KZ Carol True Wireless Earbuds, Bluetooth 5.3 HiFi Deep Bass Stereo Headphones, Hybrid Active Noise Cancelling in Ear Earphones, IPX5 Waterproof Ear Buds, 6HD Mics for AI Clear Calls

The KZ Carol earbuds have got to be among the best sounding earbuds around.The first thing that I do when I get a set of earbuds is run them through my list of music tracks; classic rock, classic, er, classical, classic jazz, and a few other classic genres. I look for a resonate bass, clear highs, and a crisp, clean sound through the middle frequencies. And the KZ Carol delivers in all categories. These are really wonderful sounding earbuds!The next step is a call or two with friends. I hope for a “you sound like you’re right here” and the KZ Carol earbuds deliver on that score, as well. I also, of course, hope to be able to hear and understand them, too. And that box is checked off, too.So, for the most important things about earbuds, as far as I’m concerned, the KZ Carol earbuds, work beautifully.One area of disappointment is in the noise control (Active Noise Control - ANC). It’s barely there. You have options to turn on noise suppression (ANC On), turn it off (ANC Off), which then provides only a passive noise suppression based on your ears being plugged up by the earbuds, and Transparency Mode which uses the system to amplify external sounds that would otherwise be muffled. Unfortunately, there is hardly any difference between the three modes. Maneuvering around the three modes is tricky, as well. Like all earbuds that use some level of touch control somewhere on the buds themselves, finding the right spot without activating something else, like start or stop a track, can be a bit hit and miss.One other area that caused me a problem was extracting the earbuds from the case. While I generally find it easier to extract earbuds that lie flat in their case, the KZ Carol earbuds lie deep in the case and are made from rather slick and sleek material. I could only reliably extract them by pinching the earbuds at the very top as the top of the buds lie a bit more proud of the case than the rest of it.The last bit, which isn’t really a complaint because it’s spelled out right on the product page, is the run time is about 5 hours. And it really is. I’ve had them in my ears for five hours and as the saying goes, as “regular as clockwork”, five hours and they shut down. I do not normally keep stuff in my ears for 5 hours so I don’t find this to be a problem.One thing I would have liked to have seen would be an app that could be used instead of the touch controls on the earbuds themselves, and maybe an equalizer, although, as above, I’m not sure that the high quality of the sound could, or should, be messed with. Just a nice to have and in no way a criticism.To end on a high note, I am pleased as punch to see multi-point connectivity. That’s where you can pair the earbuds to another device, which, of course, you can do with everything, but then use the earbuds on the second device without having to disconnect from the first one. It’s very convenient, for instance, when listening to a podcast on your phone and then switch to the tv, where you had previously paired. I like this feature very much.To sum up, the KZ Carol earbuds are excellent in every way that counts, except in the case of ANC, which, maybe I was doing something wrong, for me did not appear to work. I knocked a star off for this, which is unfortunate, because the sound is very, very good and I otherwise like these earbuds very much.