Podcast #972: Tribit Active Noise Cancelling Bluetooth Earbuds and Vizio OLED TV

On this week’s show Ara’s gives us his impression of the Tribit Active Noise Cancelling Bluetooth Earbuds that we talked about a couple of weeks ago. We also look at the Vizio OLED TV Review by RTINGS.com. We also read your emails and take a look at the news!

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Today's Show:

News:

• Your new Samsung smart TV will soon double as a Google Assistant microphone
• Quibi officially announces it’s shutting down
• TCL Quietly Expands Android TV Selection
• Netflix Subscribers Grow by 2.2M in Q3 2020

Other:

• LG's finally rolling out the world's first rollable OLED TV. For $87,000
• Rent a theater at AMC
• Homemanager for Homebridge
• Ara's Woodworking
• Join the Flaviar Whisky Club and get a free bottle

Tribit Active Noise Cancelling Bluetooth Earbuds

Last week Ara was on vacation and used the time to review his new and very inexpensive in ear Active Noise Canceling headphones. They are made by Tribit and are available from Amazon for $50.

So how did they fare? Well they are pretty good for $50. We could end it here and you really would have enough to make up your mind but of course we’ll go into a little more detail. The main reason we were interested in these headphones was because they have active noise cancelling so we’ll get into that first. The ANC was OK. There was a reduction in outside noise but not as good as full size over the ear headphones we have used in the past.

The key to making the noise canceling work is finding the right size ear tip. I tried three including the default size and as it turns out the default size was perfect for me! When you place the headphones in your ear you need to use a twisting action to kind of screw them into place. This gave me the tightest seal and best results for noise cancelation/isolation as well as general listening.

Speaking of sound quality, they did great for podcast listening and telephone calls. For music they were good too!. The bass, which was a feature that Tribit touted, sounded good. We used our go to bass test, the first five seconds of California Roll by Snoop Dogg. Again good, not great. Our $300 Sennheiser Momentums have much better bass response. But these things only cost $50!

The phone mic quality sounds like you were holding the phone to your ear without a microphone. People listening on the other end had no issues hearing the conversation.

Other Considerations

• Pairing - simple once you realize that the leads have a plastic strip on them and the headphones won’t pair until you remove them. Clearly stated in the instructions but who reads that??
  
• Battery Life - worked for my entire trip without a recharge. The longest continuous street was three hours before placing them back in the case which recharges the batteries. You can get an additional hour and a half play time if you charge the headphones for ten minutes.
  
• Comfort - if you properly size the ear tips they will be very comfortable. But after a three hour flight they were starting to irritate the ears. In fairness, no headphones we have tried have been free from irritation after prolonged usage.
  
• Charging Case - Small and easy to carry in your pocket. USB-C connection.
  
• Volume Control - There isn’t any from the headphones. This must be done from the device
  
• Other Controls - double tap to pause, 3 taps to skip, hold right to activate/deactivate noise cancelling.
  

Our Recommendation

If you are very critical of your music, you will be better served with different headphones. If you are looking at these because of the ANC, well, it works but nothing that is going to make you say wow. If you are looking for good headphones with noise canceling and transparency mode that allows you to take calls or use for zoom meetings, you will be hard pressed to find anything better for the money.

Vizio OLED 2020 TV Review

The Vizio OLED 2020 is the first OLED TV Vizio has released and delivers impressive overall performance. Like any OLED TV, its ability to turn off individual pixels results in an infinite contrast ratio and perfect black uniformity. It displays an excellent color gamut for HDR content, but it doesn't get very bright in HDR, and large areas get significantly dimmer. Most gamers should appreciate the 120Hz refresh rate, near-instant response time, and low input lag. It's advertised to have variable refresh rate (VRR) support, but it doesn't work at all and there's screen tearing. The TV has a unique center-mounted stand that's designed to hold the Vizio Elevate soundbar. Sadly, the screen has the risk of permanent burn-in, which is typical of OLEDs, and our unit has noticeable temporary image retention, but this may vary between units. Full Review Here...

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