I should have reviewed TOZO NC2 sooner because these are up there with the best of the best for your nice bass-heavy sound and excellent clarity, and the rest of the features are good as well. So let’s get straight into it.
If you want to grab a pair of TOZO NC2 earbuds, the link is below.
Buy TOZO NC2 on Amazon for $39.99 (50% Off)
Design of TOZO NC2
I’ve got the white version, and they also come in black, and you’ve got a slightly off-white finish on the outer side of the earbud. They have glistening action and basic smooth, hard plastics inside the earbud. Overall look, it’s like a chunkier AirPods Pro, but the comfort is very good with this kind of similar design.
Regarding ear tips, you get six sizes included. They come in a nice little case; I like it when my tips are snug and safe. The third largest tip worked the best for me. I had to play around with the ear tips for a while and finally got the best-suited tip for the best performance.
You test all the tips to ensure you get the snug fit for the best sound quality and noise-canceling performance. Something I did notice, though, like to get a snug fit, I had to wiggle the buds up and down a little bit, but once they do the little wiggle thing, they stay completely fine.
The comfort is excellent. Again, similar ergonomics to the AirPods Pro, but TOZO NC2 earbuds are a little bit chunkier, so if you have tiny ears, that might not work as well, but for my more oversized ears, that work well. I can wear the earbuds for hours with no issue, and when it comes to security, they are pretty decent.
For a stem-style design, I can use them when weight training, moving my head around, lying down for a bench press, or leaning over for a barbell row, and the earbuds stay completely fine. Running, walking is also completely fine. It’s just when I was exerting myself, like clenching my jaw or making weird training faces.
The buds budge out slightly more in my right canal. My right ear is always buggy, but not to the point of the buds falling out—just a couple of readjustments every five or ten exertions of my face. If you want to use spin-fit ear tips, the CP 1025 didn’t work well for whatever reason, but the CP 360 did.
Suppose you like using your earbuds when training, TOZO NC2 is an IPX 6 water-resistant rating for the earbuds, as well as the case, which is rare to see in the budget true wireless earbud world. So this means you can get sweaty, water splashes, and use the buds in the rain. However, you can’t submerge the buds in water.
As advertised, using ANC, you will get eight hours from the buds and 32 hours total with the case. From my testing, I got noise canceling for six hours from the buds, 24 hours total, at 70% volume on an iPhone 10s.
Design of TOZO NC2 Case
TOZO NC2 is not equipped with fast-charge, but wireless charging is nice to see at this price. In terms of the case design, similar to the earbuds design, it’s like a chunk of your AirPods Pro, so easily pocketable but a little bit on the chunky side. But considering the amount of battery life you’re getting, it’s alright.
The case color is the same as the outer part of the earbud, glistening off-white. The hinge is slightly sloppy, but the pairing is very fast. You can connect your phone in under five seconds when you take them out of the case. I like the four LED indicators on the front of the case so you know when to charge the case.
The only issue I found with the case situation is the earbuds facing outwards. So when you take the earbuds out, you have a take one out, rotate it to align with your ear canal, then chuck the earbud in. Annoying at first, but you’ll get used to it after a while.
Controls on TOZO NC2
Sensitivity for the controls is spot on TOZO NC2. No random activations and it always activates when you use the touch controls. You can control everything, including volume. I like the subtle beat feedback in the earbuds when you turn the volume up and down or skip tracks forward and back.
Another cool feature is in-ear detection, which is scary for me at this price because it’s typically not done very well. But thankfully, TOZO has done it really well. When you take the earbuds out, one or both, the music will pause; chuck them back in, and the music will resume. A couple of cool extra features, if you take one earbud out and put it on your desk with the sensor facing down, it will not think it’s in your ear, so it won’t start playing music.
This will happen if you chuck the bud in your pocket; for example, it thinks it’s in an ear. A lot of in-ear detection does this, even at higher prices. Another cool feature is we can take one earbud out, and you have noise canceling on. Noise-canceling will turn off with the earbud that’s still in your ear.
I like seeing that there is no up customization to turn any detection off or any other features and customized controls, which would’ve been cool to see, but at least the in-ear detection does work well, so you’re probably not going to have to turn it off.
Connectivity for TOZO NC2
TOZO NC2 features Bluetooth 5.2 and can process SBC and AAC CodeX. For the Bluetooth range, I’ve got 25 meters in my outdoor test; it’s in a clear open space, and 17 meters in my indoor test. That’s downstairs upstairs through five walls. That’s as far as I can go. So TOZO NC2 has the best Bluetooth range indoors and is almost the best for outdoors.
There is no multi-pairing, but you can use one earbud only, and the other rests in the case, and if you’re using just one earbud, it’ll work in mono mode. So you hear both audio channels coming out of the one earbud. Regarding latency with YouTube and Netflix, there are no issues with gaming. Generally, with gaming, if you can get around 400 milliseconds for casual games, you’ll be fine. If you want to get some real low latency for shooters and that stuff, if you can get around or below 200 milliseconds, that’s as good as it gets.
Voice Call Quality for TOZO NC2
And then, for you guys that like to use your earbuds for phone calls, this pair has six microphones total where it’s trying to focus on your voice and block out many of your surroundings. While on phone calls, and I’ll say for the most part, I feel it does a pretty decent job.
I think my voice sometimes seems a little bit muffled because it doesn’t seem to pick up as much clarity as some other earbuds I’ve tested. I was very impressed with the mic quality on these. I wish it picked up a bit more treble in my voice, but it picked up my voice nicely.
So solid stuff with the transparency, as it’s blocking out the surrounding noise quite well during a call.
Noise Cancelling Performance for TOZO NC2
This is how I test my noise canceling with all my earbuds. I chuck on my soundbar simulation, plane train, and any noise to test the noise-canceling performance. For TOZO NC2, the noise-cancellation quality is average, and there are better earbuds for lower prices.
Regarding EQ shift, when you have noise canceling on compared to noise canceling off or transparency mode on, usually, transparency mode doesn’t affect the sound quality. There is a 5% increase in bass and a 5% loss in clarity. So at this price range, very nice to see as there is not too much of a change in the sound quality.
A couple of minor issues, though; on the currency pair that I’m testing with noise canceling, there is the slightest static buzzing noise in both earbuds; it is more in the right earbud. I’ve got TOZO sending me another pair, so I’ll update in the comments if that new pair has no buzzing. So stay tuned for that. But even then, it’s only noticeable if you have noise canceling on with no music playing and at lower volumes.
Regarding wind noise outside, if you’re walking around on a windy day with noise canceling on and transparency mode on, the microphones will pick up a lot of that wind noise. There is no wind noise reduction. That is generally the theme, though, with noise-canceling earbuds at this price range.
The last issue is with ambient controls. So when you remove the buds from the case, noise canceling will be off. You tap on the left earbud, and the transparency mode turns on. Tap once again, and then you have noise canceling. Then, it will only switch between transparency and noise-canceling modes.
To have noise canceling off, you have to put the buds back in the case, take them out, and then noise canceling will be off. So a weird choice there.
Transparency Mode Performance for TOZO NC2
Finally, with the transparency mode performance, I rated a solid 7 out of 10. It is slightly amplified, but you can hear everything clearly. It sounds digital and fake. Still, the main thing with transparency mode is whether you want to listen to what’s happening around you, and more importantly, you can hear conversations if you’re all talking to someone in front of you and you’re in a noisy environment.
Sound Quality of TOZO NC2
So starting with volume strength, if you want some loud level listening at a hundred percent volume, these go ridiculously loud. On my loud listening scale, I give TOZO NC2 a solid 9 out of 10. The sound gets a little wacky at those high volumes, but you’ll be fine if you want to go high.
Anything above 75, 80%, you in-depth territory, so no issues there. When it comes to low-level listening, at the lowest volume, they go pretty low, but thankfully there’s no white noise hissing sound at those low volumes.
Now, under the sound quality itself, and to quickly sum it up, this is some of the best bass-heavy V-shaped tunings you can get under $40. Regarding the bass level, it’s a little bit over the top. If you like bass, you’ll like TOZO NC2—a nice boost in that sub-bass, but there is more boosting in the mid-bass, which can sometimes create a bit of a bloated sound.
But overall, this is not a natural bass response. I rated a solid 8 out 10 on my subwoofer bass scale. So if you like a lot of low-end basses, you’ll like TOZO NC2 earbuds with an awe-inspiring mid-range bass level.
I did say this was V-shaped above, but it’s not totally V-shaped, as the mids are still recessed. Still, all vocals and instrumentation come through very clearly, like to the point of like, with the amount of bass and especially with certain buds that I’ve tested with a lot of mid bases; it can drown out vocals.
But when it comes to male and female vocals, they have no issues regarding their presence in those higher ranges. Regarding how good it sounds, considering it’s a $40 pair of earbuds, you won’t get the best detail, but very good considering the amount of bass you’re getting, which carries over to the treble.
This is why it’s more of a V-shaped tuning cause that treble is definitely boosted to the point of getting a little bit sibilant with hi-hats s’s and t’s and vocals on certain songs. It is evident when you’re venturing above 75% to 80% volume, which is as loud as you should go with these earbuds.
But the boosting works well, so you get lovely detail with instrumentation, acoustic guitars, percussion, hi-hats ride, and cymbals, as it all comes through really well despite that little bit of harshness. It would’ve been nice if it didn’t have that slight extra harshness.
This also carries over to instrument separation because TOZO NC2 offers some of the best instrument separations I’ve tested in this price range for a bass-heavy tuning. Picking out instruments in any genre is nice and easy. That’s the first thing I noticed when testing these earbuds and the sound stage. Again, for this kind of tuning, it’s an open sound, probably some of the best sound stages I’ve tested at this price range as well.
So overall with the sound, there are some slight issues, like a little bit too much mid-bass at times and the kind of harshness in the treble, but for a bass-heavy sound and the amount of detail and clarity you get, I’m amazed at this price range.
Comparison
To further explain the sound and features, we will compare TOZO NC2 against other earbuds in the same price range, the EarFun Free Pro 2. On the Free Pro 2, you are getting more bass overall, but in terms of clarity, I’ve got to give it to the TOZO NC2. The mid-range is more precise, and you get more treble detail, even though the treble can get messy.
On the NC2, the Free Pro treble response is dialed back a bit, which means you can listen to those really loud volumes if you are into that. So it depends on the treble response you like if you are more sensitive to it or not, but in terms of instrument separation and sound stage, slightly better on the NC2 as well. Remember that noise canceling and security are better on the Free Pro, but you have that in-ear detection on the NC2, which works well.
Next, compared to the Edifier TWS330 NB, you get more bass on the NC2, and better clarity, sound stage, and everything. That’s another easy win for the NC2. Compared to the Soundpeats T2, NC2 has a better noise-canceling transparency mode, and sound-wise, it has a more balanced tuning.
But compared to the NC2, the T2 is heavily affected by their noise canceling because the T2 doesn’t sound anywhere near as good with noise canceling on compared to noise canceling off. So compared with noise canceling activated, you get more bass on the NC2 and better sound quality.
So those three earbuds are the prominent buds in this price range that I’ve tested with a heavy bass sound. The NC2 comes very close and beats out the other two, so I’ve got to compare them to more expensive buds such as Soundpeats H1 and H2, the best bass-heavy earbuds you can get under a hundred dollars.
So they’re double the price, and the NC2 comes very close in overall performance. I’ll still give it to the H1 and H2, as they are slightly better overall regarding sound quality with a nice bass-heavy sound. But it’s great to see the NC2 coming in close there.
Another comparison you’d probably ask is Jabra Elite 75T. They push away a bit more but are three times the price. Again, the NC2 earbuds are coming close.
Conclusion on TOZO NC2
To wrap it up, we have another great contender in the sub $49 price range for a noise-canceling earbud with a bass-heavy sound because when it comes to sound quality, they do have their issues for a little bit of extra mid-bass and treble harshness.
But despite that, the clarity you are getting with that amount of bass is very nice to hear. You’re getting decent noise canceling and solid transparency mode. TOZO NC2 earbuds are nice, comfortable and offer a secure fit, making them an excellent all-around wireless earbud for below $50.
They’re a hundred percent worth the price, and I highly recommend TOZO NC2 or TOZO NC9 for those interested. You can click the link below to purchase them on Amazon.