**The Great Audio Experiment**

In this episode, we put three different audio products to the test: a pair of affordable wireless earbuds from Walmart, active noise cancellation over-ear headphones, and an entry-level streaming box from Target. Our goal was to find out which one delivered the best sound quality for its price.

As we began our testing, we quickly realized that the most pressing issue at hand wasn't the audio quality itself, but rather the lack of a power source. One of us asked if the earbuds were still charged, and after a brief moment, it became clear that they weren't. The other person then pulled out their tablet, which was actually still not even charged. It seemed like we had some unfinished business to attend to before we could get started with our audio experiment.

With our energy levels replenished, we turned our attention to the earbuds and were impressed by their bass-heavy sound. One of us noted that they were "pretty good" and that both pairs delivered a similar level of bass response. The only real difference was in the weight distribution – one pair felt significantly lighter than the other.

Next up, we decided to test the active noise cancellation (ANC) capabilities of each product. While neither pair had perfect ANC performance, there were some notable differences between them. One of us noted that their headphones had a more neutral sound signature, while the earbuds delivered a slightly more bass-heavy tone. However, it was clear that ANC was a major factor in determining which pair performed best.

Moving on to round three, we decided to take the budget up a notch and test some higher-end audio products. One of us pulled out their own active noise cancellation headphones, which they noted had similar specs to more expensive over-ear models but at a fraction of the cost. The other person was skeptical, noting that the design looked high-end – with a sleek matte finish – while still being priced affordably.

As we delved deeper into our testing, it became clear that one product stood head and shoulders above the rest: an entry-level streaming box from Target. Despite its basic design, this device delivered exceptional sound quality, rivaling some of the more expensive products on the market. One of us noted that the audio signature was very similar to high-end models, while another praised the box's ability to deliver clear, crisp sound.

In fact, our testing revealed that this streaming box was so good that it could almost be considered a "budget flagship" product. Its only real drawback was its relatively poor battery life – and, indeed, one of us noted that their tablet was still not even charged after an hour or more of usage. However, when compared to the other products on our list, this device's limitations became less relevant.

In the end, it seemed that Target's streaming box had emerged as a clear winner in our audio experiment. While Walmart and Target both offered some excellent products at affordable prices, it was clear that this streaming box delivered exceptional sound quality for its budget. As one of us noted, "It's like they're trying to make up for not being able to afford the good stuff."

WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: en- Walmart and Target areunlikely places to buy tech,but today, we're going to findout is it actually worth it?So this all stemmed from a This Isthat Matt and I did a few months ago.- It's like a year ago man.- Was it?We have looked at Targetversus Walmart Tech in the pastor at least we lookedat them individually.- Individually.- And there's a surprisingamount of stuff.So what we're going to dois we're going to sign upfor the top tier Walmart Plusversus Target Circle 360.We're gonna try to get all the tech we canand we're gonna evaluate what'sbetter, Walmart or Target.I'm gonna start out bysigning up for Walmart Plus.$0 delivery fees, the samelow prices as in stores,I don't think that's a selling point.I also have Paramount Plus essential.Oh, so let's just see what mom needs,what kind of tech I need from mom?An onn tablet?Now if you're unfamiliar onn with two Nsis the Walmart house brand for tech.- I'm gonna shop dealsthat are specifically for Target Circleand immediately looking at it,it is definitely more household.- What? That makes sense though.- Yeah.First of all it's tech andentertainment is the categoryand most of them aremagazine subscriptions.I will be honest, thisis really disappointing.I can get a Hyundai refurbished tablet-- Oh god.- For $60.Also, speaking of onn,they have a 4K Google TVstreaming box for 20 bucks.I'm gonna look specificallythen for Target branded stuff,which is heyday.- How about a $29 soundbar?I'm actually kind of down with that.- So I'm jealous of whatyou're able to find over there.It's because,again, the stuff I'm findinghere is just not great.- The only shot that Target has hereis that you're gonna get abunch of cool looking stuffthat's gonna show up faster.'Cause a lot of your itemsdo look like they're gonnashow up faster than mine,but like I feel veryconfident in the stuffthat I have found here on Walmart.Like there's a lot of really good stuff.So we have placed ourorders, we have our items,but before we actually unbox them,the delivery process was interesting-- Janky.- So for Walmart, Iended up having two itemsthat were delivered same day,took about five hours,but it wasn't too badand everything showed up, it was fine.Pretty straightforward, no problems.- So, I put everythingin a cart and I hit orderand it's like hey, yourorder was successful.It just didn't checkoutlike half of my items.A bunch of it showed up atyour house and not the office.- That is true. Now I heard a rumor-- Yep.- That your free deliverywas in fact not free.My free delivery was a lie.So the difference betweenWalmart and Targetis what I'm learningis that Walmart at nopoint asked me to tipto do anything like that.It was just, you know, thestuff got delivered, the end.But Target not only did the person,the delivery person actually text saying,hey, I'm about to leave the store,is there anything else youwant? Which is very nice.But it got me thinkingof either you gotta expect to pay the tipon the free deliverywhich can quickly add upto way more than the priceor alternatively, on Walmartthe person's not making any money?Maybe there's a tip screensomewhere that I missed.So I've got-- I have-- An onn Android tablet,- A Hyundai My tab.- Isn't it Hy tab?- Yeah, I couldn't read that font.- So what kind ofspec are you looking at?Because I've got a seven inch display,a 2.2 gigahertz, octa-coreprocessor with three gigs of RAM.- Mine is a quad-core with one gig of RAM.- Well, I will say that I am feelingactually pretty good about mine.So this was a $60 tablet,that's pretty cheap.That's pretty much on parwith like the very low end like Fire tabs.Oh, look at that orange.- Yo, that looks nice.- That actually lookslike not a garbo tablet.Yours looks like aFisher-Price toy from 2012.Yours also smells bad.Yeah, smell the differencebetween the two.- Yeah.Oh.- I got a mess.- Mine comes-- You got a case?- Mine comes with a floppy case.- That's for kids, man.Don't make that noise.So when you turn it on, doesit start playing Cocomelon or-- I dunno, I'm not gonna use this case.- This is an actual mess,like I'm trying to get all this off.It is gonna take me a whileand it's very crumbly.You actually have 3G onthat, that's kind of wild.- SIM and SD card slot.- Wow.You have, I mean not that you'regonna wanna do it, but you-- Well is 3G even still active?- Oh, right. Yeah.- Well, in America.- Aye!- It's onn.- It's onn.My screen's pretty brightthough, I'll tell you that.Like it's actually,you know, it's low res,actually looks pretty good.I bet this will be fine for video.- The fact that theanimation just starred upat about two FPS is not a good sign.- Can I just say thatthe keyboard is themedso it's slightly orangejust like my tablet.You see that? It's pretty good, right?- Mine turned off.On one end, we're gonnabe building the most-Speakers are bad.- They're not good.Oh look at,look how zoomed in thefront facing camera is.You know what though?This thing for 60 bucks.- This is not a fair comparison thoughbecause I mean I look good on everything.- If this is how we'restarting for Walmart,man, this is impressive.- I'm nervous now.- You should be.Next up, we've got some headphones.So these are what the?What? What the? What?What are? What do? What do?Wait, did you not get the memothat was supposed to be wireless?Is that a wire on this?- I went for style, right?- Yeah.I will say that mine actually pretty good,so they have the earbudsas well as the case.So I'm gonna pair mine upwith my tablet, of course,to properly evaluate it.- So here's my problem.- You don't have anything with AUX?- I was planning on using my tablet.- Is it still not charged?- No.(upbeat music)- Wow, these actually have some real bass.These are like one, they're really comfy,like really comfortable to wear, and thenyou could just see howthere's nothing inside of thembecause of it's, 'cause of how...Do you want me to show you how to twerk?You're like, what you do is...These are pretty good too.- Both of them are bassy,which is kind of normalfor like a cheap headphone.- Yeah.- Like you crank the bass upto kind of make thempunch a little bit more.I would probably lean on moretowards the Bluetooth earbuds,I think that's gonna bemore common for more people,but actually, I say, this is a draw.- Oh-- These look-- This is never gonna run out of battery-- True.- And this lets you express yourselfin ways that this one doesn't.- So for round two,do we should give Walmartand Target both a pass here?- A draw.- Let's take the budget up alittle bit with round three.I have some active noisecancellation over ear headphones.- I also havesome active noise cancellation headphones,but they're earbuds.- Obviously, there are a lotof very expensive over ear headphones,but these have a lot of thesimilar specs for way, way less.Yo actually, those look expensive, right?It's got like the mattefinish on them, yo, dude.- These are looking pretty good.- Yeah?- Look at these. Look, the sleek it's-- Those just look like earbuds though.I don't, there's nothingspecial about the way they-- Okay, I'm trying to compete with yours.- Well you can't compete with Walmart.Some call it Goatmart.- Pass out,wake up,faded, faded.We might be the two whitestpeople on the planet right now.- I was just thinking that.- Thank you.- I would almost arguethat it's a little bitmore of a neutral sound,but it's actually not that much better,but I do have ANC, so if I toggle it on.- Are you able to hearme when it's on? Hello?- So here's the thing,it is like the lightest,most basic version of all these things.Like listen to the ambient sound on that.- Okay, this. Wow. Oh,this just sounds echoy.- Okay, these actually pretty good.They actually sound the bestout of all the headphones we've tried,these are good in almost every single way.For 50 bucks you're gettinga comfortable, stylish,they don't feel super cheap,they do have okay ANC,the biggest problemis really just down to the audioquality being, I would say-- You mean the number one thingthat a headphone needs to do?Have I tied it up with my Target finds?- Yeah, I think Target wins this one.- And you've been fading on that one.- No, no this is,dude, your tablet'sstill not even charged.It's been like an hour already.- That's fair, that's fair.- Next up we're going to gowith something a little different.So both Walmart and Targethave a variety ofstreaming boxes available.Mine, I'm actually really excited for,this is an onn Google TVstreaming box for only $20.What you got over therewith your Fire TV that's already set up?You just said upbecause you knew it wasgonna take a long time.- Yeah, I did.- Do you see like JPEG artifacts?- Yeah.- Like why does it look so like-- Yep, 100%.- Like compressed or something.- I'll say the PrimeVideo one is the worst,which is ironic 'cause like-- It's just very like-- Someone googledPrime logo and then just-- Yeah.- Copy pasted.- Mine is like an actuallittle like streaming box.It just has micro USB and HDMI.I'll give them a pass for the micro USBbecause you'll plugging in to your TVand never look at it again.Oh you don't even haveYouTube pre-installed.Well, to be fair that, no,that's fine, that's fine.- Okay, yeah, that's fine.- That's one click for the first time.- Though, but like here'smy, here's my pet peeve,if it's right there on the home screen-- It should be installed.- It should be installed.- Yeah.Wait, what is? Dude,this is too slow, man.This is really slow.- This yes.- Yes, you know what myfavorite comedy "80 for Brady."A true cinema masterpiece.Now I've got the onn setup, and I'll tell youthat I actually really like Google TV.At home I actually use a Chromecastand this is basically the same thingand like you see the interfaceactually like pretty snappy.- That is much snappier.- Look at that, look.And there's a lot morestuff on screen too,like I'm just flying through this.While you might be a little bitsus on Walmart branded tech,so far everything we've gottenhas been fairly ad free,not a lot of bloatware.I mean the tablet had basically nothing,this has basically nothing like.Is there any downside? Whywould you not pick this?I'm not compensating, it's fine.An onn soundbar.So you got Bluetooth, HDMIand it is Roku TV ready.I will say that for optimal audio quality,normally, you wouldn't use Bluetoothto connect your soundbar.Yes, there's gonna be no cables,but you're gonna be losing alittle bit of audio quality.However, the actual monitorthat we're using here,'cause this is not a TV,doesn't have HDMI out,so this is the best way we've got it,but, we'll do it to givethem like a fair shot.- I also have-- What? What?- A speaker.- I got 140 watts, what doyou got over there, five?- I got, well it doesn'treally tell me, because,again, they don't put the specs on here.And welcome to This Is. iPad.- This is legitimately not bad.For 30 bucks, man, you couldactually just treat thisas a big, nice sounding Bluetooth speaker.- Oh, who wants to do that?You're at the beach with your friends.- I take thisto the beach with me.- What we have here is a tiny boy.- Oh, okay, I will give you-- And-- It's still clear.It's the same as theheadphones, it looks very nice.There's a brand new Apple eventthat just wrapped up this morning.- That sounds pretty good.- It's not bad.- It's quiet, it's not theloudest thing in the world.- Surprise, surprise,little thing is not asloud as a big thing.I still think my onn, Iwould make the argumentthat this is a better overall valuejust because of the sheer watts per dollaris off the charts.Obviously, we're comparingapples to oranges here.- No, here's my appleto orange comparison.How does yours sound now?- Not good. How do we decide this?I'm literally like tokeep to pick onn here.- I think I'll just givemyself the point on that.- Or wait, how about y'all help?Which one of you, whichone do y'all prefer?- Right now, I am more so inneed of a Bluetooth speaker,like a small form.- Joanna's got it.- I think I wouldalso pick the Bluetooth.- Ah!- Woo-hoo!- So for this next item,Matt and I decided that wewould each get a wild cardbecause I found somethingon Walmart that I had to getand there was no Target equivalent.So, I know what you have,but I've got an onn gaming monitor.- Okay.- This is an curve, ultrawide, 1440P, 100 hertz monitorand it was a low, low price of $199.- What?I have not one, but two Moto Gunlocked phones for also 159,but then they were no longer on salewhen I went to go buy them.So I believe they were 199.One of these is the onethat went to your house,I'm gonna need you to return it for me.It is 5000mAh batteryzand 6.5" 90 hertz display.- Matt, you give me some specs.It's a smartphone, I need toknow what am I getting here?-- What did I just, I literallyjust told you the specs.Can we rewind that real quick?- What specs did-- You, editors can you rewind that?It's 5000mAh batteryand 6.5" 90 hertz display.- Can you just take a look at my curve?That is an aggressive curve.Hello, it is me, on onnthe beans my friends.Look at the beautiful34 inch WQHD, 100 hertzcurved gaming monitor.Everyone ready for a100 hertz of 34 inches?Whoa!Wow!This is the biggest thing I've ever seen.Austin, what do you gotthere? Are you selfieing it?- Yeah.- Turn it around to the rearfacing. What are you doing?- Because I'm vlogging like a,that is, that does look. Oh.- That's actually not badfor front facing camera.- That's a pimple.- I'll tell you thatyou are kind of getting what you pay for,just looking at this panel.It is big, it is curved,it is a 100 hertz.The problem though is theimage quality is quite low.I mean, if you're just in a gameand you don't care about like the color,like this doesn't look bad.The problem is though, is thatlike you've got banding here,which doesn't look great for most things.- Yeah.- But, I would challenge youto find another largeformat, high resolution,high frame rate gaming displayfor anywhere near this kindof price, like, I mean-- Just adjust your definitionof a gaming displaybecause this is highresolution, high refresh rate.This is only 10 hertz less than this one.- If you lower yourexpectations just a little biton the pure raw image quality,I still think that this is the winner herebecause the Moto G Play is fine,there's nothing wrong with this phone.It's a perfectly reasonablelittle unlocked $150 phone,it's great.The problem though is thatat this kind of price point,in a lot of casesyou should probably justget something refurbished.You can get a pretty decentlike couple of year oldlike Galaxy S21 or somethingat this kind of price point.Whereas you are gonnabe hard pressed to findany kind of big, curved, ultra wide,high res, high resolution,high frame rate monitorin anywhere near $200, right?It's better, it's just a better,look, it's not perfect but it's good.- I'm gonna get mad about somethingI'm not really invested in.- What if we settledthis with the final itemthat we have purchased fromboth Walmart and Targetand weirdly enough we actually got similarand yet distinctly very different things.So for these items we'vecome out to the carbecause we've gotten someunique car accessories.This is the onn FM Bluetooth dongle.It has not only the ability tocharge your phone. Oh, yes.You also have the ability toturn Bluetooth into FM radio.- So I got a Motorola wirelessAndroid Auto adapter, so-- You actually use, you usedto use one of these, right?- I still do.- The way that that works is,my understanding at least,is that you need a car thatstill supports Android Auto-- Android Auto.- But this just turns it to wireless.- Yeah. So what this will do isit does depend on what the,whether the phone can handle that or not.- This is high quality in action.It is plastic, it is12 volt outlet shaped.And I've got myself a variety of things,I have a couple of USB-As,a one amp and a 3.1 amp,and a USB-C.And importantly, you'vegot all of your options,including you got a microphone here.So now, that I've got my party mode here,which is real great,although I can hit the buttonand I can change the mode.So I get a little bit ofRGB, in my 1997 Cutlass.- I see R and G, I don't see any B.- So I need to find a frequencythat's completely open, soif I go to station list,can I actually do that manually?- Have you ever used one of these before?- I don't listen to radio.I'm telling you 89, likethis is usually what it is.- I review tech for a livingyet I've never used techever before in my life.- I don't use FM radio.Why would I use FM radio?All right, so now, I havepaired via Bluetooth.So my phone is now chargingwith that lovely 3.1 amp connector.I am connected via Bluetooth to thatand then that is now transferringon 89.9 FM radio to the car.- 89.7.- 89.7, whatever.- Hello and welcome toThis Is. Today we are feeling-- That doesn't sound bad.- No.- For literally $10, yeah,you heard me right, $10,you've got yourself not onlya Bluetooth and FM radio,you got your party modeand importantly, you canjust use this as a charger.You got USB-A and USB-C.- Mine was a little bit moreexpensive, just a little bit.- Okay, why don't weeven see if yours works.- Yeah.- So I'm gonna unplug this.Oh, hey, "Welcome to Android Auto."- Yeah!- Wait, wait, Matt.- Oh.- It uses Wifi, you don't havea SIM card in this phone, so,so basically-- So, yeah.It wouldn't work because your Wifiis stuck using Android Auto.So this only works ifyou've got a cell signal.- Okay.- Or something downloaded on the phone.- Okay.- Normally, you would,if you had actuallyput a SIM card in here.- Yeah.- Okay, so the one in your carthat you use every day is 200?- Yeah, it's 200.- How much was your AndroidAuto only Motorola guy?- 70 bucks.- You mean seven times more than mine?- Yeah.- I don't know man.I think this would be okayif it did CarPlay as well,but because it onlyworks with Android Auto,like mine works withanything with Bluetooth.- Well, it's Motorola.- Yeah.- Since when does Motorola make iPhones?- Mine is one sevenththe price, has charging.How are you gonna charge your phone?Because guess what? TheUSB port is now taken upso you have no way to charge your phone.I have three ports.- I can use yourdevice to charge my phone now.- Yeah, when you buy minebecause mine's superior.I think that Walmart takes the win here.Walmart items, I think,were still on the whole slightly better.And importantly, the Walmartshipping was also better.But I will say is that whenwe're going head to headwith Walmart Plus versusTarget Circle 360,I'm pretty sure Walmartgets the win this time.- So where I think thatTarget does pull aheadis not with electronics.Realistically, like whatwe, Target 360 was forwas for like groceries.- Sure.- Toilet paper, stuff like that.So I think we might have had a,like a little bit different of an outcomeif we had tried things like those,but we don't look atthose on this channel,we look at at tech stuff.- Also, importantly,I have a free subscriptionto Paramount Plus now.But, let us know what youthink in the comments below.Not only about thesesubscription services,but also just about the items we got.Like, subscribe, follow.You can watch Matt on This Iswhere we make videos that arejust the same kind of energy.So if you like this, you'll like This Is,and, I don't know, Walmart.(techno music)