PANASONIC RZ-S500W ANC WIRELESS EARBUDS

The only problem with Panasonic’s new earbuds is that they might not stay in your ears if you decide to smile, eat or take a brisk walk.

Although it hasn’t been the case for too long, the noise-cancelling, true wireless earbud space is now a hotly contested battleground, with heavyweights such as Sony and its WF-1000XM3 still reigning supreme against models from combatants such as Apple and Sennheiser. Now Panasonic has entered the fray with its RZ-S500W earbuds that it promises will tick many of the important boxes that listeners want ticked when choosing an everyday pair of noise-cancelling, true wireless earbuds.

The Panasonic buds are similar in style to Samsung’s original Galaxy Buds, offering a discrete circular profile in the ear, though they do protrude from it somewhat even when correctly fitted. Their understated design means that the RZ-S500Ws look subtly stylish, though those with a penchant for ear bling will probably be happier with something like Sennheiser’s Momentum True Wireless 2.

My primary complaint with the design of the RZ-S500Ws (and one of the major detractors for the units themselves) is that this shape means you’ll be relying almost solely on the silicone seal of the tips to keep the buds securely in your ears. I tried swapping through the five different tip sizes that come with the buds trying for in-ear security and, while a seal was easy enough to create, I found that smiling, eating, or even taking a brisk walk was enough to dislodge the RZ-S500Ws from my ears. Thankfully, that’s more or less all the bad news out of the way.

In terms of connectivity, these buds are super easy to pair, and as each earbud connects to your device independently, there’s less chance of annoying dropouts.

Some other performance features of note include the solid call quality, helped by the additional blocking of external noise (such as wind) while on a call, and the well-implemented touch-sensitive controls on the outside housings of each earbud that allow you to control your music playback, as well as the noise cancellation, your device’s voice assistant, and your phone calls, rarely trigger by accident. A big one-up over Sony’s WF1000XM3 in my book is the RZ-S500W’s IPX4 water-resistance rating. True, it isn’t the most rugged rating available and applies only to the buds themselves rather than the case, but it will give you peace of mind when it starts raining. Battery life is a solid 6.5 hours from the buds themselves (with ANC on) and a further 13 hours of battery power from the compact charging case.

As for that compact charging case, it’s a flip-top design that’s small enough to slip neatly into your pocket and has gold-plated pins designed to hold the earbuds in place. A row of three LEDs inside the case gives you an indication of your remaining battery life, and the case itself charges via a USB-C port on the back.

The RZ-S500Ws’ audio quality is excellent. Out-of-the-box the sound appears well-balanced across the frequency spectrum, though

with some emphasis on the low end (a similarilar ilar bass signature to Sony, but a little more squashed overall, with less sense of space), but by using the Panasonic Audio Connect app, you can access an equalizer to re-tune this frequency response to your taste. The ‘clear voice’ setting suitable for spoken word works well, as does the ‘bass enhancer’, that does what it says on the tin, but manages to do so tastefully.

Listening to Think About Things by Daði Freyr, I noticed the bass sounded suitably punchy, with snappy finger clicks and wood block hits cutting through the mix. Tight vocal harmonies sounded smooth and clear, while synths bubbled below the catchy melody.

While the bass sounded tight on this track, songs that feature bass lines with longer reverb sometimes felt overpowered by the lowest frequencies.

On both Kelela’s Rewind and Laura Mvula’s Green Garden, all the instruments sounded well-separated until the longer bass notes came in, after which the soundstage became slightly muddied. Nevertheless, Mvula’s undulating vocals sounded pleasantly rich and lushly harmonised.

The noise-cancelling here is one of the first examples I have come across that matches the efficacy of Sony’s ANC… and quite possibly surpasses it. There’s a sliding scale for the intensity of both the ANC and the ambient modes, and they both work a treat. While you don’t get the re-pressurisation and adaptive smarts of the Sony circuitry here, the noise-cancelling on offer is tremendously capable, and the ambient sound mode feels natural.

Speaking of noise-cancelling, you can buy a version of these (RZ-S300W) that don’t have the Active Noise Cancelling circuitry, which will save you around a hundred bucks, but if you can’t find a situation where you’d find ANC useful, you’re not really trying. And if you forgo ANC you will probably regret it.

If Panasonic had implemented a fin or wing design with the RZ-S500W, or ensured a secure fit in the ear in some other way, it would be a no-brainer to recommend them as both workout buds and for everyday use, especially given their IPX4 rating.

So while you’ll need to find another solution to provide music for your exercise regime, the Panasonic RZ-S50Ws are otherwise an incredible package.

Harry Domanski

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