RoseSelsa EarFree i5 TWS Review

 

General/Build/Comfort/Packaging

Roseselsa is a brand under Rose Technics. They have released several products which are quite well received within the community. I have previously tested several IEMs from the brand and they are generally good, one which I have quite a good impression of was the QT9-Mk2s and also the recent new release, namely the Aurora Ultra. Today I have one of their new releases, the EarFree i5 TWS.

The packaging’s presentation is rather minimal, consisting of the charging case, eartips as well as the TWS itself in the box. 

Build quality is rather solid, the fit is more or less similar to the airpod pro which i also owned. Charging case is metal and very solid overall.

Specifications

Driver Unit: 12mm DLC Dynamics

Audio Format: LDAC/ AAC/ mSBC/ SBC

Impedance: 32 Ω

Output Power: 15 mW

Frequency Response Range: 14 - 23600 Hz

Bluetooth Version: 5.3

Communication Range: 10 m

Earphone Battery Capacity: 40 mAh

Charging Case Battery Capacity: 500 mAh

Charging Time: Approx. 1h

Gears used for this review

• iPhone 16 Pro with Apple Music

• iPhone 16 Pro with Fiio BT11 for LDAC

• EarFree i5 with Stock Eartips

Foreword

My review is solely based on what I hear via my equipment and I never consider my reviews to be objective in any way rather a subjective approach. Do take into consideration that everyone’s ear anatomy is not the same, so the psychoacoustics perception might be different as well, but i believe it will not stray too far

General Features

Touch Control

• Works well, fairly sensitive and doesn’t require a lot of effort to use it

• The actions can be customised in RoseLink app

App Support

• Support RoseLink app with firmware update support

• Enable/Disable LDAC support

• Dual device connectivity on/off (when LDAC is enabled, unable to turn on Dual device connection), seems to only work in SBC/AAC

• Enable/Disable Game Mode

• EQ Mode

• Noise control (ANC, Wind Noise, Normal, Transparency)

Connectivity/Range

• LDAC works alright with the connection set to balanced

• With a clear line of sight, approximately 8-9 meters, the connection is very stable and no break off/distortions

ANC/Transparency Mode

• The noise cancellation works alright to cancel out the noise from certain low frequencies, it doesn’t work that well when it comes to mids and high frequencies such as when people are talking or when you’re out in a noisy environment, simply put, the noise cancellation’s performance is nowhere near the AirPod Pro but it works quite well for the price range

• Transparency mode is also average, it does make you aware of the surroundings but when people are talking to you, with the music still playing back, you can’t really hear the voice of the person talking to you

Battery Life

• Battery life with AAC codec with ANC on is quite good, with the volume set to 6/10, i am getting approximately 8 hours+ close to 9, which is quite close to the marketed battery life

• LDAC with ANC on, the battery life is shorter and that is to be expected, dropping to 7 hours +- which is still good

• The overall claim on battery in the marketing material is quite inline with the real life usage

Sound Impression (Tested with AAC and LDAC EQ Mode to POP)

The tonality of EarFree i5 is slightly on the energetic side, timbre sounds quite natural to my ears as well, but the overall noteweight is slightly on the thinner side, some tip rolling will help to increase the noteweight. Bass has very good punch and speed, tracks like Metallica’s Lux Aeterna, Slipknot’s People=Shit!, are being handled by EarFree i5 effortlessly, without sounding muddy nor bloated. Sub bass does rumble when the track calls for it, however it is not basshead kind of bass, sounds clean and good quality rumble. Good seal from the eartips is very important here. The mids are not too forward nor recessed, vocal positioning is quite center, but not very “in your face”, male vocal sounds a little lacking in terms of body, certain artist’s vocal can sound a little “brittle” especially for Zhao Peng, where his voice is supposed to sound deep and full, female vocal on the other hand sounds good with decent texture and body. Treble has a good amount of air and presence, this makes the whole music presentation sounds very airy. It is energetic but never offensive nor harsh. Detail retrieval is good as nuances can be picked up easily. Soundstage and imaging is really impressive for a wireless earphone. It has a very holographic kind of soundstage to my ears, good width and height perception, a little lacking in depth but other than that, it is really impressive. Instruments can be pinpointed easily where it’s coming from with good accuracy.

Comparison with Moondrop Ultrasonic

• Sound profile is slightly neutral warm, with customisable EQ curve via app

• Ultrasonic supports App connectivity as well, however, in terms of stability and overall user experience, i much prefer the app of Roseselsa because the app is more responsive and straightforward compared to Moondrop’s, Moondrop’s app on the other hand loads very slowly on iOS(i am using iPhone by the way) and no firmware update

• Noise cancellation performance is more or less similar/on par (subjective observation)

• Much shorter battery life compared to EarFree i5

• Both EarFree i5 and Ultrasonic supports low latency game mode

• Ultrasonic’s price is higher compared to EarFree i5

Final Thoughts

All in all, the EarFree i5 is a very good TWS if you are looking at it from the sonic performance, the general TWS features such as noise cancellation, transparency mode, and connectivity issue does a good job considering the asking price. If you’re looking for a good sounding TWS, EarFree i5 no doubt is the one for you. Packing long battery life and fast charging, coupled with app support as well as high definition codec, this is definitely a good choice for most, at the time of writing, the aliexpress store is currently having a winter sale, which makes it even more attractive in terms of pricing.

*EarFree i5 is sent over by HifiGo for the purpose of this review. I thank them for the opportunity as always

If you are interested in getting one, head over to their official webstore

Roseselsa EarFree i5 Hifigo Webstore - Non affiliated

Roseselsa EarFree i5 Aliexpress store - Non affiliated