KitSound District True Wireless Earbuds Review

No more wires for me thanks!

by Greg Hook
Hi-Fi Review

2

Recommended
KitSound District True Wireless Earbuds Review
MSRP: £69.99

What are the KitSound District True Wireless Earbuds?

Where has my headphone jack disappeared to? There is a certain point when a company achieves a certain size and becomes so popular that it feels it can do anything to its flagship products because they will still fly off the shelves due to having so many loyal customers. Well that point has been and long gone with a certain fruit-based company.

In case you haven’t guessed, we are talking about the Apple iPhone and the removal of the headphone jack. Old news maybe, but for many users it left two choices, bin your trusty wired headphones and buy a wireless pair or pay over the odds for an adaptor so you could still use them. Whilst it did seem like a massive inconvenience, the removal of the headphone jack has prompted a huge demand for wireless earbuds. One that many companies are now falling over each other to offer a myriad of solutions.

One such company is KitSound. An award-winning British audio brand who produce headphones, speakers and audio accessories. A brand that should not be unfamiliar to AVForums readers having featured in reviews of their Alexa Enabled Voice One Smart Speaker and Reunion Wireless Bookshelf Speakers. Our review item today is their District True Wireless Earbuds. Retailing at £69.99 these earbuds are completely wireless, feature a portable magnetic charging case, auto pairing, water resistance and Bluetooth V5.0. Read on to see if these earbuds fare well in our tests….

What about the Design and Controls?

Starting with the wireless charging case, which easily fits in the palm of your hand, it’s all black with an attractive mesh rubber top featuring the KitSound logo and a hard-plastic base. Opening the top reveals the earbuds which are magnetically connected to the charging points. The case features four LED lights to indicate charging and a button to tell you the battery life remaining in the charging case. To the rear of the case, behind a chunky rubber seal, is the micro-USB charging port and a handy USB charge out port, so this could act as a power bank if your phone was about to go flat.
Kitsound District True Wireless Earbuds
The charging case has all the hallmarks of being water resistant due to how the top securely fits and the seal covering the ports, but alas it is not. The earbuds, however, are rated to IPX5 which means they are protected from sweat and to water jets from any direction, but that doesn’t mean you can drop them down the toilet or use them in the shower and expect them to still work!

The earbuds themselves are quite chunky in size and will most likely fill your entire ear. The rear of each earbud has a soft rubberised feel with the KitSound logo and a LED indicator. The rear also features the multi-function button which can be used for a wide range of functions. They are an attractive design and one that won’t look out of place, but they are not small and won't go unnoticed. Out of the box you have a choice of three sizes of ear tips to ensure the best fit and this is important as these do need to be firmly inserted into your ear to get the best sound.

Being lightweight was clearly a consideration here for KitSound as the charging case with earbuds weighs only 140g and the earbuds on their own weigh just 11g.

Specifications and Features

  • Bluetooth Technology: v5
  • Bluetooth connectivity distance: Up to 10m
  • Drivers: 7mm
  • Frequency Response: 20 Hz – 20 kHz
  • Play time: Up to 3 hours per use and up to 40 hours with the charging case
  • Battery type: LiPo, rechargeable
  • Transmission power: 5.7 mW
  • Frequency Band: 2402 – 2480 Mhz
  • Max charge time: 1.5 hours
  • Water Resistance: IPX5
Kitsound District True Wireless Earbuds
The multi-function button on each earbud can be used to perform a wide range of functions by simply changing the length or number of presses of each button. Such as changing the volume, moving to the next track, pausing a track, accepting a call and even activating Google or Siri voice assistance. For example, double pressing the right earbud MFB would pause the music, you can then double press the left earbud MFB to activate the ever-helpful Siri or Google.

Setup and Performance

The initial setup and pairing were very quick and simple. Simply hold the MFB on both earbuds for three seconds until you hear a voice say paired, by which point the earbuds are paired together. You can then go into your Bluetooth device settings on your mobile device and select the earbuds that have now appeared on your list. The earbuds can only be paired to one device at a time, so if you have an iPhone and an iPad you can’t interchange between the two without first disconnecting from one device.

Kitsound District True Wireless Earbuds
Following this simple setup, we then proceeded to test the earbuds. Our initial thoughts were of great disappointment as the sound was of very poor quality and very tinny, lacking any bass whatsoever. But, these earbuds do need to fit very snuggly in your ear to ensure you get the best quality sound, so choosing the correct size of ear tip from the three choices that come in the box is important. Once properly fitted, which you will know instantly as the earbuds will now feel very secure, we found the sound had improved significantly. Due to the large size of the earbuds they also offer a good deal of noise cancellation.

Once we had fitted them correctly we were reasonably happy with the audio quality. It had a clear presentation together with a crisp sound. The bass unfortunately was not as present as we would have liked, although this could be improved by altering the earbud position in your ear slightly, but not to any great extent and not to a position that we could find comfortable after the initial fit.

We tested with a variety of sources and genres from rock, pop and our favourite Hans Zimmer Live album and with all of these audio quality was very good, just unfortunate that the bass was lacking. Occasionally we did find that the audio cut out for a second in the right earbud but this was not the norm.

Conclusion

Pros

  • Lightweight Design
  • Good quality audio
  • Magnetic Charging case
  • IPX5 Water Resistance
  • Case acts as a Power Bank
  • Good value for money

Cons

  • Bass lacking
  • A little difficult to fit in the ear at first
  • Occasional audio cut out

KitSound District True Wireless Earbuds Review

Should I buy the KitSound District True Wireless Earbuds?

The KitSound Earbuds retail for £69.99 and offer a very interesting package for the money. Rather than just being a pair of wireless earbuds on their own, having the charging case which can also act as a power bank certainly adds meat to the bone. Featuring a very simple setup, impressive play time and IPX5 water resistance, these earbuds seem to offer everything you could possibly want.

But, the earbuds were a little fiddly to get fitted in the correct position in your ear, which is important as it greatly affects the audio quality if you don’t have them fitted snuggly. Once fitted correctly, they are very secure and you should have no concerns of them falling out during exercise for example. Whilst we found the overall audio quality to be good, the bass was definitely lacking.

What are the alternatives?

As the iPhone, sans headphone jack, has been around for a while now, there are a vast array of wireless earbuds available from a wide range of manufacturers. Firstly, Apple's AirPods retail at £159 which does make these Kitsound District Earbuds seem like great value for money. But there are many cheaper alternatives such as Onkyo’s W800BTB at £79.99 and the Soundcore Liberty Lite available for just £59.99.

Overall, we were impressed with the KitSound District True Wireless Earbuds which, for the money, should be worthy of our recommendation and with just a few tweaks to improve the bass and improve the fitment in your ear, they should be on to a winner.

Scores

Build Quality

.
.
8

Ease of Use

.
9

Sound Quality

.
.
.
7

Design

.
.
8

Sensitivity

.
.
8

Verdict

.
.
8
8
AVForumsSCORE
OUT OF
10

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