Dudios T8 TWS Headphones

General Information

Blurb from Amazon

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  • [One Step Pairing & IPX7 Waterproof] - Just picking up the earbuds, Dudios T8 wireless headphones are always automatically connected and you will be in your music world in a second. Built with IPX7 waterproof, it even resists water when you’re washing away the sweat after a hardcore workout.
  • [Stylish Touch Control & Wide Compatibility] - Easily take the Bluetooth esrbuds out to connect and elegantly touch to control music and calls. What’s more, T8 earphones is widely compatible with smart phone and other Bluetooth-enabled devices with Android, Windows, iOS system.
  • [Reality Sound & 35H Long Battery Life] - Dudios T8 wireless earphones provide a realistic sound for you, make you feel like you are listening to the concert on the scene. Single charging can maintain earbuds working 5.5 hours. The Charging Case provides 6 times charging for earbuds, a totally 35 hours working time, you could charge your earbuds whenever and wherever you want.
  • [Unique Ear-Fin Design for Comfort & Secure-fit]: No more concerns of earbuds falling out. Ergonomic ear-fin to disperse pressure and ensure wearing comfort. It is suitable for most people in custom fit, just move as you want for daily commute or sports.
  • [What You Get & Quality Customer Care] - 2 xBluetooth Earbud, 1 xCharging Case, 3Pairs xEar tips(Size S/ M/ L, Please try different sizes Ear Caps first to get a better experience.), 1 charging Cable, 1 xUser Manual. We provides 12 months of Quality Customer Care to our customers. For any issue, please get in touch with us, we will always be there.

Latest reviews

regancipher

100+ Head-Fier
Crazy cheap TWS that are a little dated but well worth the money
Pros: Cost, neutral sound, good battery life, intuitive controls
Cons: AAC only, large charge case, latency, lacking modern features
How I review: (See Previous Reviews)

Model: Dudios T8
Price: £9.99 (currently £25.99 with additional 60% discount code)
Review Reference: RC029

Manufacturer Specification:
  • Brand: Dudios
  • Model: T8
  • Driver Size: 6mm
  • Frequency Range: 2-20KHz
  • Codecs: AAC / SBC
  • Earbud Weight: 3.9 g
  • Case Weight: 44 g
  • Gross Weight: 52 g
  • Earbud Dimensions: 39mm long stem
  • Case Dimensions: 60 x 60 x 35 mm
  • Earbuds Charging Time: 90 Mins
  • Case Charging Time: 90 Mins
  • Input: 5V 1A
  • Music Playtime: 5.5 Hours
  • Earbuds and Case Fully Charged Music Playtime: 35 Hours
  • Bluetooth Range: 10 m
  • Bluetooth: Bluetooth® 5.0
  • Bluetooth Protocols: HFP / A2DP / AVRCP
  • Water Resistance: IPX7
Includes:

1 x Pair wireless headphones
1 x USB Type-C Charge Case
1 x USB Type-C Charge Cable
3 x Pair Silicone Tips
1 x User manual, warranty card

Real Life Experience

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A name like Dudios switches you off straight away, so when I saw these stem-based, bulky looking earbuds on offer at £9.99, I bought them for a laugh as much as anything. Reminiscent of the Whizzer TP1, only a lot less fancy, the Dudios buds have been around for a while - long enough that there were already reviews on head-fi, which is a rarity when I acquire new buds.

Dudios as a brand is part of the Shenzhen Ginto Technology company, an umbrella for Soundpeats, and the Dudios T8 use the Airoha Luda AB1526P chipset, the same chip used by SoundPeats in the True Shift, Edifier in their TWS2, Lenovo in their S1, Anker in their Zolo Liberty+ and MPOW in their T6.

The Unboxing - 6.5/10

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Neat and tidy little package from Dudios, albeit somewhat MPow-like - i.e. very basic and flimsy.

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The product comes with a warranty card and the usual mediocre quality spare tips and USB-C charge cable.

The Case - 6/10

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The T8 have a puck-style USB-C charge case which measures 6 x 6 x 3.5cm. The lip at the front, visible above, is used to flip the case open, but don't try one-handed operation - it's not deep enough to allow that unfortunately, which can be annoying if you need to put the buds away whilst carrying your phone out-and-about.

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The case is larger than that of most modern TWS today, and eclipses other similar-style cases, such as the KZ SA08 and Tronsmart Apollo Bold, by being substantially heavier, and taller. Placing the buds back in the case is trouble-free, with adequate magnets and a substantial hinge.

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At 52g, whilst it isn't going to help you lose weight on the daily commute, it isn't the most portable case around. That has it's pros and cons, but nevertheless in my jacket pocked it didn't feel too onerous.

With no charge indicator lights on the front, you have to consult the rear, where the USB-C charge socket is located as well. This can be a bit annoying if you like to see at a glance how much charge you have.

The Ergonomics - 6/10, Build Quality - 7/10

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The T8 have an odd look about them, with their long stems, bulbous surround and narrow insert. They certainly don't win any prizes for aesthetics. The battery connectors, shown covered with tape above, make direct contact with the skin, which for allergy sufferers makes them a no go.

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The design almost encourages the stems to stick outwards, away from your mouth, which doesn't help the mic, especially in outdoor environments. That said, the flat exterior surface makes for perfect touch control usage, which is happily easily initiated and well-thought-out.

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The stem is visibly longer than some of the more recent silicone in-ear releases such as the QCY T10 and Boya BY-AP4, and the design, more similar to the Boltune BT-BH024, can be fatiguing over long periods, although it does provide very good passive noise isolation.

Despite their size, the mostly-plastic build ensures they are reasonably lightweight - weighing in at roughly the same as the 1More Comfobuds, and happily they are IPX7, providing solid water resistance.

Audio Quality - 8/10 (for the price paid), 6.5/10 (raw score)

The audio on the Dudios is laid back, with the trebles rolled off early and the bass softened. The mids are not especially elevated either, with the sound profile fairly balanced, albeit slightly scooped. Combined with a narrow soundstage, this will no doubt put off those used to a V-shaped, punchy and bright TWS, which is what you usually get around this price range, but for me they were pleasant enough without getting you off the sofa and dancing around the living room.

If you test the buds with complex tracks you notice that detail starts to erode. This is merely technology moving on - back when these were released, the T8 were intent on diverting from the screeching highs that were emblematic of most TWS with a Chinese label on.

Call Quality - Indoors - 7/10, Outdoors - 5.5/10

Call quality is fair. For the money - certainly not to be sniffed at. There is an evident over-compression when the scene gets complex - with the washing machine on they glitched in and out a bit, but in a stable indoor environment with minimal ambient noise your voice is clear, albeit a tad robotic.

Connectivity, Controls and Other Features - 7/10

Connectivity is rather weak, glitching out quite quickly - around 8m LOS. This is to be expected given the rate that technology changes at. Lack of quick charge is annoying, but was commonplace when released. The touch controls are excellent - very responsive, and you can control the volume - a single tap on the left to reduce and right to increase.

Battery Life - 6.5/10

5 hours from a single charge. Case adds an additional 5-6 charges. Perfectly adequate for this form factor, and justifies the larger case. No QI, and no quick charge - charge time is 90 minutes.

Final Comments

The Dudios T8 first hit the market over a year ago now, and they are starting to show their age. They also suffered with some odd glitches - they show as a keyboard as well as headphones on Windows, so lets hope they don't include a built-in keylogger!! They would also periodically power-down for no apparent reason, despite battery being over 90%. That said, at £9.99, I can't really complain. I'll be moving them on at some point, but it was an interesting experiment that taught me one thing - TWS have come a long way in a short space of time.

Price Weighted Score: 80%
Raw Score: 62%
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Army-Firedawg

1000+ Head-Fier
A solid, inexpensive, Christmas gift for a friend or self
Pros: Very lightweight and comfortable; Extremely long battery life; Easy and simple pairing; Cool features.
Cons: Will randomly power off; not comfortable/suitably at all for side listening; audio isn't the focus.


Hello and good day to all of your beautiful weirdos! Been away for a long while, so a big thank you to Dudios to being one of the first company’s to start sending out review samples again. So anyways, the T8 is one of Dudios’ newest offerings to their entry level wireless earphone coming in at under $30. Seeing as I’ve reviewed a pretty nice amount of their products I’m rather excited to hear what their newest offering brings. So, without further adieu, allow me to share my thoughts on this budget friendly true wireless earphone.

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A little about me
I would like to say that first and foremost I am NOT an “audiophile” but rather an audio enthusiast. I listen to music to enjoy it. Do I prefer a lossless source? Yes, of course. But I can still be very happy streaming from Pandora or even my YouTube “My Mix” playlist. I also prefer equipment that sounds the best to me personally regardless of what frequency response it has or rather or not it's “sonically accurate” and I always have and shall continue to encourage others to do the same.
I'm a firefighter for both the civilian and military sector and the cliché of wanting to do this since I was born couldn't be more present with me. I've worked hard over the last several years to earn this position and now it's time for me to work even harder to keep it.
I enjoy fishing and relaxing to audio products and then reviewing them to help others decide on what products would work for them. Few things make me as an audio enthusiast/review feel more accomplished than when someone tells me that I helped them find the type of sound they've always been looking for.
Now, the sound signature I personally favor is a relaxing, warm and sensual sound that just drifts me away in the emotional experience of the music being performed. Yes, accuracy is still important but I will happily sacrifice some of that if I'm presented with a clean, warm sound that can wisp me away into an experience that makes me yearn for more.
My ideal signature are that of respectably forward mids and upper bass range with the bass being controlled but with some slight decay. I like my treble to have nice extension and detail reveal with a smooth roll off up top as to not become harsh in the least. Examples of products that have given me chills and keep giving me the yearning for more feels are (in no particular order) Bowers & Wilkins P7, Oppo PM-1/2, Empire Ears Hermes VI & Zeus XIV, Audeze LCD-XC, Meze Headphones 99 Classics.
Equipment used at least some point during the review
-Sources
-LG G8 Thin Q/HP Pavilion
-Playing YouTube and various format personal music
Disclaimer
I am by no means sponsored by this company or any of its affiliates. They were kind enough to send me a product for an arranged amount of time in exchange for my honest opinion. I am making no monetary compensation for this review.
The following is my take on the product being reviewed. It is to be taken “with a grain of salt” per say and as I always tell people, it is YOUR opinion that matters. So regardless of my take or view on said product, I highly recommend you listen to it yourself and gauge your own opinion.


The Opening Experience
Why I feel so strongly about the initial unboxing experience
Please allow me to explain why I feel so strongly about the initial unboxing experience with a product. Maybe it’s due to my southern roots in the hills of eastern Kentucky, but I’ve always been raised under the pretense of when you introduce yourself to someone for the first time you present yourself with confidence, class, character, pride, and competence. You greet the other person with a true warm smile, eye contact and a firm handshake. Anything less or short, implies to the other person that you either don’t care about them, are too full of yourself, too busy to be bothered by the likes of them, or worse, just generally disrespectful.
As a consumer, I take this same belief to when I open a new product. Why? Because think about it this way. How else can a company introduce themselves to their customers? How do they present their products? Are they packaged with pride and presented in such a way that makes the listener eager to listen to them? Or maybe they’re just wrapped up and placed in an available space. How about the box itself? Is it bogged down with jargon that says look at this, look what I can do. I’m better than anything on the market and here’s why read this and check out that. Or, is the package clean, simplistic and classy? As if saying to the customer ‘Good day, pleasure to meet your acquaintance. Please give me a listen and allow me to show you what I can do and allow my actions to speak louder than my words.’
This is why I feel so strongly about the initial presentation of a product, and I feel it’s truly a shame more people don’t. But with all that aside, let’s discuss how this product introduced itself shall we?




Construction

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Starting from the charging case, the build quality is admittedly pretty nice. Though it’s entirely made of plastic, it has a kind of rubbery feel to it which is great for holding onto. Additionally, the case is a rounded shape which, on a personal note, I didn’t care for. My reasoning for this is that, for me personally, it was often difficult to open the case to get to the earphones. On the front of the case, you’ve only a small lip to catch to open it so oftentimes my fingers or thumb would just slip right off of it for a couple tries. I feel if they were to utilize two, offset, lips this problem would completely go away. But, I digress. The case itself, as stated earlier, is a charging case that utilizes the Type C inputs (which I am immensely appreciative of and hope all company’s follow suit) that have an absolutely ridiculous amount of life and charging capabilities. Though I cannot give an exact number as to its life, during my time with this unit, I’ve put approximately 20 hours on the earbuds and I have yet to need to charge the case.
Moving onto the actual earphones themselves, the Dudios T8 true wireless earphones share the physical resemblance of the apple earpods in the sense they have the receiver and microphone on the elongated dongle that hangs from the bud. Similar to that of the charging case, the material is entirely plastic however it does not share the rubbery feel. The horn is that of the most common size I see on the vast majority of earphones/iems so finding aftermarket tips, if you so desire, will be very simple and easy. As for charging, simply place it back into its fitted spots in its case.

Comfort

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Believe it or not, this is the first earphone that I’ve ever tried that has this type of elongated frame so I wasn’t sure how it would really feel, but, after a little over a week I can confidently say that these boogers are pretty darned comfortable, so long as you’re not laying on your side. The earlier motion about them being comfortable goes completely out the window when you lay on your side with these things. Continuing onwards, the entire weight, which is very miniscule, is supported by your tragus and ear canal but because it’s so light you don’t feel any pressure at all. The supplied tips are the regular run of the mill silicone tips which do provide relatively respectful isolation from the outside world and though I personally use and recommend Comply memory foam, as mentioned in the construction section, you can easily find and use your tips of choice to maximize your personal preferences. With that being said, though your mileage may vary, these didn’t have any problems with staying in my ears at all either, including a light workout.

Features

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Other than the default ability to be utilized either in solo (only using a single earphone to listen to) or dual mode the Dudios T8 also has another, surprising considering its price point, feature that I’d like to share. The Dudios T8 is touch control and in a very interesting way too. Both Left and Right earphones control the play/pause & answer/hangup by double tapping either side and, at least with Android phones, activating the “OK Google” feature by triple tapping. The Left side controls the volume down by sliding your finger either up OR down on the face plate and a 2 second hold will make your music go to the previous track. The reverse is true for the right side; the right side controls volume up by sliding your finger either up OR down across the face plate and a 2 second hold will take your music forward to the next track.
Before I discuss a negative I have with this I also want to touch on that these earphones go into auto-pairing mode once they’re removed from their case and will auto connect to the most recent device it connected to if applicable. Now, the negative I have with the Dudios T8 is that, on a fair amount of occasions, while listening to music etc… the earphones will just up and randomly turn themselves off. The first couple times it did this, I thought the battery was just dead but I hadn’t been listening to them for more than a couple hours so I checked the battery indicator on my phone and sure enough they were still far from even low. Granted, this was easily and quickly fixed by simply putting them back in the case and taking them back out but the issue was still present.

Sound
Before I start this section. It should go without saying but though I link YouTube videos when I’m giving examples, this is for convenience only. If applicable, I HIGHLY encourage you to listen to the music I’m referencing on as high a quality as possible to experience the fullest sound possible.

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So, we’re finally at what’s arguably the most important part, the sound quality. So, overall the sound is definitely tuned to be more V shaped but even as such, as is expected with a product at this price point, there’s not a very notable bass hit nor treble extension. These earphones are definitely one I would recommend for casual listening when you’re commuting to/from work, not while driving of course, or something to just pop in your ears and listen to while on your break.

Treble

So I mentioned that the Dudios T8 didn’t really have that great of treble extension but that doesn’t mean that listening to high toned music isn’t enjoyable. If you’ve read any of my other reviews or keep up with me you’ll understand how I’ve grown a taste for listening to the Koto after watching the anime and as such I listen to a fair bit of music with it. Listening to the T8, the Kono Oto Tomare sample playlist is still very much enjoyable and brings a smile to me each time. Also, despite the lower price point, the subtle nuances that I know are present in the background of the track can still be heard with these, so that’s actually a pretty solid point for the T8.

Mids

Now, I mentioned that the T8 is tuned to be more V shaped and as such the mids, which are my personal favorite area of a track, are going to be more subdued than the more “fun” areas to listen to. This sentiment is very true in the T8. While listening to George Ezra’s “Budapest” or Adele’s “Love in the Dark,” amongst many others, though I can still appreciate the artists vocal competency’s the T8 just, at least to me, doesn’t replicate the magic that their songs otherwise can.

Bass

Similarly to the previous sections, the bass, though of course present and a focal point in the tuning, still isn’t gonna make anyone whistle in impress. I will say however that of the three main areas of music the bass is definitely the most exciting thing to listen to with the T8. Checking out tracks such as Dimitri Vegas & Like Mike’s “Repeat After Me” I truthfully got pretty excited and ready to get to work. With respect to the roughly $30 price, I honestly can’t knock much on the bass of the T8.


Conclusion

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My overall thoughts on the Dudios T8 is that they’re absolutely designed and catered to the casual, non audiophile/enthusiast, listener. The features, at least in my personal opinion, were the main areas that Dudios Focused on when they were designing the T8. And that’s fine; for the features are actually pretty cool and, again to me, set it apart from any other $30ish dollar true wireless earphone/iem that comes to mind. So if you’re just wanting an inexpensive pair of true wireless earphones to carry around and listen to while you’re at work on lunch or the like or would like a really cool gift for someone that I do believe they’ll appreciate, then I really recommend you check out the Dudios T8.





Also, make sure to check out my unboxing and review videos. They’re pretty awesome AND you getta put a face to the Army-Firedawg name. If this review helped you out at all please hit that thumbs up button for it really helps me out a lot. Till next time my friends, stay safe.

Headphones and Coffee

Previously known as Wretched Stare
Good sounding budget TWS
Pros: Balanced sounding, good build and easy to use
Cons: Only AAC code
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The box is a simple yet effective one, it protects your earphones efficiently.
The design is in the similar shape as apple but with its own differences. I found them to fit perfectly with the default tips and aftermarket foam tips are so easy to find if you have very small or large ears anyway. The T8 ships with 3 size tips and the USB type C cable. They seem very sturdy even for a all plastic build and the clamshell case is soft to the touch and easy to carry. There are very simple to use touch controls and anyone should be up and running them in just a minute or two.
I was expecting heavy Bass and a typical V-shaped signature but like the Freedots DUDIOS has evolved into a not fatiguing signature that is more toward balanced and enjoyable for longer use.

Bass: is tight punchy with a mild elevation in the Sub-Bass
Mids: are clean and forward but not too much.
Highs: are crisp with out over extending or harshness.
soundstage is average for this class of earphones.

Conclusion:
The T8 is another step upward for DUDIOS always improving and refining there products. Its a very good TWS with touch controls, a great signature and comfort making it enjoyable for hours at a time and great for walks and the gym.

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