Hello Metalheads!  This is John back with something a little different today.  I bought a pair of the earbuds that have gone somewhat viral on TikTok, but I bought mine on Amazon.  They are called CMF buds by the Nothing brand.  From what I have read, the CMF brand is the cheaper/more affordable rebranding of Nothing products.  These products by Nothing have been getting a ton of praise and love for what they are doing.

I listen to a ton of music every single day, usually on average a good 3 hours at least.  When I’m at work I have an earbud in while doing stuff in the meat cooler(I’m a meat cutter) and at home I often have an earbud in while doing stuff too.  Last year I logged 83k minutes of listening time on Apple Music so I need a good pair of earbuds.  Two years ago I bought the second generation of Apple AirPods and they were great for a year.  This past summer I bought the third generation of AirPods and I feel like they are very quiet.  

Just a few days ago I finally pulled the trigger and bought these new ear buds(CMF buds) and they were only $40.  That is a fantastic price compared to other brands that can cost minimum $100.  This particular brand has an app called Nothing X that they use to configure and activate certain aspects of the products.  This is very easy to find and download and automatically detects your product when connected via Bluetooth.  When I read about this I already had me eager to try these out.  

While these earbuds do not integrate as easily as AirPods with my IPhone, it was still very very easy to connect and start listening.  The noise cancelling works outstanding and works up to 42 decibels which is very impressive.  There are also three different setting associated with the noise cancelling.  The full on noise cancelling which I will rarely use and no noise cancelling are two.  The third is transparency mode which allows external sounds to be heard while still hearing external noises.  The full bore noise cancelling is outrageous!  Even at my fairly loud workplace, it tunes out the background ambience very well.  There is also an ultra bass toggle with different levels which would sound great with bass heavy music.  I personally won’t use it much just because of the fast and technical nature of most of the material that I listen to, but it is a very noticeable difference in sound.  These earbuds also come with their very own equalizer section of the app as well.  It has a wide array of preset options as well as a custom section, but the best sound to me is the Dirac Opteo.  

Ok now for the couple of negatives that I have found with this audio listening device.  The case feels cheap compared to others that I have felt.  There is a knob on the corner of the case that looks like it might control the volume or do something at least.  But it doesn’t do a damn thing.  The settings that you choose do not save when you choose them in the app.  Basically every time I get my buds out of the case I have to change my gesture and noise protection preferences when I use them.  Finally my last complaint is that the audio is not mono when I only use one bud.  I miss guitar lines and other pieces of the music when I have one ear bud in, unlike the manic that Apple created with their mono earbud settings.  

Even with the negatives I discussed I am still floored by how good these buds are for the price.  I am four days into using them as of writing the end of this and they will be my daily listening choice going forward I think.  While these may not be the ultra super high end headphones that some people would dump money into, I recommend these to just about anybody that wants an intimate and focused listening experience.  I will be buying the next version of this next time I need a new pair of earbuds for sure!