Introduction

As phone manufacturers keep releasing phones without 3.5mm headphones jack, the demand of using Bluetooth earphones rises. When it comes to audiophile purists, some may describe Bluetooth earphones as sacrilegious products. To others, it may just be an all-in-one portable setup that doesn’t comes with the fusses of wires and dongles. Big thanks to Astrotec for giving us a big opportunity to check out their entry level True Wireless Stereo (TWS) the model S70.

Specifications:

• Driver Unit: Japan 6mm Liquid Crystal Polymer (LCP) Diaphragm Dynamic Driver
• Frequency Response: 10Hz -20K Hz
• Impedance: 32Ohm
• Sensitivity: 110dB
• Charging Methods:
  • Fast charge / Magnetic Charge (Earphones)
  • USB-C (Charging Case)
• Bluetooth Version: Bluetooth 5.0
• Audio Codec: AAC, SBC
• Transmission Range: >10m
• Continuous phone call time (ANC/ON): 3.5hrs
• Continuous music playback time (60% Vol.): 4.5hrs
• Continuous music playback time (60% Vol., ANC/ON): about 4.5hrs

Packaging & Accessories

The Astrotec S70 comes in a pretty standard packaging, what’s include in the package is a pair of S70 TWS earphone inside its charging case, there are 3 pairs of silicone tips (one pairs already attached on the earphone itself, an USB A to C cable for charging and of course a user manual that folds like a map.

Retail Price & Where To Get

Purchase Link :

https://astrotecglobal.com/products/s70

https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005003167761855.html

Design

The design of the S70 is rather eye catching, matte translucent plastic seems to be its main theme for the design, there are 2 colours option available (purple and black). Personally, I would prefer the black, but anyway we have the purple one with us today. From the earphone’s charging case to the earphone itself are made from the same matte translucent plastic, showing off its internals while providing some resistance to daily wear and scratches.

The earphones have a triangular body with rounded edges which will provides a comfortable fitment to the ears.

The earphone’s nozzle and the ear tips have a slight oval shape which supposed to give a better fitment into the ear canal, however for some reason (maybe I have a weird ear canal) the earbuds tend to brings some discomfort to my ear canal. For the earphone controls, there are some TWS earphones uses physical button, with buttons whenever you pressed a very loud audible button click will interrupt the listening experience. The S70 on the other hand, uses touch sensitive surface to do the job. The up side, there won’t be any physical button clicks, but on the down side, there are quite a lot of tapping actions to memorize for all the controls.

The S70 charging case uses an up-to-date USB C socket (THANK GOODNESS IT IS NOT MICRO USB) for charging its case battery, weirdly however the socket is a tad too shallow for most of the USB cable (including the package given ones) which causes the fitting of the USB C connector seems like it is not all the way in.

Setting Up and Usability

Setting up the S70 is rather straight forward, open up the case turns the earphones on, connecting to it is just a press away from the phone’s Bluetooth menu. The controls may require some time to learn as there are quite a number of controls available. There is no application bundle with the earphone, so the controls are not customizable. To turn it off, just slot the earphones back into its charging case and close it up. The earphones will get charged as long they are in the charging case.

The S70 doesn’t seems to have a memory for last used mode. For this review, I will switch it to “ANC off” mode whenever I turn it off and turn back on, it will return to its default “ANC on” mode.

Gears Used for Comparisons

• iPhone 8
• Jade Audio EW1
• OnePlus Buds

Song list

Tone and Presentation

The S70 has a warm-ish with boosted bass signature. Overall, it brings a very fun listening experience which suits most pop music.

It has 3 modes of listening, Anti-Noise Cancellation (ANC) on, Anti-Noise Cancellation (ANC) off and Ambient listening.

With ANC on, the surrounding noise are reduced, the ANC wasn’t able to cancel out all the outside noise so there will be still have some outside noise coming through the earphones. When there are no music playing, there is a noticeable buzzing and music sounds abit boxy while the ANC is turned on, there are some pressures build up in the ears which may cause slight nauseating feeling. With ANC off, the background is clean, there are no buzzing and feels more natural sounding which I felt that this my personal preferred mode and in my opinion the mode that would bring out the S70 best potential. Ambient mode is where the S70 will turn on its microphone to pick up any external noise and play through the earphone’s speaker amplified. This could be useful when you wanted to be aware about your surrounding while still be able to listen music.

Soundstage

The S70 has a very upfront staging presentation and it feels like the listener is part of the band, vocals are presented as if they are right in front of the listener which gives a very engaging experience. It does sounds very closed and lack of spacious airiness and this wasn’t come as a surprise, the S70 being a TWS earphone doesn’t have much to work with in terms of chamber tuning. The inner earphones are tightly packed with battery, touch sensors and circuit board to keep the earphone size small.

Separation and Timbre

Being and entry level TW in terms of details, it is not the strong suit of S70. The separation of each instrument wasn’t well presented when it all being played all together, the background vocals just clump up together with the main vocal in It’s My Life’s track it also takes me a while to dissect and digs out the triangle and xylophone details from Niccolò Paganini’s Violin Concerto. For the “24 Caprices for Violin No.3 in E Minor” when the violin trills notes are less noticeable, take it like instead of a ride on bumpy road where you can feel each and every bump, the S70 presented these bumps as if they had been flattened to become less noticeable which takes away some of the emotions.

Drivability

For a TWS, since there it is driven by its own amp internally from the earphone, there are no concerns on drivability from devices to devices, it should be sufficient for day to day listening. Personally, on normal listening, my usual level on my iPhone would be around 30% of the volume control bar, however for classical track, I would push it up to around 70-80%.

Bass

The S70 does makes a decent rumble with The Weeknd Blinding Lights’ intro. The S70 is rather a bass centric earphone, so you can expect it does deliver more lows than other frequencies. However, the speed of the bass decay wasn’t really fast enough causing the bass to be rather boomy.

Mids

The lower mids are lush and thick with a slight hint of veiled. Vocals are forward and engaging, listening to Whitney Houston’s I Got Nothing track her vocals are presented clear, smooth and yet very energetic. There is no spiking sibilance to be found on Fish Leong’s track and is just buttery smooth.

Highs

It might be the trick from the Liquid Crystal Polymer (LCP) diaphragm driver but this is my first experience with LCP driver so I can’t be 100% certain. The highs again, are buttery smooth with some sparkles. Even with long hours of listening, the highs are not fatiguing at all. I do wish there are some extra extensions on the highs but for an entry level TWS, this is quite acceptable.

Comparisons

Jade Audio EW1

The Jade Audio is a sub brand from a well establish audiophile brand (Fiio). The EW1 have a deep V sound signature, bass on the EW1 are able to hit the bottom notes much deeper while still keeping it tight, the mids on the EW1 are much recessed as compared with the S70. Besides, the highs on the EW1 seems to have much spikes and vocal sibilance are quite noticeable, which may cause some fatigue after long hours of listening. Soundstage wise, the EW1 are quite similar to the S70.

OnePlus Buds

The OnePlus Earbuds is quite a tricky earphone to be compared with as it is not an in-ear earphone. The fitment of the OnePlus Earbuds will give a different presentation of sound. Even if it is well fitted, it is very obvious the S70 is miles ahead of the OnePlus Earbuds. On rock songs like “It’s my life” the separation for each instrument just doesn’t present well. The OnePlus Earbuds have a vent at the top back of the earphone, it does allow the driver to have more space to breathe and able to bring out a deep low, mids are somewhat veiled, vocals are not as forward as the S70 and the highs doesn’t really sparkle well. Soundstage wise, the OnePlus Earbuds is slightly wider than the S70 but there is not much depth to it.

Source synergy

There is not much information on what Bluetooth chipset did Astrotec used, from the specification sheet, it seems to only support AAC and SBC codecs which is somewhat disappointing as most of the TWS out there do support higher bitrate codecs like aptX. That being said, there will be a slight audible compression artifact during playback even with lossless files.

I do wishes that Astrotec uses Qualcomm’s chipset that supports aptX so that it could at least support the full bitrate from Spotify Premium, which is most likely the go to streaming service that most consumer might use on the go with their portable devices. With the S70 being a Bluetooth earphone, there is no possible source upgrade to further improve its sound. However, you could still swap the ear tips to slightly change its sound, with Spinfit the bass are less boomy and will introduce some width and depth to the soundstage. Downside? After fitting Spinfit to the S70, fitting the earphones back into its charging case is near impossible.

Who Is It For?

The S70 would be an ideal choice for those who wanted an earphone with fun sounding signature without having fuss of a full wired setup on the go. However, audiophile purists may want to think twice about having this (PS: This earphone plays music over witchcraft and black magic… Bluetooth!!!). Jokes aside, the lack of high bitrate Bluetooth codes may cause some irritation to some sensitive ears. The idea of having ANC would be not be a priority for having this earphone as it doesn’t seem to cancel out all the surrounding noise and it will affect the tonality.

Final words

Overall, the Astrotec S70 does check quite a number of boxes for an entry level TWS. Yes, the ANC function is not the best in the TWS circle, the musical details presentation may not be the most revealing, especially compared to similar priced wired earphones but at the price of $49 to get an earphone with LCP diaphragm driver which usually found on Sony’s higher price point earphones/headphones, it does bring out some great fun in listening modern pop music.

(4 / 5)