Whoever presses hard…

Ratings

Introduction

Rose Technics, the portable audio brand established in 2012, is betting on TWS technology. It currently has 4 such products on the market: Earfree-i3, Lightyear Star Ring ANC, Beetle and the Ceramics model, which is the subject of this review. With the most expensive product costing $44 and the Ceramics currently priced at $30, these products are in the budget segment.
The Rose Ceramics have a 10mm dynamic driver with DLC diaphragm, they specify that a 10-minute charge can provide 6 hours of playback, while a full charge (40 minutes) can provide up to 7 hours. They use the latest Bluetooth v5.3 protocol with very low latency, 0.060s thanks to LLR (Lightning Latency Reduction) technology. They use an ergonomic design based on more than 70 iterations and more than 2000 tested ear canals. They have an IP54 waterproof rating. There is also an APP, called Roselink, with which some functions of the TWS can be controlled. Let’s take a closer look at what Rose has prepared for this model in the following review.

Specifications

• Audio format: AAC/ mSBC/ SBC.
• Playback time: 35H.
• Charging time: approx. 40Min.
• Noise control: ENC.
• Interface type: USB-C.
• Bluetooth version: 5.3.
• Operating range: 15m
• Controller unit diameter: 10 mm.
• Impedance: 32Ω.
• Frequency response range: 20 – 20000Hz.

Packaging

The Rose Ceramics come in a small white cardboard box, whose dimensions are 102x102x36mm. On the front side there is a real picture of the TWS in its charging box. Underneath is the model name and a description of the product, all in black lettering. In the top left corner is the «Super Charge» logo and in the top right corner is the brand logo. On the back are the specifications, the brand’s contact details, the contact details of the representative in Europe, a QR code with the address to download the RoseLink APP. Finally, at the bottom of this side, you can see the characteristics of the battery, as well as the logos of the certifications that the product complies with.
The box is sealed and can be easily opened by means of a die-cut strip at the top. Inside are two small boxes of different sizes, one twice as wide as the other. Both are made of white cardboard and have the brand logo on the front. The larger one has the box that houses the TWS and the other the accessories. In summary, the complete contents are as follows:

• A black box protecting the charging box.
• The charging box with the two TWS.
• The two TWS Ceramics.
• Three pairs of black silicone tips, sizes SxMxL.
• One USB charging cable (Type-C to Type-A).
• One instruction manual.

It is customary for Rose to incorporate a black protective box with the Rose logo inscribed on it. Inside it is custom made and padded to protect the charging box of the TWS. This little box is not as big as the old ones and this is appreciated. It is only slightly larger than the charging box. Although it is true that it can be a bit more cumbersome to carry both, given the small size of the charging box. The charging box is grey and has an LED on the front face. On the lid is the model name and underneath is the LED, the brand logo and the name, in grey letters. As usual, the connectors are protected by plastic sheets.
The contents are just the right amount. But I would like to emphasise once again that the extra protection box is very welcome for the low price of these TWS.

Construction and Design

The Rose Ceramics are high-fidelity wireless stereo headphones with HD microphones. They are Bluetooth 5.3 compliant. They have a gaming latency of 60ms, 35h battery life with Super Charge, and are IP54 rated for water resistance. They feature a 10mm DLC dynamic driver. The dual HD microphones have up to 90% ambient noise cancellation.
The charging box is constructed of glossy plastic. Its dimensions are 62x44x25mm. At the bottom is the USB Type-C socket for charging, as well as a button for resetting the TWS. It is available in three colours, black, grey and pink. The model under review is grey, which is the colour of both the charging box and the TWS. The headphones are also made of hard plastic, but matt. Both have touch panels on the outside. On it you can read the brand name and see the brand logo in its centre. There is a hole on the edge of the crown of the outer face. I think it is the hole for the microphones. Although near the base of the mouthpieces there are two more elongated holes that could be microphones. The capsules have a hybrid shape between a sphere and a cylinder. Their shape is crescent-shaped until the split, while the inner side shrinks rapidly. On the inner side are the charge connectors, which are two, the inscribed channel letter and a further hole. The nozzles are very short and transparent. They are protected by a fine dark mesh. It has two diameters, the lower one is 4.6mm, while the upper crown is almost 6.1mm. Their full length is very short, about 3.5mm.
They are a budget TWS, so there is not much to criticise about their construction. If they are IPS54 certified on top of that, they are not bad. They are very light and look tough.

Adjustment and Ergonomics

Rose specifies that their ergonomic design has been based on more than 70 iterations and that more than 2000 ear canal profiles have been used. Actually, their design is very compact, they are a bit stubby, but they fit me very well. Although the mouthpieces are very short, I could say that the large tips fit me very well, which is unusual, given the unique morphology of my particularly wide ear canal. However, the sound obtained with these tips, as well as the fit, grip and seal, is excellent, something I didn’t expect. With a very low weight, their shape fits very well and they are very comfortable to wear for hours on end.

Operation and Connection

The Rose Ceramics use Bluetooth v5.3 and the formats are AAC/ mSBC/ SBC. They are not the best in terms of audio quality, but they are very stable. My flat is small, but I can walk all over it without any loss of connection or drop in audio quality, even if there are walls and doors in the way. So, clearly, the specified 15m operating range is met.
The Rose Ceramics allow pairing with two sources at the same time. The system for doing this is given in the manual. I tested it with my mobile phone and the Fiio BTA30 Pro at the same time and it worked correctly. This allowed me to listen to music connected to my PC via the Fiio BTA30 used as a DAC and to take calls with my smartphone when necessary.
The rest of the functions are as follows:

• Volume +: one touch on the right capsule.
• Volume -: one touch on the left capsule.
• Previous song: two-second press on the left capsule.
• Next song: two-second press on the right capsule.
• Play/pause: two consecutive taps on any capsule.
• Voice assistant: three consecutive taps on the right capsule.
• Reject calls: two two-second presses on any capsule.
• Accept calls: two consecutive taps on any capsule.
• Play mode: four consecutive taps on any capsule.
• Pitch change (HiFi/Pop/Rock): three consecutive taps on the left capsule.
• Power on/off: long press on any capsule.

It should be noted that the Rose Ceramics have touch panels on the outside and when pressed, an acoustic acknowledgement is received. They have a rather medium sensitivity and are not very quick to respond to touches, as you have to wait for an acoustic acknowledgement after each touch. So you have to give the right frequency in order to be able to tap in succession. You also receive verbal notifications in English, about some actions, such as mode changes, when switching on or when entering pairing mode or connecting. The voice is very quiet, as usual.
There is an APP called RoseLink, which weighs 55.54MB in version 2.2.2(2115) at the time of writing. It allows you to see the TWS load, change modes and update firmware. It fails to connect to the TWS fully and changing options does not seem to work. The only option that seems to work is switching to game mode, but not always. It is too heavy an APP in size for it to have such poor and ineffective performance. I hope it improves. But apart from knowing how to load the TWS, as well as updating the firmware, it doesn’t offer any other appreciated features.
It seems that its charging is quite fast and with 10 minutes you are assured of a 6h operation. With 40 minutes of charging you reach the maximum of 7h. To gain that extra hour, an additional 30 minutes of charging is required. It seems that the charging base allows 5 recharges, reaching the specified 35h.
It has a game mode where the latency is only 60ms. I have not tested it. It seems that the game mode is just for that. To listen to music it is better to exit this mode.
The LED on the charging box is colour coded to indicate the charging of the charging box as well as the charging of the TWS.
The lower button at the bottom of the charging box allows you to reset the TWS. To do this, it must be pressed for 10 seconds.
As a summary of this section I would like to comment that the number of tactile options makes it difficult to remember them all. It is good that it has different tunings and a low latency game mode. But the connection modes are basic, no HD, although its connection is stable, it does not exceed the basic 44.1kHz sampling.

Sound

Profile

The Rose Ceramics’ profile starts from a controlled V-tuning for HiFi mode, in which the high mids are slightly forward, while the highs are soft and shaded. When switching to Pop mode there is a bass emphasis of 5dB, while gaining 3dB from the midrange onwards. Rock mode adds a further 2dB to the bass above Pop mode, but relaxes the midrange, which starts almost even at 2.5kHz and gradually rises to almost 4dB at the 7kHz point. As can be seen, the Pop and Rock modes emphasise the V-profile, becoming quite pronounced. On the other hand, it is worth mentioning the amount of air that the Ceramics have, something that is not usual in budget TWSs.
Another thing I would like to comment on is that the total power of the Rose Ceramics is a little fair.

Bass

The low end of the Ceramics is quite emphasised. If we start from the HiFi mode, you feel that the bass is centred in the midrange, a bit lazy and rounded, a bit diffuse and not too explicit. Moving directly to the pure tone test, in HiFi mode the sub-bass is not very sensory and not very perceptible. As the frequencies rise the tone becomes more coloured and audible, but with little depth and low-medium energy. In Pop mode the lower sub-bass is still barely noticeable, but the range gains in energy, presence and volume, even sounding more realistic. In Rock mode this behaviour is enhanced, gaining in depth and darkness, but you feel how the bass is slower to recover, more rounded, to the point of engulfing the rest of the frequencies, especially the first treble, which feels muffled and nuanced.
The result in HiFi mode is somewhat light, close to neutrality, while in Pop and Rock modes the difference is too great. I would have placed the Rock mode in between HiFi and Pop, to get the benefit of more depth, energy and volume, but without dulling the rest of the frequencies, which is what happens with these Pop and Rock modes by boosting the bass by that amount.
In short, the HiFi mode is neutral, but not very effective, it doesn’t sound very natural, it should be faster and more resolving, but it’s still diffuse and undefined. In Pop or Rock modes, presence, depth and a little more realism, energy and volume are gained, but it is still a rounded and unpolished bass, which does not gain in resolution and affects the rest of the frequencies.

Mids

I still think that HiFi mode is the most suitable mode for music playback. Pop mode boosts the bass and high midranges, but the higher bass gain obscures the sound rather than enlivens it. This feeling is more pronounced in Rock mode, where the bass floods the music and the detail is very shaded. Vocals are more natural in HiFi mode, especially female vocals. The Pop mode gives a little more body to the male vocals, but I go back to the HiFi mode to recover detail and naturalness, as in Rock mode the male vocals become too cavernous. As I said before, a mode in between HiFi and Pop would have been more beneficial.
The midrange representation is simplistic, without too many embellishments, slightly muted, without too much life or sparkle. There is not much perceived dynamics or depth.
With Pop and Rock modes the profile becomes more V-shaped and this penalises the timbre and realism of certain instruments. The HiFi mode fixes this feeling, being more natural.
Another thing that doesn’t quite fit is the choice of mode names. The HiFi mode can be saved, but the Pop or Rock modes do not live up to their name as they do not enhance these genres. The Rock mode could be called Bass mode, it would have been more realistic.

Treble

For treble reproduction I would discard the Rock mode, it feels like the bass darken the sound too much, even though you can see an enhancement in the graphic. But if the bass is played at the same time as the treble, the high notes will be affected. This phenomenon happens to a lesser extent in Pop mode, as the elevation of the midrange and upwards seems to compensate for the negative effect of the bass. It is clear that the bass does not sound very natural in HiFi mode, but the treble does. They also have a bit more extension and sparkle. But really, this is a V-tuned TWS with controlled and smooth treble. There is a point of initial excitement, hence the initial brightness, which has a certain realism (not too much) but you can live with it. Pop mode raises the amount of sparkle and would be most appropriate for representing the upper range. In this sense, Pop mode works for some things, gaining naturalness in the bass and exciting the treble. Actually, such a mode could be used for electronic music.
On the other hand, the representation of the treble is still simplistic, recreating only the most obvious notes. The treble does not have the right edge to discern detail, being rather coarse to represent harmonics.
Finally, there is a certain feeling of air that does not really affect the sound.

Soundstage, Separation

The Ceramics stage is front-facing, the side-to-side and stereo feel is very fair, as is the height. Depth in HiFi mode feels a bit clipped, something is gained in Pop mode. However, the sense of definition and resolution is limited in all modes. Detail works at the macro level, there is not much harmonic richness and no note extension here either. The sounds are simple and sparse, without much life, with an informative level that only passes muster. However, the timbre fails at times. If the bass doesn’t sound natural in HiFi mode, this mode is better for the treble. Pop mode gives more depth and realism to the low notes, as well as depth, but leaves the midranges deeper, disadvantaging some instruments. There is no mode that works completely well. Again, I insist that a hybrid between HiFi and Pop mode would have alleviated some aspects. However, the sound remains up front, somewhat congested, simple, without much separation and focused on macro detail. There is no definition or resolution to present fine detail, only midrange detail is discernible. Nor is it adept at recreating or layering or stratifying sound. Thus, the image is only intuitive.

Conclusion

There is a lot that the Rose Ceramics can do. They have a large number of commands and modes, three different tunings (HiFi, Pop and Rock) that involve variations of a light V-profile at their base, to emphasise it in Rock mode. They have a gaming mode that reduces latency to 60ms. They are very ergonomic and lightweight. The front panels work relatively well and have a case to protect the whole thing. They can be connected to two Bluetooth sources and their chip is version 5.3. All in all, the Rose Ceramics can be very versatile for many day-to-day scenarios, as they have two HD microphones that seem to work quite well. However, when it comes to sound, they fall short of the mark. None of the music modes seem to be complete, there are things that some do better than others. But it is a limited set in terms of sound, if you only want to listen to music. It is true that its price is very low, but wanting to do many things at the same time for that money must penalise some other aspects. If you are looking for a main use to make calls, play games, watch series or movies and listen to music without too many pretensions, the Rose Ceramics can be a good ally. If you like bass, the Ceramics may also fit the bill. But on the other hand, in the frequency range, it is a mixed package with ups and downs that can make you look elsewhere.
Finally, it is not fair to compare the sound of these TWS with other wired IEMS of the same price, not even for half the price. It is clear that the budget TWSs have a long way to go in terms of sound quality and power. But if we take into account that these Rose Ceramics can be found for as little as $25, the price/performance ratio can change a lot and that’s where this solution can work against the direct competition.

Sources Used During the Analysis

• Xiaomi Redmi Note 8 Pro.
• Fiio BTA30 Pro.