Review: LG Tone Free FP8W

Tone Free FP8W has a fixed case that cleans the earplugs with UV rays after use – and kills 99.9 percent of all bacteria, if we are to believe the manufacturer.

Battery life is stated at an impressive 24 hours from the earplugs themselves and an extra 15 hours from the case if the active noise reduction is turned off. When turned on, the battery life drops to ten and six hours, respectively, which is still more than respectable.

In the app, you can select two-step noise reduction or ambient sound, or you can turn it off entirely. Ambient sound mode gives – quite surprisingly – lower sound leven on the music. The very best sound, with firm and fine dynamics, you get if both are turned off.

Noise attenuation at the highest level provides slightly ugly digital artifacts around the noise floor, which are thankfully less audible when playing music. But set the noise reduction to Low if you want to hear as little of it as possible.

The sound of LG Tone Free FP8W

Without tone controls turned off, the LG earbuds sound perfectly okay. Nice treble on female vocals that do not get sharp, and an energetic bass that is unfortunately a bit dull and disconnected. As a slightly ill-tuned subwoofer.

There are some preset audio options, signed by Meridian. They both sound louder and give much larger stereo sound. Especially 3D Sound Stage, which unfortunately otherwise sounds quite poor. But Bass Boost provides much of the same great soundscape and is significantly better balanced. Here, the guitars on Billie Eilish’s “Your Power” float around her head, while Billie’s voice is clearly and naturally in the center.

I think the best sound is acheived by setting the EQ manually, but unfortunately it is at the expense of the big sound image that you only get if you choose one of the Meridian settings.

In the good eight-band EQ in the app, I turn down the upper bass a bit, where the coloring is. I raise the midrange and treble, and to get everything loudn enough, I finally raise all the frequencies a notch.

Now the sound is cleat with a big, solid bass and a really good reproduction of both male and female voices.

The voice quality on telephone calls  is a bit reminiscent of telephone voices from the 90s, with a sharp midrange and a bit of treble. Nothing to brag about, but it works.