Panasonic RZ-S500W – Review 2020

Active noise cancellation (ANC) is rare to find in wire-free earphones, and very good ANC is even less common. Panasonic’s true wireless RZ-S500W earphones ($179.99) feature a simple, stylish design and noise cancellation for far less than Apple’s $250 AirPods Pro. They’re surprisingly capable at blocking out surrounding sounds, and they offer very strong bass response with good treble finesse. They’re not the most gym-friendly pair of wire-free earphones out there, but they’re definitely worth considering if you want noise cancellation.

Design

The RZ-S500W earphones are simple, circular black buds with angled eartips. Aside from a small Panasonic logo on the side above the eartip and a horseshoe-shaped metallic vent on the back, these are completely unassuming little earbuds. The earpieces have no fins or other stabilizing structures, but they come with five pairs of differently sized silicone eartips to help achieve a very secure fit.

The back panel of each earpiece is a touch sensor, splitting different controls between each side. A single tap will play or pause music or accept a call (or reject or end a call with a two-second hold), but after that you’ll need to remember what each earphone controls. The left earphone adjusts volume with double and triple taps, and brings up your phone’s voice assistant with a two-second hold. The right earphone skips forward or back a track with double and triple taps, and cycles between ANC and ambient noise modes with a two-second hold.

Panasonic manages to do a lot with just two touch controls, and the layout is direct enough that you can easily get used to it if you don’t mind becoming accustomed to double and triple taps. The touch sensors are very sensitive, however, and it’s easy to accidentally play or pause music when you’re putting the earphones in or adjusting them in your ear.

The earphones have a modest IPX4 rating. They can handle some sweat and rain, but they aren’t designed for serious water pressure or submersion, so be careful if you want to rinse them off. Our list of the best wire-free earphones for running offers some more resilient alternatives with higher IP ratings.

The charging case is a standard flip-top, pill-shaped box with deep recesses for each earpiece. A row of three LEDs on the front of the case shows how much power is left. The earphones snap securely into place with magnets, and red indicator LEDs hidden behind the vents light up when they’re charging. The back of the case holds a USB-C port for power. According to Panasonic, the earphones can last up to six and a half hours with noise cancellation on, and the charging case provides an additional 19.5 hours of battery life.

Connection and App

Once the earphones are paired with your phone, each earpiece can connect individually. They turn on automatically when you remove them from the case, and if you take both out they will connect to your phone with stereo audio. If you just want to take a call or listen to a podcast in one ear, you can take either earpiece out and insert it, and it will connect without the other one needing to be on.

The Panasonic Audio Connect app for Android and iOS provides some control over the S500W’s sound profile and active noise cancellation. The Ambient Sound Control menu offers a slider for both ANC and ambient listening modes, letting you set how much noise the ANC tamps down or how much sound the ambient listening mode lets through. The Sound Enhancement menu lets you toggle Bass Enhancer and Clear Voice modes, or use a five-band equalizer to set your own audio profile. 

Panasonic offers one-touch access to Amazon Alexa by linking the earphones to your Amazon account through the Panasonic and Amazon Alexa apps. You can also access Apple Siri or Google Assistant directly through your phone without linking accounts, and switch between voice assistants using the Panasonic app.

Performance

Active noise cancellation circuitry blocks out sound by listening to your surroundings and generating a wave to cancel out those noises It blocked out almost all of the fan noise from my computer, and reduced the sound of my air conditioner to a quiet hum. Of course, this is dependent on using the right eartip for a good seal; if they don’t completely block your ear canal, noise will bleed through even with the ANC.

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The noise cancellation doesn’t produce any noticeable hiss, and doesn’t affect the balance of music played through the earphones compared with the feature disabled. These are two common weaknesses for inexpensive ANC, and it’s impressive that neither problem is present here.

When it comes to audio performance, the earphones offer surprisingly strong bass. The kick drum beat in Fleetwood Mac’s “The Chain” sounds full and gets plenty of force. You won’t mistake it for the thump of a subwoofer, but it’s still a reasonably powerful sound that’s balanced well against crisp high frequencies in the guitar plucks. The drum hits don’t distort even at maximum volume. 

The earphones can generate good clarity in the higher frequencies with solid treble finesse, but those frequencies don’t get quite as much presence as the lows and mids. The opening acoustic guitar notes in Yes’ “Roundabout” get strong resonance and plenty of delicate string texture. When the electric bass kicks in, it sounds punchy enough to anchor the mix. The vocals stand out, while the guitar strums and cymbals settle slightly behind them, not quite cutting through the lower frequencies enough to stand out.

Very strong bass can overwhelm higher frequencies, which receive plenty of clarity but not quite as much presence. The backbeat in The Crystal Method’s “Born Too Slow” receives enough low-frequency presence to sound thumpy and ominous. The screaming vocals come through clearly, but the guitar riffs and snares take a backseat to the bass drum on this track. It’s not a wildly unbalanced sound, and the drum hits don’t completely overwhelm the other elements of the mix, but the bass certainly comes first.

The built-in microphones for phone calls are medicore. Test recordings picked up my voice well enough to be heard, but it sounded distant and fuzzy. This isn’t surprising for wire-free earphones, but we have seen pairs that offer stronger microphone performance, like the Jabra Elite Active 75t.

Comparison and Conclusions

The Panasonic RZ-S500W earphones offer very good sound and surprisingly strong noise cancellation for under $200. While they’re heavy on bass, they treat higher frequencies with enough clarity and subtlety that you can coax an excellent listening experience out of them with the app’s EQ.

That said, if you want active noise cancellation in a more water-resistant design, Sony’s excellent WF-SP800N earphones are just $20 more. And if you want the very best noise cancellation you can find in a pair of true wireless earphones, Apple’s pricey AirPods Pro remain our top choice. If noise cancellation isn’t a big selling point for you, meanwhile, there are plenty of very good sub-$150 models out there like the JBL Live 300TWS and the Anker Soundcore Liberty Air.

Panasonic RZ-S500W Specs

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