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An earbud is an earbud… right?
Until it offers a feature thats seriously impressive.
One such pair is the Viaim RecDot, which can serve as an AI voice recorder, earbuds, AI meeting assistant with transcription, translate to and from 78 Languages, flash record, make to-do lists & summaries with Viaim AI, and offers up to 48dB ANC for Meetings, Interviews & Lectures.
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I had my doubts until I gave these earbuds a go. Lets discover, shall we?
The Viaim RecDot earbuds sound great and can translate in real time.
Before I tested the Viaim Recdots as standard earbuds, I decided to first give the special features a try. Before I could get to that stage, I had to install the Viaim app on my Android 9 Pro, sign up for an account (its free), pair the earbuds with the phone and the app, update the firmware, and then reconnect them.
Whew.
The Viaim RecDot earbuds are ready to rock or translate.
With that taken care of, I opened the app, tapped record, selected Live Recording from the types of transcription available. I then recorded a simple voice message, tapped the three-dot menu button at the top of the display and hit Translate.
It then gives you a list of languages to translate into, and the AI does its thing. The translation happened far faster than I would have assumed, and once it was finished, it displayed the translated lines below the originals.
Color me impressed.
It gets better.
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The next test was to use the live translation feature. Essentially, what this does is listen to someone speaking in one language and automatically translates it into another in real time. This would be outstanding for those who travel a lot and dont have time to actually learn the language.
Ive used tools like this before, and none have really impressed me. However, the Viaim RedDot certainly did. The one thing you have to do is make sure to select the right languages. For example, if I want to translate English to French, I would select French for the earbuds and English for the phone.
Once I hit the mic button, the phone translates what was said in English into French in real time.
The real time translation is very impressive.
Basically, it all works very well, and I could imagine this feature alone making these earbuds worth the cost ($199 on Amazon), especially for the right person.
But what about the sound? Can you use the RecDot earbuds as traditional earbuds? You certainly can, and they impress in that area, as well.
The Viaim RecDot earbuds offer plenty of EQ presets, and there is also a custom option that gives you an 8-band equalizer. It took me all of 30 seconds to make the adjustments to the EQ curve to better match my hearing.
Once that was dialed in, the RecDot earbuds came to life. Thats not to say the Balanced EQ (the default) is bad — its not. In fact, the RecDot Balanced EQ sounds better than a lot of custom curves Ive added for other earbuds apps. But when I adjusted the custom option, I found the lows to be more present, the highs more crisp, and the mids just perfect.
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The presets work well with the genres they are assigned to. For example, the Pop EQ option brings out the mids, which is where the voice lives (and pop is all about the voice). This is one of the first pairs of earbuds that I could see myself switching EQs based on the genre Im listening to. Most often, I create a custom EQ and leave it at that.
The Viaim RecDot earbuds specialize in transcribing and translating, something they do very well. But the added bonus is that they sound fantastic.
These earbuds are a bit tricky. Because of their $199 price point, its certainly possible to find earbuds that sound as good or better. The thing is, you dont buy a pair of earbuds like the Viaim RecDot earbuds unless you need the translate/transcribe features. If you do need those options, they should be your first consideration.
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If you think you might someday need the translate/transcribe features, and you also want a pair of earbuds that sound great, the Viaim RecDots are a great option. I youre certain that youll never use the translate/transcribe features, move on to another pair of earbuds.
The Viaim RecDot earbuds seriously impressed me on all fronts. The transcribe/translate feature works brilliantly, and the sound is quite good.