CMF Buds Pro 2 Hybrid 50db Noise Cancelling Earbuds, Hi-Res Audio with LDAC, 6 HD Mics Wireless Headphones, Smart Dial Design, Ultra Bass Technology, Bluetooth 5.4, 43H Playtime, Dark Grey

These are my daily driver headphones due to their price and great performance from sound, microphone, ANC, transparency, and battery. They last me a full charge during a work day with transparency mode, and the ANC makes it easy to listen to while mowing the lawn or in loud places. I would not expect complete silence from ANC though.The bass is too intense, but -2 bass and +1 mids in the app is all that’s needed for an incredibly smooth sound signature.The Nothing app is excellent and allows customization of the case, which has a built-in volume wheel! I am excited to see improvements to this in the future.My major complaint is fit. I will need to order different ear tips as they never seem to fully stay in.Overall I am very impressed for the price, they are 1/4 the price I paid on my AirPod Pros, yet I would say they’re almost as good. I am now a fan of the Nothing brand and will be looking at their future products.

Having two teenagers in the house that lose or damage things frequently, it's hard to justify buying premium products sometimes. Even when it's not for the kids, you tend to go budget because of how often things get "borrowed" without asking. So when I saw how great the reviews were on various tech sites for all of Nothing's earbud offerings, these absolutely grabbed my attention.I'll start with the case. Something about the square shape with its rounded corners just feels right in the hand, far better than the common rectangular casket shape favored by many budget brands. It also allows for a variety of grips when accessing the Smart Dial. The dial itself is fun to fidget with, even when disabled, but is also very functional if you're the kind of person that finds yourself skipping around in playlists or changing the volume frequently. And since the dial is customizable in Nothing's "Nothing X" app, you can configure it in a way that makes sense to you so it won't likely be a "use it once and then forget about it" feature. The matte finish is feels and looks nice, especially to someone like me who thinks glossy plastic looks a little tacky, but it does take fingerprints very easily. It's very lightweight which I have mixed feelings about since that implies they could have installed a larger or more dense battery pack but, since I've yet to run it dry as is, I'm probably just being nitpicky.Now for the buds themselves. They're a little chunky, but that's common at this price point, and it doesn't make them uncomfortable at all. The multiple microphones on each bud pick are reasonably clear and do a fair job canceling unwanted noise, though I did find that in their passthrough noise cancelling mode they had trouble picking up something about my daughter's vocal range but it only happens when I'm talking to her. The noise cancelling is pretty solid. They won't block out extremely loud sounds like power tools, but no Active Noise Cancelling earbud/headphone should given that ANC works by transmitting an interference wave and that signal being too strong could just as easily damage your hearing as the noise you're hoping to block out; that's more of a task for ear protection brands like ISOtunes. The DIRAC feature must be working pretty well, because I've not messed with the EQ since getting them and everything I've listened to with them (gaming, classic rock, heavy industrial, mopey goth rock, Indigenous punk, 80s new wave, movies, etc) still manages to sound well balanced for the media. The surround sound feature isn't something most people will really notice or have a use for and likely should be turned off to save battery, but I do find that if I wear them while gaming on my PC with Dolby Atmos enabled turning it on does improve the effect (and combined with the ANC, it's super immersive). The default bass is pretty solid and while I do notice a subtle difference with the bass boosting feature enabled, it's not significant enough to justify the extra battery drain and it's not all that necessary anyway. Like the Smart Dial, the touch functions on the buds are customizable and pretty responsive but I do find myself preferring to the more tactile dial.The software situation is a mixed bag. There are a lot of features here that are controlled via software. The phone app is great and made pairing the headset, customizing the controls, and setting the sound enhancing features a breeze. If I only used them with my phone, that would be fine. I also like to use them with my PC sometimes (I have loud neighbors and the ANC helps block them out when I'm trying to game or work on something.) and I'm baffled by their decision to abandon a dedicated PC app for a web based one that doesn't function across all browsers and, in my experience, has yet to work with these buds despite listing them as compatible.

Why did you pick this product vs others?:I've tested many different type of earbuds and oh boy, these CMF buds stands out as one of the best under $100. Let's start with the design. Unique design with four different color to choose from. The case for the earbuds feel premium, it has matte texture finish on the case you don't see often which is great at keeping fingerprint off. It also come with a functional rotating dial that you can use to control volumes and other functions. Overall the case feels very premium and heavy make it's seem like something worth more than $100. The earbuds is stem style comparable to airpod pro, I find it very comfy and fit securely in my ears. The sound of the buds is excellent for the price. A bit more bass when first out the box but you can tune it in the nothing app to make it perfect. Mid and high are clear and pronounce well. I think there are better sounding earbuds out there for sure but those cost two to three times the price of this. ANC is great, it's comparable to the soundcore NC4 which is around $80-100. It does have harder time blocking out higher frequency noises. Compare to my airpods pro 2, this offer 70-80% ANC. Transparency is also excellent, only complain is that when you're speaking your own voice kind of sound muffle and you will feel pressure. Overall these buds are very good for the price. It is not compete in the $200 range of the premium earbuds, but will definitely make those $100 alternative not worth looking.

Pros:- great anc- fit feels good in my ear (on the smaller side)- battery life is STELLARCons:- becomes unreliable the more you use itLet me dive deeper into the only con I've experienced.After a few months of use, I had to buy another pair, thinking that the one I had had a factory defect because the audio started sounding displaced (like it would "lean" stronger to one side). I've since learned that I had to hard reset the earphones whenever this happened. Which, honestly, isn't THAT big of a deal, but with the frequency it had to be done, it's become quite cumbersome.It saddens me to say it, but you get what you pay for, I guess. I've had almost every bluetooth earphones/headphones I could get my hands on - Apple airpods pro, Airpods Max, the first iteration of airpods, Sony Linkbuds S, A bunch of ANC Sony headphones, the list goes on - and the CMF buds pro 2 immediately became my favorite because of the comfort, price point, noise cancellation strength, and the battery life. However, it's gotten to the point where I have to keep resetting it every few days. Sometimes, the balance drifts mid-video/audio and it gets quite annoying. Not sure if anyone else has experienced this, but I've gifted a couple to some friends, and they've experienced it too.