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Thanks to Dolby Atmos and products like Apple’s AirPods Pro, spatial audio is becoming a major player when it comes to headphones and earbuds. The1MORE Aero True Wireless Earbudsrepresent this company’s attempt at bringing spatial audio to the masses at an affordable price.
Spatial audio aims at making it sound like the music you’re listening to is coming from all around you. Combined with head tracking, another feature of the 1MORE Aero, it can sound like you’re listening to music coming from speakers rather than earbuds.
Whether spatial audio will take off the way the companies pushing it want it to remains to be seen, so was it worth it for 1MORE to gamble on spatial audio? It’s an interesting experiment, but the Aero earbuds don’t reach the same highs as the company’s flagshipEVO True Wireless Earbuds.
Design and Fit
Whereas the 1MORE EVO earbuds went for a unique look, the Aero clearly took some design inspiration from elsewhere in its product line. The long stems are similar to1MORE’s ComfoBuds, which in turn seem to have taken some inspiration from Apple’s AirPods.
We’re looking at the1MORE Aero in white, but they’re also available inblack. Either way, both the earbuds and the charging case use a matte finish rather than a glossy one. This looks nice and also makes the case and earbuds a little easier to hold onto.
Related:Apple AirPods Pro (2nd Gen) Review: The Best Earbuds for Apple Fans
1MORE includes four sets of silicone ear tips in small, medium, large, and extra large sizes. Finding the right tips for you is important, as not only will this affect the comfort, but also the sound quality.
You don’t need to worry about taking the 1MORE Aero on a run in the rain, as they boast anIPX5 waterproof rating. That said, you may want to be slightly more careful with the case, as it appears that only the earbuds are weather resistant, not the case.
Speaking of the case, it’s both larger and lighter than theApple AirPods Procase. This isn’t a pro or a con, but it’s worth mentioning that the case doesn’t feel flimsy at all.
Controls and the 1MORE Music App
The controls are relatively simple. A double tap on either earbud works similarly to a multifunction button, letting you pause and resume playback or answer calls. A triple tap activates your phone’s voice assistant, while pressing and holding cycles through noise cancellation and transparency modes.
For anything else, you’ll need to turn to the 1MORE Music app, available for bothiPhoneandAndroiddevices. Here you’re able to fine-tune your noise cancellation options, as we’ll look at more later on. This is also where you can enablespatial audio, update your firmware, or adjust your EQ settings.
There are two EQ options: a custom EQ, and 12 preset EQ packs, courtesy of Sonarworks. The presets cover a few music genres like Hip-Hop, Pop, Classical, and Electronic. You also get a few utility options like a vocal booster and a specialized EQ curve for podcasts.
Finally, this is where you’ll find the Smart Loudness feature. Somewhat like the “Loudness” button on stereos, this aims to make music at low volumes sound more like it does when you’ve got the volume cranked.
Sound Quality
Connectivity is fairly standard, as the 1MORE Aero earbuds use Bluetooth 5.2 with either the AAC or SBC codecs, depending on what device you’re using for playback. It would have been nice to see higher-quality codecs like LDAC or aptX, but presumably, 1MORE opted to focus on spatial audio instead.
I was initially a skeptic when it came to spatial audio, but my time reviewing the second-generation Apple AirPods Pro won me over. Depending on the mix, spatial audio can sound great. That said, the spatial audio on the 1MORE Aero is a far cry from the AirPods Pro.
I’m not sure whatDigital Signal Processing (DSP)trickery Apple is using for its spatial audio, but it sounds far more natural than the 1MORE Aero. Most tracks I listened to with Spatial Audio enabled in the 1MORE Music app sounded slightly wider, but boomier and with an unnatural reverb.
Unlike the AirPods Pro, head tracking is automatically enabled when you turn on spatial audio. If you’re like me, this is a minor annoyance, but if you always use head tracking with spatial audio on other earbuds, it’s nice not to have to toggle two options.
Related:What Is Digital Signal Processing (DSP)?
Turning to the overall sound, the midrange is slightly rawer sounding than the 1MORE EVO, but considering the price difference, the sound is fairly good. That said, it’s clear that these are tuned differently than those earbuds, likely to make spatial audio sound better.
PJ Harvey’s “Down By The Water” is carried by the bass line, and the 1MORE Aero covers this low-end well. Enabling the Spatial Audio setting, I noticed almost no sonic difference, except that head tracking was suddenly enabled. This is a great example of a track that works perfectly with spatial audio.
I then turned to Crosby, Stills, and Nash’s “Pre-Road Downs,” a song makes use of aggressive panning, with many elements to the left and right. The 1MORE Aero show this off without shoving it into mono or showcasing too much separation. Spatial audio makes the bass sound slightly boomier, but leaves the stereo field uncluttered.
To test the treble, I turned to Gang Of Four’s “Damaged Goods.” The percussive guitar stabs can be harsh on many headphones, but they’re tamed well by the 1MORE Aero. This remained the case when I enabled Spatial Audio in the 1MORE Music app, but I did notice extra reverb after ticking the option.
Noise Cancellation and Voice
1MORE claims the Aero feature up to 42dB ofactive noise cancellation (ANC), which should be enough to easily drown out nearby conversation. Sure enough, turning noise cancellation up to the max drowned out conversation as well as a relatively loud TV nearby.
You can also choose how much noise you want to cancel out. In the 1MORE Music app, you can pick from Strong, Mild, WNR (for wind noise), and Adaptive. While the Adaptive mode is supposed to adjust itself to your surroundings, I often left the noise cancellation set at Strong.
Similar to most true wireless earbuds with noise cancellation these days, the 1MORE Aero also features aTransparent mode. This works better than I’ve seen in some products, but as is regularly the case, it doesn’t come close to touching the Transparency mode on Apple’s AirPods Pro. I never forgot that I was wearing the 1MORE Aero, even with Transparent mode on.
The voice quality is about what you’d expect, and on par with the microphones in many true wireless earbuds in the same price range. I will say that, similarly to other 1MORE products I’ve tested, the built-in microphone array does a good job of battling wind noise.
Battery and Charging Case
Looking at battery life, the 1MORE Aero have battery life similar toother true wireless earbuds. You can expect about five hours of playback using ANC, or up to seven hours when you’re not using either ANC or Transparent mode. This is also slightly dependent on volume.
The charging case can fully charge the earbuds three times, giving you a theoretical total battery capacity of up to 28 hours. It seems like 1MORE is playing it safe with their estimates, so you may be able to squeeze more battery life out of them if you’re careful.
Finally, we turn to the charging case itself. You can charge the case via the included USB-C cable, but it also featureswireless Qi charging. The bottom of the case is rather wide and flat, so wireless charging with chargers meant for AirPods or other true wireless earbuds may be tough.
Should You Buy the 1MORE Aero?
If you’re especially interested in trying out spatial audio, but you would rather not spend the money the AirPods Pro or similar earbuds would cost, the1MORE Aero True Wireless Earbudsmay be your best option at the moment. Just know that the spatial audio found in the AirPods Pro sounds demonstrably better.
Related:1MORE Evo True Wireless Review: Great Sound for the Money
There’s nothing wrong with 1MORE Aero, they’re just not up to the same level sonically as some other products we’ve seen from the company. Sure, the EVO True Wireless Earbuds cost around $50 more, but for that extra money, you’re getting a better-sounding set of true wireless earbuds at the cost of no spatial audio.
Assuming you’re in it for the AirPods-style form factor and the price, there’s still plenty to like about the 1MORE Aero, regardless of whether you’re interested in spatial audio.
