The Shure RMCE-TW2 Bluetooth adapter(s) represent the pinnacle of Shure's efforts to create a wireless solution for their SE line of earphones. They address nearly all of the limitations of previous designs, most of which I have owned and used extensively, and add new capabilities which significantly increase the quality of the experience when using them. In fact, I would say that these are finally a Shure Bluetooth adapter worthy of the SE846 earphones to which they are attached.
To provide a context for the many improvements made to the TW2, I will be comparing it to Shure’s previous BT1 and BT2 adapters with which I have extensive experience. It’s worth noting that the TW2 is a second generation product that looks identical to the first gen TW1, a product that was so plagued with operational issues and design limitations that I never bothered to test it out. Do not inadvertently purchase the TW1.
Shure’s original BT1 Bluetooth adapter was just okay. It didn’t drive the SE846s to particularly high volumes, the battery didn’t last particularly long, and connection strength was weak. I eventually replaced the BT1 with the upgraded BT2, which had a better design and offered better battery life and more output. It was a good product but not perfect. Like the BT1, the BT2 would temporarily drop the connection to my iPhone at particular locations in my home or at my office—walking through the man door of my garage, for example. And if I put my iPhone in my front left pants pocket and twisted my body the opposite direction, the audio would temporarily drop out. This made raking the lawn a particularly annoying experience. I’m happy to report that the TW2s have resolved these issues completely. The Bluetooth connection has remained rock solid from the first time I turned them on; I’ve never experienced a single dropout. In fact, the range is so good that I can set my iPhone down and walk off to other parts of my home without experiencing any deterioration of the connection at all. And the sound output of these adapters is quite good.
Much of my time listening to my SE846s occurs while I’m outside working on projects, doing landscaping maintenance, or snowblowing. While both the BT1 and BT2 were far more convenient than using a cord plugged into my iPhone, they both still presented a cord dangling from my neck which would inevitably get caught on something and rip an earphone out of my ear. The lack of cords on the TW2s completely eliminates this issue. Before trying them, I was a little concerned about the comfort of the new design. Would having the weight of two batteries behind my ears be annoying? As it turns out, I can hardly even tell I’m wearing them.
A related area of improvement is the ability to operate the TW2s while wearing gloves. With both the BT1 and BT2, the controls dangled from the cord. Locating them while wearing gloves was a challenge. Pressing the tiny buttons was difficult if not impossible. The single large button on each of the TW2s is much easier to locate and press. (Not always easy but always easier.) And because the TW2s have built-in mics, I no longer have to stop what I’m doing, take off my gloves, and remove an earphone when my wife has a quick question. I can simply press the large button on either of the TW2s with my gloved finger and the built-in mics pause what I’m listening to and amplify her voice. This situation was such a pain point with the previous designs that this feature alone justifies the cost of the TW2s for me.
The TW2s offer other advantages as well. Shure offers a very useful app that can update the TW2 firmware and load precision, customizable 4-band parametric EQ curves tailored specifically to the capabilities of your particular SE earphone model. (Some users may have noticed that I have yet to mention sound quality. The TW2s do seem to be at least a small step forward in this regard—they certainly aren't a step backward—but any really noticeable difference comes from tweaks to the parametric EQ in Shure’s PLAY app, something that wasn’t possible with the BT2.) The app also permits the customization of controls and prompts, a hugely useful capability that was absent from previous designs. And charging is wireless now. No more fiddling with a USB Micro-B cable—though this does mean that you must carry the somewhat large charging/storage case with you when you want to charge the TW2s.
Finally, the phone experience. I don’t spend much time on phone calls but the experience has been excellent. The TW1, the gen 1 version of this product, was widely dinged because phone calls only came to one ear. That limitation is now gone. You can hear your caller in both ears. And my wife tells me the mic quality is excellent.
With all of the improvements, there is very little that I feel the TW2 could do better. My only minor complaint relates to the lack of a battery status indicator. To be clear, I have yet to run into a battery life limitation. The TW2s seem to have excellent stamina. But there’s no simple way to tell how close I have come to exhausting them. The older BT1 and BT2 would announce the remaining battery life whenever they were powered up. “Eight hours remaining.” This was great. I always knew how long I had at the beginning of every listening session. That feature is gone. The only real way to know where you are in terms of capacity is to open the app and look at the tiny battery indicator which provides a percentage remaining but does not translate this into listening time.
The bottom line is that I am absolutely delighted by my upgrade to the TW2 and recommend them to anyone using compatible Shure earphones. They’re awfully close to perfect and easily worth the price of admission.
| 商品尺寸 | 17.78 x 17.78 x 7.62 cm; 151 克 |
|---|---|
| 包装清单 | 无线充电壳, 电缆 |
| 连接技术 | 无线 |
| 功能用途 | 包含麦克风, 快速充电, 防汗 |
| 本商品是否包含电池 | 是 |
| 电池类型 | 锂离子电池 |
| 产品颜色 | Black |
| 制造商 | SHURE （シュア） |
| 是否防水 | 耐水性 |
| 无线通信技术 | 蓝牙 |
| 商品重量 | 151 g |
