The Ausounds AU-Flex ANC’s 15-hour battery life and lively noise cancellation improve day-to-day use, however the sound may not be fairly what you count on when you’re drawn in by the concept of planar magnetic earphones.
Professionals
- Pretty efficient ANC
- Good upper-mid readability
- Helps excessive bit-rate LDAC
Cons
- Restricted bass management
- Mid presence could possibly be higher
Key Options
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Neckband design:This model of wi-fi earphone hangs round your neck fortunately, and lasts longer off a cost than the true wi-fi type. An excellent match for sport and normal use.
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Energetic noise cancellation:ANC makes use of microphones on the earphones to cancel out ambient noise with inverted sound waves.
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Lengthy battery life:As much as 15 hours of use off a cost isn’t class-leading, however is healthier than what you get from a real wi-fi pair.
Introduction
The Ausounds AU-Flex ANC are uncommon earphones. They’re a neckband mannequin, not the true wi-fi kind now the norm for in-ear headphones, and include a really uncommon driver setup.
The Au-Flex ANC have a hybrid driver with planar magnetic and dynamic elements. The primary planar magnetic earphones I got here throughout had been the Audeze iSine 10, which have sizeable earpieces and open backs – fairly ineffective for many conditions by which you’d use a set of earphones.
These earphones are far more accessible. They provide water-resistance for sporty use and lively noise cancellation for these instances you journey. And whereas their 15-hour battery life doesn’t set any new requirements, it’s higher than what you get from a real wi-fi pair.
The AU-Flex ANC’s sound is a combined bag. Bass is highly effective and the upper-mid refinement is stable, however bass composure and decay could possibly be higher, and the mids don’t present as a lot projection and texture as I hoped for from a pair of earphones marketed to a extra audio-obsessed crowd.
Availability
- UKRRP: £179.99
- USARRP: $199.99
The Ausounds AU-Flex ANC value £179.99, or $199.99 within the US. Nevertheless, on the time of writing, you may choose them up for $149.99.
At this worth you possibly can choose up our favorite true wi-fi set, the Sony WF-1000XM3. A number of extra direct rivals, such because the Bose QuietControl 30, have truly been discontinued in favour of true wi-fi alternate options.
Design
- Neckband design
- IPX5 water-resistance
- Ideas aren’t nice, take into account changing them
The Ausounds are neckband wi-fi earphones, not the true wi-fi type that seem to have turn into the default model over the previous yr or two.
By no means owned a pair like this earlier than? A rubbery piece sits round your neck, shaped roughly to the form of your nape. Management models sit by your collarbone, holding the battery, the electronics and controls. Which means solely the driving force and its housing wants to slot in the earpieces.
Ausounds makes use of an audiophile-like design for the earpieces. Fashioned hooks run over your ears, quite than letting the cable dangle down. Nevertheless, in contrast to the model utilized by basic multi-driver pairs, the hook part right here isn’t malleable. You may’t alter its kind, and I discovered this could result in it regularly working the earpieces out of your ears when you put on glasses and go for a run.
The ideas don’t assist, both. They’re weak-walled, and it’s tough to attain a agency seal until you get fortunate and one of many three sizes included matches the diameter of your ear canal. In case you purchase a pair of Ausounds AU-Flex ANC and so they don’t sound correct, this can be the trigger.
Earpiece design is respectable, however not fairly as it might seem. The outer a part of the AU-Flex earpiece is aluminium, however the remaining is plastic. Nevertheless, that is wise because it retains their weight low.
Sporting these earphones for working was a combined expertise. The neckband had a bent to regularly rotate across the neck, ultimately falling off utterly. This impact appears to fluctuate relying on the merchandise of clothes you’re carrying in your prime half.
However, the Ausounds AU-Flex ANC are wonderful for strolling and most fitness center work, significantly since they arrive with IPX5 water-resistance. This may deal with (extra of much less) every part however full submersion in water.
Options
- Useful, fairly efficient lively noise cancellation
- ‘Ambient conscious’ monitor mode
- LDAC assist
Energetic noise cancellation is the lead Ausounds AU-Flex ANC function. This makes use of microphones to analyse exterior noise and cancel it out.
It isn’t on the similar stage of effectiveness as one of the best Sony or Bose earphones, however there was nonetheless an considerable distinction after I tried them out on a practice. As is common, ANC primarily blocks the decrease frequencies, and the earphones already passively block a good quantity of higher-frequency noise when you get a great tip seal.
The Ausounds AU-Flex’s noise cancellation doesn’t transport you to a noiseless paradise; nevertheless it introduces solely a really slight hiss and it doesn’t have a significant impact on sound high quality or tone.
You management ANC with a single press of a button on the neckband. Press the button once more and the monitor mode switches on. That is successfully the other of ANC, utilizing the microphones to pipe in some exterior noise so you may hear practice bulletins and close by automobiles, for instance. It really works properly, and doesn’t sound too unnatural.
The Ausounds AU-Flex ANC additionally include one kind of superior codec assist – they will deal with LDAC streams. This was initially a Sony-only format, however now a lot of Android telephones assist it. The precise high quality of transmission is determined by the telephone you utilize (and sign power), since LDAC runs from bit-rates of 330kbps to 990kbps.
Sound high quality
- Hybrid planar magnetic/dynamic driver
- Might do with higher mid-defintion and projection
The Ausounds AU-Flex ANC use an attention-grabbing sort of driver. It’s a hybrid that has a planar magnetic speaker for the highs and a dynamic unit for the decrease frequencies. Ausounds’ personal inside diagram – printed on the again of the field, no much less – suggests the 2 are a part of the identical enclosure. This isn’t the basic multi-driver earphone design, the place the producer has to discover a strategy to cram a number of balanced armatures into somewhat earpiece.
This hybrid driver can be liable for the qualitative highs and lows of the AU-Flex’s sound.
The extent to which these earphones push the low treble with out leading to harshness or sibilance might be their biggest power. I’ve been a planar magnetic headphones fan for properly over a decade now, and whereas we solely actually get a planar ‘tweeter’ right here, there’s a few of that low distortion character typically related to a planar magnetic setup.
These earphones have a barely shiny however non-harsh sound, helped by the higher-frequency push sitting within the high-mids and low-treble, quite than amplifying shimmering cymbals to ear-slicing ranges. Nevertheless, I don’t assume the 2 sides of the driving force at all times work in concord. At instances the bass sounds somewhat sluggish, somewhat puffed-up, which is at odds with the character of the upper frequencies.
The mids are additionally too timid to behave as an efficient bridge between the boosted bass and decrease treble. It sounds as if the frequency remit of the planar magnetic driver is considerably slender, and the dynamic element doesn’t have a very managed strategy.
Texture and element in vocals comes from the upper-mids and above, leaving the marginally deeper components with much less presence and physique. Vocal strains typically find yourself much less well-projected within the combine than they need to be, significantly in the event that they must compete with the bassy stabs the Ausounds AU-Flex ANC’s dynamic driver is especially eager on bringing out.
The outcome isn’t disagreeable, nevertheless it does make you surprise fairly what Ausounds was tying to attain right here. There are hints of planar magnetic refinement, matched with a fairly boisterous dynamic driver, one whose bass decay could possibly be considerably higher.
Must you purchase it?
You don’t desire a true wi-fi pair The Ausounds AU-Flex ANC are neckband earphones. They’re much less simple to lose than true wi-fi earphones, and there’s no fear about an earpiece dropping out of your ear and onto the bottom. You additionally get higher battery life from this model of earphones – 15 hours with ANC switched off and 10 hours with it turned on.
You need class-leading ANC The Ausounds AU-Flex ANC’s lively noise cancellation is stable. It stops public transport noise trampling throughout your music, nevertheless it doesn’t transport you to a blissed-out world of silence.
Verdict
The Ausounds AU-Flex ANC’s 15-hour battery life and lively noise cancellation improve day-to-day use, however the sound may not be fairly what you count on when you’re drawn in by the concept of planar magnetic earphones.
Trusted Rating
