Audio-Technica ATH-TWX7 Review

It’s been a while since Audio-Technica released the TWX9. I was surprised by their quality and how they stacked up to some of the market leaders in true wireless. Now, Audio-Technica has released the TWX7, and more inexpensive follow-up to the X9 that helps grow their true wireless catalog. Does it make an impact for $199?

What You Get

• 30 cm (1.0′) USB-A/USB-C charging cable
• Soft earbud tips: XS, S, M, L
• Standard earbud tips: XS, S, M, L

Look & Feel

The TWX7 isn’t too far of a departure from the design of the TWX9. This is a stemmed earbud with an elongated oval housing and physical buttons. Its style is more than appropriate for the price, no matter if you use the ash black or stone grey models. When worn, the X7 seals well and hangs off of your ears with comfort and tight security.

Design & Functionality

Inside the TWX7 earbuds are 5.8mm drivers, the same system that Audio-Technica used for their flagship TWX9. Its output level is fairly average for the price and does an okay job of giving you enough loudness and headroom. This isn’t the most advanced component of these earbuds though. That would be the MEMS (micro-electromechanical system) microphones, which ensure phone call clarity without environmental obstruction. This is also paired with a noise-canceling processor that delivers good isolation. It’s as strong as the TWX9, offering attenuated noise for more isolated listening.

Bluetooth

The TWX7 offers multipoint Bluetooth, with fast pairing and high stability. It also features high-quality CODECs, such as LDAC.

Battery Life

You can get around six and a half hours of playtime from a single charge. The charging case extends the TWX7’s battery life to about 20 hours. This is fine for the price, but it’s far from the best.

Soundstage

While the TWX7 doesn’t have the luxury of spatial audio like its slightly more expensive counterpart, the soundstage has an admirable width. The sound elements extend distinctly from left to right, forming a true stereo field. You won’t get much depth here, as the imaging stays linear throughout the sound signature. It does the basics right, but everything still feels spatially flat.

Low End

You can get the lows to a good place with EQ, but the bass is unexcited in its default state. There’s a flatness to it that gives the sound signature balance but leaves out some of the fun texture to be had. You can adjust the EQ to have more thickness and punch in the bass, but it comes across more as artificial than detailed. For true wireless earbuds like the X7, this response is enjoyable enough, it just takes a lot of tinkering with EQ.

Mids

Most of the meat that the TWX7 brings is loaded into the midrange. The instruments and effects still come across with that same neutralness that makes the low mids a bit dull, but there’s more of a shape to the mids that supplies more energy to the frequency response. Vocals have more effective areas of expression that can be granted even more clarity through EQ. It mostly helps with enunciation but can help elevate the fullness of instruments as well.

Highs

The sound signature takes a steady dip with the highs, but the response is inoffensive. Like the bass, the highs don’t have a ton of gain to their frequency content. They take a backseat in the mix, but with the highs, it doesn’t come off as boring as the bass sometimes does. These are soft highs that you can add some crispness to with EQ, and that ended up being enough for me.

Summary

Although the TWX7 has great usability, it’s hard to get excited about its sound. Its best attributes are its noise-canceling, and Bluetooth functions, but other than that, the X7 doesn’t do a lot to convince you over the flagship X9.

The Audio-Technica ATH-TWX7 is available at Audio46.