.
Conclusions:
I came into this purchase with real high hopes. I wanted to give them some time to see if they would be something I would enjoy and I spent a lot of time tinkering with the software to try and find a sound that would go along with the Grell name and the $200 price tag. In the end, I feel like I bought $100 earphones with a lot of gimmicks that fizzled and didn't really do much. I don't normally like to jump on and early adopt with new brands but I went out on a limb with this one. If I don't return this pair, it will be strictly for use at the office and the AKG's will be my daily drivers. They're not as fashionable but they sound a heck of a lot better and they are more reliable. It's a really disappointing showing when I buy a pair of $200 earphones and a pair of $50 earphones (as of writing the price has gone back up to $150 but that is still 25% cheaper than the grells) and the $200 gets blown out of the water. I hope that a firmware update comes out to make the experience of using these headphones better but honestly, I'm pretty bummed and will likely be sending them back.
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Would not recommend to a friend.
Uriah
2
Jan 3, 2022
Sound quality= Good, Everything else=Meh
These have a good sound, however without the soundID app they are excessively quiet especially given their sensitivity of 105 dB(spl) (impedance isn't listed oddly enough) , which is a bit annoying. The ANC and NAR is subpar, and the transparency mode is not good given how it over boosts hvac/fan noise. Hopefully they fix some of this with firmware updates.
wintermute_2.0
2
Jan 3, 2022
User experience=Not good, Sound quality=Amazing!
Although my initial experience with them was a disappointment (pairing with the app was a headache), after everything was sorted out the sound quality blew me away. The Sound ID app would recognize the earbuds at first, but when I deleted it from my phone and reinstalled everything worked fine and it updated the firmware without any prompting from me. My first listen after was updated and operating correctly was a huge surprise. Given the initial issue my expectations had been greatly tempered, but that when the first song played and the music exploded into my ears it felt like my whole head was filled with music. I have had the Sony XM3's and the Airpod Pros and the sound quality of the Grell's blows them away. However, the noise canceling is disappointing relative to the Sony's and Airpods and so is the general user experience, but I am willing to forgive all of that for the sound quality. The Sound ID app actually works, but unfortunately, it doesn't allow for any adjustment to the noise-canceling features. A little more upfront testing and troubleshooting from Drop and Grell would have done a lot to temper the negative reviews.
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Would recommend to a friend.
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