RHA TrueConnect

The tastefully designed in-ears come in all black and are bigger than Apple’s similar model. However, in my opinion, they are more desirable. They come with a considerable range of silicone and Comply foam earbuds, meaning a good fit is all but assured. In addition, there is an attractive matt black carry case in which the headphones can be stored safely, while also providing a handy charging solution on the go. According to the manufacturer, battery life is five hours, with the carry case offering four fast charging cycles, with 15 minutes of charging time providing you with about 2.5 hours of playback time. In the practical test, however, five hours of playback was not quite achieved. Instead, we measured 4 hours 20 minutes.

Practice

Personally, it took some time to get used to these true wireless headphones as such a large part of the construction is outside of the ear. Nevertheless, the fit of these lightweight headphones is still good and, with the right earbuds, is safe and secure enough for sports use. At the same time, the construction scores well with good sweat and splash resistance at IPX5 standard.

The operation via buttons on the sides of both earpieces is simple enough, although not entirely user-friendly as there are no tactile pressure points. However, this is no significant criticism.

You can start and stop music, jump between tracks, answer phone calls, trigger the voice assistant, adjust volume, initiate Bluetooth pairing and switch the device on and off. The latter function caused some confusion, however, as there is no clear status information visible. I also occasionally triggered unwanted functions when I adjusted the earpieces on my head. Sound transmission itself was stable, with ranges of almost 10 metres with smartphones when tested for this review.

Sound

Once again, I notice how much I like the tonal tuning of RHA. The dynamic 6mm drivers deliver a warm full sound that’s far from neutral. Instead, it’s a harmonious sound that’s plenty powerful. The additional pressure is useful for mobile operation, as fine details and dynamics are lost despite good passive isolation from outside noise. These headphones provide a good, but massive, maximum level. As expected, the best sound performance is achieved in quiet listening environments, however, in these instances, slight background noise from the Bluetooth radio link can be noticeable.

The bass range provides a rich, slightly overemphasised foundation. Nonetheless, what’s produced boasts contours and considerably low bass and dynamics. The central midrange is somewhat overshadowed by the powerful bass, but still delivers a nice basic warmth with acoustic and electric sounds. Additionally, solo instruments and vocals are clearly defined here. Highs are never unpleasant, but instead are rather rounded. TrueConnect achieves a good level of detail resolution, although some additional shine would have been welcome. Finally, I was impressed by the distinctive stereo panorama and panning capabilities of these headphones.

Thanks to consistently harmonious sound, I can recommend the TrueConnect as a suitable choice for all genres. That’s true, even if you attach more significance to neutrality in jazz and classical productions.

A small flaw is that things are restricted to SBC codec support. In my opinion, this standard solution is no longer fit for task when it comes to high resolution audio transmission, especially when compared to solutions like aptX HD. Furthermore, I can confirm that this RHA model has good speech intelligibility during phone calls.