Yamaha’s latest true wireless in-ears have your hearing health in mind
ANC joins the party to keep your eardrums fighting fit
There’s no point splashing the cash on a trick pair of earphones if you’re going to blow your eardrums out by listening too loud. Yamaha’s true wireless ‘buds have been trying to take car of your hearing health for a while now, but the latest addition to the range promises to go one further.
The TW-E7B are the first with active noise cancellation, silencing the outside world so you don’t have to crank the volume in order to drown out distractions. Here it’s combined with a more advanced version of Yamaha’s Listening Care tech, which balances high and low frequencies at lower volumes, so you’re still getting all the detail at a level that won’t make you deaf.
Listening Care Advanced now uses the ANC microphones built into each earbud to factor in background noise, as well as content volume. Yamaha reckons its bespoke algorithms filter noise without making any EQ corrections, like most ANC earphones do, so the music isn’t tweaked from what the artist intended.
There’s all the usual true wireless goodness, like automatic pausing when you remove a bud from your ear, an ambient sound mode for pass-through audio when you actually want to hear what’s going on around you, and a low-latency gaming mode to stop any sound syncing issues with your gadgets. Qualcomm’s Clear Voice Capture also makes the cut, which should mean voice calls come through coherently.
The buds themselves use 10mm drivers, and come with five different ear tips for a comfortable fit. There’s also a smartphone companion app that’ll adapt the sound signature based on the shape of your ears. They should manage around six hours of playback between trips to the charging case, which can add another 16 before it also runs dry.
Break a sweat, not your eardrums
Yamaha is also getting sporty for the first time. The TW-ES5A lose the active noise cancelling, but keep the ambient sound mode – which could be handy for road runners. They also gain IPX7 splash and sweat resistance, so it’s not a big deal if you’re caught in a rain shower.
They’re equally suited to marathon runners and musicians, with the listening care loudness optimisation that promises not to discolour your tracks, plus nine hours of charge in the ‘buds and an extra 25 in the charging case.
The TW-E7B and TW-ES5A will be going on sale towards the end of July, for £219 and £149 respectively.
Tom Morgan-Freelander
Deputy Editor 
