Are you tired of headphones and earphones that block your ears, could potentially damage your hearing, and isolate you from the world?
What if I told you there is a better way to listen to music, podcasts, and make calls, without compromising your comfort and your safety, while still experiencing a natural sound, particularly while you’re either out running, exercising, working or travelling? Well, look no further than the SoundPeats GoFree2 Open-Ear Headphones.
These earphones use air conduction technology to deliver sound through the air and the eardrum, just like how we normally hear, which will allow you to enjoy music without blocking out the ambient sounds, which can be a particular issue when it comes to safety.
Design
The first thing you’ll notice about these when you do get them out of the box, is the case. This sleek black case with a velvety matte finish, is a bit larger than some other earbud cases like the ones for the Apple AirPods and Galaxy Buds here, but it still fits in your pocket, not discreetly though.
The case has a USB-C port for charging, with a USB to USB-C cable included in the box, but unfortunately, it doesn’t support wireless charging.
The buds themselves are made of plastic and metal, and they do feel sturdy and well built. They have a unique design that wraps around your ear, with a glossy logo that doubles as a touch control pad.
The touch controls are very sensitive and with the amount of different tap sequences you need to do on each one to control different functions, you’ll probably need to consult the manual before fully diving in.
They are IPX5 water-resistant, so you don’t have to worry about sweat or rain causing these to malfunction.
Comfort
These when they are on, they are obviously quite a bit different to conventional headphones or earbuds that you may have used, these have an open-ear design, which means they don’t go inside your ear canal, but rather sit over your ears.
The main benefit on this design, is that it allows you to be more aware and be able to hear the sounds around you, which is useful for those of us with concerns about safety and environmental awareness.
However, the trade off with the design, does also means that the sound quality will be dependent on your ear size and shape, and how well the earbuds fit on your ears, so one person’s experience with these may differ to another person’s, but we can say that about most headphones.
The first time you put these on, particularly, if you’ve come from traditional style earphones or headphones, you may find these a little awkward to get on, but, for me, after a few tries, getting familiar to the shape and style and understanding how to slip those ergonomic silicon ear hooks onto your ears, sort of creating that muscle memory, they are now easy to get on.
At the moment, with my AirPods, I’m finding that they always seem to be at risk of potentially falling out, and often at times, actually falling out and changing the size of the silicone bud just makes them uncomfortable to wear, but with these on, it just feels so different, less invasive, a different level of comfort.
While the normal feeling of having something inside your ear disappears and with these, is substituted for the feeling of these lightweight headphones on both of your ears, they still feel comfortable and that threat of them falling out has vanished because even shaking my head like this, it doesn’t feel like they are moving and the quality of the sound, for me, isn’t affected either.
Sound Quality
The sound quality of these are surprisingly good for an open-ear earbud, I’ve not tried SoundPeats’ in ear headphones, but it would be interesting to see how good the sound quality is on those particularly if they feature the same LDAC audio technology.
The earbuds have a 16.2mm driver that delivers a bass-boosting technology, which enhances the low frequencies and makes the sound more punchy and dynamic, which depending on whether you’re listening to a song with a load of bass in it, you’ll be able to experience those bassy notes.
Through the headphones you’ll get voice prompts to tell you the connection status and the game mode status. The mids and highs are also clear and crisp, and the stereo sound is pretty good too, particularly for headphones at this price.
Connectivity
Just like many of the latest gadgets, like this iPhone 15 Pro, they use Bluetooth 5.3 connectivity to connect to your devices.
Through the SoundPeats App, they also support custom EQ settings, where you can either choose from 9 presets, customise your own preset, or have adaptive EQ tailored to your hearing after you’ve taken the test the establish the parameters of your hearing.
The app also lets you check the current battery level of this bud, adjust the volume, turn on the game mode, which reduces the latency to 60ms, making them suitable for gaming or watching videos, you can upgrade the firmware, disable the touch controls and enable the dual device connection, which means you can connect them to two devices at the same time and switch between them easily, music on one device, and answer a call on another.
They have a good volume range, but as you would expect from buds that aren’t in your ear, there is a bit of sound leakage, but not as much as you would expect.
The noise cancellation technology which only features on these during phone calls makes the call quality good, as it reduces the background noise and enhances your voice, with help from the dual microphones on each bud, which pick up your voice clearly and accurately.
Battery Life
The star quality of these for me, is the battery life, on one charge, you can get up to 9 hours, and with the recharging of the buds via the case, you can get an extra 26 hours of juice. From 0 they take about 1.5 hours to fully charge, and the case takes about 2 hours to fully charge. The case has LED indicators to show the battery level of the case.
Are they worth it?
The SoundPEATS GoFree2 earbuds are a great option for anyone who wants to enjoy music without isolating themselves from the world. They have good sound quality, a long battery life, a high-resolution audio codec, and a game mode.
If you can overlook the lack of wireless charging, which shouldn’t be an issue thanks to that huge battery life, then you might find the SoundPEATS GoFree2 headphones to be a good companion for your daily activities.
If you’ve never thought about giving open-ear air conduction headphones a go, then compared to other types of headphones, then you’re going to benefit from headphones that are generally going to be more comfortable and a lot more hygienic compared to in-ear earphones, as you’re not putting anything into your ear.
The sounds they produce are going to be more natural and realistic compared to closed-back earphones, as they do not block the external sounds and create a more open soundstage, and they are more versatile and compatible compared to bone conduction earphones, as they can work with any audio device and any type of hearing.
From a safety point of view, these allow you to stay aware of your surroundings while still being able to enjoy what you’re listening too.
These are now a main stay when I’m listening to my podcasts when I’m out on a run.
Many high tech headphones want to isolate you from your surrounding with their noise cancellation technology, which could put you in danger, but these will allow you to stay safer.
If you want to see the video version of this article, check out the YouTube link below (there’s a discount code link in the video):