We were sent quite a couple of wireless earbuds this month. Not all of them were hardcore, though. We look at two of them in this roundup. These are the Sennheiser’s CX Plus True Wireless and the Roccat Syn Buds Air. Both the buds lie in more or less the same price category. Let’s look at them in detail.
Sennheiser CX Plus True Wireless
The CX Plus come in pretty modest packaging with nothing too flashy or extravagant. There’s a small cardboard box hosting a Type-A to Type-C charging cable, three extra ear tip sizes and user documentation. The buds are magnetically housed in a metal charging case with the help of pogo pins. The case is minimally designed with a charging slot at its back.
The CX Plus are quite decent-looking in terms of aesthetics. They have a matte interior coupled with a glossy exterior with the Sennheiser logo on it. Comfort-wise, the buds are as snug as a bug. They hug your ears tight and are ideal for your workout sessions.
Sound and ANC
The setup process was fairly simple and fast. The CX Plus were able to connect to my phone within just a few seconds of me plucking them out from their case. Helpful voice updates made the process even easier. I had a great time listening to music on these. The sound is incredibly balanced which means your lows won’t be overly muted nor will your highs be way too shrill. Every element in the orchestra takes an appropriate amount of space. In terms of the nature of the sound profile, I’d say it leans more towards being cool than warm. It has a tinny texture to it.
The Sennheiser CX Plus also offer ANC along with an ambient noise mode. While the ANC mode definitely did mute ambient noise to a great extent, you can’t rely on it for a very noisy commute or expect it to completely mute something as loud as your washing machine, for example. It, however, did silence the somewhat muted noise of the traffic coming from outside my window. The ambient noise mode also performed efficiently at enhancing environmental sounds. It made sure I’m aware of my surroundings without muting my songs way too much. It kept a good balance of both.
Roccat Syn Buds Air True Wireless Earbuds
Roccat took things up a notch with immensely impressive packaging. You receive a sturdy cardboard box hosting two extra pairs of ear tips, a charging cable and a charging case with a pair of gorgeous buds inside. The case hosts three lights on its front to display battery status and has a charging slot at its back. In terms of aesthetics, the Syn Buds are completely different as compared to the CX Plus. The former have plastic bodies with long stems sticking out. The stems enhance grip allowing you to hold the buds more comfortably without accidentally pressing the touchpad. This prevents missteps such as pausing your music when you didn’t mean to and is a very useful feature to offer.
Battery Life
The Syn Buds took quite a while to connect to my phone. The setup surely wasn’t as smooth as the CX Plus’. But once they did connect, they offered me endless hours of low-latency gaming coupled with an impressive degree of passive noise isolation. On paper, it was said that the buds have a 20-hour battery life making them perfect for your gaming needs. Out of the 20 hours, the buds were supposed to offer a total of five hours and the charging case 15 hours. Using the earbuds made me realize how modest Roccat was with their battery spec. The earbuds lasted me a little more than five hours and the carry case 17 hours!
Their 60ms low-latency mode made sure I get stutter-free performance. My game’s audio was delivered sharp, clear, precise and without a single hiccup. Lastly, the buds have pretty responsive touchpads with intuitive controls. I found myself getting used to the controls in just a few minutes while listening to music on these.
The IPX4 rating on the Syn Buds Air means that it can stand sweat or light splashes of water. The buds come with a companion app that mobile gamers can make use of to create customized sound profiles. The Syn Buds Air companion app is compatible with both Android and iOS. Apart from creating EQs, the app allows you to remap the earbuds’ touch controls and update your firmware.
Conclusion
All in all, both the aforementioned buds are great in their own ways. The latter may not feature ANC but they’re also cheaper than the former. If you’re on a budget and ANC doesn’t matter to you, go for the Roccat Syn Buds Air.
Is It Hardcore?
For sure!
The Sennheiser CX Plus True Wireless and the Roccat Syn Bud Air are both excellent buds offering balanced sound, great battery life and brilliant aesthetics.
