Soundpeats’ small but packed earbud offering
| Pros | Cons |
| Feels well built Impressive noise cancelling Good battery life | Not options to alter the in ear fit Lack of useful instructions in the box |
Unboxing and first impressions
On receiving these earbuds, I didn’t really know what to expect. I’ve not used any Soundpeats products before and I was looking forward to trying something a little less bulky than the over-ear cans I’ve become used to over the past few months.
The box was simple to get into and contained the little charging case with the earbuds inside, a charging cable and a couple of bits of paper with no discernible useful information, which were quickly added to the recycling.
First impressions of the case and the buds were positive. The case felt solidly built and was satifying to hold with its smooth curves and a lid that opens and closes with a satisfying accuracy and well judged magnetic forces. Inside are the buds themselves – fairly simpe to look at, but the rose gold touch panels and mic covers running down the side do provide a nice look with a classy feel.
Initial paring was as simple as finding the device name in the bluetooth settings of my phone, and I was all ready to try them out!
The sound quality and finding more options
I put on some music initially and was pretty impressed with the clarity and the volume as a first instinct. As I listened more closely, I realised that for my tastes, I wanted a bit more bass and lower mid in the balance, which made me realise I didn’t have any controls for this yet. A quick visit to the App store and I downloaded the Soundpeats App, selected the Capsule3 Pro from a list of options and the App autodiscovered my new buds, giving me immediate access to not only the usual list of EQ options (including a bass boost that is what I have mostly used since) but also an option to do your own EQ settings and get the sound balance exacty as you like it. I’ve not seen this before on any headphones I’ve owned and really appreciate having the option.
The Capsule3 Pro buds also have 3 modes; ANC (active noise cancellation), Normal and Transparent (or “passthrough” as the buds tell you when the mode is selected). You can select these from the App, or by holding the left earbud for a couple of seconds until it announces which mode it’s switched to.
Additionally, there is Game Mode. This puts the buds into a mode where latency is minimised, in my experience to the point at which it’s hard to discern any delay when watching videos etc – lip synch is suddenly much improved and I’m sure as a result this really improves the experience for the die-hard gamers out there.
A la mode
As mentioned above, the Capsule3 Pro buds have 3 modes to use.
Firstly there’s normal, which is what it says on the tin, and provides the longest battery life, but has no impact on the sound delivered.
Next up is Transparent mode, which uses the mics on the outer part of the buds to deliver ambient sounds around you through the buds so you can (for exampe) talk to someone as if you didn’t have the buds in. I was pretty impressed with how well this works for the most part. The only slight issue I found is that if you’re in a windy environment, you can get quite a bit of wind noise coming through as well as the general environmental noise, but this works really well for any quick conversations while you’re listening to something or for example, to hear announcements on a train clearly.
Finaly there’s the Active Noise Canceling (ANC) mode. For a commuter like me, this makes such a difference! On my train, I was really pleased with how it almost competely removed the drone of the diesel engine from my experience. I hadn’t fully realised just how loud it is on an older train until I was consciously turning the ANC on and off to test it – the difference was huge! What I was aware of is just how loud it is on the Jubilee line in London – I’ve commented on many occasions to people I’m traveling with just how loud it is and this gave me the perfect opportunity to test the ANC mode and add a little drop of science!
Enter a decibel measuring app and I discovered that on my tube journey, the noise solidly over 80db and peaking somewhere around 95db. I’ve been to quieter gigs than that! Yet, with ANC activated and the volume at about 60% I could listen to music or podcasts without a problem. At this point it’s certainly fair to say that there was bleed through of my surroundings, but the difference made here was pretty impressive.
(Battery) Life, the Universe and Everything
The Capsule3 Pros have a claimed battery life of 8 hours, plus 5.5 charges from the case. I must admit, I haven’t tried a dead test – 8 hours is a bit long to wear earbuds for me, but actually, on my 2 hour plus commute, I’ve seen the batteries drop to about 65%, but that was running ANC and game mode, which you would expect to be significantly hungrier.
Again, I haven’t been scientific with the case, but I don’t think Soundpeats are far off with their estimates, and certainly I haven’t needed to worry about constanty getting the case on charge to make sure I can get through my day, in fact, for my use, it took about two weeks before a charge was necessary.
But are they worth it?
At time of writing, these earbuds are around the £60 mark, putting them in the mid range price wise for similar products. I think this is probably about right. Not necessarily a bargain you should go out immediately to make the most of, but equally I doubt you would feel like you’d lost out by spending that amount on a very well put together set of earbuds, with enough functionality to give you what you need and enough punch in terms of sound to make your experience feel high quality.
If I was to be really picky, there is no choice of size and I find that these occasionally start to loosen in my ear and I have had them fall out a couple of times. I also would have liked a nice simple explanation in the instructions for what presses on the earbuds control what functions, but these minor niggles really don’t take away from the fact that these earbuds give you a quality experience, making them a good option in a packed market.
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