Coumi TWS 834A Review

April 13, 2021 6:06 pm

We cover a lot of different true wireless systems here on MajorHiFi, from the high-end brands like Noble Audio or Sennheiser to the more inexpensive models from lesser-known names. True wireless is available in all different price ranges, quality varying throughout. I have heard some great earbuds for less than a hundred dollars, one of them being Coumi’s ANC-860. The 860’s were a surprisingly nice set of affordable Bluetooth earphones with good noise-canceling and even better sound quality. Their latest effort is the TWS-834A, a set of true wireless earbuds for even less. For some looking for a quick and cheap set of earbuds, that may be enough to sell you, but let’s see what this forty-dollar true wireless has to offer.

What You Get

True wireless earbuds
Charging case
User Guide
Quick Guide
Warranty card
Discount Card
Type C Cable

Look and Feel

Much like the 860, which took a lot of its design inspiration from Sony, the 834A closely resembles another high-profile brand as well. The long stem and oval shell housing are similar to that of Apple’s original earphone aesthetic. A good number of manufacturers have also taken inspiration from this build so I don’t fault COUMI too much for being unoriginal. Some find the Airpod style appealing, and it will make the 834A instantly recognizable as a consumer-friendly brand. People will be sold on something that looks like AirPods that cost significantly less than them. With that also comes the disadvantages of this specific design, like the earbuds never feeling secure or even very comfortable.

Design and Functionality

For such a small and inexpensive earbud, the driver housed within is pretty sizable. It is a 12.5mm driver, which powers a considerable signal for what the 834A is. There’s nothing else very special about this unit other than its size, but the simple construction is enough to bolster a significant amount of volume. As for its features, you get your standard touch-sensitive feedback that houses playback controls and phone calls. The controls here are very responsive with little delay and just the right amount of sensitivity. Although the 834A has no ANC feature, it has an advertised ENC function that uses four microphones in order to reduce ambient noise. However, this feature is more useful with phone calls than it is with listening to music. ENC makes it so your voice can be heard clearly for the caller on the other line. The biggest addition for Coumi is the introduction of a companion app. This app can only be used with the 834A, and it contains a parametric EQ. With it you can customize the timbre yourself, as well as cycle through genre-related presets.

Bluetooth

The 834A supports Bluetooth 5.0, and with such a chipset, I was able to get an instant connection. However, there were a few dropouts throughout my testing, but they always reconnected be themselves with ease.

Battery Life

Along with its charging case, the 834A should last you 30 hours of playtime. A single charge gives you around five hours of life, with 10 minutes of charging granting you an hour. Five hours isn’t much, but at this price point, it does the job.

Soundstage

There isn’t much to say about the soundstage and image quality of the 834A. A lot of the responses can be manipulated by the inclusion of EQ, but these changes don’t have too much effect on the earbuds’ natural frequency response and sense of spatial imaging. With the 834A you get a very linear sense of width, all condensed into a rather boxy image. The sounds never feel like they properly expand, lacking height and any considerable depth. This is kind of what I was expecting, but even then I wanted a little more.

Low End

Much of the bass response feels scooped out without any sense of bottom end heft. This makes the timbre appear very hollow at times, especially with bass-heavy genres. What’s there in the bass timbre is mostly unclear, and is only bolstered by more present low-mids.

Mids

The midrange acts as the central showcase for the 834A, producing a sizable tonality. Although a few notches are definitely present, most of the frequency bands stay intact, even if they lack any fidelity or detail. It’s at its best with metal and hard rock music, where distorted guitars get to appear even more crunchy than before. Like the bass, it doesn’t make the sound field very clear but offers a textural quality in its place. The most claret you’re going to get in this sound signature is within vocal registers, with their forward and commanding presentation.

Highs

Treble can be very bright at times, sometimes even piercing. Drums and other percussions will have that splashy tonality, but without the height or any real sense of space, it’s much harder for frequencies to dissipate clearly. The overall brightness will be hard to digest for some, especially those looking for an earphone at this price range.

Summary

If you happen to be looking at Bluetooth earbuds in this price range, I would probably point you somewhere else. However, for a forty-dollar earbud to have its very own EQ app makes the 834A a bit more special in my eyes. While boosting bass or decreasing treble might still not get you the most clarity out of the sound signature, it definitely helps to have it. The Bluetooth resolution and battery life aren’t exactly anything to write home about either, even if it does enough to get the job done. At forty dollars you can’t really complain, especially for an earbud with its on EQ.