Sony WI-C100 Measurements and Quick Impressions

This will actually be a somewhat brief blurb about how they sound because 1.) It's been well over half a year since I got ears on these and they're my dad's so I can't just nab em willy-nilly, 2.) I think he "misplaced" them a while ago ergo I'm unable to redo measurements now that I have a not-bollixed MiniDSP EARS to work with even if he gave permission, and 3.) the budget TWS space is pretty saturated so I don't imagine that this is going to be particularly compelling a value proposition nowadays in terms of raw performance.

Don't have photos. You can find a specs list here: https://www.sony-asia.com/electroni...s-bluetooth-headphones/wi-c100/specifications

Overall these are a pretty easy recommendation if you're looking for a TWS neckband IEM thing for workouts.

They're in between the price of the original Crinacle x Salnotes Zero and the Zero 2, leaning closer to the latter, but naturally the Zero 2 stomps it for sound quality (voicing notwithstanding). Still, I know the shells on the Zero/Zero 2 are on the larger side for lots of folk, whereas the Sonys here use tiny bullet-shaped chasses which is going to be excellent for accessibility of fit, provided you find that the stock tips are secure enough for you.

The following are all uncompensated MiniDSP EARS measurements so the upper treble response is going to be underreported, but there actually is a dearth of mid-treble and air that's similar to how the Etymotic ER2XR has things. It's not bothersome, especially when using these IEMs for workouts which is what I imagine its intended use case is. The unit has an IPx4 rating which means it'll survive sweat and light rains, but nothing more difficult than that.

SONY WI-C100 Frequency Response (1/48oct smoothing, three passes per channel; the imbalance is really there)

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There's a fancy little app that you can use to tailor the sound of the Sonys to better suit your preferences, and the range of different voicings is pretty impressive; I don't think this is the sort of thing that warrants extreme granularity since you can always just use EQ to better tailor the sound to your preferences. The fun of sideloading those profiles onto the IEMs is that you needn't worry about having to re-apply the EQ every time you connect to a new device.

I generally dislike using EQ cuz the sound does bother me somewhat if I really listen for it, but these are SBC/AAC-only TWS IEMs, so you aren't really getting these for absolute sonic fidelity IMO, so to that end there's no real compromise.

SONY WI-C100 (RED) v Etymotic ER2XR (YELLOW) [Impressions HERE]

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SONY WI-C100 (RED) v first-generation Samsung Galaxy Buds (sorta BLUE) [Impressions HERE]

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SONY WI-C100 (RED) vs JBL TWS 120 (CYAN) [Impressions HERE]

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From memory: the sound is... fine. Headstage is reasonably wide but there's nothing in the way of delineation to things, and while I do like how the bass levels off cleanly (not a fan of massive low end boosts), the attacks are weak as tend to be the case with wireless codecs (even LDAC, at least based on my experiences with lower tier LDAC receivers). I do like the bass-mids transition, it's coherent if slightly mid-forward, but that does help a fair bit with intelligibility during calls and when you're not wanting to crank volumes up during a run so you have some semblance of environmental awareness.

Really busy passages devolve into a wall of sound, but it's easy enough to identify what's going on. It's a really serviceable thing, especially for it costing less than the acclaimed Salnotes Zero 2. That said, it's not even funny how much better the Zero 2 is from a purely technical perspective, even though I'm not the biggest fan of how it's voiced. There's just a pervasive sense of hashiness to the sound of this thing that, while inoffensive to me, really does impinge on its technical performance. Could be the product of poor acoustic design or the fact that it's limited to AAC codec at best, or both.

The buttons on the in-line control piece are easy to distinguish in use, but are pretty mushy to operate. Didn't get to test battery life out but I imagine it'll last a couple days out with normal use.

SONY WI-C100 RIGHT channel distortion:

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SONY WI-C100 LEFT channel distortion:

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Yep, noise floor was pretty high when I measured these back in September last year, ergo why I was wanting to redo distortion measurements.

Overall, you can probably find a regular ol wired IEM that'll whoop these things six ways to Sunday without breaking a sweat at the same or lower price point, but for these being wireless, having a nice companion app where you can sideload EQ profiles to suit your preferences, and for them having tiny chasses (and a good-enough ingress protection rating), I'd still recommend these for a carry-around-beater pair you can stuff into a pocket.

As to why you cannot wear these like a necklace when not in use: the earpieces aren't magnetised. Maybe Sony was worried about that interfering with the Neodym magnets coupled to the drivers; with how these present things, I imagine that'd be an actual concern.