The Sony Inzone E9 in-ear gaming headphones are a good choice if you want to buy a pair of earbuds almost exclusively for FPS games | Retrui News | Retrui
The Sony Inzone E9 in-ear gaming headphones are a good choice if you want to buy a pair of earbuds almost exclusively for FPS games
SOURCE:TechRadar|BY: Dashiell Wood
The Sony Inzone E9 in-ear gaming headphones are a good pick for hardcore FPS gamers thanks to their detailed directional sound, but are poorly suited for anyone else with flat bass and a high asking price.
The Sony Inzone E9 in-ear gaming headphones are a specialist product that excels in its particular niche. With clear, directional sound, they’re perfect for competitive shooters like Counter-Strike 2 and might even give you a slight advantage over your competition, but the very flat bass and lack of in-built microphone make them a poor fit for more general gaming in other genres.
Pros
Comfortable with a wide range of fit options
Clear, high fidelity spatial sound
Fantastic included case
Perfect for FPS games
Cons
-
Lacks microphone
-
Flat overall tuning
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Sony Inzone E9: Two-minute review
Sony makes it very clear who the Inzone E9 in-ear gaming headphones are for. Developed in partnership with eSports team Fnatic, these wired in-ear monitor (IEM) style earbuds are squarely aimed at competitive first-person shooter (FPS) players or those with a generous budget aspiring to become one.
The Sony Inzone E9 headphones are highly comfortable to wear and come with a superb carrying case, but the unapologetically flat sound is not going to help cutscenes or action sequences sound their best. The GameBuds, or even Sony’s own but more expensive Inzone Buds, are clearly better choices, but it's hard to fault the Inzone E9 in-ear gaming headphones for that, as that’s obviously not what they’re for.
(Image credit: Future)
They really come into their own in a competitive first-person shooter (FPS) setting, pairing well with games like Counter-Strike 2, Valorant, and Call of Duty: Black Ops 7. Here, the lack of bass prevents explosion and gunfire sound effects from overwhelming your senses, allowing you to focus on the impressive directional reproduction instead. The direction of key audio cues like footsteps is crystal clear and remarkably easy to discern, potentially giving you an advantage over those without such specialised audio gear.
The noise isolation is exquisite, thanks in no small part to the excellent seal of the headphones in your ears. A plethora of ear tips is included in the box to make it easy to find the perfect fit, and the included USB-C audio box stores EQ profile settings to make for a hassle-free setup every time - ideal if you’re competing in tournaments and need to access the same settings on a new machine.
Sony Inzone E9: Price and availability
$149.99 / £129 / AU$209
Available directly via Sony
Also at a range of retailers including Amazon
The Sony Inzone E9 in-ear gaming headphones are priced at $149.99 / £129 / AU$209. This is a significant investment for a pair of wired gaming earbuds, with top wireless options like the SteelSeries Arctis GameBuds costing not much more at $159.99 / £159.99 / AU$359.
In addition to traditional gaming options, the Sony Inzone E9 in-ear gaming headphones are also competing with the pricey in-ear monitor (IEM) earbuds favored by some FPS players. Here they come in at a very similar price to relatively affordable models from other big brands, such as the $149.99 / £129.99 Sennheiser IE 200. The Sony Inzone E9 in-ear gaming headphones are made specifically for gaming, however, setting them apart from most of the market and helping to justify the price.
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The Sony Inzone E9 in-ear gaming headphones are available directly via Sony in the US and UK. They can also be found at a wide range of retailers, such as Best Buy in the US or Amazon in the UK. In Australia they’re in stock at both JB Hi-Fi and Harvey Norman.
Sony Inzone E9: Specs
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Price
$149.99 / £129 / AU$209
Weight
0.16oz / 4.7g
Compatibility
PS5, PS4, Xbox Series X and Series S, Xbox One, PC, Nintendo Switch, Nintendo Switch 2, mobile
Connection type
Wired (3.5mm / USB-C with audio box)
Battery life
N/A
Features
USB-C audio box, spatial audio
Software
Inzone Hub (PC)
Sony Inzone E9: Design and features
IEM style design
Included USB-C audio box stores settings
Fantastic carrying case
The Sony Inzone E9 in-ear gaming headphones will have a familiar design if you’ve used a pair of IEM earbuds before.
They’re lightweight, with rounded earbuds connected to a rigid section of cable that hooks around the top of your ears. Two colorways are available: black and white. Both are rather plain, but the abundance of Inzone logo branding printed on the earbuds does give them some character.
Sony has definitely made some smart decisions when it comes to practicality, particularly with the length of the headphone’s cable. At 5.9ft / 1.8m, I found that it was more than long enough to comfortably reach my ears directly from my gaming PC’s 3.5mm headphone jack without the need for a cable extender. If you play on a console, you won’t have any issues hooking it up to your controller.
I also appreciate the clear left / right marking that’s printed on each earbud, with the latter presented in a bright red that makes it easy to spot at a glance.
(Image credit: Future)
A wealth of alternate ear tips come in the box, with a total of eight pairs to choose from. This includes standard silicone rubber ear tips and more foamy noise isolation earbud tips, both in four sizes (ranging from extra small to extra large). These are Sony’s widespread EP-EX10A and EP-NI1010 series tips - so replacements are easy to find if you need them later down the line.
You get a USB-C audio box for use with PCs, too. This can be used to store settings from the compatible Inzone Hub software, like your desired equalizer pre-sets or custom profiles. It also lets you use a dedicated spatial sound mode, giving a good impression of sound in a 3D space, albeit at the cost of some overall fidelity.
(Image credit: Future)
Between uses, you can store everything in the included carrying case that benefits from a surprisingly unique design. It’s divided into two compartments (one for the earbuds and the other for the audio box) joined together by a springy rubberized strip.
The underside of the strip has little magnetic buttons, clipping down to keep everything in place. It might be a bit hard to imagine, but it works really well and is much more practical than the cheap pouches included with most earbuds these days.
You also get a little Inzone-branded cable tidy, which is a neat bonus.
Sony Inzone E9 review: Performance
Clear sound
Highly tuned for FPS games
Underwhelming with other genres
The Sony Inzone E9 in-ear gaming headphones have quite a flat sound profile out of the box, though this is presumably intentional. There’s not a lot of bass leading to quite an unexciting sound. Playing through some Metal Gear Solid Delta: Snake Eater and Assassin’s Creed Shadows on PS5, key story moments felt a tad muted with the backing music missing the punch needed to really drive the emotion home.
You can address this somewhat by tweaking the EQ settings in the compatible Inzone Hub software, but there’s only so much that you can do to increase the bass on hardware that’s not designed for it. For story-focused games, the results were never punchier than what you get out of the box with the SteelSeries Arctis GameBuds and far less effective than even cheap wired over-ear sets like the Corsair HS50.
This lack of bass makes a lot more sense when you jump into a competitive shooter like Counter-Strike 2. Flashbangs and grenades are no longer overwhelming and don’t threaten to deafen you if you’re playing at higher volumes. Gunfire is more subdued, helping you stay focused in firefights.
The sound is crystal clear too, with an impressive level of directionality that makes it easy to track enemy movements using key sounds like footsteps. It’s very impressive, especially given how well the effect holds up in more frantic situations. Diving into an explosive match of Nuketown in Black Ops 7, I was able to accurately hear where nearby opponents were moving, even against the constant barrage of explosions conjured by grenades and killstreaks.
(Image credit: Future)
The detail is excellent, which is borderline essential in tense extraction shooters such as Escape From Tarkov, where being able to discern the subtle snapping of a twig can often mean the difference between life and death. If you’re currently one of the many people devoting every waking moment to Arc Raiders, I could see the Sony Inzone E9 in-ear gaming headphones being worth the asking price on this fact alone.
Despite offering no active noise cancellation (ANC), the Sony Inzone E9 in-ear gaming headphones do a commendable job of blocking out background noise by virtue of the strong seal of their fit. No, it’s not as effective as the ANC of the SteelSeries Arctis GameBuds, but it is good enough to drown out household sounds and conversations with the volume set at a decent level.
Although very uncommon in the IEM market, I’m also a little disappointed that the Sony Inzone E9 in-ear gaming headphones don’t come with a small built-in microphone. It’s not a dealbreaker by any means, but it did mean that I had to reach for my Final VR2000 gaming earbuds when I wanted to chat with a friend while playing an Xbox Series X game.
(Image credit: Future)
Buy it if...
Don't buy it if...
Also consider...
Not sure whether the Sony Inzone E9 in-ear gaming headphones are worth it for you? Check out these two compelling alternatives.
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Row 0 - Cell 0
Sony Inzone E9
SteelSeries Arctis GameBuds
Sony Inzone Buds
Price
$149.99 / £129 / AU$209
$159.99 / £159.99 / AU$359
$199 / £179.99 / AU$249
Weight
0.16oz / 4.7g
0.19oz / 5.3g (each bud); 1.7oz / 48.7g (case)
0.2oz / 6.8g
Compatibility
PC, Xbox Series X and Series S, Xbox One, PS5, PS4, Nintendo Switch, Nintendo Switch 2, Mobile
GameBuds for PlayStation: PS5, PS4, Nintendo Switch, PC, Mac, Meta Quest 2/3, mobile; GameBuds for Xbox: Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, PS5, PS4, Nintendo Switch, PC, Mac, Meta Quest 2/3
PS5, PS4, PC, Nintendo Switch, Mobile
Connection type
Wired (3.5mm / USB-C with audio box)
2.4Ghz (via USB-C), Bluetooth 5.3 (mobile)
2.4GHz wireless (via dongle), Bluetooth 5.3
Battery life
N/A
Up to 40 hours (buds 10 hours; case 30 hours)
Up to 24 hours (buds 12 hours; case 12 hours)
Features
USB-C audio box, spatial audio
360° Spatial Audio, Qi Wireless Charging Case, 6mm neodymium drivers, four-mic ANC, transparency mode, in-ear detection/sensor, IP55 rating, fast charge, companion app with more than 100 presets
360 spatial sound, optimization for your ear, tap controls. 8.4mm drivers, IPX4 waterproof
How I tested the Sony Inzone E9 in-ear gaming headphones
Tested for nearly three months
Used with a wide range of platforms
Compared to lots of other products
I tested the Sony Inzone E9 in-ear gaming headphones over a period of roughly two and a half months. During that time, they were my primary gaming earbuds across all of my usual platforms. This included PS5, Xbox Series X, and PC.
I tried the earbuds with a wide selection of games, ranging from story-based titles such as Assassin’s Creed Shadows and Metal Gear Solid: Snake Eater to some of the most popular FPS games like Call of Duty: Black Ops 6, Black Ops 7, Valorant, and Counter-Strike 2.
Throughout my time with the earbuds, I compared their performance to my hands-on testing of a wide range of other gaming audio devices across the price spectrum.
Dash is an experienced tech journalist who currently serves as the Gaming Editor at TechRadar, where he helps oversee coverage of video games and related products.
Before joining the team, he was Contributing Writer at PLAY (formerly Official PlayStation Magazine) and has also written articles for many of the UK's biggest gaming magazines including Edge, PC Gamer, and SFX.
Now, when he's not getting his greasy little mitts on the newest hardware or gaming gadget, he can be found listening to J-pop or feverishly devouring the latest Nintendo Switch otome.
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