SoundPeats Air5 Pro+ - More xMEMS
The earphones with MEMS drivers keep coming in hot. Today we have a look at the latest from SoundPeats to perhaps topple the Capsule3 Pro+ from its perch.
Hardware
The Air5 Pro+ (henceforth Air5P+) come in a standard SoundPeats-shaped case. It is very similar to the Capsule3 Pro+ (henceforth C3P+) case in shape, but it lacks the tagline "Hear Your Imagination" that lives on the front of the C3P+ case, and the opening of the lid sits lower. With the lower lid opening, the earphones are a bit easier to pull out of the case. The case cannot stand on its own and does not support wireless charging. The earphones are also very similar in size and shape to the C3P+. Even the gold trim is very similar but the body of the Air5P+ is shinier and lacks the gold trim on the top of the earphone body. The eartips are probably also the same and because of all this similarity, the fit is also virtually identical to the C3P+. If you can find a good fit for one of them, you are likely to find a good fit for the other. There is a slight difference in the angle of the nozzle, but this largely means they sit slightly differently in your ear. They aren't large earphones, so this probably won't make a huge difference in fit, but if you have very small ears, do note that nozzle of the Air5P+ is straighter up and down whereas the nozzle on the C3P+ is angled more and tilts slightly left/right.
The Air5P+ are IPX5 rated for water resistance and should be fine to use for exercise indoors or otudoors but should not be sumerged in water. The codecs supported are SBC, AAC, aptX (including aptX lossless), LC3, and LDAC. They are rated for 6 hours of continuous use and 30 hours using the charging case. Oddly enough, even though these are new on the market, they do not support Bluetooth 6.0 but are still rocking BT 5.4.
As with most wireless earphones, these are managed with touch controls. Out of the box, the touch controls activate volume, play/pause, ANC modes, voice assistant and next track. You can customize the controls in the PeatsAudio app. I'm no fan of touch controls, but I had no real issues using them on these earphones. Even the triple-tap worked more often for me than not.
Software
Both earphones use the PeatsAudio app.
I have had some ups and downs with this app, especially when I first used it with the C3P+. It is perhaps a bit more stable now than it was in the past as it usually connects to the Air5P+ with no issues I was able to go through the hearing test to create the customized Adaptive EQ and check for updates without any crashes. In addition to the Adaptive EQ, which is theoretically tailored to your hearing, the app also comes with 12 EQ presets (Classic, Bass Boost, Bass Reduce, Treble Boost, Pop, Electronic, Classical, Rock, Folk, Book Whisper, HIFI, and ACG) and the ability to create your own using a 10-band equalizer. You can also change the control settings. By default, single taps control volume, double taps control playback, triple clicks summon the voice assistant, and long presses change noise canceling modes on the left side and advances the track on the right side. Because many of the controls are redundant, you have some room to maneuver if you want to change them. I left them in their default stage even though I tend to find single tap controls too easy to activate. I dislike touch controls so I actively seek to never use them, but for the most part, I was able to activate the single and double click controls as expected. I do think having volume controls for the single tap is potentially dangeorus since that's the one you're most likely to activate accidentally, but I didn't have any major issues with this while I used them. Triple clicks almost never work for me but I also never use my earphones or headphones to call up the voice assistant, so that also wasn't a concern for me. The long press to change noise canceling modes worked flawlessly for me in my testing. It is nice to not have to use the app to change this setting. BTW, you can completely disable the touch controls if you do find you activate them accidentally or you just don't want to be bothered with them.
Special Features
The earphones don't have many fancy features beyond those that are controlled via the app. There is no automatic pause feature when an earphone is removed. They support multipoint connection so you can connect them to two devices at a time as long as you have LDAC disabled. There is also a game mode which can be enabled/disabled in the app. Sometimes I do notice a bit of delay in streaming video when using Bluetooth audio devices, but even with game mode off, I found the delay here to be less noticeable than with that of other devices I've used recently.
Noise Canceling
The active noise canceling is probably the most significant feature these earphones have to offer. In the app, you can choose indoor, outdoor, traffic mode, or adaptive noise cancellation. Even on the outdoor setting, the noise canceling isn't the best I've used, but it also isn't the worst. If you get a good seal, it will passively lower the volume of some steady state noise but won't keep you from hearing things like typing, voices, or even loud road noise outside your window. But it does subdue the sound of air conditioners, air purifiers, heaters, etc. With audio playing, you won't really hear much of anything. So although the noise canceling is very average, it will help quiet things down around you and if you need to hear co-workers or don't want to be completely disconnected, the noise canceling here might be fine for you. As we all know, the best noise canceling performance generally comes with over-the-ear headphones.
Sound
The Air5P+ are a bit different from the C3P+. Out of the box, the C3P+ are a bit brighter with more emphasis in the upper mids and highs than the Air5P+, which have heightened volume in the bass region. The mids and highs are present and you can properly identify instruments with decent separation between them, but the lower mids are impacted by the bass in that there is some bleed. This isn't bleed in the sense that the lower mids are wiped out; the effect is a fuller sound in the lower mids and upper bass region. I tend to like the fuller sound, but a purist or a person who prefers mids over bass will prefer the default tuning of the C3P+. In terms of detail retrieval, both do very well. The Air5P+ might have a tiny bit more texture in acoustic instruments but it's very slight. The soundstage on both is similar but because the C3P+ have less bass bleed, they have a lighter and more airy sound that could give the impression of more soundstage. In reality, both feel very in your head and vocalists sound close and intimate. I don't think this is a bad thing and earphones often struggle with soundstage compared to headphones, but if you want big and wide sound, I'm not sure either of these earphones is best for you. Ultimately, I think the expectation of earphones with xMEMS drivers is that the highs will be sparkly and detailed. The C3P+ seem to deliver more on the sparkle by default. But because you have the Adaptive EQ, EQ presets, and the ability to create custom EQ, either of them can be adjusted to better suit your preferences. The Bass Reduce setting on the Air5P+ can deliver a sound that is more similar to the default tuning of the C3P+ if you find the bass a bit too much. With the bass toned down a bit, that extra bit of sparkle and airiness comes into place. I do like the bassier sound for spoken word audio such as podcasts and audio books as voices sometimes sound a bit richer, but for music with a lot going on in the middle, the Bass Reduce EQ preset was one I found myself using quite a bit - and I love my bass. I think this is because I was really used to the sound of the C3P+, which I'd grown to love and prefer over my Creative Aurvana Ace Mimi - another xMEMS earphone with more bass that is slightly muddier than the Air5P+. And the sound here is a bit richer than what you get from the QCY Melobuds N70, which also have xMEMS drivers.
Ultimately, if you are interested in trying out earphones with MEMS drivers for the first time, I think this is an excellent place to start. You get earphones that are capable of bringing the bass but can also excel at the mid and high-range depending on how you tailor the sound for your preference. I think they sound very good out of the box but respond well to equalization. If you are a price sensitive, you may want to consider the QCY Melobuds N70, which have a lower price but still have very good sound across the spectrum and are also customizable.
If you are interested in trying them out, you can buy them here using my Amazon affiliate link, through which your purchase will help support this site and my YouTube channel and allow me to continue buying products to review and share with you. Thanks in advance for your support!
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