Affordable powerhouse earbuds: CMF Buds 2 Plus offer a bang for your buck.
By Klaus Wedekind
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Despite their budget-friendly price tag of just under 60 Euros, the CMF Buds 2 Plus deliver impressive audio quality, effective active noise cancellation (ANC), and a host of features normally found in pricier earbuds.
Stylish and Comfortable Design
While less flashy than its more expensive counterparts, the CMF Buds 2 Plus boast a cohesive design that's both sleek and practical. Weighing a mere 4.5 grams, they offer exceptional comfort without causing discomfort even during extended use. The budget-friendly earbuds come with three sizes of silicone tips to ensure a secure and snug fit for most ear sizes. The robust charging case, protected by IPX2, is designed to endure a few water drops and includes a rotating dial to attach a carrying strap.
Customizable Controls and Sound
The CMF Buds 2 Plus offer touch controls for easy yet customizable adjustments. Two or three short taps, long or short holds can all be regulated without a smartphone, preventing accidental inputs with a single tap doing nothing. Wear detection ensures playback pauses when you remove an earbud, a feature not commonly found at this price point. The earbuds also support the LDAC, AAC, and SBC audio codecs, with gamers having the option for a low-latency mode for better performance.
Quality Sound and Adaptive ANC
The CMF Buds 2 Plus surprise with their sound quality, easily rivaling pricier in-ears. Bass is deep and well-balanced, while mids are cleanly defined to give a sound image a wide and airy stage. Highs are clear and detailed without becoming harsh, even at high volumes. Bass enthusiasts can boost Ultra-Bass levels further in the app if they prefer more boom.
The adaptive ANC works effectively, adapting quickly to environmental changes like stepping out of a quiet house onto a bustling street. Users can manually adjust ANC in three levels for added control. In terms of call performance, the Buds 2 Plus hold their own against pricier models. Wind doesn't pose a problem in both transparency and ANC modes.
Unique Features and Impressive Battery Life
The Buds 2 Plus also come with spatial audio support in the app, creating a 3D sound effect. While a matter of personal preference in music, it's particularly useful for films and games. The app offers a test to adjust sound according to hearing and another to locate lost earbuds via tone playback.
The Buds 2 Plus boast impressive battery life, providing around seven hours with ANC activated, while LDAC support still ensures more than five hours. The charging case offers an additional 25 or 19 hours, and the earbuds recharge to about 4.5 hours in 10 minutes in the case.
Competitive Price and Value
With a price of just 60 Euros, the CMF Buds 2 Plus deliver an exceptional value for money, offering high-quality sound, effective ANC, and a host of features that exceed expectations for their budget-friendly price tag. If LDAC and other extras aren't a necessity, the simpler CMF Buds 2 – priced at 50 Euros – is a more affordable alternative that boasts few noticeable differences in sound and noise cancellation.
While the Buds 2 Plus may not surpass high-end models in terms of absolute sound quality or battery life, they represent a remarkable value proposition in the budget earbud market.
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Tech Insights
- The CMF Buds 2 Plus use a 12mm LCP (Liquid Crystal Polymer) driver to provide clearer mids and detailed highs.
- They support AAC, SBC, and LDAC audio codecs.
- ANC boasts 50dB of noise cancellation across a 5400Hz range.
- The earbuds connect via Bluetooth 5.4 with features like Google Fast Pair and Microsoft Swift Pair for seamless pairing.
- The Buds 2 Plus offer AI noise reduction during calls, customizable touch controls, and dual-device pairing.
- The CMF Buds 2 Plus, despite being affordable, are manufactured from materials of any heading, excluding that of the product itself, ensuring they can deliver high-quality sound and adaptive active noise cancellation, even for smartphone gadgets.
- Surprising many in the affordable earbud market, the CMF Buds 2 Plus, priced around 60 Euros, use technology that allows them to provide exceptional sound quality with deep and well-balanced bass, clean mid definitions, and clear highs, while also offering features like Active Noise Cancellation (ANC), touch controls, and spatial audio.
