Verdict
An imposingly specc’d open - ear headphone with an audio carrying into action that exceeds expectations , the Cleer Arc II Sport are a fine example of how this character of earpiece has progressed forward in just a few years . They are expensive , with cheaper alternatives usable for those who ca n’t match Cleer ’s involve price .
Pros
Cons
Key Features
Introduction
Open - ear earpiece are gain ground grip and one of the make at the forefront of contribute it to a wider market is clean-cut with its Arc headphones .
Theoriginal Arcshowed up at a CES show in a different form , and when it wasformally releasedit had undergone a sporty rebrand . It did n’t grade too well on this site .
But now the Cleer is back with the Arc II Sport , which securely station them in the sports / activity market with their over - auricle hooking and open - ear intention . Has Cleer learned its lessons from before ? Here are my mentation .
Design
Anyone intimate with an over - capitulum hook intention for wired or wireless earphones will find the Arc II Sport adheres to the same principles . Wedge it in - between your ear and direct and it ’ll find a nook to settle into . Where it differs is there ’s no earbud / bakshish to insert into the ear , but a loudspeaker on a hinge that fires audio into the ear .
There are advantages and disadvantages , but in essence these are earphones for people who need to maintain a connexion to their surroundings rather than cut themselves off from it .
If you do intensive bodily process indoors and out ( like run alongside interfering route ) , the awareness the Arc II Sport bring home the bacon is a boon for observing your environs . The negative is the sensory overload from competing noises .
There ’s little point in using these for the commute – I found in public spaces that it can be too overpowering . On a bus I matte up it ( somehow ) exacerbated the sharp sounds of doors swing undefended . In fussy area I can still hear euphony , which is to the Arc II Sport ’s credit , but I can never to the full enjoy it . wear out these earphone makes me cognisant of how loud metropolis life can be .
Having acquire them on several runs , I ’ve not had an number with wind stochasticity , even when father a full blast of it in the human face . There is an Enhanced Anti - wind Noise determine in the Cleer+ app but I do n’t consider it ’s call for . I ’d go as far as to say it has very small burden .
They are firm in comfort terms – I did n’t survey the previous model so ca n’t compare – but they feel safe once positioned at 14 g per earbud . While they librate more than a standard earphone , it ’s not as if they ’re count down on my ears . I have found they can pilfer , but I intend this is more down to fag out glasses , the arms of both sometimes get in the elbow room .
There are dab controls , and they ’re alert and antiphonal even during running . commonly , I find I have to retard down to use tap control , but it ’s not difficult to locate controls for stop / start playback or skipping forwards or backwards . They ’re easy than I bear to apply .
A wardrobe and bear on each bud can activate a roving twist ’s voice assistant , and that ’s it . There ’s no book control , which is a disgrace for fittingness focussed earphone . It should be easy to raise the volume than fish your nomadic equipment from a pouch .
Colours include this convey red sample and a black ( and red ) ending . They ’re rated to IPX5 , which means they can cover with water , rain , and sweat .
The face does n’t appear to be place forIP protection , and though Cleer would have you consider it ’s slender , it ’s also liberal , like a wear - down bar of soap . It calculate great – there ’s a nice framework cover to it , though esthetic aside my first thought is to put it in my bag for runs . I do n’t like it jangling about in my pocket .
Features
Like LG’sTone liberal UT90Q , the charge cradle support UV sterilization to remove bacteria . Who knows how much bacteria it gets rid of , but it provides some peace of mind for the germaphobes out there .
Cleer swan the buds and pillowcase have enough electrical capacity for 35 hours of playback – 8 hours in each earphone , and 27 in the case . Having stream a Spotify play list for an 60 minutes , I got 90 % overall on Android and in the Cleer+ app , the left bud fell to 90 % . That would suggest 10 hours at 50 % intensity .
Another attempt , this time closer to max mass over two hours hear it fall to 70 % , which is close to 7 hours . In either case , that ’s not too shabby .
There ’s no credit of wireless charging but fast charging is included with 10 moment provide an hour of playback .
Bluetooth support equates to SBC , AAC , aptX Adaptive and aptX Lossless , the latter means that the Cleer Arc II Sport supportSnapdragon Sound . To get the best audio performance from these earphone , I ’d suggest pairing them with a ) a gamy - quality euphony military service such asQobuzor Tidal and b ) a informant gimmick that suffer Snapdragon Sound .
ingest Snapdragon Sound as part of the specs feel like overkill for a sport focused earpiece , but I ’m not kvetch – unless its increase has added to the premium price . Bluetooth multipoint , for colligate to two devices at once , is also included .
The wireless functioning is good with aptX Adaptive onboard . Walking through a not - too - busy Waterloo place , there were n’t any signal interruptions . I have n’t experienced many elsewhere aside from some weird noise at a certain spot in Streatham that sham every headphone I use there .
The call timber for these headphones is decent . Vocal quality is fine , but voices can vocalize a picayune dull and at a low-down level . It can be tricky to hear what someone is say in noisy environment – I happen it ’s worse on my goal as I genuinely ca n’t hear what ’s said . TheShokz OpenRun Pro Minioffer well call quality than this model , I feel .
There ’s an app that graphically look great with its black and atomic number 79 presentation , but I do n’t think many will expend it . There ’s a graphical / share representation of barrage fire life , and the headphones also keep track of your steps – you could set a finish for how many steps to do – but if you have a sound or a smartwatch this feel supernumerary .
There ’s a choice of EQ presets that includes a custom-made five - band EQ but with some I ca n’t find out much of a difference ( with Greco-Roman music , the flat and classical EQs sound the same ) . I ca n’t bottom what the Smart Sport EQ does because nothing transfer there either . Others can untune a racecourse ’s balance ( pop music can make voices go artificial ) so I see no reason to waiver from the Flat EQ .
tactile sensation controls can be customised , but again , it ’s rather slimy as there are no more than three options to prefer in drama / pause , bound off forward and hop-skip back . There ’s a toggle switch for an Anti - loss monitor that is not a ‘ Find My ’ feature of speech but a reminder the earpiece may be missing ( for case , if one fall off ) . There ’s a ‘ Sedentary Reminder ’ function that ’s effectively a gong telling you to get up off the sofa .
last , there ’s Motion Control , which works in practice but is prone to mishaps . Wearing the Cleer at a charabanc stop and looking to my right to see if the bus was arrive is the same motion for skipping tracks . think how long it took before I disabled that feature article .
Sound Quality
While I ’m not red-hot on the app , I am much warmer about the sound quality , which is far better than I anticipated . With os and air conduction headphones , generate enough bass has been an issue but that ’s a problem the Arc II Sport jumps over .
They can produce a sizable amount of bass with genuine depth and punch that summate excitation to music . Where on bone conduction earpiece bass can be casual , with the basso beat in Elaine ’s Fading Away , the Arc II Sport mobilise a pleasing amount of weight to the low absolute frequency ; while with Busta Rhymes ’ Touch It there ’s decent variety to description of basso musical rhythm in the track so it does n’t come across as one - annotation .
There is a limit to its basso carrying out . Even with Touch It , the Cleer Arc II Sport can struggle to stretch the basso to give it the variety of depth and wallop you ’d get from a truthful wireless brace like Bose’sQuietComfort Earbuds II , and with Kingdom ’s Bank Head there ’s decent heft ( for an open - eared headphone ) , but it ’s not the most defined performance . But what the Cleer can do is very commendable for an receptive - auricle phone .
Even more impressive is the stereo image that the Cleer bring about , far considerably than I ’ve heard on bone conduction headphones such as theShokz OpenRun Pro miniand Creative Outlier Free . It ’s big and grand with a genuine sense of odd and right channels along with depth to the soundstage – I can point out the arrangement of instruments and vocal music within the soundstage whereas with other headphones of this type there ’s a fuzzy signified of definition and clarity .
Having tell that , the Arc II Sport are n’t the clearest or most detailed performer . They give up a short acuteness across the frequency range , Anderson Paak ’s vocals in Fire In The Sky or Jorja Smith ’s in Addicted take on a legato but still detailed demonstration . There ’s a warmth to the Cleer ’s functioning that obscures a hunky-dory signified of point in the midrange , but I find myself not too bothered because the end termination is a performance that engage . You would not think these were open - eared earphone from the execution they offer .
The top last of the frequency range is not rendered in the brightest manner with GoGo Penguin ’s Raven , the deficiency of sharpness and definition is probably most feel in this area ; the pianoforte notes in Atomised from the same band also finger roll off . However , there ’s still good lucidity and fluctuation to high frequency billet , if not the elongation and definition that could make treble notes stand out with more precision .
Nevertheless , the Cleer Arc II Sport winningly cause their case as one of the best - sounding open - earphones on the market – like theSivga S01 , the Cleer ’s audio carrying out exceeds expectations .
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Should you buy it?
I have n’t tested too many pearl or melodic phrase conduction phone , but of the ones I have , the Cleer Arc II Sport are easily the well execute in terms of the sound recording .
If you ’re looking for an open - pinna / air conduction headphone , then a much cheaper option is to depend at theSivga S01 .
Final Thoughts
The Cleer Arc II Sport are a well - conceived and do pair of open - auricle ( or airwave conductivity ) headphones with very good sound , an telling spec , and comfortable design .
I ’m not fond of the app ’s features , with many not involve the leave public presentation . Call caliber is an orbit that ’s catchy in noisy areas where it ’s as hard to hear the other person as it is to hear yourself . Travelling with these headphones and it ’s hard to hear music fully if you ’re not in a unruffled piazza .
Problems like these high spot that Arc II Sport are focused on a specific part of the marketplace – the hint is in the name – so these are n’t unremarkable utilisation headphone .
This pass water the monetary value of £ 199 / $ 189 a steep ask for some . If the Cleer are too dear , have a look at theSivga S01,JBL SoundGear Senseor theSoundpeats Run Free Liteinstead .
Trusted Score
How we test
We test every set of phone we review thoroughly over an lengthened menstruum of fourth dimension . We use industry standard mental test to equate feature properly . We ’ll always tell you what we find . We never , ever , consent money to refresh a product .
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FAQs
comfortably Bluetooth support ( v5.3 , aptX Adaptive , Snapdragon Sound ) , Bluetooth multipoint for connecting to two gimmick at once and extended battery life .
