User Experience

Seen above is the right half of the Lypertek PurePlay Z5 installed on an artificial ear mold that is similar enough to my own average-sized ears. I used the pre-installed size M silicone ear tips for this photo, which is what I also used for the rest of my testing as the others did not seem that different in comfort or fit. The foam tips are more likely to adhere with your ear canal, but can dampen the treble response even more, which typical TWS sets inherently already do. Either way, as mentioned before, try out the various other ear tips that come included in the box. The fit was fine for me given the section that actually goes into the concha is smaller than the outer surface directed towards your mouth to pick up your voice for calls, as well as a physical host for ANC microphones. It will look like some of the Bluetooth communicators from yesteryear thus, but without the customary ear hook. Passive isolation is good if you have a decent seal, and I have no complaints about overall comfort. These weigh ~5 g each, making them low in density and not at all physically fatiguing. IPX5 rating also will help for use in the gym or outdoors.

Battery life is a key metric for TWS earphones, and these promise 7 hours of use when fully charged, which is usually a best-case scenario at lower volume and in SBC/AAC mode with ANC off. I got ~6.5 hours regularly with my typical use case, with the volume at ~70% while using aptX, which isn't bad, but won't be breaking any records. Battery life drops drastically, to under 4 hours, with ANC on, closer to 5 hours in ambient mode, which is why I kept auto-ambient turned off in the app. This is where I found myself wanting Lypertek to add a larger battery in the earphones, especially for the form factor. The consolation is that the case easily provides four additional charge cycles, and quite quickly too at that given the fast-charging feature. This makes for 30+ hours without hybrid ANC, which is average in 2022 despite the earlier shortcomings. Given the smaller size and wireless charging option for the case, topping off the battery charge is easier than with most others.

Audio Performance

Audio Hardware and Microphones

As is the case with most TWS earphones, Lypertek is using a single dynamic driver per channel on the PurePlay Z5. This time, it is a relatively large 10 mm driver, which makes sense for this form factor. Unfortunately, nothing more goes on here, with Lypertek only claiming a frequency response of the usual 20 Hz to 20 kHz. There is no factory response curve, either, but it could be a case of the product not having been launched as I write this, and perhaps the soon-to-come product page will share more information.

At this time, there is no clarification on the exact wireless chipset used either, but Lypertek continues to be competent on the technological side. The new app worked exactly as I wanted it to without a hitch, and plenty of options there appeal to users both new and experienced. The physical implementations are excellent too, with the PurePlay Z5 on par with the Technics AZ70 when it comes to flawlessly working touch controls! Even the single taps vs. holding the sensor were identified accurately, leaving me more than satisfied. The microphones are also on the better side of average courtesy their placement closer to the mouth and Qualcomm's clear voice capture (cVc) noise echo cancellation and noise suppression. This meant the PurePlay Z5 picked up my voice quite well for smart assistant controls and calls. It won't replace a standalone microphone, but is far better than the integrated microphone on most webcams.

Frequency Measurement and Listening

I will mention that I have a general preference for a warm-neutral signature emphasizing a slightly elevated bass and smooth treble range with detailed mids and good tonal separation. I also generally prefer instrumental music over vocals, with favored genres including jazz and classical music.


Our current testing methodology begins with a calibrated IEC711 audio coupler/artificial ear the earphones can feed into to where there is decent isolation similar to real ears. The audio coupler feeds into a USB sound card, which in turn goes to a laptop that has ARTA and REW running and these TWS earphones connected to the laptop through Bluetooth. I begin with an impulse measurement to test for signal fidelity, calibrate the sound card and channel output, account for floor noise, and finally test the frequency response of each channel separately. Octave smoothing is at the 1/12th setting, which nets a good balance of detail and noise not being identified as useful data. Also, the default tuning was used for testing, and no app-based settings were chosen unless specifically mentioned. Each sample of interest is tested thrice with separate mounts to account for any fit issues, and an average is taken of the three individual measurements for statistical accuracy. I am also using the pinna mold fitted to the audio coupler for a separate test to compare how these fare when installed in an ear and cheek geometry and not just the audio coupler by itself. The raw data is then exported from REW and plotted in OriginPro for an easier comparison.


The IEC711 is such that you can't really compare these results with most other test setups, just within our own library of measurements. The raw dB numbers are also quite contingent on the set volume, gain levels, and sensitivity of the system. What is more useful information is how the left and right channels work across the rated frequency response in the Lypertek PurePlay Z5, or at least the useful part of it. The left earbud was separately tested from the right one, and colored differently for contrast. I did my best to ensure an identical fit for both inside the IEC711 orifice, so note how the two channels basically measure identically across the entire frequency response! These are averaged for each channel across multiple fits, which still makes for channel matching that is more akin to hand-matched premium IEMs, so I can only hope this is not a one-off for review samples. This continues with the artificial pinna in place, with the expected resonance shift and everything else being spot on also an indicator of how good the fit was in an ear mold compared to the ideal case of the coupler orifice itself. Keep in mind that with TWS earphones, the fit and connectivity and signal strength from the source are quite important.


As before, I will refer you to my frequency response measurement database: VSG.squig.link. It allows for users to easily compare my measurements to my preferred target for a better idea of what I personally like, as well as compare to other target curves at the bottom, inspect different segments, normalize based on SPL or at a chosen frequency, and easily compare other devices to each other. Lypertek's PR rep told me the following when I asked whether there was an intentional tuning for the PurePlay Z5: "Lypertek has always focused on sound quality, and even though the Z5 is their most consumer friendly product to date - the tuning needs to appeal to those that appreciate audio, and clarity in the higher frequencies is important in the whole balance."

What that tells me is that the PurePlay Z5's tuning fairly deliberately focuses on the treble region, which makes the simultaneously warm and bright tonality a good thing. I was also wondering why the EQ settings stopped at 80 Hz on the low end, but a look at the frequency response above confirms as much. This is not a set for bassheads, and definitely not for fans of EDM and house music with a drop in the sub-bass I typically associate with open-back headphones. In fact, that very 80 Hz value is where the mid-bass SPL peaks, and you can go further up via EQ if needed. Based on Lypertek's plans, doing so would make it for more of a mainstream audience, but note that more than 4–5 dB will result in haze and distortion I wasn't a fan of. Clearly, rather than actually being one, this dynamic driver was tuned to act more as a full-range one. The drop in the high frequencies suggests as much, with the 10 kHz limit in the EQ bands for the mobile app clearly chosen deliberately.

The mid-bass warmth carries over well enough for fans of rock music, and even country and funk music, with male vocals and instruments faring quite well. As far as TWS sets go, this is detailed enough to meet the needs of those appreciating music on the go, but it won't approach similarly priced IEMs. Instrument separation in particular is where wired IEMs will be far superior, as well as with general technical aspects, including the impact behind the dynamic driver moving back and forth rapidly, given this clearly does not have enough room for high strength magnets and an independent surround. But when it comes to other TWS sets, I can count on one hand those I've tested that outperform the PurePlay Z5 in resolution, imaging, and soundstage, so that's quite good for Lypertek.

The mids are ultimately so-so, with the upper mids elevated from ~600 Hz and past the peak in the bass. It's not by much, but enough to disrupt the balance I personally would have liked. Note that if you prefer the diffuse field target, most of everything here will seem warm, outside of the upper mids that will seem neutral. For most people, this will translate into a slightly nasal twang to higher-pitched vocals at ~1 kHz, and then a potentially underwhelming female vocal output. I found it adequate enough for the likes of pop and jazz music, but this is admittedly heavily dependent on your particular tastes and head related transfer function (HRTF), at least in terms of how your specific ears translate a sound field in 3D space. The gain we see in the 1–5 kHz region in my target aims to account for this, whereby the Lypertek PurePlay Z5 mostly does it well.

It's what happens next I find truly bothersome, with that relatively big and broad 3.5–6.5 kHz peak making many aspects of the treble response overly bright. This is where many instrument fundamentals lie, as well as some second and third-order harmonics. Think of listening to an orchestra, for example, where the flute notes hang around alongside piano keys, but to different extents. This is one of the reasons I was making clear that imaging isn't this set's strongest point, and I did end up using the app to EQ the 3 kHz and 7 kHz peaks slightly less. Once again the EQ settings fell just outside of what I wanted to do! Past 10 kHz, the tuning gets dark to where there isn't really anything to appreciate for cymbals and triangles, with the subsequent short peak likely a driver resonance itself since I didn't really feel it much in person. If you listen to classical or instrumental music in general, going with songs that employ a single group of instruments will make you appreciate the PurePlay Z5 more than when listening to the likes of a symphony.


Note that I am simply showing the tuning profiles in the ANC and ambient modes above, not their actual effect. ANC with Bluetooth earphones tends to typically reduce bass SPL, and the Lypertek PurePlay Z5 has the tuning in ANC mode lift up the sub-bass and mid-bass to compensate for the expected decrease when the microphones do not pick up external stimuli to respond to, as is the case here. It's funny then that it's now a more typical V-shaped tuning, but I have to say that the active noise cancellation worked fairly well. Even with the passive isolation accounted for, toggling between Normal and ANC had a noticeable effect, also muting male vocals such as my own. Ambient mode works by emphasizing the mids especially, allowing you to listen to your surroundings without removing the earphones, and it picked up my voice and that of others very well, sometimes too well, as there's a general light background hiss in this mode. I definitely would not recommend using auto-ambient with this set!

Comparisons

It's a shame thus that many of my previous TWS experiences took place before I got serious about reviewing them, and some, such as the Lypertek PurePlay Z3 2.0, were measured differently to where I no longer have the data to add for comparison. I mention that set because it is the most obvious point of comparison to the PurePlay Z5, but it also used a more traditional V-shaped tuning compared to this set. Instead, seen above are the frequency response measurements for three other ANC TWS sets, including the Audio-Technica ATH-ANC300TW, Kinera YH802, whose review will be coming soon, and Technics AZ70. Somehow, all of them have different tuning approaches, and I found issues with all of them, too. The PurePlay Z5, however, is the least offensive to where it's also good. The rest of the feature set is also in favor of the PurePlay Z5, with only the more expensive Technics AZ70 hanging on here.


I am not sure what's stopping these hybrid ANC models from being tuned well across the board, and proving my point are four others that are going to be divisive at best. This time, the PurePlay Z5 goes up against the Cleer Roam NC, Tronsmart Apollo Air+[/url, Padmate PaMu Z1, and 1MORE ColorBuds 2 that will also be reviewed soon. Once again, I'd probably take the Lypertek PurePlay Z5 over all of them, although the Cleer Roam NC might appeal to some who want more elevation on either side while also costing less. As it stands, the best-tuned TWS sets I have tested so far have all been without an ANC implementation, hybrid or otherwise.