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I saw the AeroFit 2 Pro earphones at CES this year and thought they were a clever idea. They’re two earbuds in one, switchable with a twist. In one mode, they’re sound-blocking with active noise canceling. In the other mode, they’re semi-open, letting in the sound of the world around you. Imagine blocking out the sound of the subway, then listening for angry cars when you return to street level. Or blocking out the sound of a noisy office but then switching modes when you need to listen for coworkers needing assistance.
That’s the idea anyway, and at US$179.99, CA$245, £179.99, and €130 as of this writing in early March, they’re certainly cheaper than my version of this same idea: two separate pairs of earbuds.
In the box
With the AeroFit 2 Pro, you get a USB‑A-to-USB‑C cable. Because of how they fit in your ears, there are no eartips—they’re not necessary.
Use
As you can see in the photos, the AeroFit 2 Pros have a loop design, with a lump at one end of the loop (the battery, I assume) to balance them out. They’re made of a smooth plastic. I found them extremely comfortable, even while wearing my glasses.
In order to access the app, you need to create an account. Yay. It also has a bunch of AI features built in. Double yay. I know sarcasm is hard to detect in print, so let me say plainly, that was sarcasm. Why the fraking frak do I need an AI chatbot in an app for wireless fraking headphones? Gross.
Beyond the AI nonsense, the app is quite slick. It immediately connected to the earbuds. You can adjust how the on-earbud controls function, enable a low-latency gaming mode, and adjust the EQ with a variety of presets or an eight-band manual EQ. With the latter, you can even tune it differently depending on which mode it’s in.
Switching between modes takes a little getting used to. Because everyone’s ears are different, there are five positions to click between on each earbud. Two on one end of the range are the open mode, while rotating to the other three enables noise canceling (NC). Both earbuds have to be in NC mode for NC to work. Twisting the buds, which pivot where they connect to the loop, necessitates rotating the entire earbud to ensure a correct fit. Rotating the entire earbud often accidentally switches what setting it’s in, requiring more fiddling to get it correct. With a little practice, you should be able to do this with one hand. As long as you remember which setting fits you best, it’s all reasonably intuitive. Alternatively, you can always take one off, twist it to the right setting with both hands, put it back on, and repeat with the other side.
That said, I never felt like I got a perfect fit. The ’buds were comfortable and never felt like they would fall out, but I felt like the seal could have been better no matter what setting I used. If I pressed them in with my fingers, the bass improved significantly (logical), but I couldn’t get them to sit in that position without said digit(al) assistance. More frustrating, the outer face on each earbud is a button for playback controls, so it was very easy to press while simply trying to adjust their position.
If you wear glasses, the frames might interact with the loops. I was able to position my frames so both were comfortable, but there are infinite designs, so that’s something to keep in mind.
The case is necessarily large, roughly twice the size of most true wireless earbud cases. It’s fairly flat, though, so it’s not unwieldy. The Aerofit 2 Pros snap into place magnetically, so you don’t need to think about how they should be positioned.
Sound
Overall, the sound of the AeroFit 2 Pros is . . . fine. Midrange is strong, and there’s some bass and treble, but both roll off at their extremes. The sound isn’t bad by any stretch, but for US$180, I was expecting more.
I started with Bob Schneider’s “Han Solo” (King Kong, 16‑bit/44.1kHz ALAC, Shockorama / Apple Music). With the AeroFits in closed mode with NC turned on, this fairly straightforward soft-rock track had tight snap to the drums. Schneider’s voice sounded full and strongly set in the center of a soundstage that seemed to spread out over my shoulders. There wasn’t much air or openness to the treble, and while the bass guitar wasn’t lost, the low end fell off. Switching to the open mode produced even more midrange. It’s hard to say if this was something with how the openness interacts with the sound or just because they necessarily sit differently in/on the ear. The soundstage didn’t seem much different.
Olivia Dean’s “Man I Need” (The Art of Loving, 24/44.1 ALAC, Capitol / Apple Music) had a satisfyingly big soundstage as well. That’s definitely the strongest aspect of the AeroFit 2 Pros. While the midrange is by far the most prevalent frequency range, it’s fairly flat and pleasing to listen to. There wasn’t much low punch to this track in closed mode with NC on, but there was enough that the sound didn’t seem unbalanced. Switching to open mode, Dean’s voice was more prominent, but there was pronounced rolloff of the high treble and low bass. My subjective rating above is a rough average of the two modes. In closed mode it’s nearly a seven, while in open mode it’s closer to a six.
Given the variety of EQ settings available in the app, I tried a few other than the “soundcore Signature” (yes, that’s the capitalization in the app). You’d expect I’d like the Bass Boost mode most, but it just made the sound muddy and didn’t add any of the missing low bass. The Balanced mode messed with what I thought was perfectly good midrange. I stuck with Signature.
The noise canceling itself is fairly poor, barely reducing the rumble and noise of something like an airplane interior. The AeroFits “take the edge off,” but only just. This is disappointing, as I’ve tested other Soundcore earbuds that had really good noise canceling.
Comparison
It’s hard to compare the AeroFit 2 Pros to anything, since they’re not really open earbuds, nor are they closed. I figured two options were close. At US$129.99, the Creative Aurvana Ace Mimi earphones are somewhat less expensive. The Bose Open Ultra earphones (US$299) are more expensive, but they’re great-sounding, fully-open earbuds.
With the Aurvana Ace earphones and their MEMS drivers playing Anastasia Kobekina’s rendition of the first movement, Prelude, of J.S. Bach’s Cello Suite No. 1 (Bach: Cello Suites, 24/192 ALAC, Sony Classical / Apple Music), the bass extended deep; via the AeroFits, the cello just seemed smaller. The bass was still there, but it lacked the lower resonance that came across with the Aurvanas. There was less space in the treble as well. Of course, even with the Aces as light as they are, they are only closed, never open, and aren’t secure enough for rigorous exercise.
Granted, the Bose Open Ultras are a lot more expensive than the AeroFit 2 Pros, so this isn’t exactly a fair comparison. I mention the Ultras here to show that open earbuds don’t have to lack bass. In fact, I find the bass of the Open Ultras better than many of the brand’s closed earbuds and headphones. With the Olivia Dean track, there was a lot more punch and fullness to the sound on the Ultras. Dean’s voice was more forward via the AeroFits, but the Ultras had a more balanced sound overall. However, the Ultras hang off your ears like fake earrings, so if you’re outside or in any loud environment, they become extremely hard to hear, even with the volume cranked. The AeroFits block some of that ambient sound.
Conclusion
I’m a fan of companies trying new things. I’m also a fan of products that try to do multiple things, since most people don’t need yet another thing to buy, charge, and potentially lose. But the Soundcore AeroFit 2 Pro earphones slightly miss the mark for me. The sound isn’t exactly bad; “perfectly acceptable” is how I’d describe it.
However, these earbuds’ signature feature (small “s” this time) is the dual-form open/closed twisty trick, and I found it just fiddly enough that I’m not convinced it’s useful. Soundcore probably has a higher opinion of the average consumer than I do because I think most people would find one comfortable setting and then forget to ever switch to the other mode. Or, just as likely, they’d spend too much time trying to get the settings right each time they use them, dooming them to a drawer or hand-me-down. Any feature that requires several hundred words in the app to explain how to use it is not one most people are going to remember—or even try more than once. At the very least, clear visuals on the earbuds themselves would be a significant improvement. So to me, these are a neat idea that doesn’t quite work. Not yet, anyway. Maybe in the next generation.
. . . Geoffrey Morrison
Associated Equipment
- Smartphone: Google Pixel 9 Pro
- Earphones: Creative Labs Aurvana Ace Mimi, Bose Open Ultra
Soundcore AeroFit 2 Pro true wireless earphones
Price: US$179.99, CA$245, £179.99, €130
Warranty: 18 months
Soundcore
Phone: 1-800-988-7973
Email:
Website: www.soundcore.com
