Peacock Flight TWS Earbuds Review: Professional Monitoring Earbuds

You can almost age people by asking them what sort of headphones they used to wear. Those in their twilight years may have used huge over-the-ears headphones; 80s kids would use a smaller, metal framed, and discreet pair. The Peacock Flight TWS Earbuds from Linsoul look to give people in the 2020s a stylist twist on this generation’s favorite style.

Here, we take a look at the Peacock Flight TWS Earbuds to find out whether they sing sweetly or produce a froggy note.

Introducing the Peacock Flight TWS Earbuds

Linsoul has worked for two years to perfect these earbuds, with the goal of bringing professional-quality monitoring to the masses at a reasonable price. Given that the industry-standard models are around $1,000, and the Peacock Flight TWS Earbuds are less than this, it’s an ambitious task.

The earbuds offer the latest Bluetooth chipset, which means they should be easy to connect and use with a range of devices. Linsoul states that each pair is handmade and hand-painted. They are clearly proud of the design, and we agree that the mock-tortoiseshell looks gorgeous.

There are a few other designs too: a white shell style, and two marbled looks.

However, the looks won’t help the Peacock Flight earbuds win fans: the sound quality and usability will. First, let’s look at the key features of the earbuds.

Key Features

Linsoul makes note of a few features that could interest and tempt many people, especially iPhone users:

• Siri compatibily
• Binaural call functionality
• 3D Smart Touch features
• Intelligent noise reduction

What’s more, there are some typical features you’d expect from handcrafted, professional earbuds:

• IPX4 waterproofing
• Low power consumption
• A selection of ear tips for different sizes
• Six hours of active listening battery time with a 90-minute charge time.

All in all, the feature set is impressive and will tick off a lot of boxes for many users. However, given that the main selling point is the sound quality, this is what we’re going to provide most of the judgement on.

Using the Peacock Flight Earbuds

Unpacking the Peacock Flight earbuds is simple enough: Open the box, take the case out, and begin to use them

There’s no setup process other than connecting the earbuds to your Bluetooth connection. For us, this was a button click within iOS.

Changing Earbud Tips

There are three sets of ear tips to choose from, and while the default will be good for most, we went for a smaller size for a better fit.

Changing tips is often a fraught experience whatever your brand, as you feel as though you’re pulling the earbud apart.

The change here was in line with other earbuds: you feel as though you’re being heavy-handed, but everything turns out okay in the end.

First Use

Once we took the earbuds out and put them in, we started with our dedicated playlist to test out the tonal range. However, something didn’t appear right.

We found harsh, piercing trebles, with almost no bass to speak of, and a “honky” pronounced mid-range. In fact, they sounded like old Apple earbuds, which is not a good thing. We tried using bass boost equalization (EQ), which helped a little. Even so, this didn’t seem like the experience Linsoul wanted to give us.

Here’s our embarrassing moment of the year so far: The earbuds were upside down in our ears. AirPods and other similar earbuds point down, and this is the way we used the Peacock Flight too.

However, once you spin them around so they sit with the driver against the ear, the sound opens up. With that faux pas out of the way, we could look to judge the sound quality as it was meant to be heard.

Our Testing Playlist for the Peacock Flight Earbuds

You’ll often find that audiophiles use the same songs to test out various speakers, headphones, and other audio devices. For this Peacock Flight review, we have our own reference them throughout the rest of the article:

• Don’t Sit Down ‘Cause I’ve Moved Your Chair – Arctic Monkeys
• Bombtrack – Rage Against the Machine
• Open Fire – The Darkness
• Mudslide – The Darkness
• Gwendolyn – Jeff Tweedy
• ZaZas and Some Runtz (Smoke Break) – Terry Presume
• Two-Faced Love – Richard Thompson
• Boyz – Jesy Nelson (ft. Nicki Minaj)
• Kiss My (Uh Oh) – Anne-Marie and Little Mix

We have a good mix of rock, pop, R&B, older, and newer songs. A song of note is “Bombtrack” by Rage Against the Machine. This is a classic audiophiles track and is used as a typical testing standard because of the even and balanced mix.

Regardless, let’s discuss how the sound shapes up.

Our In-Depth Analysis on the Sound Quality

We’re going to compare the Peacock Flight earbuds to the Apple AirPods Pro. The latter is noted as one of the very best sets of headphones on the market. They are balanced and do better with mid-range than previous Apple products.

In comparison, the Peacock Flight earbuds have a pronounced low bass that can become intrusive one some tracks. “Bombtrack” was one that suited the AirPods better.

“Two-Faced Love” also didn’t sound right on the Peacock Flight headphones, even with some bass EQ cut. However, the low bass does have a deep thump that is pleasing when the mix is built around it (as in “Boyz” by Jesy Nelson). The Flights sounded great with tracks like this.

The low “mids” and high-bass offered some rich depth, if a little boosted and “wooly.” depending on the mix. You may need some bass cut for some artists or genres. Bands such as The Darkness (classic rock) and Jeff Tweedy (country rock) have a lovely balance that makes the Peacock Fights shine.

However, the high treble is poor, sounds plasticky, and is still harsh to the ear. This often means these frequencies are artificially boosted (around 8 – 12Khz and up). Lightweight pop songs sound okay, and rap, R&B, and older rock sounds better.

As for the mid frequencies (think voices and snare drum hits) they are slightly cloudy. This impacts depth on some songs so that you can’t hear the nuances of certain instruments.

Finally, something we want to note is the intelligent noise cancellation. Apple runs you through a setup process for this, yet the Flights don’t. However, the results are fantastic, and you won’t notice the effect until someone taps you on the shoulder!

Handling

When it comes to handling, the Peacock flight headphones could do better. While the tap to either earbud is solid and straightforward, we found that there were many false triggers, and it was hard to calibrate your touch to your ear.

This caused us a few minutes of feeling around whenever we wanted to stop music, but you’ll get used to it.

The feel of these earbuds is a little better than the competition. We couldn’t feel them after a while, and they were comfortable enough to wear for a prolonged period. While they’re not molded to the ear, they do feel like a more natural fit than AirPods.

How Much You’ll Pay for the Peacock Flight Earbuds

At current writing, the Peacock Flight headphones have 300-plus backers on Kickstarter. The retail price is $109, but there are other tiers that offer advanced shipping.

Also, the estimated delivery is April 2022, which means six months from the date of this article. To choose whether you wait that long, check out our summary below.

Whether You Should Pick Up a Pair of Peacock Flight Earbuds

At first, we thought the Peacock Flight TWS Earbuds were all talk and no song. However, once we slipped out of our millennial brains, we found the earbuds to be a fantastic pair for daily use. The sound quality does lack compared to our favorite Apple AirPod Pros, but not by much.

Overall, they are comfortable to wear, simple to use, and deliver in areas that can enhance your music-listening sessions. What’s more, the price is fantastic (although you’ll have to wait for delivery). If you want high-quality, noise-cancelling headphones without a dent in your wallet, the Peacock Flight TWS Earbuds will be for you.