SOL Republic AMPS AIR+ In-Ear Headphones - Active Noise Cancelling Wireless Earphones, 7-Hour Playtime and 24 Hours with Charging Case, Sweatproof, IPX5 Rating - Black

The microphone is not good

As well as music I also listen to a LOT of audiobooks (often for around 8 hours a day) and I've had the opportunity to try a number of different wireless earbuds over the last few years and I got a pair of Enacfire for my birthday a couple of years ago and some apple AirPods Pro for Christmas. Those two pairs which are almost at either end of the wireless earbuds price spectrum are what I tend to use as benchmarks for sound quality, price, comfort, charging speed and reliable connection throughout all the tests of the others. The tested models have gone from £25 to £200+ These are actually some of the better wireless buds I have tried - But the two things that let the Amps Air+ down are for me complete deal-breakers but I will review them as fairly as I can because my issues may not be yours and what's essential for me may simply not be important to you. My two big negatives: I'm small (female and 5 foot tall) and I have small ears. The actual inner shell of my ear is very slightly smaller than the ear buds - so even attempting to get them into my ear is painful - leaving them in there for any length results in numb spots. Also the casing of the Amps Air+ bud is really quite deep and it sticks out of my ear by a good 4mm and looks somewhat ridiculous - it actually looks a bit like something out a 1970's sci-fi movie. Now I'm pretty sure this won't be a problem for at least 80% of users - but if your ears on the small size I would definitely try before you buy. I found the ANC to be inadequate - in other words lousy - compared to my AirPods pro I could hear a tremendous amount more background noise when it was activated on the Air+ than I do with my AirPods - which pretty much make the whole noisy world go away! At this price I expect the ANC to be adequate. The case is really quite large/chunky and yet it only gives an additional 2.5 charges. My much smaller airpods pro case gives up to 3.5 additional charges. The good things: USB-C charging is nice. The fast-charge is to be expected at this price but was welcome. The sound quality was good to excellent depending on the type of thing listened to. Spoken word (podcasts audiobooks etc) and classical music = good. Rock and Pop = excellent reproduction.

This review concerns the SOL Republic AMPS AIR+ In-Ear Headphones - Active Noise Cancelling Wireless Earphones, 7-Hour Playtime and 24 Hours with Charging Case, Sweatproof, IPX5 Rating - Black, price at review £179.99. First the good news! Beautifully packaged; Feel like a quality build; Great specification; Good battery Life; Sound quality Ok (when working, see below); The bad news! Bluetooth connectivity, difficult to say the least, No sound volume adjustment on ear pieces; Intermittent music reception; Changing Mode, hit or miss; When Bluetooth connection finally established - no sound emitting; Small instruction manual - very sparse with detail; My £30 set from another manufacturer, connected first time and operation worked as expected. Item was received free of charge under the Amazon Vine program - Maybe i was unlucky and sent a pre-production set - otherwise i would have returned for full refund. I will edit review once i have spent another 24 hours trying to obtain better results!

Completely ignoring the price (currently £180) for a moment, these are average true-wireless buds. Average sound, poor ANC, average battery life, poor moisture proofing, average size. As a first pair of wireless buds, that are not being bought for a specific technical need, nor for fashion reasons, they'll do. And at £50 you'd be pretty happy with what you got. If you are a more discerning user, then you are going to find at least one aspect of them annoying. But if they WERE £50 then maybe you'd swallow that, because nice through a £200 pair of buds would be, you just don't have that kind of money. Oh, but wait, they are nearly £200. Move along.

FIRST IMPRESSIONS, FIT & COMFORT These are very tactile earbuds, sturdy and well-designed for aesthetic appeal. The portable case adds to the sophistication. The earbuds are a little chunky looking but not too cumbersome in the ears; I found them a pretty good fit for my ears (they don't keep slipping out) and the earbuds feel comfortable during use. The earphones I think are water resistant; they’re advertised as being sweat and rain resistant but I haven’t personally used them in wet conditions to comment further on this aspect. FUNCTIONALITY & FEATURES Connectivity - it’s super easy to pair with your device and once paired, it will automatically connect with your device and provides a reliable, uninterrupted connection. Button design - it’s just one button to control functionality so you can play and pause your music and answer and end calls with the same button for a very streamlined experience. Charging - I love that the case doubles up as a portable charger so you can safety store your earphones and charge up on the go; a fully charged case will let you recharge your earbuds twice before it needs to be charged again. SOUND QUALITY One of the things that stood out about these earphones for me was the emphasis on bass, making them ideal for listening to music and getting an immersive sound experience if you’re doing something like watching an adventure movie on your phone. I do agree the bass quality is very good for this and suits the way I use the earphones. I like the overall clarity and quality of the sound and the microphone and noise cancellation seem perfectly fine for voice calls I've taken while listening to music on my phone. If you're used to having a single bluetooth headset with sound in just one ear, it does take a bit of getting used to having sound coming into both ears during a call but funnily enough, I quite like it. SUMMARY With the emphasis on superior bass, these earphones seem to be geared towards music lovers, but being able to use it like a bluetooth headset for phone calls is very handy and removes the necessity to carry around earphones for music and an earpiece for calls. At the time I initially got these earphones, the listed price was close to £200… I think this is much too high for this brand which usually has their wireless earphones priced at around £100-£130. They're superior quality earphones though and I do think they're well-made and built to last so they look like a good choice if you want to go wireless and streamline your devices.

SOL Republic AMPS AIR+ In-Ear Headphones Sleek professional compact and easy to carry I never heard of this brand until now but am really impressed with the quality Easy to connect to I've not had any issues so far The sound quality is amazing, once the ear phones are placed in the case they instantly charge They are expesnive but headphones are an invesment

I have given these SOL Republic AMPS AIR+ a pretty good test over the last week or so, lots of different activities and modes of transport to try out how well the ANC worked ... the basic answer is pretty poorly. There are 2 modes, full ANC and Ambient ... both block a bit of outside noise, but to be honest, not by much, and certainly, they didn't perform well enough to justify the hefty price tag. There are some Pros, sound quality on calls is very good and the other party could hear me very clearly. They are well made and reasonably comfortable to wear. They also paired easily. The list of Cons though is much bigger ... The sound is quite thin, and there is no way to alter it apart from resorting to the EQ settings on my phone. Max volume is too low, and there is no way to override. That may have been OK if ANC worked, but in the gym this morning I could hear plenty of clanging and chat. The same goes for traffic noise in the street or engine noise in the car. They are only IP5 rated ... OK for a bit of sweat in the gym but hardly industry-leading ... My Jaybird Vista's are IP7. As for exercise, they seem secure in pretty static exercises in the gym, but I wouldn't use them for jogging for fear of losing one. I'm not a big fan of the touch controls, even after a week of use I find the controls are often more miss than hit. There is an App, but it is a community interest/fan app. I would have expected at this price point to have some control of the buds, firmware updates, where's my bud, EQ ... etc. All in all, well made, the sound is good on a call, but too quiet, fiddly controls, ANC just doesn't perform and they are way too expensive ... the performance may have been forgivable on something costing £50 ... but at £180 they are facing some seriously good opposition and they just don't match up.

Wow wow wow. We have broadcast quality sound equipment at work and i had to take these for a spin on that equipment. Absolutely outstanding performance across a nice wide audio bandwidty that even the young man or woman would hear (which adults dont due to age degredation)stunning performance across 100Hz to 20KHz and the very interesting active noise cancellation that sllows situational awareness and others to talk to you (unless you have the primary source at full pelt. The pod is both a carry case and a charge station that extends the ear phone power to 24hrs. The batteries last about 7hrs without top up. Easy earplug replacement and hygiene care. The pod is likewise easy to keep clean and recharge (microUSB power feed). I initially thought these looked a bit too big, but that was wrong, very comfy in the ear. In fact this is so well designed i am impressed, the price is worth paying for this rich and good performance.. Happy to highly recommend, Andrew