The market of accessories for mobile equipment has been replenished with another quality brand - Macaw. The young company offers cheap but high-quality audio gadgets that are ready to compete with Xiaomi and Meizu. But - at a more pleasant price. Today we will test one of them in detail: the TX-80 Bluetooth headset with a lot of unique solutions.
Appearance
At first glance, the Macaw TX-80 seems like an ordinary Chinese wireless headset with a semi-sports design. However, all the interesting things are hidden in the details.
The filling - all of it, the battery and the transmitter - is hidden in the headphones themselves. Therefore, they are slightly larger than conventional in-ear models and occupy the entire inner surface of the ear. This is what allows us to recommend the Macaw TX-80 for active movement and sports.
Connects two headphones with a thin wire in a flexible silicone tape measure. It also houses a three-button control panel, with which you can control music playback and volume.
Each headphone has a hidden MMCX input for connecting a detachable cable. The same connectors are used for most headphones and headsets of famous brands, so there will be no problems with purchasing a cable.
Acoustic design
The Macaw TX-80 is an excellent example of well-designed dynamic vacuum or in-ear headphones.
The fashion for hybrid designs has bypassed Macaw, so each earphone hides a huge (by the standards of portable systems) titanium driver with a diagonal of 11 millimeters. Let us remind you that the bulk of analogs are illuminated by 8-millimeter digamiks.
The larger the diameter of the emitter, the more powerful and lower the sound produced by the speaker system. Amazingly, Macaw engineers were able to achieve an astonishing 104 dB sensitivity with excellent dynamic range. The headset reproduces the entire range from 20 Hz to 20 kHz without gaps or audible blockages - also a good indicator.
Connection
In many ways, the capabilities of wireless headphones are determined by the protocols used to connect to the sound source. Macaw tx-80 work with all types of protocols used. In addition, the system supports Bluetooth 4.1 connectivity, which not only reduces power consumption but also improves sound quality.
Another feature of the Macaw tx-80 is support for the popular aptX codec. With it, the headphones are able to play even flac without recoding - a guarantee of high-quality sound.
The new connection protocol provides another feature of the headphones - the ability to simultaneously connect to 2 sound sources.
Sound test
Unlike most wireless headphones, the Macaw TX-80 is not affected by the wireless connection. The code set and the modern version of Bluetooth ensure uninterrupted signal transmission over a distance of up to 20 meters.
Listening to various compositions confirms the high qualifications of Macaw developers. The headphones are perfect for all styles and genres of music. Although with greater confidence they can be recommended to lovers of rich compositions with complex low frequencies - and even bassheads.
The TX-80 performs excellently in the upper range, but is inferior to hybrid headphones such as the Xiaomi Hybrid HD due to the use of a single driver.
But, unlike most wireless systems, the TX-80 does an excellent job as a headset. Voices are clear on both ends of the line.
Battery life
Hidden inside the headphones is a crazy, by the standards of such systems, 110 mAh battery. The manufacturer promises that the Macaw TX-80 is capable of playing music for 8 hours. Unfortunately, these figures are only valid at average volume (sufficient for most listeners, however). When increasing it to the maximum, the uninterrupted operation time is reduced to 6 hours. And in the standby state they can work up to 300 hours!
At the same time, the full charging time is no more than 1.5 hours.
conclusions
Compared to its analogues, the Macaw TX-80 can be called an excellent mid-segment wireless headset.
At a cost of $50, they perform much better than their branded counterparts, and are more likely positioned in the $70-$120 segment. During the promotion, you can purchase it for 35 or even 17 dollars - this is just a gift, since the popular Meizu models are clearly inferior to the Macaw.
