Audiofly AFT2

Audiofly AFT2 True Wireless earphones (review)

9

Hmmm – Audiofly AFT2. Australian? Check! True wireless? Check! Bluetooth 5? Check! aptX codec? Check! Gum Leaf colour? Check, check, check!

We had to check out the Audiofly AFT2 true wireless earphones, released just yesterday.

Review: Audiofly AFT2 True Wireless earphones

  • Australian Website here
  • Price: A$199.99
  • From: Store DJ, Mannys Music, Amazon, eBay and Miint Gear
  • Warranty: 1 year
  • Country of Manufacture: China
  • About: Audiofly is an Australian company focussing mostly on quality earphones. It originally produced professional in-ear monitors, but now is also well into the consumer space.

About the Audiofly AFT2 True Wireless earphones

Okay, they aren’t just gum leaf (green). They’re also granite (black), sandstone (cream) and sunset (red).

The Audiofly AFT2 True Wireless earphones are conventional in the sense of consisting of two buds and a carry/charge case. But also unconventional, as there’s no sprung lid. Instead, the inner cradle for the buds slides out from a metal case. See the photos.

The two parts don’t come apart. The other end from the opening part is magnetic to hold things together. It is but it’s powerful enough to allow the whole thing to stick on a fridge. On the opening end is a four-bar LED charge display, a red button to make it show, and a USB Type-C port for charging.

Audiofly AFT2

The earbuds have an astonishing ten hours of battery life. The case holds a further 25 hours. It’s 90mm long, 41mm wide and 35mm tall. The case and buds together weigh 92.2 grams. Each bud weighs 6.1 grams. They act somewhat as wings, helping them to lock securely into your ears. Unusually, there are only two sizes of silicone tips: small and medium. Sometimes medium will do it for me, but I usually prefer large.

In addition to the aptX codec and the standard SBC one, the Audiofly AFT2 True Wireless earphones also use AAC for Apple devices.

One unusual feature is that you can choose which bud is the “master” earbud – that is, the one that connects to the phone (the other bud connects to the master bud). The first one you take out of case on each occasion becomes the master for that session.

Practicalities

Does it matter which one is the master? Well, it can affect the reliability of the connection. Audiofly specifies the operating range at 20 metres. I found that at a very narrow-angle the sound would drop out as close as five metres. That angle involved the master bud being on the opposite side of my head to the Bluetooth source device.

Audiofly AFT2

I thought that perhaps the relatively high aptX bitrate in the connection to my Android phone could be a problem. I switched to an iPhone 8 to force the system to use AAC, but it made little difference.

Anyway, since you can choose the master, you can optimise for performance depending on how you’re using the Audiofly AFT2 True Wireless earphones.

You control them using touch-sensitive surfaces on both buds. Both sides work with a single tap to play/pause or answer a call. Double tap skips forward a track or backwards depending on which side you use. Tapping and holding increases volume on the right, reduces it on the left. Pause the music, then tap and hold lets you invoke Siri or Google Assistant as appropriate. This was a bit tricky. Hold for too long and you switch off the buds. With a little practice I learned to get it right.

Using the earphones

The sound produced by the Audiofly AFT2 True Wireless earphones was quite interesting. I think the bass suffers a little due to a not-quite-perfect seal. That needed one size larger silicone tips. For whatever reason, it was a little recessed, leaving the midrange fairly prominent. Dynamics were respectable and vocal clarity, especially on calls and podcasts was truly excellent.

I should add that the earphones I’ve been using for a lot of listening lately, the excellent Audiofly AF-180 MK2 in-ear monitors from the company’s professional series, have conditioned my ears to expect great sound. That’s always a problem with ear gear: your brain tends to make whatever you’re listening to the “norm”. Moving to something else initially seems poor by comparison. Those wired earphones cost more than three times these wireless ones.

Huawei P30 Pro showing aptX connection

So, some quick notes. “Blind Curve” on the Marillion album Misplaced Childhood was delivered with good, controlled vocals and little in the way of sibilance. The snare had a slight clash or edge to it, but was strong. The guitar was beautiful, with full detail.

The light-but-fast swelling roll of the cymbals at the start of “Openings” on Sebastian Hardie’s Four Moments was a little recessed, but beautifully clean. They were maintained as the other instruments came in. Mario Millo’s guitar was nicely textured. Oh, and the louder the better. There was plenty of volume on tap with the Audiofly AFT2 True Wireless earphones.

The violins on Schubert’s String Quintet (the Cypress String Quartet version on TIDAL) had a little more bite than I prefer, but didn’t lose their essential sweetness.

Gadgetguy’s Take

The Audiofly AFT2 True Wireless earphones are good value for money proposition. And, for goodness sakes, if you’re buying, do get the gumleaf ones!

Audiofly AFT2 True Wireless earphones
The Audiofly AFT2 True Wireless earphones are good value for money proposition
Features
9.4
Value for money
8.4
Performance
9
Ease of Use
9.6
Design
8.8
Positives
Great value for money
Most of the modern features
Astonishingly long battery life
Aussie, Aussie, Aussie!
Negatives
Could do with slightly longer Bluetooth reach
Could do with large silicone tips
9