‘This is painful’: one of my favorite budget audio brands is still building elite 5-driver earbuds with LDAC and hi-res i Phone streaming, but its engineering blog and Q&As are a refreshingly open look at audio design issues | Tech Radar
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‘This is painful’: one of my favorite budget audio brands is still building elite 5-driver earbuds with LDAC and hi-res i Phone streaming, but its engineering blog and Q&As are a refreshingly open look at audio design issues
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Since then, the brand has continued to run a blog about their development
Thanks to its roster of solid affordable earbuds, Soundpeats is a brand I always keep an eye on. Between the Soundpeats H3 three-driver in-ears, Soundpeats Clip 1 open earbuds and Soundpeats Cove Pro over-ears, I'm always interested in what they've got up their sleeves.
After being given a glimpse up said sleeves in January 2026, when the brand teased some five-driver earbuds, we've been learning more and more over time. Through 2026, Soundpeats has been running a blog dedicated to the development of the buds.
We already knew a fair bit, for example about the five drivers: the 10mm dynamic driver is joined by a 6mm planar driver, two balanced armatures and a planar magnetic driver. The support for apt X Adaptive, LDAC and Snapdragon Sound was all also in the knowledge bank.
But the blog shines a light on some other elements of the bud, for example in the design department. One post discusses the charging case, and how it was designed to allow you to remove the buds in the same gesture as opening it. It's the stuff you don't think about when you're buying some buds online, and shows that the brand is putting care into its Nebula.
In another post, the brand details a transmitter that the Nebula will work alongside, allowing for 24-bit 96k Hz audio playback from i Phones. That's right, the barren LDAC-less wasteland will finally be able to enjoy high-res music (Androiders can just use LDAC for this quality with the Nebula).
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One other side-effect of publishing this blog, is that Soundpeats has managed to build plenty of organic excitement for the Aura Nebula. And I'm not just talking about how interested I personally am to try them.
A representative for Soundcore has been actively sharing the blog posts on Reddit, and they've seemingly amassed a dedicated audience of fans who want to test out the buds. There's also a Discord dedicated to the buds.
For example, in the r/Earbuds subreddit, a recent posted inspired a Q&A between one of the product's developers and excited fans dying to test the buds. And when I say "dying", I mean it: one interested party asking for updates said "this is painful". So, yes… fans are pretty keen.
In the Q&A, fans' main questions were about when the buds would be arriving — unfortunately they weren't given an answer, though Tech Radar has today (Wednesday 8 July) reached out to the company and will update this article if we hear back.
But Soundpeats was very honest about other topics. For example, when asked about battery life, the representative confirmed that they didn't have a concrete battery estimate yet: "the exact battery life still needs to be tested and confirmed [... it's] one of the things I'm personally watching closely too".
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Elsewhere, the developer shared more details about the buds: "55db hybrid ANC, transparency mode support, 3 microphones per earbud, AI call noise reduction, and Qualcomm c Vc 8.0".
When one fan asked if the Aura Nebula would be top-end buds to compete with Sony, Bowers & Wilkin or Technics, the response admitted "in terms of overall product capabilities and brand influence, we aren't quite ready to be compared to those industry giants just yet". So they're staying humble, while also hinting at these buds wont be prohibitively expensive.
It's fascinating to see a brand like Soundpeats not just tease a product well before their launch, but be so open about their R&D process. It's creating interest in a way that press-release-in-inbox announcements don't, and making the brand seem more trustworthy than many peers. It's quite surprising that more brands don't do this kind of thing.
We were meant to see the Soundpeats release in Spring 2026, but obviously that didn't happen. The brand posted about pre-production prototypes in April, so hopefully we won't need to wait too long before the Aura Nebula gets released. I would worry for that Reddit poster if they're delayed much longer.
➡️ Read our full guide to the best earbuds
- Best overall: Technics EAH-AZ100
- Best mid-range: Cambridge Audio A100
- Best budget: Nothing Ear (a)
- Best for noise-cancelling: Bose Quiet Comfort Earbuds Ultra 2nd Gen
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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, Android Police, Tech Advisor, 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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