The world of home audio is in a much different place than 20 years ago when headphones were a niche category.
Today, a case could be made that headphones—or ear buds—are the top selling products in the entire consumer audio market with perhaps a slight challenge from the soundbar category. One of the company’s that’s helped to drive the popularity of ear buds over the past several years is Poly.
As many people know Poly has offered conferencing systems for years. Over this time the company’s conferencing products could be found in the boardrooms of every conceivable type of business.
Responding to the shift in workplace attitudes, as well as the massive impact the pandemic has had in ushering in work from home (WFH) and hybrid work schedules, the company has made substantial investments into personal audio products that balance work and leisure activities.
Not long ago the company announced its Voyager Free 20 ear buds. These new ear buds can be used for practical work activities such as conference calls and phone calls, and just as importantly from a value perspective, the Free 20s can be used for music and streaming content.
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Over the past few months I’ve been using the ear buds for phone calls, streaming and music and the latest Poly products have proven to be a reliable performer.
Getting going with the Poly ear buds is easy. After I took the Bluetooth-enabled Voyager Free 20s out of their packaging all I needed to do was to open the companion Poly Lens App. Once the charging case is opened, the app will “see” the ear buds and as a user you just need to add the Voyager Free 20 ear buds.
The app provides information such as the charge level of the ear buds and the charging case, as well as other information, including access to functions like active noise cancelling (ANC), ringtones, volume, voice prompts, and tones. To get to these functions all users need to do is tap the ellipsis that is just about the image of the ear buds on the app screen. Users will also notice the ear buds in their Bluetooth connections if they open the settings on their phones (I have an iPhone 15 Pro).
Before I get into the performance of the Voyager Free 20 Ear Buds, I think the app is easy to navigate and it provides plenty of options to allow users to tailor the ear buds features to their specific usage scenarios.
As a business solution, the ear buds work much better than a phone or a set of computer speakers to facilitate conference and phone calls. The Voyager Free 20s are now my go-to to improve the quality of my phone calls. If I know I have a call, I will grab the ear buds and put them in before making that call. I’ll also ask someone if they call me to hang on for a moment while I grab the ear buds because there are so many factors that can affect the quality of phone call.
I’ve found that by using the Voyager Free 20s some of the negative issues that detract from the quality of a phone call are minimized by the ear buds. As a solution for entertainment such as music and streaming video, the ear buds work well.
First, I’d like to point out, the ear buds work reliably on a consistent basis. This may be easy to overlook, but I’ve owned plenty of headphones and ear buds that have quit/died or not connected to my phones consistently. It is a frustrating experience for your ear buds/headphones to die before you exercise or go out to do some yard work, whatever activity you engage in. The Poly ear buds offer a nice reliable user experience. The wireless life also lasts for a long time. I haven’t put a timer on the ear buds, but I am satisfied with the battery life the Voyager Free 20 ear buds offer.
Focusing on sound quality, the Poly Voyager Free 20 ear buds are nice sounding with attributes such as the ability to deliver a surprising amount of lower midrange/upper bass. An example I can point to are the songs Spiderwebs from No Doubt and Tell Me Baby from the Red Hot Chili Peppers. I’ve been learning these songs on guitar and listening to these songs with the ear buds.
Hearing the bass lines of these songs, I think the bass sits in the mixes with more emphasis than some other ear buds I’ve used. On the Red Hot Chili Peppers song I also benefitted from hearing what I believe is some type of envelop filter or poly octave effect supporting the main guitar riff. I don’t recall hearing before. The effect using the Poly Voyager Free 20s is clearly defined whenever I listen to the song with the ear buds.
Classic rock such as Led Zeppelin and songs such as Dazed and Confused highlight the firmness of John Bonham’s drums in the content from the iconic debut album from the band, while newer music such as Lady Gaga’s version of Shallow is rendered with a lot of detail, including the slight bit of rasp in her voice when the song hits the first pre-chorus.
My conclusion is the Poly Voyager Free 20 ear buds are another fine personal listening solution from the large company. Between the reasonable price point, reliable performance, comfort and fit, work applications, and general sound quality, I highly recommend checking out Poly’s new ear buds.
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