Skip to main content

Can hybrid wireless earbuds fix the lossless audio problem?

Traditionally, music lovers have had to make a choice between convenience and sound quality when it comes to their earbuds or headphones, but the Zorloo Zophia aims to give these folks the best of both worlds in a single product. The Zophia is a set of true wireless earbuds that can be connected to a wired digital-to-analog converter (DAC) and amplifier for fully lossless, hi-res audio from any computer or smartphone. Zorloo is launching the Zophia as a Kickstarter campaign on January 28, with backer prices that start at $140.

If the Zophia lives up to Zorloo’s promises — and with that caveat, don’t forget our general advice as it relates to any crowdfunding project — these hybrid wireless earbuds could provide a solution to a problem that has been dogging the wireless audio world for years: Bluetooth headphones and earbuds — even ones that support Sony’s LDAC or Qualcomm’s aptX HD codecs — aren’t compatible with truly lossless audio, even at the lower, CD-quality end of the lossless spectrum. As a wireless technology, Bluetooth simply doesn’t have enough bandwidth to support lossless audio, making it incompatible with the huge number of lossless audio tracks now available from Apple Music, Amazon Music, Tidal, Qobuz, and other streaming music services.

Zorloo Zophia hybrid wireless earbuds.
Zorloo

That will eventually change for select phones and wireless headphones/earbuds as Qualcomm rolls out its aptX Lossless codec, but support for this new codec could be sparse for a while, and it will likely never come to Apple’s devices.

Recommended Videos

The Zophia earbuds come packaged with a cable that embeds a hi-res DAC/amp. It’s the same technology you’ll find in the company’s tiny Ztella DAC/amp dongle. Connecting this cable to the earbuds and to a phone or computer simultaneously disables the Bluetooth radio and overrides the earbuds’ built-in circuitry, effectively turning them into a set of wired earbuds. With a claimed frequency response of up to 40kHz, they should be able to reproduce the full range of hi-res audio tracks when in wired mode.

It’s not the first time a company has given wireless earbuds the ability to go wired — Motorola’s Tech3 use a similar design — but the Zophia are the first to combine wired use with a lossless, hi-res connection.

The Zorloo Zophia hybrid wireless earbuds.
Zorloo

There are two versions of the USB-C DAC cable, one which supports PCM audio at sampling frequencies of up to 384kHz and DSD audio at up to 5.6MHz, and a more expensive version that adds full MQA rendering (with a compatible app) along with PCM at up to 768kHz and DSD at up to 22.5MHz, which pretty much covers any lossless audio formats you could ask for. Regardless which cable you choose, there’s a USB-A adapter for use with a computer. There’s also a Lightning adapter for Apple’s iOS devices, but that’s an optional upgrade.

Cleverly, Zorloo has designed the Zophia’s cable connection ports to be backward compatible with standard 2-pin, 0.78mm audio cables, so even if the included DAC cable becomes damaged, or you simply want a way to use the earbuds as straight-up analog in-ear-monitors, you have another connection option.

When using the Zophia as wireless earbuds, the feature set is a little less impressive. There’s no active noise cancellation or transparency mode, and no wireless charging. Battery life seems adequate, at a claimed five hours per charge and a 25-hour total runtime when you include the charging case.

The earbuds are rated IPX4 for water resistance, so even a sweaty or rainy workout shouldn’t compromise their integrity. Zorloo has given the Zophia SBC, AAC, and aptX codec support and the earbuds run on Bluetooth 5.2, so connectivity should be very stable. You’ll also be able to use each earbud independently for calls and music.

Zorloo’s backer pricing on the campaign starts at $140 for the early-bird standard (non-MQA) version, and $163 for the early-bird MQA version, both of which are slated to ship by April 2022. After the campaign, these prices will go up to $179 and $199 respectively, and Zorloo says it expects the Zophia to hit regular retail outlets by April or May 2022.

Simon Cohen
Contributing Editor, A/V
Simon Cohen is a contributing editor to Digital Trends' Audio/Video section, where he obsesses over the latest wireless…
Audio-Technica’s latest earbuds snap together to save power
Audio-Technica ATH-CKS50TW2.

Audio-Technica's (A-T) presence at CES 2025 is pretty low-key this year, but it does have one clever trick up its sleeve when it comes to wireless earbuds: "Magnetic Switch" technology. The company's new ATH-CKS50TW2 (what a mouthful) take 2022's superb mega-bass ATH-CKS50TW earbuds and reimagine them with a new shape, a new charging case, and cool new feature -- if you don't have the charging case with you, just bring the two buds near each other and their embedded magnets will hold them together while powering them down. You can buy them right now for $149.

Not that you'll likely have to worry much about running out of power. Improving on their predecessor's already mammoth 20-hour-per-charge capacity, the CKS50TW2 get a claimed 25 hours per charge, with an additional 40 hours standing by in the charging case. That's totally nuts. To put it in perspective, the ATH-CKS50TW2 can last as long on a single charge as the Apple AirPods Pro 2 can last when you include their charging case's supply.

Read more
MQA Labs says its Qrono dsd and d2a tech can improve sound of all digital audio
MQA Labs' Qrono dsd and d2a logos.

MQA Labs has launched Qrono dsd and Qrono d2a, a set of technologies that the group claims will improve the audio output of any digital-to-analog converter (DAC). They're the first new products created by the MQA team since it was acquired by Lenbrook in 2023.

While both Qrono dsd and d2a are signal processors, they serve different functions. Qrono dsd converts DSD audio into a pulse-code modulation (PCM) signal -- a critical step when you want to play DSD tracks via a DAC that isn't capable of decoding DSD natively. "DSD conversion is handled with the lightest possible touch to preserve all the crucial time details in the recording," said Al Wood, MQA Labs’ director of engineering.

Read more
Noble’s Fokus Rex5 wireless earbuds are the first to use 5 drivers
Noble Audio Fokus Rex5.

Using multiple drivers in a set of wired in-ear monitors is now standard practice, but the technique is relatively new to the wireless earbuds world. And for the first time -- that we know of -- Noble Audio has installed five drivers into each earbud in its new Fokus Rex5. You can preorder them today for $449, and they'll begin shipping on November 29.

We've seen wireless earbuds use up to three drivers before -- Noble's own Fokus Prestige uses an 8.2mm dynamic driver combine with two balanced armature (BA) drivers. However, the Rex5 goes substantially further, with one 10mm dynamic, one 6mm planar, and three BA drivers.

Read more