Edifier Neobuds Pro Review Dual Driver Bluetooth IEM

 

Those old enough to remember the Knight Rider will find the Neobuds Pro charging case a pleasant reminder! At first glance, the Edifier Neobuds Pro look very familiar and that is because they have the same v-shape shell design as the NB2 Pro and the TWS NBQ earbuds. They look just alike but under the hood, the Edifier Neobuds Pro houses a Knowles balanced armature (BA) driver, as well as a dynanic driver - making the Neobuds Pro a very special pair of bluetooth IEMs!


The Neobuds Pro also come with an audio equalizer via the Edifier Connect mobile app. The audio equalizer comes with two preset modes, as well as a custom EQ mode where you can adjust the gain (volume) of a specific frequency between 20Hz and 200kHz by manually entering the frequency. The Neobuds Pro custom EQ mode works just like a standard band EQ, although it isn't as user friendly. Some users may find it confusing at first trying to figure out how to use it. Overall, the Edifier Connect app is nice and easy to navigate. No account registration required, other than some phone permissions.


From the Edifier Connect app, you can also turn on/off game mode and remap the touch control gestures, which include single tap, long press, double tap and triple tap. Touch control remapping is always useful for changing up functions around to suit your preference. That said, for some reason you can only remap the double tap and triple tap gestures, which does limit the touch control remapping functionality of the Neobuds Pro.


Touch controls are responsive but low sensitive, which means you have to lightly tap to activate functions. This isn't an issue, although some earbuds' touch controls are more sensitive so, you only have to lightly touch the earbud, which is nice if you don't like the tapping sensation of earbuds. Luckily, the touch control sensitivity of the Neobuds Pro can be adjusted via the Edifier Connect app.


Being a multi-driver IEM, the Neobuds Pro integrates a similar "electronic crossover" you get with most multi-driver IEMs that is designed to send the treble frequencies to the Knowles balanced armature (BA) driver and bass/midrange to the dynamic driver. Splitting the frequencies results in more clear, layered sound and wider sound signature. You can hear subbass and upper midrange too, which means vocals sound richer and the bass has depth to it, which is something you don't experience with regular single driver earbuds.


The Neobuds Pro are equipped with three ENC microphones designed to handle calls, active noise cancellation with ambient sound, which lets you hear external sounds without having to remove the earbuds. The ambient sound and anc sensitivity can be adjusted via the Edifier app too. 

 


When it comes to low/bassy type noises such as road traffic and building work, the anc performance is good, blocking them out pretty well. High pitch noises and voices also get suppressed, although not as much. The microphone call quality is very good - better than NB2 Pro and the TWS NBQ. It is clear/natural sounding and suppresses background noises to make calls more clear. There are voice prompts when toggling between anc and ambient mode.


With anc turned on, the Neobuds Pro earbuds have a battery life of 5 hours at 50% volume, which is 2 hours less than the NB2 Pro earbuds. With anc turned off, the battery life is 6 hours (via SBC codec). If you stream via AAC codec, the latency is lower but it also consumes from power, although not a much as LHDC/LDAC. The Neobuds Pro earbuds have a plastic body with an alloy metal looking finish on the front of the stem. The nozzle is very long, which makes the sound deeper and, it also helps keep the earbuds securely in the ears. The Neobuds Pro earbuds weigh 6 grams each.


The Neobuds Pro charging case can hold an additional 17 hours of power and takes 1.5 hours to fully charge. The case has a large clam-shell design with a recessed USB-C charging port and flat base. The Neobuds Pro charging case is made of soft matte plastic with an alloy metal trim on top of the lid. On the front of the case, there is as deep slit cutout concealing a large led bar that lights up similarly to the Knight Rider scanner light. The charging case weighs 48 grams and measures 6.5cm long, 5cm wide and 3cm high.


The Neobuds Pro earbuds are equipped with a bluetooth 5.0 chip, which supports game mode (low latency), as well as LHDC and LDAC codecs. Being low latency and hi-res, LHDC also decreases the bluetooth signal range, just like game mode. That said, you can lower the LHDC bandwidth down from the Edifier app to improve the bluetooth connection quality. With game mode turned on, the latency decreases down to 80ms, which is perfect for playing online mobile games. Having game mode turned on also decreases the wireless range and increases the power consumption (an extra hour), which is something you get with all game mode earbuds.


To benefit from LDAC and LHDC codecs though, your phone and the audio source (e.g audio player or phone) has to support those codecs too. Android 10 (and later) devices support LHDC, while LDAC is supported by Android 8.0 (and higher) devices. Apple iPhone /iPad do not support LHDC/LDAC. Something else to keep in mind with LHDC and LDAC is that Tidal premium is the only streaming app that fully supports the full bandwidth of LHDC/ LDAC. Other music apps like Spotify, YouTube Music, Amazon Music and Apple Music apps cap the LHDC/LDAC bandwidth to AAC codec level. If you don't want to use Tital, you can always download flac audio files too.


The Neobuds Pro earbuds do not support multipoint dual connection. The earbuds cannot be used independently of the other but, you can switch between them for mono listening. The Neobuds Pro earbuds can be paired and connected whilst inside the charging case and re-connect instantaneously (no-delay). 

 

Accessories that you get include eartips with different color bores stored inside a tip holder that looks like a medicine wrapper. An unbranded USB-C cable, as well as a coaster are included and a drawstring pouch. The pouch feels really nice. It's made of satin-like material with a soft, thick lining material. The Neobuds Pro ship inside a nice premium packaging with a hard cardboard box. You can buy the Neobuds Pro from amazon.


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