Endorsed by NBA stars, the PaMu Quiet true wireless (TWS) earphones sport premium features at a competitive price. Its superior dual Qualcomm and Ams chip design powers Bluetooth 5.0 and active noise-cancellation (ANC) of up to 40 dB. While the battery life is average, the case does offer convenient Qi wireless charging.
Padmate has successfully completed three crowdfunding campaigns for PaMu in-ear headphones, raising $11,000,000 from over 200,000 backers. Following that tradition, the PaMu Quiet have launched on Indiegogo at an introductory price of $89 for the basic package. Should you join the backer team? We’ll help you make that call.
You might be skeptical about crowdfunding campaigns. Let us assure you that, in our experience, Padmate delivers. Our review unit shipped quickly, and we received a finished product, complete with store-ready packaging. That said, the comments on previous campaigns were mixed. While some backers were full of praise, others had issues with their products. However, Padmate was quick to respond and offer support.
With those concerns addressed, let’s get back to their new product, the PaMu Quiet.
Our PaMu Quiet review unit came in a rectangular box with a magnetic closing mechanism; a bonus point in my book. The box contained the charging case, earbuds, three pairs of silicon tips (sizes S, M, and L), a fabric lanyard, a short USB-C charging cable, and a drawstring bag. A manual with instructions was included, too, of course.
Note: If you back the Indiegogo campaign, you can choose a perk that includes a leather lanyard and a nicer carry bag with a zipper and carabiner.
On the outside, the case sports a leather-like texture, which gives it a good grip. The part inside the ring surrounding the logo feels like actual leather and it’s particularly pleasant to the touch. The ring’s top half is a blue LED light that comes on while charging or when you return the earphones to their case.
Although it’s mostly plastic, with some leather and Zinc alloy, the PaMu Quiet’s case has a nice heavy feel to it. On the downside, we noticed that it’s much heavier and slightly bigger than comparable in-ear headphones we reviewed recently.
Unfortunately, the battery life is below average, but it does feature Qi wireless charging, making it easy to refresh the battery when depleted.
Designed like a stopwatch, the case opens when you press the button at its top, revealing the earphones inside.
There’s nothing too remarkable about these in-ear headphones. The matte black design looks and feels pleasant. People wearing earrings might not appreciate the long tail, but it helps with handling the earphones.
The design is neat and functional, but did the features convince us? Let’s take a peek under the hood.
- Design: in-ear headphones
- Color: matte black
- Drivers: 10 mm PEN + Titanium composite
- Frequency Response: 20 Hz to 20 kHz
- Audio Codecs: AAC, APTX, SBC
- Chipset: QCC5124 and AS3460
- ANC: hybrid, up to 40 dB
- Microphone: Knowles with cVc 8.0 noise reduction
- Connectivity
- Earbuds: Bluetooth 5.0
- Charging case: USB-C and Qi wireless charging
- Bluetooth Profiles: not specified
- Operating range: not specified, based on our tests up to 33 ft (10 m)
- Weight
- Earbuds: 0.18 oz (5.1 g) x 2
- Charging case: 2.89 oz (82 g)
- Battery Life
- Playtime per charge: up to 3.5 hours
- Playtime with charging case: up to 7 hours on top (up to 10.5 hours total)
- Charging time
- Earbuds: not specified, but under 90 minutes based on our tests
- Case: not specified, likely 2+ hours
- Water resistance: IPX4
- Price: $89 on Indiegogo, $159 RRP later
Pairing the PaMu Quiet is straightforward. Just make sure to fully charge the case and earphones first. Then, when you take them out for the first time, they will automatically enter pairing mode.
The included manual contains an overview of the available controls. A single press on either earbud’s touch button triggers play, pause, or accepts an incoming call. A double-press on either one rejects an incoming call. Double-press the right earphone to jump to the next track or the left one to go back to the previous track. To switch between ANC on or transparency mode, press-and-hold the right touch button. To activate your smart assistant (SIRI, Google Assistant, or Cortana), press-and-hold the left earbud’s touch button. Unfortunately, you can’t control the volume via the headphones.
Side note: Our manual revealed that Padmate originally planned to make the press-and-hold and double-press options customizable via an app. However, they changed the design and covered up that line in the instruction manual.
In terms of controls, we don’t love this particular form factor. In the beginning, we frequently struggled to hit the touch area, which sits at the top end of each earphone’s tail. Frankly, we never got quite comfortable operating the PaMu Quiet. Our biggest complaint is that there was no feedback whatsoever for the press-and-hold control, meaning we could never be sure whether we had successfully hit the touch area.
For a pair of in-ear headphones, the sound quality is nice. AudioCheck’s headphones test revealed no obvious shortcomings. The 10 mm drivers rocked the bass test and delivered a satisfying sound with all our favorite music.
When we compared the PaMu Quiet with in-ears featuring 12 mm drivers, they blew them out of the water. The PaMu Quiet feature a PEN + Titanium composite diaphragm. PEN is a premium plastic film-based diaphragm, which brings out strong lows and mids. The Titanium enables clear highs. We could vividly hear the difference in quality.
Something to be mindful of is that the PaMu Quiet permit incredibly high volumes. We had to reduce the volume by about 30% to achieve equal levels with our reference pair. The PaMu Quiet definitely surpass the safe volume level of 80 dB.
If you’re concerned about damaging your hearing, have a look at the Puro Pro over-ear headphones. In the default setting, they top out at 85 dB, which is safe for 8 hours per day.
Side note: During the final stretches of testing various music tracks with the PaMu Quiet, the sound kept dropping out. Switching to a wired pair of headphones fixed the issue. The PaMu Quiet battery level was at 70%. The issue also disappeared when we disconnected from Windows and continued testing on our Android phone, suggesting that our Windows Bluetooth connection must have been the culprit.
The PaMu Quiet are the first Qualcomm anda ms dual-chip ANC earphones. Qualcomm’s QCC5124 provides the Bluetooth 5.0 technology, while Ams’s AS3460 chip handles the hybrid ANC, meaning you can switch between full ANC and transparency mode.
Both chips promise low power consumption. Padmate and Ams tested up to 40 dB of background noise removal.
To test the effectiveness, we played airplane cabin noise from a soundbar facing us and adjusted the volume while switching between the PaMu Quiet and the Sony WH-1000XM2, a pair of over-ear headphones. In this somewhat subjective test, the Sonys performed slightly better, but we were surprised by the amount of noise the PaMu Quiet managed to filter out. We also really appreciated the transparency mode, which means that sounds are passed through, meaning you can stay aware of your surroundings.
Unfortunately, there’s no way to turn ANC or transparency mode off. The only way to turn the earphones off is to disconnect them and wait for them to turn off automatically, which only takes a few minutes, or to return them to their case, where they will start charging.
Update: Meanwhile, Padmate has announced the PaMu Quiet app, which will let you control the volume, switch between ANC and transparency mode, and customize the touch controls. Unfortunately, app store links are not available, yet.
In addition to ANC, the PaMu Quiet also feature cVc 8.0, i.e. state-of-the-art Clear Voice-Capture technology that provides up to 30 dB of ambient noise reduction for your microphone. Next time you’re on a call, don’t worry about the persistent hum of your computer fan or the A/C, your voice will come across clear as day.
The PaMu Quiet delivers the advertised 3.5 hours per charge. That’s average at best. Comparable earphones in this price class offer anywhere from 8 to 14 hours of battery life per charge. But to be fair, they either carry larger batteries and weigh more, or they offer fewer features, such as no ANC, cVc, or weaker drivers and audio codecs.
If you’re planning on using your in-ear headphones for extended periods of time, you might be better off with a model that offers better battery life. If you value battery life over ANC or sound quality and want to spend under $100, check out the Creative Outlier Gold. They are equally as light, sound good, and reach an impressive 14 hours per charge.
When you place the earphones in the case for charging, the case won’t give you any feedback on their charging status. The case’s half-circle LED would have been perfect for signaling the earphones’ charging level, but it’ll only indicate its own battery level or status while charging. To check whether your earphones are done charging, you have to open the case and peek in to see whether the LED on the headphones is still illuminated in red. Unfortunately, that LED is not easy to see at all.
We loved the sound, were satisfied with the ANC, and thought the earphones were pretty comfortable. We also appreciated the high-quality components, like the dual-chip design, the Knowles microphone, and the 10 mm PEN + Titanium composite diaphragm. We weren’t impressed with the form factor and controls, but that’s a personal preference. The same is true for the case design, which we didn’t mind, but it’s on the large and heavy side. Objectively, the battery life is nothing to write home about.
As a little bonus, these earphones have an IPX4 rating, meaning they can tolerate light water splashes from any direction, which you’ll commonly find described as sweat resistant. That’s definitely good enough for everyday use.
While the Indiegogo campaign lasts (ending October 8, 2020), you can get a pair for $89. That’s not terrible, but also not a fantastic deal. A comparable set of earphones on Amazon with similar features, IPX8 rating, and much better battery life costs only $60. Of course, we can’t vouch for the sound quality, which was convincing with the PaMu Quiet.