Audio Technica is a brand I remembered from my younger days when I was shopping for the best wired earphones to buy for my iPod. They have finally launched a series of their true wireless earbuds. The ATH-CK3TW is the base model of the three, retailing at S$158.
Unboxing
The ATH-CK3TW comes in three colors – black, blue, and white. The one I have is the black model.
- ATH-CK3TW earbuds
- Charging case
- Ear tips x4 (XS, S, M, L)
- USB-C cable
Tech specs
- Driver Size: 5.8mm dynamic driver
- Frequency Response: 20Hz – 20kHz
- Bluetooth version: 5.0
- Charging time: 2 hours to full
- Music playtime: 6 hours (24 hours in charging case)
- IPX2 waterproof rating
- Weight: 4.7g (each earbud), 49.7g (charging case)
- Support Codecs: Qualcomm® aptX™ / AAC / SBC
- Chipset: Qualcomm TrueWireless™ Stereo Plus
Build quality and features
The charging case is made of plastic and comes in a nice matte finish. The case open easily with one hand in a clamshell mode like Apple’s AirPods. The case has a nice round grip and feels nice in your hands.
When you open the case, the earbuds protrude out, making it very easy to remove them from the case. The magnets are also quite strong so when you want to put the earbuds back, they snap back in position without you having to aim to put them back in the case. This is a small detail but really adds to the daily user experience.
Overall, both the case and the earbuds have pretty solid build quality. No loose parts or flimsy materials were found throughout my testing.
Controls
The ATH-CK3TW utilises touch controls instead of buttons, which has its pros and cons. I personally prefer touch controls as they are less prone to accidental touches. But touch controls prevent jamming the earbuds into your ear whenever you wanna increase the volume. One slight irritation of the earbuds is that the voice prompts when you play/pause or increase volume is actually quite loud. I wished that it could be a softer and non-intrusive feedback.
ATH-CK3TW also has ear detection mode, which auto pauses the music when you remove the earbuds from your ears. This feature is not common for earbuds for its price range. This is a really useful feature, and the best part is that you can choose to on/off the ear detection feature.
The earbuds only come with IPX2 water resistance rating, so while you can go on a light jog with these in your ears, I do not recommend going for a heavy workout with them.
Battery life
The ATH-CK3TW comes packed with 6 hours of music playtime per full charge and has another 24 hours in the case, giving you a total of 30 hours. It is a good amount of time, I’d say this duration of battery life is considered ‘middle’.
The charging case charges via USB-C which is great. But one thing missing from the charging case is battery level indicator. There is merely a charging indicator to show if it is charging or not. But what’s useful is knowing how much charge is left in the case.
Fit
The ATH-CK3TW comes with 4 different sizes of ear tips, which I really appreciate. This gives you the best configuration to get you the perfect comfortable fit. And indeed the ATH-CK3TW does.
After testing so many true wireless earbuds, the Creative Outlier Air still takes the cake for me. But the ATH-CK3TW has a fit that is as good. The fit is snug and feels light in your ears such that you don’t actually feel like you are wearing any earbuds. This is also largely due to how lightweight the ATH-CK3TW are, coming in at just a mere 4.7g!
On first sight, I did not expect the ATH-CK3TW to have fit super well as it had that ‘protruded stem’ design like the X-Mini Liberty Xoundpods and the Klipsch T5. The issue with ‘protruded stem’ design is that most of fit is done by the seal between the eartips and your ear canal. But if you a contoured stem like the Creative Outlier Air and the JBL Reflect Flow, it will sit along the shape of your ears so that both the ear tips and the earbuds contribute to the fit.
Flat (parabolic) tips vs oval (conical) tips ATH-CK3TW vs X-mini Liberty+
But on closer look, the stem on the ATH-CK3TW is actually contoured to fit the shape of your ears. And so, the fit of the ATH-CK3TW was actually super good for me. I also particularly like Audio Technica’s choice of using flat tapered ear tips rather than the ovals as I feel the former provides a better seal for my ears.
Pairing and connectivity
Pairing the ATH-CK3TW to your phone is fairly easy. You remove the both earbuds and the name ‘ATH-CK3TW’ should appear in your Bluetooth settings. The earbuds are seen as one unit in your Bluetooth settings.
Having Bluetooth 5.0, the connection was really stable and I barely experienced any audio dropouts. The ATH-CK3TW also comes with high-quality Qualcomm aptXTM audio codec and with Qualcomm TrueWireless™ Stereo Plus. If you have an Android phone then you will truly experience the low latency chipset.
Sound quality
Sound quality of the ATH-CK3TW is impressive. It has the V-shaped sound signature that I like.
Bass is tight and punchy. It delivers nice boomy lows on songs like “The Hills by The Weekend”, but doesn’t get muddy and rollover to other frequencies. Midrange is warm sounding and helps to level overall sound of the earbuds. Treble performance is pretty good. It has a great amount of sparkle and clarity that does not get too bright and grainy.
Soundstaging is decent with a good amount of openness to it. It is not as wide as the Outlier Air or Klipsch T5. It comes close to the Klipsch S1 level of soundstaging.
ATH-CK3TW vs Creative Outlier Air
These two sound similar as they both have a V-shaped sound signature. They have similar characteristics like a clean sound with great amounts of detail. To tell them apart you really need both side by side and repeated tests back and forth. The Creative Outlier Air gets louder than the ATH-CK3TW on its lowest volume. The ATH-CK3TW delivers more tight and punchier sub-bass compared to the Creative Outlier Air which has more ‘weight’ to it. As for the midrange, the Creative Outlier Air just sounds slightly fuller. And for treble, the ATH-CK3TW has the ability to sparkle at highs that won’t get too grainy unlike on the Outlier Air which can sound a little harsh on the intense hi-treble notes.
Audio-Video sync & call quality
Audio video sync works with no lag – tested on iPhone 11. And as for call quality, it is just the basic kind of quality you get with “stem-less mic” truly wireless earbuds. It works great in a quiet room, but you are better off using your phone when you are in the MRT.
Conclusion
If you want a true wireless earbuds that are lightweight and will fit snug in your ears, the ATH-CK3TW is a strong candidate. Furthermore, it has an exciting V-shaped sound signature with great bass response and impressive clarity in treble.
Audio Technica has done a brilliant job with the ATH-CK3TW. Coming in with an entry level price of S$158, it rocks a nice design and even comes with features that are usually found on more premium priced earbuds. Connection is very solid with the Qualcomm TrueWireless™ Stereo Plus, so it is basically the complete package!