These Open Earbuds Might Be the Bose Competitor You’ve Been Waiting For

With big names like Bose, Nothing, and Sony in the game, open wireless earbuds are a bona fide trend. In case you’re unfamiliar, let me explain: unlike other wireless earbuds, which usually have ear tips that get inserted partially into your ear, open earbuds sit on the outside. The benefits of that design are numerous, but mainly, open wireless earbuds are designed so you can hear your surroundings, which is ideal if you’re wearing them while, running or biking. As great as active noise cancellation (ANC) is, knowing a car is headed your direction while you’re riding a bike through a busy city is even nicer.

One thing that definitely isn’t as good as non-open wireless earbuds competitors, though, is the sound clarity. The very nature of open wireless earbuds means you’re getting noise bleed from your surroundings, so it’s hard to consider the open wireless earbuds truly “hi-fi.†It’s hard, but clearly, companies aren’t shying away from the idea. Take Soundpeats’ Clip1 wireless earbuds, for example, which go big on sound fidelity in an open-ear design that’s meant to be more comfortable.

One thing I noticed immediately in the Clip1 is that they have 12mm dynamic drivers, meaning these buds should have plenty of bass and hopefully just as clear highs. Larger drivers are important in open earbuds, not just because you want solid, clear sound, but because you’re going to have to compete with outside noise when you wear them, so having enough oomph is also critical. My favorite pair of open wireless earbuds, the Bose Ultra Open Earbuds, also have 12mm drivers, which makes them easier to wear in high-noise environments, like the streets of New York.

Soundpeats says its Clip1 drivers also have two magnets. That means the stronger magnetic field can drive the diaphragm more accurately and help mitigate distortion and widen the soundstage.

On top of solid drivers, the Clip1 supports LDAC, a hi-res streaming format that delivers a lot more audio information than your standard Bluetooth connection. If you’ve agonized at all over how to get the best fidelity out of streaming music, you’ve probably heard of LDAC or similar hi-res streaming codecs like AptX or AAC. It’s not necessarily special that the Clip1 supports LDAC—a lot of wireless earbuds do nowadays—but it goes to show you that Soundpeats hasn’t lost sight of the fact that even people who wear open-ear wireless earbuds want refined audio.

The second most important thing in a pair of open wireless earbuds is comfort, and Soundpeats seems to deliver. The Clip1 weigh 5g per earbud compared to the Bose Ultra Open Earbuds, which weigh 6.3g per earbud.

I’m in the middle of testing a pair of Soundpeats Clip1 and will have a review soon to see whether they actually topple the Bose Ultra Open Earbuds or not. But Soundpeats has Bose beat on price. While the Bose Ultra Open Earbuds cost a staggering $299 almost two years after launching in February 2024, the Clip1 is available today at $69.99.