Tronsmart Onyx Prime dual-driver wireless earbuds for audiophiles
Tronsmart Onyx Prime. Pic: Noel Campion.
Tronsmart is well-known for its audio products which generally offer excellent features at an affordable price but their latest earbuds claim they're made for audiophiles. This is a pretty bold statement and while they do sound great, I don’t think true audiophiles are willing to cut the wire on their earphones just yet.
The Onyx Prime feature hybrid dual drivers and as a result, the earbuds are a little chubby. They still look great with a polished glossy black finish but they do stick out from your ears more than a lot of other earbuds. However, since the stem is so short the overall shape and look is still fairly minimalistic and stylish.
The Onyx Prime comes with a largish charging pebble-like case while sporting a dark grey metallic finish. The symmetrical design of the case means it’s hard to know which way is up at first glance and makes opening the lid a little awkward because you may be trying to open it from the base. To be fair, there is a Tronsmart logo embossed on the lid so I found I had to make sure the case was the right way up before attempting to open the case lid.
The oval shape of the case makes it easy to slip into a pocket which is nice and it feels great in the hand to hold.
The only grip I have on the case is the lack of a flat base to sit them upright on a desk but that is only a matter of personal preference.
The earbuds come with both ear and wing tips and once you find the right size for your ears, you should find them as comfortable and secure as I did. There’s a choice of three different sizes of each and finding the best fit not only improves comfort but also the sound quality.
The earbuds are relatively light too, weighing a mere 6.5g. Thanks to the extra security of the wing tips and light weight, I found the Onyx Prime not only great for listening to music around the house but also for walking or cycling.
Unfortunately, there’s no option to charge the Onyx Prime wirelessly but a full charge cycle only takes around two hours. A fully charged case and earbuds will give you a total of 40 hours of playtime. That’s a lot more than many flagship earphones. The earbuds are good for up to seven hours per charge depending on volume and which sound codecs is used.
The Onyx Prime feature touch controls for playback, volume, voice assistant and for switching between music and game modes. The latter provides a slightly lower audio quality in lieu of better latency.
You can customise the touch controls in the Tronsmart app but I found the default ones just fine. You can disable some functions if you find you don’t use them like the option to summons the voice assistant. The app also includes eight equaliser presets that can be tweaked to your individual preferences.
The Onyx Prime comes with Bluetooth 5.2 with support for absolute Bluetooth volume, aptX Adaptive, aptX, AAC and SBC audio codecs. Unfortunately, they don’t support Bluetooth 5.2 features such as being connected to two devices simultaneously. As soon as you take the buds out of the case they connect to your paired device and during my testing, the connection was always strong and solid.
The Onyx Prime come with dual drivers that include a balanced armature driver and a dynamic driver. The soundstage is nice and spacious with lots of detail in the mids and highs. In particular, the bass and sub-bass are excellent even at lower volumes. Of course, you can tune down the bass if you find it too much in the app but bass heads will love the extra boom.
Despite their relatively low price, the Onyx Prime provide an exceptionally balanced sound that I would expect from earphones two or even three times their price. While they’re missing features such as ANC and wireless charging, the great battery life and sound quality make up for this.
See Tronsmart for more details.
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