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Everything is relative, of course, but keep the asking price uppermost in your mind and you’ll find the Lindy LTS-50 – while hardly perfect – likeable and enjoyable in quite a few ways.
Pros
- Inexpensive
- Rapid, organised sound
- Comfortable and properly finished
Cons
- All over the place in tonal terms
- Battery life can easily be bettered
- Ordinary detail retrieval
Availability
- UKRRP: £49.98
- USAunavailable
- Europeunavailable
- Canadaunavailable
- Australiaunavailable
Key Features
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Water-resistanceIPX5 rating to guard against sweat and rain
Introduction
Lindy has plenty of experience where affordable-yet-worthy headphones are concerned. But with the LTS-50 true wireless in-ear, is the brand stretching the “affordable” part to breaking point?
The Lindy LTS-50 true wireless in-ear headphones are on sale now, and in the UK will set you back a penny less than £40. Pricing for both the US and Australia is yet to be confirmed, but we don’t need to unpack a crystal ball to know they’ll be extremely competitively priced.
Have a look at the list of our favourite true wireless in-ear headphones and you’ll see that only a couple of pairs come close to being as affordable as these Lindy buds. However, being affordable is one thing; performing well for that price is quite another.
Design
- Charging case of 30 x 61 x 52mm (hwd)
- Earbuds of 35 x 35 x 46mm each (hwd)
- Neither feel particularly low-rent
There isn’t much point to getting carried away where the design of true wireless in-ears is concerned – and when you’re trying to hit a price-point as aggressive as this, there’s no budget to do so even if you so desired.
In design terms, then, the LTS-50 are everything you could realistically expect: compact earbuds in an equally compact charging case. Neither feels anything special, but nor do they feel especially penny-pinching.
Features
- Bluetooth 5.0
- 6mm dynamic drivers
- IPX5 rating
Obviously, when you’re being asked for less than £40 for a pair of true wireless in-ears, there are some features you expect to do without. What’s notable about the Lindy LTS-50 is just how few omissions there are. There’s no control app, nor active noise-cancellation. But in every other respect, the feature set here is perfectly respectable.
Wireless connectivity is via Bluetooth 5.0, with support for SBC and AAC codecs. Battery life is an okay 16 hours, all in – four hours from the buds and another three full charges from the case. From flat, the Lindy can be fully charged in around 90 minutes.
There are touch controls on each earbud, covering play/pause, volume up/down, skip forwards/backwards, answer/end/reject call, and wake voice assistant. And despite just a single mic in each earbud, both call quality and voice-assistant interaction are reliable.
Sound is delivered via a pair of 6mm full-range dynamic drivers, and the LTS-50 are rated IPX5 – so they should survive the UK’s unpredictable weather.
So, yes, as previously mentioned, at this sort of price you can’t really expect any more than Lindy is offering.
Sound Quality
- Sound is speedy and controlled
- Some significant issues with tonality
- Mediocre detail levels
All true wireless in-ears are fit-dependent – if they don’t fit properly, they don’t sound right. But getting the LTS-50 to fit correctly is even more crucial than it is with most other earbuds. As such, it’s just as well Lindy provides three silicone and three foam sets of ear tips in the box. Unless you like your sound thick and soupy, or thin and zizzy, take a few moments to find the best ear tips for your own lug-holes.
Once that’s achieved, there’s a fair bit to enjoy – admire, even – about the way the Lindy LTS0-50 deliver music.
What’s most immediately noticeable is just how swift the Lindy are. No matter if you’re listening to the relative modernity of Clash by Dave (ft Stormzy) or the antique sounds of That’s All Right by Arthur “Big Boy” Crudup, the LTS-50 have a proper charge at it. Low frequencies are controlled enough to keep up, and there’s next-to no overhang throughout the frequency range. If rapidity is a trait you value, you’ll enjoy these Lindy – they’re up on the balls of their feet at all times.
However, tonality is slightly more problematic than simple verve here. Low frequencies are just slightly monotonal, hinting at textural detail rather than making it explicit, and at the opposite end treble sounds are a rather basic wash of sound without much insight into the nitty-gritty of timbre. They’re a little thin and splashy at the best of times, too, which makes getting the correct fit even more essential than it otherwise would be.
The mid-range is quite nicely realised, though – and, rather puzzlingly, it’s a fair bit more detailed than the frequencies above and below it. It’s enjoyably isolated, making Dave’s imprecations in particular easy to follow, and it communicates well. The way the overall frequency range is integrated is pleasing, too – even if overall tonality makes the entire presentation sound a little artificial.
The Lindy LTS-50 are a reasonably dynamic listen, though. Admittedly, the pace they seek to inject doesn’t suit every type of material, but any recording with obvious dynamic variation is handled with no little skill by the Lindy. For all that the bottom-end lacks some insight, it’s in no way short of drive – so when the going gets punchy, these earbuds revel in it.
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Should you buy it?
You’re operating on a strict budget The LTS-50 are far from perfect, but they represent good value.
You can spend more Superior performance is available if you stretch the budget a little.
Final Thoughts
In absolute terms, the LTS-50 fall short. They’re not detailed enough, their tonal balance is what’s described in technical terms as “wonky”, and their battery life is unimpressive. And yet when you keep the asking price uppermost in your mind, these are actually quite likeable earbuds – nicely made and with sonic speed on their side. As a gift for a younger listener, or simply as a disposable pair of headphones, they’re not without merit.
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How we test
We test every headphones we review thoroughly over an extended period of time. We use industry standard tests to compare features properly. We’ll always tell you what we find. We never, ever, accept money to review a product.
Find out more about how we test in our ethics policy.
Tested for several days
Tested with a range of music
