Page 2 - A Closer Look - Hardware and Software
It has been a while since I have used a pair of earphone-style earbuds that only partially go in your ears. We have seen true wireless in-ear and clip-on styles, but my last pair was back in 2022 with the 1MORE ComfoBuds 2 True Wireless and its predecessor. As such, the SOUNDPEATS Air6 HS is more like the non-Pro version of the Apple AirPods, with a speaker that directs into your ear canal without fully going in. Branding can be found on both sides in a contrasted silver over the black exterior and a SOUNDPEATS name on the back of the carrying case. The rest of the earbud is black in color, as is the exterior of the carrying case. Inside the shell, there is a gray interior. The Air6 HS is similar in appearance to the previous Air5 Pro for both the earphones and the case, although the way you wear the two products is different. The physical size of each side is about 3.2cm in length, 1.9cm in thickness, and 1.8cm in width, at its maximum. Each side weighs about 4g, which is noticeably light.
As for the controls, the SOUNDPEATS Air6 HS uses a touch interface that responds to a combination of taps or hold. According to SOUNDPEATS, the entire body is touch sensitive. By default, a single tap will adjust the volume, as tapping on the left will decrease the volume while the right will increase. A double tap on either side is used to play or pause music. A triple tap on either side will activate your device's voice assistant. Tapping and holding the left Air6 HS will go to the previous track, while the right Air6 HS will go to the next track. The app lets you customize all these actions too. Personally, the touch controls on the SOUNDPEATS Air6 HS were easy to use and I did not have any accidental presses being registered.
Inside, the SOUNDPEATS Air6 HS connects to your device over Bluetooth 6.0. This is controlled by a Qualcomm QCC3091 SoC. It supports multiple codecs, including SBC, AAC, and LDAC. SBC, or Subband Coding, is the default Bluetooth audio codec with decent audio quality and low processing power requirements. This codec maxes out at 328 kbps. AAC, or Advanced Audio Coding, is preferred by Apple's devices and maxes out at 250 kbps. Despite having a lower maximum bitrate, AAC is still known to offer better sound quality. LDAC is Sony's proprietary audio coding technology, and is a part of the Android Open-Source Project. It can communicate at up to 990kbps, but can step down to 660kbps or 330kbps depending on wireless channel conditions. LDAC is one of two Bluetooth codecs that make the SOUNDPEATS Air6 HS Hi-Res Audio Wireless certified. LDAC is supported by most Android devices, but not on iOS devices. The only other codec that is missing is Qualcomm's aptX and its variants.
With a closer inspection on the SOUNDPEATS Air6 HS earphones, you can see how they deliver audio to your ear. There is a large opening that directs sound into your ear canal, while the rest of the body sits in your ear. SOUNDPEATS calls this a "semi-in-ear", which is true. Surprisingly, even without ear tips, I felt like the wearing experience of the Air6 HS was quite secure and comfortable to wear for extended periods. In some ways, I do like the long stem that sticks out for a bit of stability and a place to hold, but this is a preference thing. Once again, you can see these do not create a seal in your ears, which allows for a slightly more open listening experience. There are pros and cons to this design, as it means you are still partially subject to the sounds of your environment. There is no active noise cancellation with the Air6 HS, so if you are looking for sound isolation, these are not for you.
Internally, each side has a 13mm dynamic driver. SOUNDPEATS has not provided us with any other details. They also have implemented their DynamicEQ to optimize the sound based on the audio you are listening to. However, I found it to be very distorted. It was also disabled by default, so SOUNDPEATS may not expect people to use this equalization setting. Otherwise, the Air6 HS are IPX5 rated, which translates to "protection from water from a low-pressure stream from any angle". These should be safe from sweat or rain, making them great for use on-the-go regardless of the weather conditions. However, I would not go swimming or submerging the Air6 HS in water. There are two microphones on each side for input and cancelling out environment noises like wind.
Looking at the carrying case of the SOUNDPEATS Air6 HS, this doubles as a carrying and charging enclosure for the earbuds. This is a small unit, measuring 60mm in length, 48mm in width, and 25mm in thickness when it is closed, this should fit into most pockets without adding bulk. The case alone weighs 36g. The top shell opens easily by releasing it from integrated magnets. On the front, there is a small multi-color LED to show the battery status. When you open it, it will show the current battery status of the earbuds inside, ranging from a green for full charge, amber for medium, and red for low battery. When it is charging, these will blink through the same colors from red to amber to green until it glows a constant green for full charge. On the bottom, there is a USB Type-C port for charging. Unfortunately, there is no wireless charging for the carrying case.
The SOUNDPEATS Air6 HS is automatically in pairing mode when it is first opened. Once connected, they will always remember the last mobile device it connected to. You can enable dual connection for pairing of two devices. If you ever want to force pair, you need to place both sides back in the case and hold the small button at the back for 2 seconds until the light flashes white quickly. If you want to reset everything, you can repeat the same steps, but hold down the button for 10 seconds.
A total of three batteries power the SOUNDPEATS Air6 HS. There is a 41mAh battery in each of the earbuds and the case holds a larger 500mAh battery. According to SOUNDPEATS, we should have a battery life of up to 9 hours per charge and four more charges for a total of 45 hours of listening. We will see how these claims hold up. Modern phones for Android and iOS will report the battery life in the operating system, so you can rely on that or the mobile application. You can quickly charge the earphones for ten minutes to get up to three hours of usage. The full charge will take around 1.5 hours.
The Air6 HS uses the SOUNDPEATS app, which is available on the Google Play Store and Apple App Store. The usage and functionality of the app is like what you will have seen from prior products. For the Air6 HS specifically, you will see the main page with each earphone displayed and the battery life for each side and the carrying case. The first setting is used to enable or disable Spatial Audio, which includes a Music and Movie mode. They are virtual surround settings and sound quite unnatural. Dual-device connection lets you enable connecting to multiple devices at once. Equalizer is where you can select from a set of presets or create a manual equalizer. Gesture controls are where you can choose the different touch control behaviors for a single tap, double tap, triple tap, or a tap and hold. The Prompt Sound Guide is where you can choose the language and volume of the voice over for commands. The rest of the toggles are self-explanatory, but I like Drainage Function, which can be used to shake liquids out of the earphones.
Everything in the SOUNDPEATS app is functional, but once again, I have several concerns. For one, you need to register for the app for some reason, and it purely seems like a way to collect your information. You also need to enable location permissions to help you locate your headphones. If you do not, it will constantly annoy you with pop-ups to enable it every time you return to the main page or open the app. Thankfully, the changes are saved to the device, so you can easily uninstall it once you have set up the Air6 HS. At this point, these reasons are the reasons why I cannot recommend installing the app on your phone, even if you need to update the firmware or make changes. SOUNDPEATS needs to address these frustrations.
Page Index
1. Introduction, Packaging, Specifications
2. A Closer Look - Hardware and Software
3. Subjective Audio Analysis
4. Conclusion
