Cleer Audio Ally Plus True Wireless ANC Earbuds REVIEW | Mac Sources

6 min readFeb 12, 2020

Cleer Audio Ally Plus True Wireless ANC Earbuds

Amazing features and sound quality to fall in love with.

Earbuds are not usually my headphones of choice. They have always fallen out of my ears or caused headaches. I’ve been very fortunate to have the opportunity to test out many different styles of earbuds, but alas, I end up with the same result. They just don’t work right for me. When Apple released the original AirPods, I was thrilled because the EarPods have always worked well for me. And so the AirPods were great since they were the same shape. This past week I was introduced to the Ally Plus True Wireless Active Noise Cancelling Earbuds from Cleer and I fell in love.

DETAILS

The Ally Plus earbuds feature active noise canceling that is designed to suppress ambient noises from the outside world. The earbuds have 10mm Neodymium drivers that deliver balanced, dynamic sound. These are one of the first earbuds to have the fastest pairing option available with Google Fast Pair 2.0. The earbuds have built-in touch controls on the soft-touch earpads. The Ally Plus earbuds have 30 hours of battery — 10 hours from earbuds and 20 hours from the charging case. With a 5-minute charge, you get 1 hour of playtime. The earbuds are designed to be ergonomic and lightweight. They come with a variety of ear gels to provide a comfortable fit. They are rated IPX4 for water resistance. The case charges with USB-C and the earbuds only weigh 2.47 ounces. In addition to the charging case and USB-C charging cable, the Ally Plus also come with a soft pouch for storage.

SPECS

Driver: 10mm neodymium dynamic driver
Audio CODEC support: SBC, AAC, aptX
Frequency response range: 20–20,000Hz
Connections: USB-C cable for charging case
Playback time: Up to 10 hours (up to an additional 20 hours with charging case)
Support: BT 5.0, A2DP, v1.3, AVRCP v1.6, HFP v1.7, HSP v1.2
Bluetooth transmission frequency range: 2.402–2.480Ghz
Bluetooth transmission power: <8.0dBm
Water resistance rating: IPX4 (for earbuds only)
Weight: 6.6g (per earpiece); 79.6g (for both earpieces and case)

IN THE BOX

Ally Plus Headphones
Silicone Eartips (S, M, L)
USB-C Cable
Carry Pouch
Charging Case
Quick Start Guide

USER EXPERIENCE

When I test earbuds I’m usually pretty critical. Since I can’t ever seem to find a ‘good’ fit, the sound quality suffers and I’m just left with an all-around bad experience. I’m happy to report that with the Ally Plus I’ve had very few problems. The first was intermittent cutting in and out. I’m actually not sure if this was a symptom of the connected device or the earbuds. At first, I had the Ally Plus connected to my MacBook Pro. It worked fine for a while, but I did have some connection issues. The earbuds would just cut in and out. The other issue I had is that there are no advance/rewind controls factored into the touch controls. There is volume control, Bluetooth pairing control, noise cancellation mode selection, and call and playback control, but no advance/rewind controls. This means that every time I want to change my music track I either have to pull out my phone or hit the selection on my Apple Watch. Other than that, I really enjoy the Ally Plus earbuds.

I like to judge my earbuds off of comfort, sound quality, and special features. I have outlined my thoughts below on the Ally Plus.

Comfort

I’ve been pretty happy with the fit and comfort level of these earbuds. I did notice, however, that after about 2 hours of wearing them, the inside part of my ear started hurting. It wasn’t severe, but it was enough pressure that it caused discomfort. For the most part, the earbuds were comfortable to wear. I was able to get a good fit with them and therefore, they were pretty comfortable. I never got any headaches with them.

Sound quality

The sound quality of the Ally Plus blew me away. Once I got a good fit from them, I turned music on and for the first time ever, I got the same sound quality that I normally get from over-ear or on-ear headphones. Music had great depth and I could hear the mix really well. I did notice a little sound difference when you switch between the noise cancellation modes. When the noise cancellation is turned on, the earbuds sounded the best. They started sounding hollow when noise cancellation was turned off.

Noise cancellation

This is one feature I don’t have with my Gen 1 AirPods. It is a feature you get with the AirPods Pro, but until now, I didn’t have a set of earbuds that features ANC. I love that there are three modes to choose from — On, Ambient Mode, and Off. As I mentioned under sound quality, when ANC was turned off, I could hear room noise and the sound quality of the music I was listening to suffered. When ANC was turned on, room noise was virtually gone (all except for a barking dog) and the music was full and rich. When ANC was on with Ambient Mode, I was getting a good sound quality (but not great) and could hear some room noise. I was able to hear my fiancé talking to me while I had music playing, but I couldn’t hear him when I had ANC turned on without the Ambient Mode.

Controls

Normally, I don’t like touch controls on headphones. They haven’t been reliable for me in the past and I typically just prefer buttons. When it comes to earbuds, however, I don’t like the added pressure you get when you press the single multifunction button on the outside of the earpiece. So, I’m glad that the controls for the Ally Plus earbuds were touch controls. I was let down that there was no control for advance/rewind, but other than that, I didn’t have any issues controlling the earbuds.

FINAL THOUGHTS

The Ally Plus True Wireless Earbuds with ANC are a great find. They are everything I thought I would never find in a set of in-ear headphones. They do come in either white or black finish and retail for $199 (at the time of publishing this article). While that’s a bit pricier than some earbuds, it’s still less expensive than Apple AirPods Pro. I’ve been very impressed with the performance of these earbuds and wouldn’t hesitate to recommend them to others.

For more information, visit cleeraudio.com, Facebook, and Twitter.

Originally published at https://macsources.com on February 12, 2020.