GADGET GURU’S MAGIC BOX

Believe it or not (and you probably do) Guru is a miserly curmudgeon who would sooner sneer at the curve he’s behind than spend money to get ahead of it. He didn’t build his empire with investment – he built it through a combination of cheap tricks and asking nicely. Which is why he has an admission: until he’d convinced Amazon to send him a pair of second generation Echo Buds, he had not spent any significant time with ANC. Mrs Guru, not quite the pennypinching goblin that Guru is, has a set of AirPods Pros that Guru stole in order to compare these.

Let’s get the Amazon bit out of the way: there are Alexa features on board. Indeed, you set the Echo Buds up with the Alexa app. These functions work about as well as those of any other Alexa device, which is to say they vary between brilliant at one end of the scale, infuriatingly obtuse at the other, and flip the scale around as they see fit.

Rather than going into too much detail, here are the bits you really want to know: the passthrough mode is acceptable and non-robotic, though it does get a bit windy; the ANC is less reactive and strong than that of the AirPods Pro, coping well with loud fan noise but failing to neutralise a primary school playground; the fit is good and there are plenty of options in the box; the sound is... well.

Guru is not usually one to miss out on the chance to spew an opinion, but his judgement chunks are stuck in his throat here. These sound fine. If he was to force up just a little opinion, they’re light on bass and lack any distinct character – but they’re fine. For the money (£109 to you) these work, though they’re tussling with some serious contenders in the space. Time for Guru’s official verdict, then: if Guru had four ears he’d definitely choose two pairs of these over a single pair of AirPods Pro (£239) and two open ears. No, you’re confused.