Devialet Gemini II review: Expensive earbuds for the discerning individualist

There’s a limit to the amount of individuality it’s possible to squeeze into a pair of true wireless earbuds like the Devialet Gemini II. So how does Devialet – a brand that’s established itself as the choice of the über-individualist – ensure its latest in-ear headphones stand out in a crowded market? 

Well, there’s the price for one: much like the manufacturer’s wireless speakers and Devialet Dione soundbar, the Gemini II are one of the most expensive options in their category. Then you have the build quality and specification: the Gemini II are beautifully constructed from premium materials and compete with their rivals, both on a technical level and where niceties such as control options are concerned. They’re comfortable, logical and reliable in operation, and strike quite a nice balance between discretion and opulence when you’re wearing them.

READ NEXT: Devialet Gemini review

They have plenty to recommend them in pure performance terms, too. Their active noise cancellation is competitive, and the sound quality – with one notable caveat – is impressive. They’re as expressive with rhythms and with low-frequency information as the best of their price-comparable rivals, of which there aren’t many. But they lose a little focus in the midrange, and their battery life is absolutely nothing to write home about.  

And that’s the problem, really. When you want to charge top dollar for a product like this, there’s just no room for anything less than exceptional. Which is why the Devialet Gemini II – like so many products in the company’s portfolio – are a slightly wilful choice. Not a disastrous choice by any means, just a little headstrong. 

Devialet Gemini II review: What do you get for the money?

There’s an immediate problem here: not only is £349 for a pair of true wireless earbuds an awful lot of money, but the nature of the product itself means that it buys you very little of what ordinarily makes Devialet products such unique propositions. 

After all, this is a company that’s built an enviable reputation on a range of products that are wildly individual in terms of industrial design, lavish in their use of materials and bordering on feral where performance is concerned. But no-one is interested in a pair of true wireless headphones that are over-designed and unorthodox. Are they?

So Devialet has had to rein it in a bit. Which means the Gemini II are, by a distance, the least distinctive product in the company’s portfolio. They are, in fact, readily identifiable as true wireless earbuds – although admittedly quite blingy ones.

Wireless multipoint connectivity is via Bluetooth 5.2, with support for the SBC, AAC and aptX codecs. Sound is served up by a couple of 10mm titanium-coated full-range dynamic drivers. There’s IPX4-standard resistance to moisture and dust. The earbuds are supplied with four pairs of eartips, so finding the correct fit is straightforward, and the lozenge shape of the earbuds themselves offers a fair bit of passive noise isolation when you get the fit just right.

Voice control via your source player’s native assistant is available – each Gemini II earbud has a hybrid dual-mic structure, which takes care of telephony and active noise cancellation as well as voice-assistant interaction. Each microphone in the array is shielded in a cavity beneath a layer of anti-wind material, in an arrangement the abbreviation-happy Devialet calls AWR (Active Wind Reduction). Control is also available using the capacitive touch surface on each earbud – it’s a responsive, reliable system, and it allows you to play and pause audio, skip tracks, adjust volume, engage your voice assistant and cycle through your noise-cancellation options.

Noise cancellation itself is via a system called DANC (Devialet Adaptive Noise Cancellation). DANC dynamically adjusts to the shape of your ears to deliver optimum noise cancellation no matter the environment you find yourself in, and reduces white noise and audio artefacts at the same time. That’s the theory, anyway. 

You can also specify your noise-cancellation preferences in the Devialet Control app, which is free for iOS and Android. It’s also where you get to rearrange the touch-control functions, access a six-band EQ in order to use one of six Devialet presets or specify one of your own, and – weirdly – adjust left/right balance. That’s about it for the app’s functionality; extensive it is not. 

There’s one more abbreviation to take note of: IDC. Internal Delay Compensation works to overcome the inherent internal delay that’s a knock-on effect of adaptive active noise cancellation circuitry. Its intention is to deliver more complete cancellation, especially in the higher frequencies.

READ NEXT: Our favourite Dolby Atmos soundbars 

Devialet Gemini II review: What did we like about them?

As the asking price pretty much demands, the Gemini II are extremely well made and flawlessly finished from quite tactile and undeniably shiny materials. It’s hard to make something as small and functional as a wireless earbud seem an obviously premium proposition, but Devialet has given it a darned good go.

And when they’re fed by an appropriately talented source of music, utilising the aptX codec, the Gemini II are capable of informative, entertaining and quite competitive sound quality. A FLAC file of Eartheater’s Powders via TIDAL is served with an absolute stack of detail regarding timbre and tone. The Devialet strike a very agreeable balance between poise and attack, and the result is a performance that moves forward with nicely judged momentum but doesn’t leave any shred of information behind. 

They dig deep into the frequency range, shaping bass sounds with real positivity and straight-edged control, which means rhythmic expression is good, and bass sounds have proper musicality and variation in them, rather than simply punching along monotonally. 

The opposite end of the frequency range is handled with equal confidence. The same equilibrium between balance and drive is apparent, and the treble sounds the Gemini II create enjoy a very pleasant combination of bite and substance. They can tilt a little towards bite if you’re listening at alarming volume levels, but in every other circumstance they stay benignly in their lane. 

The overall presentation is open and spacious, and the Devialet are able to describe a soundstage on which every element of a recording gets sufficient space in which to express itself. Dynamic headroom is considerable – which is just as well in the case of this recording, which routinely veers from very quiet to extremely loud. And the low-level dynamics that are apparent in an unaccompanied voice or a solo instrument are handled well, too – there’s no uniformity or shortage of variation in the way the Gemini II describe a solitary piano, for example. 

Away from sound quality, the Devialet acquit themselves commendably too. Noise cancellation is good – external sounds are kept to an absolute minimum (although it almost goes without saying that the Gemini II, like virtually every rival, are no match for the Bose QC Earbuds II where ANC is concerned). Telephony is impressive too, no matter which end of the conversation you’re at – the Gemini II wearer enjoys the same clarity as the person they’re talking to. And sure enough, that elaborate mic layout keeps wind noise to a bare minimum.

Devialet Gemini II review: What could be improved?

For all that they’re an enjoyable and periodically entertaining listen, there’s something quite strange going on with the way the Gemini II reproduce the midrange. The journey from the top of the frequency range to the bottom is fairly smooth, but when it reaches the midrange some of the clarity and positivity of the sound goes astray. The vocal lines in the Eartheater recording are definitely more distinct, better focused and cleaner than the Devialet makes them sound – and consequently it’s hard to shift the impression that you’re not quite getting as full an account as is ideal.

Equally problematic is battery life – there isn’t enough of it. Five hours of power from the earbuds, rising to an all-in total of 22 hours when the charging case is brought into the equation, is underwhelming by any standards. And that goes double when you’re talking about a product priced as optimistically as this one. At least there’s wireless charging available, as well as via the case’s USB-C socket.

Devialet Gemini II review: Should you buy them?

Ultimately, Gemini II ownership is no more the result of hard-nosed, common-sense consumerism than ownership of any other Devialet product is. You buy a pair of Gemini II because you like the idea that most folks won’t realise what you’re wearing while those in the know will think you a discerning individualist. But they’re tricky to justify if hard-nosed, common-sense consumerism is your thing.