Like many of Earfun’s products, the Wave Pro look extremely impressive on paper. With the sort of bulging spec sheet that would intimidate headphones costing twice the price and an apparent quality of build that wouldn’t see them look out of place in the more premium aisles of the sonic supermarket, the Wave Pro are adept at talking the talk. To the deal-hungry buyer looking for an affordable set of wireless wonders to sling into their basket, they’re nothing if not an attractive proposition.
The best wireless headphones are not, however, made on paper. The Wave Pro might have a perfectly curated Tinder profile stacked with glamorous holiday snaps and a biography stuffed full of enticing achievements, but experience tells us that it’s the time we actually spend together that separates the duds from the Don Juans. We’ve heard multiple pairs of Earfun’s wireless earbuds, including the recent Air Pro 3 and Air 2, that seemed to have everything going for them but failed to delight us sonically, so we head to our latest date with a little caution.
Price
For what you appear to be getting, the Wave Pro are very attractively priced. Costing £80 / $80 / approx AU$120 they certainly offer a lot for the price, and it’s a point in the market that can be tempting for money-savvy buyers.
There are, however, some strong contenders to consider. The Award-winning, noise-cancelling Sony WH-CH720N currently sit at around the same price at £80 / $100 / AU$195, or you can drop a little lower to the cheaper WH-CH520 (currently £34 / $38 / AU$77) if noise cancelling isn’t that important to you. If you want to aim a little higher, the wonderfully articulate and insightful Austrian Audio Hi-X25BT will set you back roughly £125 / $179 / AU$240.
Build
You could be forgiven for thinking that the Earfun Wave Pro cost a good deal more than their £80 / $80 retail price. To look at, touch and manipulate, they hit all of the right notes, impressing us with the solidity of their construction and the overall impression of quality and style that you rarely see in headphones at this level. Place them side-by-side with the Sony WH-CH720N and your eye will be drawn to the Earfun rather than the current Award-winner.
Those rounded earcups, for example, are weighty and substantial, and we’re keen on the subtle ring of shiny metallic material adorning the outer edge which just provides a touch of je ne sais quoi to the composition. The headband is sturdy and nicely appointed with artificial leather, and while they’re a comfortable pair of cans to wear, many of our test team did experience hot and sweaty ears, even after relatively short periods of use.
Bluetooth 5.3
Codec Support SBC, AAC, LDAC
Noise-cancelling Yes
Battery Life: 80 hours (ANC off), 55 hours (ANC on)
Finishes x 2 (black, white)
Weight 268g
Still, the overall impression remains positive. Some more affordable pairs of over-ears can feel like a collection of elements that seem to be somewhat clinging on to one another with string and sheer willpower, but the Wave Pro come across as a cohesive, rock-solid composition that’s made to last. No matter how many times we swivel the earcups horizontally or fold them up and in on themselves, not once do we worry that we’re in danger of doing any lasting damage. Be as rough as you like with the Earfun, they can handle it, and if you are worried about bumps and scrapes, just pop them in their rather fetching carry case to put your mind at rest.
While you’ll doubtless use them more as a Bluetooth pair of headphones, the Wave Pro can be used as a wired set thanks to a 3.5mm aux cable. When the cable is attached, the cans will automatically enter wired mode and power off to save your battery. It’s pretty tricky to wear down that 80-hour battery life as we’ll see below, but hey, it’s nice of Earfun to give us a contingency plan all the same.
Features
While the sound quality of the Chinese brand’s recent in-ear efforts hasn’t set pulses racing, you can’t accuse Earfun of skimping on the features. We’ve written before that the company’s tactic of loading up its budget buds with as many tricks and treats as possible has won many fans, and it’s certainly true that few rivals can match the comprehensive, Swiss Army Knife capabilities that many of its products possess. The Wave Pro, of course, are no exception.
Noise cancelling is just about expected at this level (the Sony WH-CH720N offer it for a similar price) with the Wave Pro giving a competent and undeniably comprehensive experience in this arena. The budget cans offer a whopping five different noise cancelling modes – normal, ambient sound, wind cancelling, comfort ANC and strong ANC, the latter of which provides the most complete and satisfying experience. None of them is particularly outstanding, and you’ll sometimes strain to discern fully the difference between each profile, but it’s hard at this price to be down on Earfun’s admirable effort. Five is a lot of noise-cancelling profiles, after all.
That battery life is another ace in the Wave Pro’s deck, and happily, it’s not merely an instance of boasting big numbers without the performance to back them up. We accidentally left the EarFuns playing internet radio overnight and they didn’t come close to conking out, dipping only to roughly about 40 per cent of their total battery life after pulling such an arduous all-nighter. This, by the way, was after a week or so of intermittent use – credit to the Wave Pro, those numbers are no joke.
There’s a lot more here that Wave Pro can do that just adds to their impressive user credentials. The feature-packed over-ears offer a low latency game mode for wireless play, as well as Bluetooth Multipoint for connecting to two devices simultaneously, the latter of which worked well when switching from an iPhone to a laptop. The cans’ control buttons, meanwhile, can be customised via the clean and sensible app, and while personalising on-ear functionalities can be a pain on rival platforms, the Earfun system is surprisingly straightforward to use.
Sound
Though it’s always best to temper expectations somewhat at this budget end of the wireless market, we’re initially impressed with how the Wave Pro perform when it’s time for a proper listen. Whatever genre we play, be it rock, hip-hop, pop or classical, they have a cohesive, well-put-together sound, and rarely do we hear a hint of strain, disorder or harshness as we play through our favourite tracks. Everything feels reassuringly… fine.
There’s ample clarity to be found, though perhaps the Earfun could have squeezed a few more layers of detail from our music collection. The Wave Pro do a solid job in preventing that muddy or cloudy veneer that can make music from budget headphones feel as though they’re being played behind a glass partition, but the instruments on display would benefit from revealing more timbres and textures across the musical gamut. The guitar on Waxahatchee’s Right Back to It needs more twang, the trumpet from Pendulum’s Propane Nightmares needs more rasp, and the vocals on Paolo Nutini’s Through The Echoes could certainly use more layers of smoky depth. None of these performances are bad, they just lack any real feeling of personality.
In fact, that’s our main criticism of these Earfun over-ears. It’s perhaps a little ironic for a pair of cans that will last you 80 hours of playtime, but the more we listen, the less we find ourselves enamoured of the Wave Pro. There’s nothing actively bad about them, but neither is there anything that we can point to that we can say we’re particularly impressed by. Songs often sound as though they need more punch and propulsion, an impression that’s exacerbated by the budget cans’ frustrating lack of rhythmic insight. Shaggy’s Angel is competently put together, yet the reggae beat behind it needs more pep, impetus and insight to make us feel swept along by the tune’s carefree nature.
Deeper investigation allows us to get closer to the heart of our frustrations, one of the main ones being that the Wave Pro simply need more attack and power to invigorate our tunes and give them a bit of much-needed wallop. Bad Religion’s There Will Be A Way and Tom Petty’s Love Is A Long Road require punch and purpose to hit with the maximum impact, something the Wave Pro can’t provide due to their slightly limp, listless nature.
These are headphones that play it safe, offering a sound that comes over as a little staid thanks to the Earfuns’ lack of muscle and oomph. There’s not much sense of dynamic contrast either, with peaks and troughs between loud and soft passages communicated far more effectively by the livelier, more engaging Sony WH-CH720N or the Austrian Audio Hi-X25BT than anything the Earfun can muster.
Verdict
If you’re after a pair of headphones that look the part and provide all of the features you could hope for at this budget price, the Earfun Wave Pro are an attractive proposition. From this perspective, we can see their appeal to casual listeners who value headphones more for what they can do than for how they sound.
However, if sonic performance is your primary consideration, we feel there are finer options out there. Similarly-priced rivals such as the Sony WH-CH720N will offer you a more detailed, punchy and engaging experience over the Earfuns. If sound still matters most, we would suggest looking here first.
SCORES
- Sound 3
- Build 4
- Features 5
MORE:
Read our Sony WH-CH720N review
Also check out Austrian Audio Hi-X25BT review
Our pick of the best wireless headphones you can buy right now
