Review: Audio-Technica ATH-TWX9 ANC Earbuds

Audio-Technica has released many true wireless earbuds since its last flagship ATH-ANC300TW back in 2020. The new ATH-TWX9 is Audio-Technica’s flagship model aimed to take on the likes of Apple, Bose, and Sony in 2023. It is priced like a flagship, retailing at S$398.

Unboxing

Here’s what you’ll find in the box:

• ATH-TWX9 ANC Earbuds
• Charging case
• USB-A to USB-C cable
• User manual
• Ear tips: Short (XS, S, M, L), Standard (XS, S, M, L), Long (XS, S, M, L)

Tech specs

Build quality and features

This is first true wireless earbuds from Audio-Technica that uses a stem-style design. The earbuds are made from plastic and have a matte black finish with bronze accent. The choice of colours and elements of curves give the ATH-TWX9 a premium look and feel to it.

As for the case, the design language kept consistent too. The shape of the charging case is very unique, exuding a premium feel to it due to its tapered curve clamshell design. The sides feature the same bronze accents, and the surface has a textured matte finish to it. Although the case is larger than Apple’s AirPods Pro case, the tapered ends of the case does help with the pocketability. There are also LED indicators placed on the exterior the case to show the battery status.

As for features, the ATH-TWX9 is stacked with it as expected from a pair of flagship true wireless earbuds. There are expected features such as Active Noise Cancellation (ANC), Hear-Through, wireless charging, and multipoint pairing. And there also also nice-to-have and unique features such as side tone, low latency mode, support for audio codes up to aptX Adaptive Audio, Snapdragon Sound, and even Sony’s 360 Reality Audio. Last but not least, it even has UV sterilisation feature!

Sanitisation

The ear tips of the ATH-TWX9 will be automatically sanitised after you place it back in the charging case (caps at one sanitisation per hour). The LED indicators will flash purple when the sanitisation is taking place.

Controls

The ATH-TWX9 offers both touch and button controls. The touch controls are mainly for you to toggle between ANC and hear-through modes, while the buttons are for media/call controls (such as volume, and track skipping). You can find a summary of the button controls in the image below:

In the AT Connect app, the only key assignment you can do is on the right touch sensor. You cannot configure the left touch sensor or the button controls, which is unfortunate. There are no haptic feedback on the touch sensors, but you can adjust the sensitivity of it. You can also turn off the touch sensors altogether, but doing so will render you unable to toggle between the ANC and Hear-Through modes.

Audio-Technica Connect App

The AT Connect app adds more functionality to the ATH-TWX9 by providing features such as equalizer, and customisation options through settings of 64-steps volume adjustment, side tone, L/R balance adjustment, and option to turn on/off auto-pause and voice guidance.

Hear-Through mode

The customisation also spreads in its Hear-Through mode which allows external sounds to come into the earbuds, giving you an open-ear earbuds experience. With the app, you are able to control the amount of sound that comes into the earbuds. There is a mode called Quick Hear-Through (activated via a triple click of the left button) which reduces the music volume to allow you to quickly have a conversation.

I found the Hear-Through on the ATH-TWX9 to be natural and not overly processed. Volumes of the surroundings sound well-balanced without too much emphasis on voices or wind.

Fit and comfort

With the large variety of ear tips provided by Audio-Technica, I think it would be difficult to not get a good fit with the ATH-TWX9. The default S size in the standard length served well for me, but I really like how Audio-Technica provided short and long lengths to cater to different ear sizes.

ATH-TWX9 feel very comfortable in my ears. They offer a snug fit – the tapered shape of the earbuds rest naturally along contours of my ears, while the flat style ear tips provide a comfortable unobtrusive seal.

The ATH-TWX9 are lightweight at just 5.4g each, allowing me to wear them for extended periods of time. The length of the stem on the ATH-TWX9 is actually quite short so it doesn’t touch the sides of face when wearing it.

Sound quality

I’ve tested many true wireless earbuds from Audio-Technica, and the new ATH-TWX9 is the best sounding of them all. The tuning is the most well-balanced, and has the best clarity and imaging. Bass is full-bodied and delivered with a good amount of kick to it without sounding too heavy. Midrange offers clean and detailed reproduction. You can EQ it up slightly if you prefer it to be a bit more forward.

Treble presents a nice amount of sparkle to it. It is not the brightest treble, but I like how it still retains good presence in the overall mix providing sufficient shine without ever sounding harsh. I also like the openness of the soundstage the ATH-TWX9 provides, with accurate and discernible placement of vocals and instruments. Listening to What’s Going On by Marvin Gaye on the ATH-TWX9 was a treat.

ANC performance

ATH-TWX9 has six presets modes for its ANC – Optimized, Airplane, Train, On the Go, Office/Study, and Home. ‘Optimized’ mode will measure the current noise levels in the surroundings to provide an optimal level of noise cancelling. It can be activated easily by holding the left touch sensor for 3 seconds. I don’t find myself using it often unless I am in a place where the noise is largely constant.

Between the other five presets, I found the ‘Airplane’ mode to be the strongest as it performs well in eliminating of low frequency noises such as engine rumbling and does remove a large chunk of higher frequency noises such as rail squeal in MRT. Vocal chatter is also reduced effectively in both ‘Airplane’ or ‘On the Go’ modes. For convenience, I largely left the ANC preset on ‘Airplane’ and it has served well in the multiple scenarios I’ve put it to test. The ATH-TWX9 definitely has flagship level ANC performance.

Microphone quality

If you have Side Tone enabled in the app, you will be able to hear own own voice so that you won’t be speaking louder that you should. The microphones on the ATH-TWX9 is pretty good, my voice sounded natural with comfortable warmth to it, but a little distant when compared to earbuds such as AirPods Pro. In noisy conditions, ATH-TWX9 is able to eliminate about 70% of the noise while keeping my voice undistorted by the surroundings.

Battery life

The ATH-TWX9 is able to offer up to 6 hours of listening on a full charge, which was expected for a pair of earbuds of its size. Good for daily use, but may not survive a long flight. The charging case will give you another 12.5 hours. There is no mention of a quick charge feature which is a pity. You can charge the ATH-TWX9 via USB-C or wirelessly.

Pairing, connectivity, and latency

ATH-TWX9 is equipped with Bluetooth 5.2 and pairs to my iPhone as a single unit. During my time of testing, I did not experience any connection issues. Latency wise, there was no audio-video sync lag when watching videos from the YouTube app on my iPhone 11. Also, you can use either the left or right earbud if you just want to wear one for usage. ATH-TWX9 also boasts multipoint pairing, meaning you can connect it to up to two devices at once and switch your audio inputs between them. It’s a great feature to have if you often use your earbuds with more than one device at a time.

Conclusion

Audio-Technica’s latest ATH-TWX9 proves that it can compete at the highest level, offering many features, top performance ANC, and brilliant audio reproduction that is the best tuned Audio-Technica earbuds to date. However, at the current retail price of S$398, it is a little more expensive than other flagship such as the AirPods Pro or QuietComfort. That said, I can’t really find much to complain about the ATH-TWX9. It is really is a complete package without much shortcomings.