A couple of months in the past, Ultimate Audio, a boutique Japanese model, despatched me its new, comparatively low-priced ZE3000 SV noise-canceling earbuds to check. I used to be curious: Would this be a hidden gem among the many dozens, even lots of, of finances headphone choices on the market? Whilst a full-time reviewer of those merchandise, I can not sustain with all of them.
So I did what I all the time do. I charged them up, then swapped out the default medium-size suggestions for the biggest set of included ear suggestions and hoped I might get a decent seal, which is essential for getting optimum sound high quality. If I can not get a decent seal, I am going to swap in a pair of my go-to suggestions from different earbuds manufacturers I’ve examined (Sennheiser and Bowers & Wilkins suggestions are a great match for my ears) and word that in my overview. On this case, Ultimate Audio’s largest suggestions labored properly. No difficulty there.
I ran via among the common tracks I exploit for evaluating headphones, an eclectic combine that features Spoon’s Knock Knock Knock, Athletes of God’s Do not Wanna Be Regular, Orbital’s Soiled Rat, Bjork’s Hole, Drake’s Passionfruit, Pixies’ Vault of Heaven, Florence and the Machine’s Choreomania, numerous Foo Fighters songs, plus some tracks from Automotive Seat Headrest’s The Students, CNET residence audio editor Ty Pendlebury’s favourite new album (it’s properly recorded).
The ZE3000 SV lacked just a few options, like sensors that pause your music while you take a bud out of your ears and resume taking part in while you put it again in. The noise-canceling and voice-calling efficiency weren’t top-tier. However the earbuds appeared well-tuned and pleasant-sounding, with a pure high quality to the sound, with good depth and bass punch. They have been additionally properly designed. Total, they appeared like a step up from many finances earbuds I’ve examined.
Then issues took an sudden flip. I seen that an internet earbuds sleuth had claimed that the ZE3000 SV weren’t distinctive and value greater than they need to. Some Reddit customers picked up on his put up and have been essential of Ultimate Audio. However have been the accusations actually true? And had the corporate truly achieved something improper?
As I dug deeper into this little thriller, I received a revealing glimpse backstage of how finances headphones are made and the way any given model can distinguish its low-cost fashions from these of rivals.
Under, I’ll fill you in on how firms make their finances earbuds and on the trade-offs concerned, from options to value to who does the precise work. I am going to additionally provide you with an in-depth comparability of designs from finances earbuds professionals Earfun and Soundpeats and my detailed, hands-on impressions of the Ultimate Audio ZE3000 SV and a lower-cost mannequin that on the floor shares some distinct similarities.
A frightening array of selections
As shoppers, we face dizzying selections with regards to audio merchandise. In-ear or over-ear. Wired or wi-fi. Excessive-end or entry-level. Headphones or transportable audio system. Usually we find yourself with a small assortment throughout some or all of these classes, some that we use day-after-day, others that sit in a drawer for lengthy stretches at a time. My colleague Katie Collins has written that everybody wants three several types of headphones, each serving a distinct function.
However that may add as much as a piece of spending, so we’re additionally all the time looking out for a cut price. First rate high quality with out breaking the financial institution.
In premium territory, there’s Apple, the dominant participant within the true-wireless earbuds market with its category-defining AirPods and Beats merchandise. In keeping with market researcher Canalys, within the first quarter of this 12 months, it held a 23% share of that market worldwide, and in North America, its share is greater than double that at “over 50%.” The AirPods Professional 2 and different higher-end noise-canceling earbuds from Bose, Sony and different big-name audio manufacturers begin at round $250 (checklist worth) and go all the best way as much as $400 or extra.
Lots of people cannot afford these costs, or possibly simply do not wish to spend that a lot on a tool that is fairly straightforward to lose. I’ve misplaced or broken solely a handful of earbuds in over 10 years of testing them, however my children positive are expert at misplacing or destroying them.
Whereas the variety of true-wireless earbuds shipped every year continues to develop — 331 million units in 2024, up 12% from the 12 months earlier than, in response to Canalys — Apple’s share has been drifting downward, with among the greatest development coming from non-established audio manufacturers, lots of them primarily based in China, that make “cost-effective” earbuds that are available in at half the value of AirPods or much less — typically a lot much less.
I can take a look at solely so many finances earbuds and headphones, so I are likely to preserve coming again to a handful of worth manufacturers that produce inexpensive merchandise that punch above their weight, so to talk. These embrace Earfun, Anker (Soundcore), Soundpeats and Baseus. I’ve additionally dabbled in QCY, Acefast, Oladance, Tranya, Tozo and Tribit, which I feel makes higher Bluetooth audio system than earbuds and headphones.
That is only a small fraction of the no-name audio manufacturers you will discover on Amazon, a few of them with nonsensical names like TSYUCXH, KZ ZSN and Rorsou. I’ve had just a few people counsel I strive the $29 Beribes headphones, which have accrued 45,000 consumer evaluations on Amazon and look eerily much like the Tozo HT2, which I’ve tried and which are not dangerous for round $35.
There isn’t any scarcity of finances earbuds confronting shoppers. That is only a small sampling.
Costs for finances headphones and earbuds have remained pretty regular, with solely slight will increase amid President Donald Trump’s shifting tariff threats. A few worth headphone firms I spoke with mentioned that if tariffs keep at their present ranges, they did not anticipate costs rising considerably on their fashions, which suggests revenue margins on finances buds could also be a bit higher than I assumed.
When you spend a bit time on this world — or an excessive amount of time, in my case — you begin to discover that quite a lot of the merchandise look and typically sound fairly related. There are AirPods clones with stems, and stemless “dot-style” buds just like the Ultimate Audio ZE3000 SV. You additionally encounter loads of “sports activities” fashions with ear hooks that mimic the ear-hook design of the Beats Powerbeats Professional and newer Powerbeats Professional 2. Sometimes, you will see near-exact copies of common earbuds just like the AirPods, however for essentially the most half, these so-called knockoffs merely — and typically reasonably blatantly — observe the design cues of common fashions.
Earbuds design: Off the shelf versus from the bottom up
Diving into finances earbuds waters generally is a murky expertise. Whereas low cost earbuds proceed to enhance, not all are created equal, and I nonetheless run into quite a lot of low-cost buds that sound fairly poor. By that, I imply they lack readability and definition, distort at mid to greater volumes, and have middling noise canceling and voice-calling efficiency.
That mentioned, it is changing into more and more straightforward to seek out finances fashions that meet the factors of being adequate and that supply a great match together with first rate sound high quality and total stable efficiency.
Some worth merchandise are developed from the bottom up (from scratch) by an organization’s personal staff of designers and engineers. However the actuality is that almost all of earbuds in the marketplace are primarily based on off-the-shelf designs or “pre-developed product packages” crafted by Chinese language factories.
Which means many earbuds you will discover on Amazon, whereas trying barely totally different, are primarily based on the identical “bundle.” The problem for me as a reviewer is making an attempt to discern what’s totally different about all these related fashions, particularly when the adjustments from technology to technology are incremental at greatest.
What I discover fascinating is that now even main audio manufacturers like Bose are doing their very own variations of pre-developed product packages, licensing out their designs and expertise to different manufacturers to assist recoup improvement prices.
Earlier this 12 months, Skullcandy launched its Methodology 360 ANC buds with Sound by Bose, which have been developed in collaboration with Bose and lean on the expertise and tuning that Bose developed for its personal earbuds. I described them as “$100 Bose earbuds in disguise” as a result of the buds themselves share a really related design aesthetic to Bose’s QuietComfort Extremely Earbuds, although their charging case resembles the one Skullcandy makes use of for its $60 Dime Evo earbuds.
“Sound by Bose permits us to convey our audio expertise to merchandise in markets, classes or worth factors the place we do not at present supply options,” says Nick Smith, president of audio expertise enterprise and chief technique officer at Bose.
We have additionally seen a proliferation of low cost earring-like clip-on buds. That occurred after Bose popularized this design with its $300 Extremely Open Earbuds and factories in China went into overdrive to create low cost knockoffs. Whereas clip-on earbuds first began showing in Asia a number of months (and even longer) earlier than the Extremely Open Earbuds have been launched, Bose not solely vastly improved upon the design and efficiency of early clip-on fashions, however it additionally did a bang-up job advertising them as a “completely new form of wearable machine.”
For the reason that clip-on open earbuds do not characteristic lively noise canceling and their open design compromises sound high quality, their efficiency bar is decrease, making it simpler for worth manufacturers to create compelling alternate options to the Bose buds for a lot much less.
As soon as new clip-on fashions upgraded their drivers and added their very own variations of Bose’s versatile hinge, enhancing their consolation degree, the hole narrowed considerably between Bose’s premium clip-on mannequin and people from far cheaper worth manufacturers. For instance, Baseus’ new MC1 Professional value round $65, and whereas they are not pretty much as good because the Bose, they are not that far behind and value approach much less.
“To offset acoustic limitations, rising distributors are collaborating with audio labs to optimize sound high quality, with some merchandise nearing conventional TWS [true-wireless stereo] requirements,” Cynthia Chen, analysis supervisor at Canalys (now a part of Omdia), mentioned in an announcement.
She famous that open earbuds are the fastest-growing phase of the true-wireless earbuds market and are accelerating the shift from purposeful audio units to value-driven, lifestyle-oriented merchandise. Open buds are “the place expertise meets vogue,” she mentioned.
Two common finances earbuds with related specs: What separates them?
Over time, I’ve develop into well-versed in Anker’s Soundcore buds (of which there are numerous) and Earfun’s choices, and awarded the EarFun Air Professional 4 an Editors’ Selection award in 2024 as a price standout. Most firms do not wish to delve too deeply into the main points of their product improvement. After I requested Anker’s PR rep about the way it developed its merchandise, he got here again with: “We respectfully decline to remark.”
Earfun, nevertheless, was extra forthcoming. Regardless of its merchandise trying like they could be primarily based on pre-developed product packages, Helen Shaw, the corporate’s advertising supervisor, tells me they are not and that EarFun creates “ground-up” merchandise primarily based on its authentic designs with customized molds, circuit boards and numerous elements.
“All EarFun merchandise are independently developed, with its personal R&D staff, and the core R&D staff has beforehand served the world’s first-line audio manufacturers, resembling Sony, JBL and Philips,” Shaw says.
“Self-developed mode” provides extra time to the event course of, and it sometimes takes a 12 months or extra to finish a product. For instance, she mentioned that its next-gen Air Professional 4 Plus can be accessible in September or October, a bit greater than a 12 months after the Air Professional 4 was launched in August 2024.
“That is comparatively uncommon among the many present cost-effective headphone manufacturers,” Shaw tells me. “Different manufacturers principally discover factories to straight OEM, change the emblem and alter the ID.”
(“OEM” is business jargon for firms that do the precise manufacturing of merchandise on behalf of the manufacturers that put their names on the ultimate merchandise.)
By doing so, they’ll save manpower and capital funding and may rapidly go to market (in six months as an alternative of a 12 months, as an illustration). However the drawback is that they do not tightly management the manufacturing course of. Consequently, there will be high quality management points, with imperfections creeping into the merchandise, which may result in efficiency issues; sound high quality can range from earbud to earbud though they’re the identical mannequin.
EarFun does not launch fairly as many earbuds as Anker does every year, and its priciest true-wireless earbuds, the Air Professional 4, checklist for $80 and often promote for nearer to $60. In distinction, Anker’s new-for-2025 Liberty 5 buds checklist for $130 and sometimes get discounted to $110 or rather less.
The Liberty 5 are a tad sleeker and extra premium-looking than the EarFun Air Professional 4 and have improved noise-canceling and voice-calling capabilities. Nevertheless it’s debatable which is the higher worth and a few individuals will inform you they just like the older Liberty 4 Professional, which has twin drivers and typically is on sale for lower than the Liberty 5.
As a reviewer, it will get even trickier when the specs of two fashions from competing manufacturers look practically equivalent.
Take for instance the new-for-2025 Soundpeats Air5 Professional. They’re powered by the identical Qualcomm chip discovered within the EarFun Air Professional 4, have the identical measurement drivers and value basically the identical. I used to be curious to listen to why every firm thought its product was higher, given their similarities.
EarFun’s Shaw was fast to level out that the Soundpeats Air5 Professional lacked just a few options that have been in its Air Professional 4 buds. These included ear-detection sensors, wi-fi charging, Google Quick Pair and Auracast, which lets you tune into audio broadcasts over Bluetooth, say from a TV at your gymnasium. She additionally mentioned that the EarFun staff spent practically half a 12 months “customizing the ear caps” and included 5 pairs of ear suggestions to assist guarantee a decent seal and comfy match for a wide range of ear sizes. (I actually agree that ear tip design is a essential, typically ignored component of earbuds design; I additionally worth ear-detection sensors.)
“For the lively noise canceling and sound-quality efficiency, each have the model’s tuning model and totally different outcomes,” she says. “It relies on the consumer’s desire.”
A Soundpeats consultant defended the corporate’s Air5 Professional, citing its potential benefits:
“At first look, the Soundpeats Air5 Professional and the EarFun Air Professional 4 seem very related. Each are powered by the Qualcomm QCC3091 chip, supply high-resolution audio assist, characteristic related driver sizes and can be found at comparable worth factors. Nonetheless, the real-world expertise can differ, and that is the place Soundpeats demonstrates a transparent benefit.”
She mentioned that the Air5 Professional provided as much as 55 decibels of “AI-powered” adaptive noise cancellation, in contrast with 50 decibels on the EarFun Air Professional 4. It additionally featured anti-wind noise expertise, which helped keep audio readability in out of doors settings. Mixed with the buds’ six-microphone setup and CVC 8.0 (Qualcomm’s Clear Voice Seize expertise with background noise discount), this added layer of noise management gave the Soundpeats “a slight edge in preserving each audio and name high quality in noisy environments.”
She additionally famous that from a consolation standpoint, the Air5 Professional have been lighter at 4.8 grams per earbud in comparison with 5.2 grams for the EarFun. Moreover, the Air5 Professional’s “ergonomic form and built-in triangle vent assist cut back in-ear stress, permitting for longer, extra comfy use.”
Personally, I might give the slight edge to the Earfun Air Professional 4 as a consequence of these additional options. Nonetheless, from a efficiency standpoint, they’re each at an analogous degree, with small variations separating them. That makes them difficult to judge, particularly when all people has totally different ears and audio tastes.
On-line drama and an earbuds origin story
Primarily based in Kawasaki Metropolis, Japan, Ultimate Audio is geared towards audiophiles and focuses on earphones and headphones that vary from its flagship $4,000 D8000 planar magnetic open-back headphones to these aforementioned entry-level ZE3000 SV buds which might be priced close to the highest of the “finances” vary at $100.
I am all the time looking out for under-the-radar merchandise that could be a great worth, and the ZE3000 SV appeared like they could be a great candidate primarily based on my expertise with earlier Ultimate Audio merchandise.
Judging from how they regarded, I used to be underneath the impression that the ZE3000 SV buds have been developed from the bottom up.
Curious to see precisely what their specs have been and whether or not there was any on-line buzz about them, I did a fast search and got here throughout an eyebrow-raising put up within the message boards at audiosciencereview.com entitled Reviewer Poorting finds that $100 ANC earbuds Ultimate ZE3000 SV is nearly the identical product as $33 Roseselsa Ceramics X. Poorting had revealed a video on BiliBili tearing down each earbuds and evaluating their elements.
Reality be instructed, I might by no means heard of the Roseselsa Ceramics X earbuds earlier than I noticed that put up evaluating them to Ultimate Audio’s ZE3000 SV buds, although it seems the Ceramics X have a small cadre of followers. (Be aware that they at present value $38 as an alternative of $33.)
“The Ceramics X was launched in March 2024 and the ZE3000 SV in December 2024,” wrote the message board poster, named Helias. “I suppose Ultimate discovered the identical OEM who made the Ceramics X and requested it to provide the ZE3000 SV with minimal modifications. Ultimate saved tons of R&D value right here, and is clearly having a higher revenue margin than Roseselsa. Nonetheless, when it comes to efficiency, I am afraid I do not see proof that the Ultimate presents way more than the Roseselsa.”
Hmmm, I assumed. I suppose the Ultimate Audio earbuds weren’t developed from the bottom up in any case. However I additionally wasn’t satisfied they have been precisely the identical product. I assumed there could be extra to the story, so I went to Amazon and acquired the Ceramics X, then dashed off an e-mail to the Ultimate Audio PR rep. I instructed her that I appreciated the ZE3000 SV however got here throughout a put up on-line claiming they have been the doppelganger for the less expensive Roseselsa buds.
“Are you able to ask somebody at Ultimate about it?” I inquired.
She mentioned the parents there weren’t conscious of the put up till I alerted them to it.
Because it seems, the put up was right. The ZE3000 SV, which have develop into laborious to seek out on-line (maybe as a result of Ultimate Audio has held again distribution after changing into conscious of the little on-line drama surrounding them), have been primarily based on a pre-developed product bundle. Nonetheless, the PR rep mentioned that whereas the ZE3000 SV and the Roseselsa Ceramics X share a typical base and seem visually related, there are vital variations.
The Ultimate Audio ZE3000 SV (left) and the Roseselsa Ceramics X.
“Roseselsa made solely minimal adjustments, restricted to tuning and end,” she says, “whereas Ultimate carried out extra substantial modifications in areas essential to sound and efficiency.”
She defined that with the fast development of true-wireless earbuds and the large surge in demand, many factories in China have been providing earbuds packages that included the molds, circuit boards and numerous elements. This setup benefited factories, as they might promote the identical bundle to a number of manufacturers and recoup improvement prices extra simply.
Factories gave manufacturers like Ultimate Audio two choices. They might use the bundle as is, slap their emblem on it and basically white-label it, or the model might spend money on customizing it by altering the mould, construction or inside elements.
The ZE3000 SV, which wasn’t designed to be “as complicated as Ultimate’s ground-up flagship fashions,” fell into the customized possibility class. The corporate opted for “a dependable base bundle” it had already examined after which made a number of customizations consistent with its sound and design philosophies.
For starters, Ultimate altered the look of the buds with an angled high and added its personal matte, pebbled end. On the within, it swapped in new drivers, redesigned the rear acoustic chamber and programmed the buds with its personal proprietary noise-canceling algorithm.
It additionally included its personal ear suggestions, which, as I’ve famous, are essential for a safe, comfy match and tight seal. Lastly, it developed a devoted companion app for the buds.
What it did not change was the principle circuit board, entrance acoustic chamber, system software program and the outside shell of the case.
Now that I had the Ceramics X, I used to be capable of examine the 2 fashions myself. With that matte, pebbled end and with Ultimate slicing off the highest of every bud to provide them a bit extra fascinating, angled look, the ZE3000 SV positively regarded a bit extra premium, although the Ceramics X design appeared simply positive to me, notably contemplating their low worth.
I seen some variations in sound high quality and noise-canceling efficiency. The Ultimate’s noise canceling was a tad superior — it did a barely higher job muffling the sound of an HVAC in my kitchen. And though the Ceramics X sounded spectacular for its low worth, the ZE3000 SV was barely smoother sounding with barely higher treble efficiency, barely extra pure sounding mids and a tad extra depth and openness. I discovered the ZE3000 SV’s tonal steadiness extra pleasing total, however the Ceramics X’s sound actually impressed me for the value.
So far as their companion apps go, each are sufficient, although not nice. The Ultimate Join app provided a seven-band equalizer to tweak the sound, whereas the Roseselsa RoseLink app had three preset EQs to select from: Pop, HiFi and Rock.
Each buds assist the AAC, SBC and LDAC audio codecs for Bluetooth streaming (Android units assist LDAC). In addition they supply Bluetooth multipoint pairing, permitting you to pair the buds with two units concurrently. Each even have a low-latency mode for gaming and video watching.
Ultimately, to my eyes and ears anyway, the Ultimate ZE3000 SV earbuds are a small step forward of the Ceramics X. You possibly can argue over whether or not Ultimate Audio’s customizations are price the additional $60 or so — many individuals would say in all probability not — however Ultimate had improved upon the bottom bundle. It did not need to spend as a lot to develop the product from the bottom up, however there have been nonetheless additional prices concerned.
Possibly prefab is not so dangerous
5 years in the past, the hole between premium and finances true-wireless earbuds was pretty extensive. Increased-end elements, notably with regards to drivers, built-in amplifiers, DACs (digital-to-analog converters) and chipsets influence sound high quality, total efficiency and have units.
Whereas Apple, Bose, Sony and different huge audio manufacturers proceed to supply high earbuds which might be well-designed and have not solely wonderful sound high quality but additionally superior noise canceling and voice-calling efficiency, you’ll find loads of earbuds choices between $40 and $100 which might be surprisingly first rate. The laborious half is discovering cheaper fashions that handle to rise above the remainder of the finances pack and stand out as under-the-radar gems — whether or not it is as a result of they provide an total robust mixture of match and efficiency, or whether or not they merely stand out for his or her sound high quality.
Funds earbuds are sometimes made in the identical Chinese language factories that manufacture earbuds from first-line audio manufacturers, and a few lower-end fashions from these recognized manufacturers probably share among the identical off-the-shelf elements present in no-name, worth earbuds.
Since I check nearly all of earbuds for only some weeks at a time (although a few of my favourite fashions I proceed to put on extra usually), it is all the time laborious to inform how dependable and sturdy a few of these cheaper earbuds are and whether or not they’ll actually maintain up over time. Alas, with nearly no matter earbuds you employ, their battery life degrades over time, and ultimately the buds have to get replaced (since you’ll be able to’t swap in new batteries), typically sooner reasonably than later, particularly if you happen to put on them for a number of hours a day, as quite a lot of AirPods customers do.
There is a tendency to look down on merchandise that have not been designed from the bottom up, even within the land of earbuds the place lookalikes are widespread, whether or not they’re self-developed or not. However my travels via this world have taught me that there is extra nuance and variation to product improvement than I assumed.
In some methods, what Ultimate Audio did with the ZE3000 is much like what I did after I added a two-car storage to our home just a few years in the past. To avoid wasting cash, I checked out some prefab designs at a spot that offered prefab sheds and garages. I might take one of many commonplace fashions — there have been 4 or 5 kinds to select from — or I might pay extra to customise the design, including dormers for the second flooring and upgrading the home windows and among the development supplies.
I opted to customise it — it value about 25% extra — however it ended up trying considerably higher whereas nonetheless costing a lot lower than constructing a construction from scratch. It additionally went up remarkably rapidly, as a small crew of Amish males from Lancaster, Pennsylvania, erected it in two days.
Should you noticed it, you won’t even suppose it was primarily based on a pre-developed product bundle.
Visible Designer | Zooey Liao
Artwork Director | Jeff Hazelwood
Inventive Director | Viva Tung
Video | Numi Prasarn
Video Editor | JD Christison
Undertaking Supervisor | Danielle Ramirez
Editor | Corinne Reichert
Director of Content material | Jonathan Skillings
