EarFun Wave Pro headphones review

For all the press some flagship headphones get, they aren’t perfect. For example while these will cost you a mint, they only deliver about 20 hours of battery.  What if I told you a more comfortable but less popular pair could deliver an astonishing 80 hours of battery life and barely set you back the same price as a nice dinner for two?  With all the different prices and brands out there, picking the right headphones can be a real headache. And if you’re not careful, you can spend over a half a grand for high-end headphones with all the bells and whistles. But if you’re just looking for comfortable headphones that can quiet down your surroundings with Active Noise Cancellation plus decent sound quality, you may not even have to break the $100 mark. It’s all about hitting that sweet spot between the features you want with the price you’re needing to pay. This is where the Earfun Wave Pro comes in. It’s a sub-$100 pair of headphones that tries hard to nail all the basics.  In this hands-on review, I’ll try them out and see what they’re like in terms of fit and comfort, how they sound and how effective the noise cancelling is. I’ll wrap things up by tallying the pros and cons and letting you know if I think I can recommend these headphones for you.

What you get

Despite the lower price tag, EarFun is not scrimping on what it packed into the box. Inside a soft gray hard shell travel case or the Earfun Wave Pro over-ear headphones, as well as both an auxiliary audio cable and a USB-C charging cable.

Set up

The first time you power on the headphones they should already be in pairing mode. You can just open your phone or devices Bluetooth menu and tap to connect. This worked immediately for me. If you need to repair after that, you’ll need to delete them from your Bluetooth menu and then power them fully off and back on again to put them back into pairing mode. This didn’t work very well for me when I tried it, but after a couple of attempts I was able to get them connected to a new device.

Watch the EarFun Wave pro headphones review on YouTube

How I review

Anytime I review a pair of headphones I usually like to spend a week or so simply wearing them throughout my daily life; I’ll wear them well editing videos on my laptop, while taking phone or zoom calls, and then maybe chill out with some music. I will also test a wide variety of different audio on the headphones for dedicated listening; things like pop, jazz, rock, as well as podcasts too. From there I’ve usually got a pretty good sense of whether I like them and whether I think others like them as well… Or at least what the potential holdbacks may be for some consumers.

In this case I spent three weeks with the EarFun Wave Pro, and did about 15 hours of listening to evaluate them.

Design and Comfort

First things first, the Earfun Wave Pro is designed with a combination comfort in mind and when it comes to the style, the company is clearly trying to keep its head down. You won’t find any flash here, but these are professional if plain looking, but at the same time they don’t seem cheap either in looks or feel. They fold up for travel.

Wave Pro’s body is fabricated from a hard, matte plastic. EarFun Wave Pro focuses on comfort above all. The clamping power of the ear cups and the ultra soft foam feels like a gentle hug around your ears while the lightweight construction makes it easy to wear for hours on end. The earcups have plenty of soft padding and a narrow band of cushinoing at the top may seem incomplete, but the truth is I found it was perfectly fit to pad the headband. Subtle logo-ing on the earcups is probably unnecessary but it’s not annoying.

I’m like another recent pair of over ear headphones I reviewed the ear cups are large and roomy and don’t feel like they’re compressing my ears.

Buttons and Controls

On the bottom right ear cup are three buttons; there’s power, volume up and down, and the button to turn the noise cancellation on or off. There’s also the connection for the auxiliary jack. The USB-C power port lives on the bottom left ear.

EarFun Audio app

You can download the EarFun audio app for a more enhanced experience. Inside the app you can adjust EQ levels, and configure multiple device connections and firmware updates, as well as view detailed battery life. The app is delightfully uncluttered and very user friendly.

Sound Quality

Let’s get right to the meat of this sandwich and that’s how they sound.

Don’t get me wrong: these earbuds won’t replace a high-end, over-the-ear headphone set for that thousand dollar vinyl turntable setup you’ve lovingly crafted. But they easily hold their own against other competitors in their price range, and might even leave some higher priced options sitting awkwardly in the corner.

I was actually surprised at how good they sounded. I’ve been quite surprised lately by how good many budget audio solutions are these days. I think as the technology is improving year over year, the cost is coming down, making great sound quality more I reach even for budget shoppers and brands.

I listened to everything from pop and rock to jazz and orchestral. I got real summertime vibes from Will Smith on Summertime and really noticed how multi-layered that song is. Massive Attack’s Unfinished Symphony was resonant and tingly at the same time, while Chromeo’s Personal Effects set the tone for a dizzying dancy singalong (Hair ties? Not mine!) The staticky low-fi details in Cypress Hill’s No Entiendes la Onda and Ana Tijoux’s 1977 were also pleasant old school throwbacks.

The LDAC Bluetooth codec means you can listen to high-fidelity music even on bluetooth. This lets the Wave Pros pack a mean bass, sturdy and booming, without going overboard and midtones that offer clarity that makes vocals shine and guitars sing even when used wirelessly. As for the high notes, they come out impressively crisp and clear, but without sounding shrill or tinny.

Active Noise Cancellation

Let’s not forget about the Active Noise Cancellation feature! It’s not going to turn a busy street into a quiet personal library but it does a commendable job of drowning out ambient noise like wind and the drone of an air conditioner. I test out active noise cancellation with no music playing, since that way it’s easier to tell if background noise is actually bleeding in.

There are three levels of ANC; there’s Normal, Ambient, which lets outside sound in so you can hear a doorbell or a flight, and then ANC which is meant to drown out almost everything. You can choose your level by pushing the ANC button on the headphones, or make your selection inside the app.

While I did find ambient mode made the whole world sound kind of tinny and was like shouting into an apple juice can, the ANC did a pretty decent job at cancelling out annoying ambient noise. I’d give these about an 8.5 out of 10 on their ability to create a cone of silence. That was until I found the setting in the app that lets you take ANC to another level. Called Strong ANC, this setting DID let me block out about 95% of all noise.  Impressive.

Battery Life

It seems odd I’m only now getting to the crown jewel of the EarFun Wave’s spec sheet; the astounding battery life.

Earfun Wave Pro brings some serious longevity to the table by claiming 80 hours of battery life with the ANC turned off, which is a massive leap from those flagship-level headphones that cost five times as much. With the ANC on, however, the Earfun says that it can still play music for up to 55 hours non-stop. And if you run out of juice mid-flight or in the middle of the workday, you can easily top up the battery for 10 minutes and get 10 hours of playtime.

Auto shut off

Helpfully these headphones will power down after about 10 minutes not being used.

In short, the longevity alone would be reason to click Buy Now on these headphones, but EarFun has still given you more reasons to be impressed.

What are the alternatives?

I did initially mention Apple AirPods Pro, since these are a very expensive and high end pair of over ear headphones. I did have a chance to try them and well I can’t disagree that they are pretty spectacular, in the end I did not find they were worth the very steep cost. I’ve also reviewed very similar options from Bose and even another budget pair of OneOdio cans too. I think all of these are fairly worthy choices which you can dig into and compare in my hands-on personal reviews. On its own merits though, I think the ear fun wave pro is an excellent choice and a potential sleeper hit of the over ear headphones market.

Final Verdict

The Earfun Wave Pro isn’t about rewriting the book on audio technology or breaking the bank. Instead, it’s like your go-to diner – it might not have Michelin stars, but it’s comforting, reliable, and leaves you feeling pretty darn satisfied without emptying your wallet.

Let’s line up the pros and cons.

On the pro side, these are affordable, comfortable, and the design won’t offend. The app gives you plenty of customization options, and the sound quality is surprisingly great. The battery life, plus fast charging is the cherry on the sundae.

When it comes to the potential downsides, it’s actually pretty hard to find a lot to crack on. I suppose the design could be a little more or less flashy depending on your personal taste but since these headphones check pretty much every box for me, I’m not going to spend too much time trying to nitpick. You could probably also find headphones that do have sound quality that might be more finally tuned, but unless you’re an extreme audio file I wouldn’t worry about it. In short I’ve been quite impressed with the EarFun Wave Pro over ear noise cancelling headphones and I don’t have any concerns about recommending them to you. They sell for about $79USD and you can get them from EarFun’s website or amazon.

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