SOUNDPEATS just lobbed a grenade into the wireless IEM market with the Air5 Pro+, a $129 pair of buds packing tech the big brands keep insisting you should pay triple for. We’re talking a hybrid xMEMS + dynamic driver system—a configuration you’d normally expect from companies with $299–$399 price tags and AI Adaptive ANC rated up to 55 dB, and every major hi-res Bluetooth codec—aptX Adaptive (96kHz/24-bit), aptX Lossless (true 44.1kHz/16-bit), Sony’s LDAC, and the newer LC3 codec—options you simply won’t find offered together on any flagship models from Apple, Sony, Bose, Sennheiser, or Bowers & Wilkins.
This is SOUNDPEATS stepping out of the budget kiddie pool and telling the rest of the industry that it can be done. Cleaner detail, stronger noise reduction, real high-resolution wireless, and a lightweight daily-carry design make the Air5 Pro+ feel less like a value play and more like a middle finger aimed at anyone charging $300+ for less technology.
But did they actually stick the landing?
Plenty of brands have played the “everything and the kitchen sink” game before, only to trip over their own hype and faceplant in spectacular fashion. SOUNDPEATS is swinging way above their usual weight here, so the real question is whether the Air5 Pro+ delivers or just looks good on paper.
Unboxing: What $129 Gets You Today
SOUNDPEATS ships the Air5 Pro+ in surprisingly robust packaging, complete with a quasi–watch box layout that feels a touch fancier than the price suggests. One compartment houses the earbuds and charging case, while the other tucks away the paperwork, the somewhat short USB-C cable, and the three pairs of S/M/L ear tips. Inside you get exactly what you need and nothing you don’t. The earbuds weigh 5g each, with the full kit coming in at 51.1g, staying impressively light given the tech stuffed inside.
The Air5 Pro+ come pre-charged out of the box, which is always appreciated—especially when the earbuds themselves only need 1 hour to top off and the charging case takes 2 hours. Battery life is rated at 6 hours per charge (with ANC off) and up to 30 hours total with the case. A quick 10-minute top-up gets you 2 hours of playtime, which is perfect for those “I forgot to charge these… again” mornings.
In my case, I left the charging case plugged into my iMac for the full two hours before taking them out for a brisk 5 a.m. walk—right before my scheduled colonoscopy. And they say men can’t multitask.
The earbuds measure 34.6 × 19.87 × 23.50 mm (1.36″ × 0.78″ × 0.93″), while the charging case comes in at a compact 66.88 × 48.33 × 26.92 mm (2.63″ × 1.90″ × 1.06″). In other words, it’s small enough to disappear in a pocket without feeling like you’re hauling around a travel bar of Irish Spring.
The case is rated IPX5 water-resistant, which covers rain, sweat, and anything short of you deciding to go for a swim with them. You also get an LED charging indicator, though the case design means you’ll only see it clearly when the case is flipped due to the placement of the port. It’s functional, just mildly unintuitive—par for the budget-course.
Qualcomm-Powered Hi-Res Audio with LDAC and aptX Lossless
The Air5 Pro+ is built on Qualcomm’s QCC3091 Bluetooth SoC paired with the S3 Sound Platform, a combo that shoves wireless audio miles past what you normally get in the budget lane. This hardware unlocks every major hi-res Bluetooth codec—aptX Adaptive (up to 96kHz/24-bit), aptX Lossless (true 44.1kHz/16-bit CD quality), Sony LDAC for maximum detail, and the newer LC3 codec for low-latency, power-efficient streaming.
And yes, I tested everything except aptX Lossless using an older iPhone 11, my iPhone 15, the iPhone 17, my iMac, my daughter’s HP laptop, plus the Questyle QCC Pro and Sennheiser BTD 700 Bluetooth dongles. If there was a way to make these earbuds stumble, I gave it a shot. They didn’t. Until I have a source that actually supports aptX Lossless, LDAC is as far as I can push them.
H3: xMEMS Meets Dynamic Drive — SOUNDPEATS’ Most Serious Hardware Layout Yet
SOUNDPEATS is clearly building on the momentum of the Capsule3 Pro+ because the Air5 Pro+ takes that same hybrid-driver blueprint and evolves it. The centerpiece is the xMEMS “Cowell” driver, powered by a custom XAA-2000 Aptos Class-H amplifier. Machined from a single piece of silicon, Cowell handles the mids and highs in a true 2-way configuration. On paper, this setup should deliver faster transients, lower distortion, and cleaner upper-range detail—at least, that’s the engineering goal.
In simple terms, it’s a miniature silicon tweeter tucked into a $129 earbud, and SOUNDPEATS is aiming for the kind of precision typically associated with more expensive designs.
Low-end duties fall to a 10mm dynamic driver using a dual copper voice coil and a PU+PEEK composite diaphragm. Again, the intent here is clear: stronger extension, tighter control, and bass that stays in its lane rather than smothering the mids. Whether it succeeds is something the listening impressions will answer later, but the technical layout is sound.
The earpieces stick with the familiar AirPods-style shape many people love. I’m not in that group—earbuds and IEMs still irritate me from a comfort standpoint—but the Air5 Pro+ are generally comfortable, lightweight, and the black/rose gold/silver finish gives them a more upscale look than the price would suggest.
H3: Hybrid ANC and AI Noise Control — Up to 55dB of Silence on Paper
The Air5 Pro+ uses a hybrid ANC system built around feedforward and feedback microphones, with SOUNDPEATS rating it at up to 55dB of noise suppression. The earbuds also include AI Adaptive ANC, a 6-mic array, AI call noise cancellation, and cVc 8.0 wind-noise reduction. According to SOUNDPEATS, the system can detect about 95% of environmental noise with less than 3% attenuation error, adjusting in real time as your surroundings change.
Specs are great, but the real question is whether it actually works. I tested ANC in a handful of scenarios, including a 5 a.m. walk through my quiet neighborhood—the kind of walk where you stay alert because it’s dark, there are cars that don’t see you coming, early joggers, dog walkers, and the occasional person who’s awake for the wrong reasons.
On the plus side, the ANC doesn’t do that thing some wireless earbuds love to do—choke the music in the name of noise reduction. I’ve dealt with models in the past that turn your playlist into a soft-focus painting the moment ANC kicks in, the classic audiophile “cheesecloth effect.”
I didn’t run into that here. Clarity and detail held up better than I expected, and ANC itself didn’t smear the music, which is exactly how it should be. Transparency mode is a different story—there’s a slight hit to clarity, and depending on which Adaptive ANC sub-mode you’re using, you may notice a touch of softness creeping in. It’s not disastrous, but it’s there, and it’s worth calling out.
At the gym, ANC handled the background music and the clang of dropped weights well enough to keep things focused, but I could still hear people talking within about 10 feet. Personally, I prefer that level of situational awareness—call it a “don’t get blindsided by the guy doing walking lunges” setting. Some people want total sensory deprivation from their earbuds. These don’t go that far, and honestly, that’s not a bad thing depending on where and how you use them.
My local coffee shop felt like a ghost town in the post-Thanksgiving lull, which actually made it a decent place to sit, write, and see how the ANC handled the usual café soundtrack—chatter, grinders, espresso shots, and whatever questionable playlist they insist on subjecting customers to.
Results were a mixed bag. The Air5 Pro+ did a respectable job knocking down the background music, which, given their taste, might be the best feature of the whole system. Machine noise, though—the grinders and the espresso pulls—still made it through. Definitely reduced, but still noticeable. I also caught myself bumping the volume higher than I normally would, which isn’t typical for me and says more about the noise profile of the room than the earbuds themselves.
The Noise Reduction menu gives you Adaptive, Indoor, Outdoor, and Traffic modes. In practice? Standing under the loud heating duct in my home office, I heard almost no difference between them. All four modes crushed that vent noise so effectively it was borderline eerie—like the HVAC system simply ceased to exist. Normal mode wasn’t bad either; it softened the noise without going overboard.
Transparency mode, however, was another story. It elevated that exact vent frequency in a way that instantly annoyed me, and that reaction didn’t change no matter where I tested it. If you need to hear coworkers, family members, or whoever’s trying to interrupt your focus, it works. But the way it highlights certain noises feels more like a flaw than a feature.
Multi-Device Connectivity
Bluetooth multipoint on the Air5 Pro+ works as advertised. I tested it moving from music to a Zoom call on my iMac, then to a phone call from my BFF in Toronto, and later switching from Qobuz to watching a video obituary for Steve “The Colonel” Cropper, who sadly passed this week. The earbuds handled each transition cleanly without me having to dig through menus or re-pair devices. Nothing fancy—just reliable device switching, which is all most people actually need.
Touch Controls & SOUNDPEATS App: The Good, The Bad, The Usable
The PeatsAudio app (iOS/Android) gives the Air5 Pro+ a level of customization you don’t always see in the $129 bracket. You get adaptive EQ that measures your hearing, a 10-band manual EQ, an LDAC toggle, touch-control remapping, and even selectable voice-guide languages. Firmware updates roll in through the app to keep things stable, and the on-ear controls themselves are straightforward—and fully disable-able if you’d rather avoid accidental taps.
There was already a firmware update waiting during my review, which is always a good sign that SOUNDPEATS is actually maintaining the platform. The app also includes a fit test to make sure the earbuds are properly sealed—helpful for reducing leakage and getting the bass to behave.
Touch controls let you raise or lower volume, play/pause, answer or end calls, and toggle ANC. Because I’ll choose a pair of full-size headphones over wired IEMs or wireless earbuds 99% of the time, the Air5 Pro+ had its work cut out for it. But I’ll admit it—it’s slowly making a believer out of me. What I’m still not buying into is the whole touch-sensor ecosystem. And to be clear, that’s not a SOUNDPEATS issue—that’s an all wireless earbuds issue.
My hands are precision instruments… just not when it comes to tiny touch pads on earbuds. I’m skilled with my hands in different ways, none of which involve remembering triple-tap versus long-press sequences on something the size of a Chiclet. If I’m already on my smartphone or iMac choosing music, I’ll just use the app and keep things civilized.
The manual 10-band EQ works, but the adjustments feel a little coarse. You can shape the sound, just don’t expect surgical precision. Voice guides are available in English, German, and Chinese, which covers the essentials.
I also appreciate the Find Earbuds feature, even if it’s not going to draw you a treasure map. Instead, it triggers a ringing sound from the earbuds—simple, but effective enough when they’ve vanished into a couch, a coat pocket, or the black hole between car seats.
And then there’s the Adaptive EQ, which SOUNDPEATS describes as a “scientific assessment of your auditory abilities” followed by “intelligent compensation.” In practice, I ran the test four times and ended up with three different results. Only one of those profiles actually worked for me sonically. I’m 55, so yes—the top end above 4 kHz needs a little friendly encouragement. When the Adaptive EQ nails it, the profile is usable and consistent. When it misses, it misses hard. So, does it work? Most of the time.
Beyond that, you get 12 presets: Default, Classical Music, Rock & Roll, Folk, Book Whisper, HiFi, ACG, Electronic, Pop, Treble Enhancement, Bass Reduction, and Bass Boost. I generally stuck with Default, Rock & Roll, and my one good saved profile from the Adaptive EQ. The rest were more “interesting experiments” than settings I’d actually keep on.
Listening
Nothing says commitment to the craft like taking a pair of wireless earbuds under review to an endoscopy and colonoscopy. Yes, really. 2025 has been a year, and we’re just going to leave it at that. I wasn’t about to schlep a full-size pair of wireless headphones into the medical gauntlet, so earbuds it was. The nerves were already doing their thing—living a long time requires a little maintenance, after all—and after wrestling with the app to get a proper seal (helpful andfrustrating), I fired up a few playlists on Qobuz and TIDAL and settled in.
Back to the listening part. Given the location, “Master of Puppets” was not going to be on the menu—no need to alarm medical staff before sunrise—so I settled into something more appropriate: Nick Cave, Talking Heads, Sia, Boards of Canada, and Paul Motian. I kept the volume at a respectable level because I wasn’t trying to turn the pre-op area into an impromptu listening room or explain to a nurse why a 55-year-old man is blasting experimental electronic music at 6 a.m.
Bass heads won’t fall in love with these, but the sub-bass and mid-bass do have real punch. Could the definition be better? Sure. Are they going to rattle your teeth and skull? No—and nobody who loves music or their hearing should want that anyway. Bass notes hit quickly and with decent impact, though I did notice some loss of definition across the range. Still, Sia and Boards of Canada didn’t come across thin, or overly hollow, which is usually where budget earbuds start embarrassing themselves.
Moving up the spectrum, I actually liked how the Air5 Pro+ handled Nick Cave’s “Avalanche.” The lowest piano notes carried enough weight to feel grounded—not in the same league as the Bowers & Wilkins Px8 S2 or Sennheiser HDB 630 wireless headphones I just reviewed, but for $129, it’s hard to complain. The EQ profile I finally settled on certainly helped.
Cave’s vocals, meanwhile, lacked a bit of the fullness and grit they should have, but given the size of the driver doing the heavy lifting, the result lands squarely in the “pretty, pretty good” category.
Switching over to Paul Motian’s “I Have The Room Above Her” — the opening horn (Joe Lovano on saxophone), Bill Frisell’s unmistakable guitar work, and Motian’s delicate drumming — this is the kind of track that usually exposes an entry-level wireless earbud as a pretender. The Air5 Pro+ didn’t fold. Not even close.
The top end from that silicon xMEMS driver delivered clean shimmer, real air, and solid detail without ever getting sharp or brittle. Even more surprising, and I’m comfortable putting this on the xMEMS driver — the earbuds produced a surprisingly wide soundstage for a closed, budget-friendly wireless design. No, it’s not going to compete with high-end open-backs, but for what this product is, the spatial presentation was legitimately impressive.
Yes, the recording itself is superb, but that doesn’t automatically translate on cheap gear. The fact that the Air5 Pro+ handled it this well says a lot about the underlying design.
Now for some of the negatives. I’m still not a fan of most of the EQ profiles outside the handful I already mentioned. Too many of them push the sound too far in one direction or another; either boosted for the sake of being boosted, or trimmed back to the point of feeling flat.
Green Day and Smashing Pumpkins were good, but not great. The bass impact needed to be tighter, and there was some missing body and texture in Mike Dirnt’s bass lines. Vocals, at least, weren’t shoved awkwardly forward, which was absolutely the right call for these mixes — but the overall tonal balance still feels like it’s searching for its identity.
Is it rich-sounding? Not really.
Is it bright? Also no.
It sits somewhere comfortably neutral-adjacent, but with certain tracks you can tell the tuning is playing it safe rather than leaning into a more confident signature.
The Bottom Line
The SOUNDPEATS Air5 Pro+ is not another budget earbud padded with marketing fluff. It is a forward thinking design built around real engineering that matters. The silicon based xMEMS Cowell driver is the highlight and it earns that spotlight. Because it is machined from a single piece of silicon it delivers speed, very low distortion, and upper range clarity that tiny dynamic drivers simply cannot match. That is why the Air5 Pro+ sounds more open and more spacious than any closed back wireless earbud at this price has any right to. At $129 USD this level of width and separation should not be possible and yet it is.
ANC performance is also strong. It is not class leading and the obvious giants in the category will still do better, but the Air5 Pro+ is clearly superior to anything I have heard under 200 dollars. It diminishes HVAC noise, commuter rumble, and gym clang without crushing the music. Transparency mode still needs refinement but the core ANC system is more than capable.
Build quality is solid, the case is compact and comfortable to pocket, and multipoint works without drama. The app provides real utility with EQ options, firmware support, and feature control. Some EQ presets are uneven and the adaptive EQ can be inconsistent, but once you find a profile that works the results are reliable. Support for LDAC, aptX Adaptive, aptX Lossless readiness, and the LC3 codec makes this one of the most forward looking wireless earbud designs in its class.
Who are these for. Anyone who wants real high resolution wireless audio, better than expected noise reduction, and a modern feature set without paying premium brand prices. These are not designed for bass heads and they do not chase a rich or gooey audiophile signature. They aim for clarity, openness, and balance and they mostly deliver exactly that.
Would I buy them. Yes. The value is extremely high, the engineering choices make sense, and the Air5 Pro+ delivers exactly what SOUNDPEATS claims. If your budget falls below $150, these are money very well spent.
Pros:
- Excellent use of the xMEMS driver with real clarity speed and upper range detail
- Wider and more open soundstage than expected from a closed wireless design
- Solid ANC performance and clearly better than most products under 200 dollars
- Strong codec support including LDAC aptX Adaptive and readiness for aptX Lossless
- Compact charging case that is comfortable to pocket and light during activity
- Reliable multipoint that handles switching without fuss
- App support with manual EQ adaptive EQ fit test and firmware updates
- Good build quality and finish that feels more premium than the price suggests
- Balanced tuning that avoids glare and harshness
Cons:
- Most EQ presets are not very useful and some can be extreme
- Adaptive EQ can produce inconsistent results from test to test
- Transparency mode raises certain frequencies in a distracting way
- Bass impact could be tighter with more definition
- Vocals and lower mids lack some body compared to more expensive models
- Touch controls work but are still less convenient than using the phone or app
- ANC is good but not in the same league as category leaders from Sony or Bos
Where to buy:
Related Reading:
- Noble FoKus Amadeus Review: Custom-Grade Wireless Earbuds At A Factory Price
- SOUNDPEATS Air5 Pro+ Launch: XMEMS Drivers, AI ANC, And Lossless Bluetooth For Under $130
- SOUNDPEATS H3 Wireless ANC Earbuds Support LDAC And AptX Lossless For $129, No Champagne Budget Required
- AirPods Pro 3 Review: Better Features, Worse Sound — Apple’s Backward Step In Audio
