Test 3 Sound

Audio quality versus noise pollution

Tonally, the AirPods sound very clear and well balanced for open-air earphones; the drawback is they do virtually nothing to isolate external noise. The story’s the reverse with the Bragi: their passive noise cancellation is impressive, but the audio quality is less so – instrumental music sounds particularly muddy and the bass can be overpowering. The Jabra on the other hand hit the audio quality/noise-cancelling sweet spot; music and spoken word sounds decent across the board, with clearer lows thanks to the buds’ isolating seal. The Bose buds are too ‘open’ to provide any real isolation and the volume level feels capped, but the buds offer decent sound in the low and mid range, albeit with a touch of harshness in the treble. Generally, the KEF sound excellent, especially for earbuds – and keep external noise at bay pretty well too.