When you get your hands on a pair of new earbuds, especially ones that have more than a passing resemblance to the previous generation of hardware, it can sometimes be a little hard to tell what's changed. Specs sheets might make it easier, but it's fair to say that plenty of manufacturers don't exactly go out of their way to give you the chance to compare old with new.
That might be because the changes aren't particularly drastic, or because they simply want to brush the previous generation into the archive and replace it quietly, but it's not the approach Technics took while I was in Kyoto in December, to see its new EAH-AZ100 earbuds ahead of their launch at CES this year. Instead, the Japanese audio brand gave me multiple opportunities to swap between an older pair of AZ80 earbuds and the new AZ100s to directly compare them. That made it easier than ever to explain a few areas where changes have been made.
