'An odd choice': Cleer has put audiophile-grade perks in open earbuds, and I'm confused | Tech Radar

Overview

'An odd choice': Cleer has put audiophile-grade perks in open earbuds, and I'm confused

LDAC and THX/Dolby Atmos certified spatial audio, meet chatty taxi driver

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I was under the impression that the best open earbuds were designed for sports users, but I must have missed a memo. The Cleer Arc 5 have just been unveiled, and they're aimed at a very different market.

These new earbuds, unveiled only four months after the Arc 4, are undoubtedly premium buds; they cost

From a glance at the specs list, there's a lot to like from Cleer here. The buds have 16.2mm drivers, up to 12 hours of stamina in the buds (up to 60 with the case), support for a wide range of wireless codecs — LDAC, apt X Adaptive and apt X Lossless —and a case with a built-in touch screen. But it doesn't seem like that's all.

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I’ve worn the all-new Shokz open earbuds for 4 days and the ‘noise reduction’ is so good, I forget they’re open-ear

The best open earbuds, all real-world tested by our experts

The name of the Cleer Arc 5 game is, according to the company, that special kind of spatial audio. Not only are the earbuds optimized for Dolby Atmos, but they're certified for THX Spatial Audio too, using head tracking. As far as I can recall, that's brand-new for open earbuds (the aforementioned Shokz set can do head-tracked immersive audio, but they don't come with the THX badge of approval).

Spatial audio tools like Dolby Atmos and THX aren't just useful for movies or gaming; they help build on the soundstage of your music. It's a feature popular with some (though not all) audiophiles, since it can bridge the gap between affordable and high-end kit.

But you know what's not so popular among audiophiles? Open earbuds. This form factor is useful for safety when you're in busy public areas, but the nature of the beast is typically that the audio quality suffers.

In this kind of earbud, the driver is held a little further away from your ear — there is no seal created betwixt ear canal and ear-tip to maximise the sound wave's journey from driver to ear drum. Surrounding sound gets in, and detail, definition and impact (particularly through the bass) are lost as a result. Even the best open earbuds usually struggle with audio quality, compared to budget in-ears.

So it feels like an odd choice for Cleer to be offering fancy codec support and features within open earbuds, since you may not really get to appreciate them owing to their physical design.

Despite features like Dynamic Bass Enhancement, which could go some way toward fixing this problem, I'd still be surprised if you can really appreciate spatial audio when noisy traffic is zooming and honking all around you.

I bet they'll sound fantastic when you're somewhere quiet, though: the specs list puts them above and beyond most alternatives I've tested recently.

I've been proven wrong about open earbuds in the past, and hopefully I will be again. Otherwise, it's going to be hard to justify the meaty price tag on open earbuds you can't appreciate…

➡️ Read our full guide to the best open earbuds

1. Best overall: Shokz Open Fit 2+
2. Best cheap around-ear design: Huawei Free Arc
3. Best cheap clip design: Shokz Open Dots One
4. Best high-end clip design: Bose Ultra Open

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Tom Bedford is a freelance contributor covering tech, entertainment and gaming. Beyond Tech Radar, he has bylines on sites including Games Radar, Digital Trends, Whatto Watch and BGR. From 2019 to 2022 he was on the Tech Radar team as the staff writer and then deputy editor for the mobile team.

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Key Takeaways

• 'An odd choice': Cleer has put audiophile-grade perks in open earbuds, and I'm confused

• LDAC and THX/Dolby Atmos certified spatial audio, meet chatty taxi driver

• When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission

• I was under the impression that the best open earbuds were designed for sports users, but I must have missed a memo

• These new earbuds, unveiled only four months after the Arc 4, are undoubtedly premium buds; they cost $219