The curious ring-shaped design of the open-sound LinkBuds is getting an update to fit better, while also offering a speaker for home.
It’s always interesting to see what device makers can do when they think out of the box, compared to just sticking with what everyone else does best. Take some of the cool and crazy ideas that headphone makers have come up with over the years.
Headphones that measure you’re hearing are a great example, but so too are earbuds designed to let you hear through them in an all-day wearable design.
Sony has dabbled with that more than most, coming up with not one, but two different open audio concepts designed to let you hear your music and podcasts while listening to the outside world. First there was the Ear Duo back in 2018, while its most recent incarnation popped up a couple of years ago in the LinkBuds, an idea that used a ring-shaped driver to let you hear through the earbuds.
The original Sony LinkBuds were interesting and a little ahead of their time, with the range later adapted to include a less expensive take on Sony’s premium noise cancelling earbuds, while the ring-shaped model took a bit of a backseat.
Fast forward to now, and Sony is giving the ring-shaped driver a second round, while bringing two more LinkBuds models to the table.
The latest take on the open sound concept comes in the form of the LinkBuds Open, a familiar take on the idea that uses a new version of the ring driver with an accessory called a “Fitting Supporter” that helps fit the earbuds to your ear. Sony also has an adaptive volume control feature to change the volume of what you’re listening to in the hopes that you can have both types of audio — the real world and from your phone — coexist in the same place.
There’s no noise cancellation here, and that’s thanks to the LinkBuds Open being just that: open. However, Sony does have a new variation of the LinkBuds with noise cancellation on-board.
By comparison, the LinkBuds Fit looks different, offering a fitness-focused pair that forgoes the ring-driver for something a little more standard, using the Fitting Supporter accessories together with the same chip used in the WF-1000XM5 noise cancelling earbuds.
That combination effectively makes the LinkBuds Fit an exercise-focused variant of the XM5, complete with an IPX4 water resistance rating.
Sony also has one final addition to the LinkBuds range, and it’s a bit of a surprise.
The LinkBuds Speaker is a small Bluetooth speaker made for calls and music, with a way to switch between a pair of LinkBuds and the speaker sound automatically.
Think of it as being like the Apple switch from AirPods to a HomePod, usually performed through hand-over when an iPhone bumps with the top of a HomePod. It’s a similar concept, though one that could see limited audience, primarily being those who already have a pair of LinkBuds.
Sony hasn’t yet confirmed whether the LinkBuds Speaker will work with other Sony headphones or earphones, but given the feature is connected with the now-renamed Sony Headphones app, now called Sound Connect, it’s possible this feature will roll out at one point in time.
It may even arrive in October, which would be before the new LinkBuds earbuds arrive. Locally, the LinkBuds Speaker will be found from $299 in October, while both the LinkBuds Open and LinkBuds Fit can be found from November onwards from $349.95.
