CMF is back with a couple of new earphones. And if you didn't hear the
buzz around these, that's probably because it got cancelled
out. Nothing. No acknowledgement. That's
fine. That's right, friends. Both of these earphones feature active noise
cancellation, which is a pretty attractive feature at this price point,
assuming that it works well. But the price point really is a major
conversation around these earphones because it's only about $10 different
between the two of them. So, on the Buds 2, you get an 11 mm driver versus 12 mm.
On the Buds 2 Plus, you get slightly better battery life and slightly better
A&C, but both of them have pretty much the same laundry list of features,
including things like AI assisted environmental noise reduction, what
they're calling their clear voice technology 3.0 and wind noise reduction
3.0. They even look almost the same. So,
here's the Buds 2. Here's the Buds 2 Plus. Now, I'm going to do a little
trick. Okay, keep your eye on the Buds 2
Plus. Okay, they're a different color. It's pretty easy to tell which one's
which, but let's take a closer look. Both feature a little plastic dial in
the corner that exposes the holes for your wrist strap or doesn't, and it
doesn't do much other than that. Both feature USBC charging. No wireless
charging though, unfortunately, for the battery case. And both contain their
various buds. Uh, there are a couple features that are beneath the surface,
though. The Plus features LDAC and high-res audio certification, as well as
the ability to personalize the sound profile based on your hearing. So, we'll
have to give that a shot. At least theoretically, it should sound better to
you. Though, it is worth noting that even without that, the Pluses did track
a little bit better across our audio testing. All right, why don't we just
give these a quick, you know, test fit, shall we? I couldn't help noticing. I
don't see any other ear tips in the package. Did I miss? Ah, yes, I
did. There we go. Ear tips, small and
large. Wow, the mediums actually seem
like a pretty decent seal for me, which I did not expect. Usually, I like a
small ear tip, but I also usually kind
of jam earphones as far into my ear as I can get them cuz I like a really nice
deep seal. And these just don't go in that far. They pretty much straight up
ripped off the shape of your typical Apple AirPods. Like, dude, that is that
looks just like an AirPod, doesn't it? We've got a microphone here. Another
microphone here. What appears to be a third microphone port here. That's for a
total of six. That's going to help with active noise cancellation as well as
ambient noise rejection when you're using the mic. In our testing, we found
that other than typical Bluetooth compression artifacts, the mic quality
on these was actually quite strong. All right, what's my what's my pairing
process look like? I'm going to stick with the medium tips. Medium tips.
Decent isolation, though, considering they don't go that deep. And when I say
isolation, I don't mean like active noise cancellation, which I don't think
is enabled right now. Nice magnets on the charging case. Nothing claims. 13
1/2 or 14 hours for the 2 and the 2 Plus, respectively. if you have active
noise cancelling disabled and then obviously quite a lot more once you
factor in the battery in here. Uh let's go ahead and put these in pairing mode.
Nice little LED here. Okay, buds too.
Let's go buds. Get it. Hey, while we're waiting,
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the checkout. I was right. Noise cancellation was off. The isolation on
these is pretty decent. The question is, can I
tell? Oh, yes, I can tell the difference. And very little
perceptible pressure effect. How much are these? These are 60 bucks. I was not
expecting them to be this good. I don't love the form factor, but
now we're getting into the kinds of complaints that I have if I'm like seriously thinking of switching to
something like they're Yeah, they're a little on the
bulkier side compared to my AirPods Pros. I really like the way these, you
know, slide in and out of the pocket. Okay, so here's a here's a quick size
comparison. Man, they really did just
straight up rip off this shape. I'm sorry, but there is no other word for
that. It really does look like they just 3D scanned it. Typically, I like maximum
noise cancellation cuz I'm a pretty distractable fella. As for our spatial
audio, we've got a couple of different options here. Oh, no. The options
are spatial audio or off. Generally, I'm
not that into it. I keep it off on my AirPods, but I think a lot of that is
just the fact that I am very used to the
IM sounds like it's coming from inside your skull experience, and I'm a
creature of habit. So, we'll give it a shot, but not yet. Ultra bass. Okay,
this is interesting. It's got five different levels, and from what we
found, you don't really need any of them, particularly with the buds. If you
have a look at the frequency response curves here, the Buds 2 and the Buds 2
Plus both are already heavy on the bass, but from what I understand, though I'm
about to test them, it's a quality bass, not a muddy
boommy rattling around inside the casing bass. So, let's leave this as is. And
let's fire let's fire something up here. That is a lot of bass. I'm I'm pretty
sure he's rapping in the background. I can't say for certain, but I'm pretty
sure he is. It's not that they're lacking in the mids. It's just that that
is a hell of a lot of bass. Now, it's worth noting that ultrabass is not
really an EQ. It's more that it takes music that is doesn't have enough bass
and adds it. So, Sam from the lab
recommended that I try like some 70s rock or something to see if I like the
feature better. I definitely don't need it on this. It is reasonably tight
though. I got to give it bad. I mean, this is no original Beats by Dre just
like disgusting muddy mess. If you just really like bass, it's
like sitting right next to your subwoever. And these are the worst
sounding of the two supposedly. Both of them have an ear tip fit test. So, let's
go ahead and try that one for the Buds 2 Plus here, cuz I think this is going to
be I think this is going to be the more compelling option for just another 10
bucks. If it's that but $10 more worth,
I'm ready to be pretty impressed right now. Hey, set up our gesture control.
This is present on both of them, by the way. Ooh, ear tip fit test. Here we go.
Okay, please put in both earbuds and try
again. Yes, sir. That was it. Even with the slightly
brighter highs, I still like this one better. But
I don't even know if I like it $10 better. They're pretty darn close. And I
would say of both of them that this is an outstanding value little package
here, these sound better. Definitely $10
better. But dude, they sound 20% better.
I hate that they're white, though. Are these available in another color? There's a blue one. Okay, good. Because
white things that you stick in your ear pet peeve. I'm sure that Apple does it
on purpose so that you're going to feel like you have to replace them even though they still work perfectly good
because they look so disgusting. But we're not quite done with the value
these have to offer because while we're actually missing the EQ setting that I
don't like best on the two uh the opi
what what was it? Durac opio. There we go. What we have is the ability to set a
personal sound profile. So this should compensate for any personal hearing
loss. It's crazy cuz you start hearing like phantom beeps. I know it's not even
testing this here, but I like hear a little bit of a thing. It's adjusted the
audio for more depth, clarity, and richness. I should check my wallet. Do I
have more richness? No. No, I don't. You definitely still got to be a bit of a
bass head. If you don't like bass, then toggle it. See if you actually you like
the change. Sure. I'm going to toggle it. I'm pretty sure I like the change, but side by side is the only way you can
tell. It's amazing what you can get used to, and then everything else will sound
trash to you. Immediate. Immediate. Yeah. No, I want the personal. Okay, you
know what? No, no, I'll let I'll let it go for longer. I'll go I'll let it go for longer. I like them. I like them. I
take the pluses. And I didn't even talk about quick charge yet. A 10-minute
charge on each of these. Gives you 7 and 1/2 and 8 and 1/2 hours respectively on
the non plus and on the plus. Of course, that's out of the box. And if they're
anything like my AirPods Pro 2os, then that'll be less in time. But you know
what's not less in time is your subscription to ShortCircuit. You want that to be more over time. Just keep
subscribing. If you want to really get into the testing details on these, by the way, check out ltlabs.com.