Our Verdict
The QY9 are geared towards sports, but they're fairly versatile and have a compact, wireless design. This makes them decent mixed usage headphones. Unfortunately, they have worse isolation than the QY8 and a mediocre-at-best sound quality.
- Low leakage.
- Stable in-ear fit.
- The in-ear fit is uncomfortable for some.
- Cramped audio controls.
- Poor noise isolation.
Not made for critical listening. They have closed-back in-ear buds, which can't create a spacious soundstage. That coupled with their mediocre-at-best sound and their sometimes uncomfortable in-ear fit makes them not ideal for critical listening.
Mediocre for commuting. They're compact and fit into most pockets. Sadly, their isolation is weaker than the QY8, which makes them less suitable for loud environments.
The QY9 are good headphones for sports. They have a stable in-ear fit, and They're wireless and small enough to carry around on your person wherever you go. However, they're not comfortable for everyone, and their control scheme could be improved.
Mediocre for office use. They don't leak much but won't block the chatter of a loud office.
Mediocre-at-best for home theater use. They have a lot of latency even with aptX enabled, which is not ideal for watching videos they're also not as comfortable to wear for long listening sessions.
Changelog
- Updated Aug 10, 2017: Converted to Test Bench 1.0.
- Updated Aug 18, 2016: Review published.
- Updated Aug 16, 2016: Our testers have started testing this product.
- Updated Jun 27, 2016: We've purchased the product and are waiting for it to arrive in our lab.
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You can also discover how we produce recommendations like this one so that you can find the best headphones (or earbuds!) for your needs.
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