MIIEGO MiiBUDS PLAY

With a weight of 5.5 grams per side, the MIIEGO MiiBUDS PLAY provide a comfortable fit that does not cause any pressure discomfort even when worn for long periods. These earpieces are protected against water and perspiration in accordance with IPX5 for outdoor use and sports activities. These in-ears can also be worn under a hat if it is not too tight, as the housings do not protrude too far beyond the ears.

Battery life

At higher volumes, the MIIEGO MiiBUDS PLAY achieve a good eight hours of listening time per charge, and this is reduced to just under six and a half hours if noise cancellation is used. These earphones can be fully charged a total of four times in the charging case, this has a handy format and weighs 43 grams, resulting in a total runtime of 32 hours in ANC mode and 40 hours in standard mode, but these in-ears do not have a charge level indicator. However, according to our tests, when the batteries are empty, the earphones can be fully charged again after 60 minutes. If you’re in a hurry, a five-minute quick charge gives these in-ears capacity for up to one and a half hours of use. The case can be powered via the USB-C port or wirelessly via Qi. When using the included USB-C to USB-A charging cable, the battery reserve is restored after two hours and 15 minutes.

Operation

Pairing the MIIEGO MiiBUDS PLAY can be done by opening the case; this turns the system on and automatically puts it into pairing mode, and placing them back in the charger turns them off. However, these in-ears cannot be switched off manually via the touch-sensitive earpiece surfaces, which means that the case is always required. It is not possible to achieve Multipoint connections with two devices at the same time, although one-sided use in single mode is possible.

Once a wireless connection was established, the range inside buildings was up to ten metres, although walls can shorten the distance. Outdoors, about twelve metres could be covered with stability. A simple tap on the left or right headphones controls playback, and this also allows telephone calls to be accepted and ended. Tapping twice enables track selection, jumping forward with the right and back via the left touch surface. In addition, volume control is available: A triple tap on the right headphone increases the playback level while tapping the left headphone decreases it. Holding down the right earpiece also switches between ANC, basic and transparency modes, and the left side is used to call up voice assistants. It is not possible to personalise the touch control as MiiBUDS PLAY does not offer an app connection with handset and sound settings.

Speech intelligibility during phone calls

In a quiet environment, your own voice was perceived as slightly nasal, but the intelligibility was impeccable. Wind noise was largely filtered out by the microphones that use ENC technology, and this can only be heard quietly in the background by the party on the other end of the call during stronger gusts. There was also a significant reduction in louder ambient noise, resulting in remarkably good speech intelligibility in a busy background setting.

Noise cancellation (ANC) and transparency mode

The MIIEGO MiiBUDS PLAY’s hybrid noise cancelling proved to be particularly effective with low-frequency noise sources, while the mid and upper-frequency ranges were attenuated to a lesser degree. Voices or typing noises remained perceptible, even if a reduction was made. The ANC mode also affected the sound, as the bass range was amplified. In transparency mode, stronger background noise was noticeable, especially as the amplification of external noises could have been more intense. During paused playback, communication was possible without having to take out the earphones. However, from a medium playback level onwards, the benefit was rather limited.

Sound

The down-to-earth tuning of the MIIEGO MiiBUDS PLAY had a powerful bass response that seemed inherently balanced and depending on the source material, it was capable of sounding dry and crisp as well as rich and punchy. Apart from a slight emphasis in the low-frequency range, the reproduction appeared to be quite straightforward and did not use effects. Above all, the clear, tidy mid-range seemed matter-of-fact in a positive sense; it felt playful and even presented complex productions in an unrestrained manner. In addition, voices benefited from a natural presentation with high speech intelligibility, with sibilants being neither softened nor exaggerated. A drop in the upper ranges was perhaps a weakness; otherwise, they did not hold back, even if they were by no means loud. Apart from that, the basic sound seemed coherent and made a good showing across different genres.