Earbuds for our times

Audio-Technica made sure it milked its 60th birthday last year, sneaking in the launch of the ATH-TWX9 wireless earbuds in the dying weeks of 2022. Their unremarkable name is made up for with a pretty remarkable spec sheet...

They put ticks in the increasingly common boxes of active noise cancellation and IPX4-rated water resistance, but a little more leftfield is their charging case’s ability to perform a 70-second-long deep-UV sterilisation of the earbuds each time they are placed in the case. Wireless earbuds for our times, for sure.

Pretty impressive too is their compatibility with aptX Adaptive Bluetooth, as well as other Spadragon Sound technologies from Qualcomm that promise to set a new benchmark for connection stability and latency reduction (when connected to a compatible source).

The ATH-TWX9 also support the Bluetooth 5.2 standard and have multipoint support so that users can simultaneously connect two devices to them. Alexa and Google Assistant voice support, on-bud touch controls and Qi wireless charging support are also part of the package, while that all-important battery life is pretty decent too: six hours in the buds plus 18.5 hours in the case.

For ease of use, you also get automatic power-on when the buds are removed from the case, fast pairing with Android devices, automatic pause and play functionality, and a much welcome twelve pairs of earbud tips to help with fit.

Priced $499, the ATH-TWX9 wireless earbuds are available now in a ‘Japanese Black’ finish with bronze accents.