Page 3 - Subjective Audio Analysis
For all audio products we review at APH Networks, it takes quite a bit of experience and training of the ears before we can assess with fair judgment. Even for an experienced auditioner, it can be hard to produce an exact or accurate evaluation of a product without a familiar product to use as a reference. There are no true objective measurements for audio sound quality, but as a reviewer, I will put the SoundPEATS Air5 Pro through a series of subjective tests to try to come up with the most objective rating as I can. The audio tests were conducted with the Air5 Pro connected to my Samsung Galaxy S23 FE via Bluetooth 5.3.
After taking some time to break in the SoundPEATS Air5 Pro, I put these earbuds to the test. All tracks are uncompressed or high bitrate audio files. Equalizer settings were set to flat for testing purposes. I watched videos to test for latency.
As the SoundPEATS Air5 Pro has active noise cancelling, so let us touch on this first. I was wondering how the Air5 Pro would compare as someone who uses ANC earbuds daily. As it turned out, I was quite impressed with the active noise cancelling feature here, as it was able to cut out a surprisingly good amount of background noise. Constant low frequency noise was noticeably canceled too. The ANC went far beyond that of passive noise canceling I have become accustomed to for earbuds of this type. This is very useful for plane, train, or bus rides. I will say that the Air5 Pro may make you quite unaware of your surroundings, so do use it wisely.
I will base most of the evaluation with ANC on, given the SoundPEATS Air5 Pro are active noise cancelling earbuds. Turning on ANC mode does affect the character of the sound output. Typically, when toggling ANC on, the bass will increase. In the case of the SoundPEATS Air5 Pro, I experienced very minimal change, although it will be observable to keen individuals in silent rooms.
Keeping all of this in mind, I kept ANC on, and I would say the sound character of the SoundPEATS Air5 Pro's was surprisingly flat with a very minimal boost in the treble and bass. Breaking down the “big three”, we have the bass, midrange, and treble. With ANC on, I found the bass was reasonably smooth and round in the tracks I listened to. I personally am not a fan of overly bass boosted earphones or headphones. The bass was consistent throughout, but it did lack a bit of punch. If you are used to a more standard earbuds with the typical bass boost, you will definitely notice a less heavy bass, making it feel less full. Generally, the delivery of lower frequencies was well-articulated and sounds good, but I can see some people wanting to tune it for higher impact.
The midrange was quite solid on the SoundPEATS Air5 Pro in my personal opinion. Because the sound profile is on the flatter end, the midrange never felt like it was fighting for attention. The even balance allows tracks to sound more natural. The audio in this section was defined and offered a clean reproduction of noise. Focusing on voices in the midrange, the detail was good, but not perfect. The midrange was clear and smooth when isolated, but as tracks became more complicated, voices started to sound slightly less natural. Despite my minor nitpicks, the sound produced was decent in richness and clear for the majority of use.
Moving on to the treble, there was an even playing field compared to the other regions. While the sound was clear and sharp for the majority of the tracks I used when testing, other tracks began to sound less crisp. I find with many headphones, the treble is either rounded off or recessed to avoid an overly sharp sound signature, and the Air5 Pro were no different. The treble was very satisfactory in my listening experience. Everything was nice and tight, offering a clean overall sound. When it came to the balance between the three, there was no region outshining the others. There was a fairly flat curve in terms of sound signature that was relatively close to my preferences. I will say that if you enjoy more lyrical or guitar heavy songs, the Air5 Pro does an excellent job.
The soundstaging of the SoundPEATS Air5 Pro is what you would expect from earbuds of this type, being very lackluster. I say this because while it does exist, the depth, width, and direction are not well-defined. It will still do a decent job for its physical limitations, but they are obviously not headphones. In terms of imaging, it remained faithful for the most part. Each layer had great detail, but they do become muddled together in more complicated tracks. The resolution was good across the board, picking up most details in high quality encoded tracks. In more complicated tracks, the Air5 Pro managed to hold up decently. Frequency separation was alright. Details were reproduced with good clarity. The sound across the board was quite cohesive, being quite consistent and comfortable across the range.
The SoundPEATS Air5 Pro comes with three pairs of ear tips, including the pre-installed ear sleeves. The extra sizes helped in finding a proper fit to proper to create a good seal in your ear. This seal allows for good passive sound isolation. The SoundPEATS Air5 Pro active noise canceling promises to cancel out up to 55dB of ambient noise in the environment. It performed exactly how you think it would, blocking out some constant noise alongside some background voices and noise. Of course, it did not block out everything, but it still did a very good job, considering the fact I became oblivious to some of my surroundings.
The SoundPEATS Air5 Pro had very minor background hissing noise when turned on, which is a side effect of its active noise canceling system. The background hissing noise will go away if you turn off ANC. In terms of lag, I did not notice any significant delay on a regular occurrence. Audio appeared to be properly synchronized to videos I was watching on my Samsung Galaxy S23 FE.
In the sample recordings above, the microphone of the SoundPEATS Air5 Pro functioned, but I would not use it over my phone’s microphone. I thought it was fine for short conversations, but the quality was definitely not something I would want someone to listen to for a long time. My voice came through for both indoor and outdoor recordings, but there was some observable muffle. Outside, there was very little wind picked up, making my voice much easier to understand even with the birds chirping in the background, but the quality was comparable to a bad laptop microphone. While the microphone made a minor amount of background noise, it was an acceptable amount. Generally speaking, it is fully usable for short voice calls, but could sound a little more natural and less muffled.
The company estimates the battery to last around 7.5 hours. I got 4 hours 30 minutes at 50% volume with ANC on from my test, which is significantly lower than the target. With ANC off, I got 7 hours 15 minutes, which is what I believe is how SoundPEATS got to their estimated 7.5 hours battery life. When the earbud is running low, the earbuds do not have much indication other than your phone telling you the device is running low. The rated wireless range is 10m, and from my testing, you can go much further. In my tests, I was able to make it roughly 20m away before receiving some interruptions in the audio. This test was a straight path down the street with no other notable interference.
Overall, the audio performance of the SoundPEATS Air5 Pro was great for the price bracket. The active noise cancellation is excellent in terms of isolating you from the rest of the world. If you are like me and like a flatter sound signature, the SoundPEATS Air5 Pro is quite good. If you want to adjust the profile, SoundPEATS offers the ability to adjust your listening experience using their app called “PeatsAudio”. As shown in the image above, the app is fairly simple to use, and has three main pages. The first page, you can adjust between noise cancelling, normal, and transparent mode. The Equalizer page has four preset options to choose from, or you can make your own. The Customize EQ page is quite standard for anyone who has manipulated their EQ settings.
Page Index
1. Introduction, Packaging, Specifications
2. Physical Look - Hardware
3. Subjective Audio Analysis
4. Conclusion
