N5 Hybrid

AKG N5 HYBRID!!! They’re on MAJOR sale right now, MRSP $329, right now on Harman’s website they are $99, they have been knocking off an additional $20 once they’re in your cart - I just got them for 80 bucks and they have become my new sound quality top pick out of the 30+ pairs I own. Seriously, they are amazing…check out some reviews. They’re such a steal right now!!!

For under $150, without hesitation, the AKG N5 hybrid (currently €137 in France) with native dongle or the HEAVYS Wireless EarBuds (maybe a little above your budget)

Yes, you can use just one AKG N5 earbud or both.

The sound volume is so low when I connect the dongle to my PS5 Pro. Even after I crank the PS5 volume levels to the max. What a bummer.

I contacted HK, and they sent me a replacement. I know very well there is nothing with my set. I can't believe their tech support is inefficient. But, this low volume issue using the dongle in my PS5 Pro is frustrating.

Oh, shit. It works!!! Thank you! You need to be patient while pressing once at a time. You're a Rockstar!

I wanted to do a quick review on these buds. They came out a year ago retailing for $330. Recently they have been on sale for $100 or less and available in the US. What interests me in these is the fact that they are AKG and they come with a usb-c dongle. I would say earbuds is one of my hobbies. I've bought, sold, traded, tested maybe 30+ buds over the past 7 years. I started with the Anker Liberty Zolo Plus in 2018. Thought others might want to hear my thoughts on it. Sound - The sound on these are awesome! They are definitely an S tier. Previously the best sounding earbuds I've heard are the AKG N400NC which I still have but plan to sell since I no longer need them. Out of the box, these are really good. They get even better once you tweak the EQ and play with the settings, and add your own Personi-Fi setting. they are very detailed I would say with some great sub bass. Probably the best sounding earbuds I've heard, almost make me want to cry during some songs. In some situations, sound is even better with the dongle connected. Earbud Design - stem style design. They have LEDs built into what looks like a bigger mic on the outside. They flash blue sometimes although I'm not sure why, maybe if they're on standby or if the mic is muted. and flash white when put in the case for charging. Stem isn't too long. Main bud isn't too big. Medium to larger ears will love these. If you have extra small ears I'm not sure if these will fit. The ear tips use a similar design to that of the original Galaxy Buds Pro. Where the nozzle is an oval shape with sort of a lock notch on the top and bottom for the oval ear tip to stay in place. Case - the case feels lighter than it should. It's a bigger case. Roughly 2.2 x 1.3 x 1.1 inches. Small LED on the front of it displays low, medium, and high battery life. Usb-c on the back. Wireless charging. The dongle stays put pretty good with a magnet inside the case. Battery life - haven't run these down completely yet. Seems on average about 10 hours of battery life with no sound controls. 8 hours of battery life with ANC or transparency on. And probably 4.5 hours on call with voice aware on. Turn voice aware off and it's more closer to 5.5 hours. Using the dongle, it's about the same. Ambient settings - won't get too much into it. ANC is pretty great. It's not going to be the best of the best but it's no slouch either. Ambient mode is good, it's better than most. Not S tier or anything, maybe A tier. Bluetooth / dongle connection - let's talk about distances. Bluetooth feels shorter than others. I feel like inside of a house, these have a maximum Bluetooth range of maybe 60 feet where I have had other earbuds go maybe 80 to 100 feet or more. So they are on the shorter side of Bluetooth range. Same can be said for the dongle. Dongle is Maybe 30 to 40 ft through a wall and then it starts to cut out. So not so good on the range side I would think. You're going to want to keep your phone or device close to these. Dongle - speaking of dongle it's one of the best I've used. P10, Jlab Epic Lab, Sony Inzone, Steelseries gamer buds. It's the type of bud I'm into these days since I am on my computer and Steamdeck a lot more often. It is case friendly, but maybe not as much as the Steelseries, it does stick out maybe 1.5mm. cool feature with the dongle button is one press mutes the mic, and two clicks of the button switches between Bluetooth and USB mode. In the US, there's no software for it on the PC side. I heard there is in other countries though. Doesn't matter though, most settings can be changed using the mobile app and they are applied to the buds when using them with the dongle. Special Features - I'd say the dongle with the different commands for its button is nice as well as it's led light that changes for different actions, red for mute, white for connected, flashes for Bluetooth. There is a whisper mode where you can pick a side during a call, and it'll amplify that Mic so you can hold it up to your mouth and whisper in it. A Silent Now feature that helps you sleep, it will turn on the ANC after a certain time and keep it turned on for up to 8 hours. Then it will wake you up with a quiet notification sound sent through the earbuds. Personi-Fi is a hearing test that will customize your EQ for both left and right sides. This works pretty well, and you can even go back and fine-tune it a little bit if it sounds off. Low dynamic EQ option will boost lows and high at quieter listening volumes which is kind of cool. Last one I can think of is the mic settings. You can change how you sound during calls, and you can also change how the person sounds during calls that you're calling, kind of like having an EQ for your mic. So there's different settings like normal, bright, natural and powerful. What's missing / Issues - I wish playback control could be customized a little more. Right now it's defaulted to either play controls, sound controls, or volume controls that can be set for each side. What I mean by I wish I could customize it, is if I'm using one earbud with play controls, I can't have sound controls. Would be nice to make one tap pause/play/answer, two taps skip, three taps mute mic, and long press for ambient sound controls, but this isn't possible. Maybe with a future software update these could do that, but they're probably done updating these. Another issue I have is when I use transparency mode and put them back into the case, sometimes the earbuds make a screeching sound for another 3 to 8 seconds. I thought I had a bad pair with my white ones, so I exchange them for some black ones and they still did the same thing. The other issues I have could be a deal breaker for some. When initially playing sound, these buds always cut out the first almost full second after being in "standby" mode. Start a YouTube video up and you won't hear the first second. Pause your earbuds for more than 5 minutes, go back to listening to a song, and the first second you hear will be clipped out. Maybe I'll change the standby mode see if that helps. The other sound clipping issue comes with movie mode. Movie mode is a feature that cuts down on input lag when using Bluetooth. I would say it goes from normally 250ms down to around 160ms. But when you have this feature enabled, sometimes it needs to catch up or slow down, and there will be a slight pause and sound every once in awhile that gets annoying. So I turn this feature off. If you need minimal lag when playing games on your phone through Bluetooth, just use the dongle instead. I had these issues on both my white pair in my black pair. One more thing I noticed. Voice Aware is a setting that bumps up the ambient sound and I love that, it works great. But the problem with Voice Aware is it only works for voice calls, and if it is turned on when listening to music, the music is silent and won't transfer over. Wish they had an update to fix that. Overall - with impressive sound, a great battery life, some pretty cool features, a usb-c dongle, and currently on sale for $100 or less ($80 on Harmon Kardon at checkout this week), these get my recommendation. I'm willing to sell my AKG N400 NC, Jlab Epic Lab, and Airpod Pro 2's and replace them all with these. Dispite the minor sound clipping issues I have when they start up for the first time when using them, these are still amazing. Final score: 9/10.

My favorite higher end for sound quality, build quality, ANC/transparency, features, and mic quality? AKG N5 Hybrid. My favorite mid-range all around? Probably Steelseries Gamer Buds Artic X. Another good all-around are the Jlab Epic Lab. Let me know if you want them, I'm trying to sell them and I can post them on hardware swap. Best deal? Sony Inzone buds. I think you can still find these used for under $60, sometimes under $50. I wouldn't spend a full $200 price for brand new though. Best budget? Anker P10. New they are around $60, used they are around $30.

You are right about everything. I have a pair of AKG N5 hybrid. I'm ready to sell them, probably going on hardwareswap later this week. Great for my Rog Ally X. But I feel like the Gamerbuds are better at being "all in one" when also connecting them to my phone. Easy to switch between devices, fully customizable buttons, longer battery life when connected to dongle. They got some advantages. But these two are my two favorite. Can't wait to try the Rog open Cetra later this month.

I can't figure out out how to customize the AKG touch controls. It's either pause, next, forward, or it has to be sound mode, mic toggle, voice mode; there's no in-between. That part is frustrating because I like to use one bud at a time sometimes, and I can't use the controls I want to on them.