Skip to main content
  1. Home
  2. Audio / Video
  3. News

1More’s PistonBuds Pro deliver hybrid ANC for $70

Simon Cohen
By

Manufacturer 1More has a new set of wireless earbuds that further reduce the cost of active noise cancellation (ANC). The $70 PistonBuds Pro, which come in white and black color options, are available right now on Amazon.com.

Like the original $50 PistonBuds, the PistonBuds Pro are very small. They’re not quite as small as the recently released 1More ComfoBuds Mini, which are the smallest ANC earbuds you can buy, but the PistonBuds Pro are almost identical in size to the tiny $150 Beats Studio Buds. The PistonBuds Pro have moved away from the stem-based design of the PistonBuds, which should help those with larger ears get a secure fit, as the PistonBuds’ stems tended to stop the earbuds from being more deeply inserted.

Related Videos
The 1More PistonBuds Pro sitting in front of their case on a shite shelf.
1More

Their ANC mode can be switched from its normal setting (good for handling constant indoor sounds like a noisy fan or the roar of a jet engine) to a wind noise resistance setting, which 1More claims can cancel out the microphone noise caused by light to moderate wind. You can also quickly switch to a transparency mode that will let outside sounds in, making it easier to have conversations or hear important announcements. Neither of these features are offered by the less expensive PistonBuds.

Related

The earbuds maker claims battery life for the PistonBuds Pro is 7.5 hours per charge, with a 30-hour total play time when you include their charging case’s capacity. That’s when ANC is turned off. Turn it on, and these numbers drop to five and 20 hours respectively. That’s comparable to other budget ANC wireless earbuds. A quick-charge option will give you an extra hour of listening time with just five minutes of charging.

The PistonBuds Pro are rated IPX5 for water resistance, which should be plenty of protection for your workouts, and will even let you clean the buds under running water — just don’t fully immerse them. In terms of tuning, 1More has once again partnered with Sonarworks. The Latvian audio company has created 12 equalizer settings for the PistonBuds Pro, giving people the ability to choose deeper bass, or a variety of other frequency balances. There is no manual EQ option.

The included low-latency gaming mode is claimed to offer “virtually zero audio to video lag,” but it’s not clear how the company has achieved this given that the PistonBuds Pro only support SBC and AAC Bluetooth codecs, neither of which are especially lag-free.

Editors' Recommendations

Topics
These are the wireless earbuds I’m taking on a beach vacation
Woman by pool with Apple AirPods earbuds and an e-reader.

I have not done any serious traveling since the outbreak of COVID-19 in early 2020. But I can't take it anymore. The sun, surf, and scuba are all calling my name, and I'm heading back to the Caribbean. And along with the usual choices regarding clothing, swimwear, cameras, and reading material, I'm faced with a far more serious question: which earbuds or headphones should I take?

Let me start by acknowledging that having a choice of devices is unusual. Especially given the breadth of my choices. A perk of being a reviewer is having access to a huge assortment of audio gear; most folks only own one set of earbuds and, maybe, a set of headphones too. But. hopefully. my evaluation process will be helpful anyway -- if you're in the market for new headphones or earbuds, this might help solidify your choice.
To headphone or not to headphone?

Read more
Audio-Technica’s new flagship earbuds sanitize themselves after every use
Audio-Technica ATH-TWX9 earbuds in charging case.

Audio-Technica has been in the personal audio game for 60 years, but that doesn't mean it can't learn a thing or two from newer competitors. The company's newest wireless earbuds -- the $299 ATH-TWX9 -- borrow a feature that LG first debuted on its own line of earbuds: sterilization of bacteria and viruses using UV light. They're available from Amazon and other retailers.

When you pop the ATH-TWX9 back in their charging case, a UV light system engages, and with a little help from something called "mirror processing," the company says bacteria and viruses will be eliminated from the surface of the earbuds. It's not entirely clear whether that means just the eartips, or the whole earbud, but the fine print is careful to point out that while the system is more than 99% effective against E. coli and bacteriophage viruses, and more than 90% effective against Staphylococcus aureus, it won't kill all bacteria and viruses, and Audio-Technica doesn't know how well it protects against the virus that causes COVID-19.

Read more
Can you use AirPods Pro without eartips? The answer may surprise you
Apple AirPods Pro 2 seen with ear tip removed.

Apple sells three versions of its super-popular wireless earbuds: The original AirPods, now in their second generation (thus AirPods 2), the third-gen version of the AirPods (which we’ve opted to call the AirPods 3), and the second-gen AirPods Pro (or AirPods Pro 2 for greater clarity). While there are a lot of differences between these models, people invariably notice the physical differences most of all, specifically the presence of silicone eartips on the AirPods Pro 2, and their absence on the AirPods 2 and 3. And that eventually leads to the question, can you use the AirPods Pro without those eartips, and if you did, what would happen?

Before I answer that, let’s quickly review why the AirPods Pro have eartips in the first place. The main purpose of eartips on any set of wireless earbuds is to create a seal around the entrance to your ear canal. This has several benefits:

Read more