Review: Meizu EP51

So here’s what happened. A few days ago I went for a run, it started raining out of nowhere, and the next day I got home and found the bass gone from the right unit of my IE80…

Thank god I bought the domestic version! Sent it in for repair.

After that I started seriously thinking about whether I should get a waterproof pair of sports earbuds. I mean, you’re not really chasing sound quality when you work out. After looking around, the best recent option seemed to be the Meizu EP51, so I grabbed one on Taobao for 150.

The packaging and unboxing for this thing are all over the internet, so I won’t repeat it. I’ve been listening for a few days; here are my impressions:

1. The sound quality really isn’t as good as regular earbuds—actually, it’s much worse than regular earbuds. The huge gap on first listen was a bit hard to take. But after a while you get used to it. I have to thank the human brain’s adaptability.

2. The sound itself is bad, but the tuning is surprisingly proper. It doesn’t go all-in on the low end like other earbuds do. It’s rare to see a sports earbud that doesn’t take the boom-tss boom-tss route, and that deserves praise.

3. The fit is okay, not great. It comes with four sizes of tips, but my right ear still feels a bit awkward and can’t get a full seal. Maybe my right ear canal is just bigger? Since the left ear is fine, it’s probably a personal thing… probably. If it’s not seated properly, the bass drops off and it isolates less.

4. I don’t know about battery life. To be precise, I’ve used it for at most 3 hours and haven’t seen any sign of it dying. Charging is fast anyway—full in no time—so there’s no real need to care.

5. Pairing and stability: I tried pairing with the FiiO X7 and the Sony Walkman ZX1, both without issues. Unfortunately neither supports APT-X, so I couldn’t experience the legendary Bluetooth lossless. Standard Bluetooth stereo sound is actually pretty bad, but it’s acceptable. Interestingly, when the player is a bit far away, the earphones randomly disconnect and reconnect a few times. Not too serious—just a small stutter. At first I thought it would definitely happen with the player in my pocket, but once I started running it went away. Seems random.

6. Finally, sweat resistance. Definitely no problem there. I ran until I was soaked through several times and the earphones got drenched in sweat, and they were fine.

I have to mention I recently bought a “pleasure”… no, a quick-dry shirt, and running feels great in it. Seems like the only thing left to replace is my shoes.

So overall, I think the Meizu EP51 is pretty good. The fit issue is probably just me. Remember that there’s an official guide for installing the tips—there’s a notch and you have to line it up correctly, or it’ll backfire. The best part is that the sound doesn’t go boom-tss boom-tss, which makes me very happy. All in all, if you have an APT-X-capable device, the sound might be a bit better than this, and it’d be even more worth buying.