Within the swelling tide of open earbuds, it may be simple to miss an underdog. When Acefast’s Acefit Air first got here to my consideration, they appeared like some other pair of finances ear hooks, the baseline design for buds that allow you to hearken to tunes whereas protecting your ears open to the world.
I used to be delightfully shocked as soon as I acquired them out of the field, beginning with their spyware-thin charging case harboring stylishly slim buds with a contact of metallic aptitude. The Acefit Air’s every day efficiency is equally satisfying, marked by responsive controls and crisp but heat sound for strong musicality throughout genres.
These aren’t probably the most feature-packed open earbuds, and the match may be finicky, particularly once you first stretch the pliable hooks throughout the again of your ears. At $80, these drawbacks are simple to miss, and I had a blast utilizing these buds throughout my outside actions for a number of weeks.
Slim and Stylin’
{Photograph}: Ryan Waniata
There’s one thing completely satisfying in regards to the Acefit Air’s case. When peeking via the cumbersome field’s plastic bubble, it seems like all variety of outsized clamshells. That made it all of the extra spectacular to seek out it is maybe the thinnest case of any buds I’ve examined, slipping simply into denims or shorts pockets. The flat-matte end provides to the vibe, although it tends to gather oil out of your pores and skin in and out over time.
The buds are equally modern. Although they weigh round 7.5 grams (the AirPods Pro 2 are simply over 5), they’re lighter and fewer obtrusive than most earhook buds I’ve examined. Acefast says that’s due partially to an “ultra-fine titanium wire” inside the hooks examined for 10,000 bends. The match is so free and comfortable you’d assume they’d fall off, however they’re properly balanced and I’ve but to lose one whereas strolling, mountaineering, biking, or in any other case tramping round.
It may be powerful to get the audio system and accompanying vents correctly aligned with my ears, notably the best one, as a result of approach the buds are designed to dangle exterior your canals. I’ve gotten used to it, however I normally must make some changes to the best bud, discovering that pulling it ahead normally locks within the stereo picture.
Whereas placing the buds in, I typically hear the telltale beep of their metallic contact sensors, but Acefast has seemingly made them unresponsive for the primary few seconds, so I not often make errors. Most significantly, not like quite a lot of open earbuds I take a look at, the contact pads are responsive, letting me simply single-tap for quantity, double-tap for play/pause, and triple-tap for tune skip even in compromising conditions like an ebike trip. Merely working reliably places these buds forward of the sport.
Talking of ebikes, the buds aren’t one of the best at overcoming wind resistance, however they do a good job, letting me hearken to tunes or podcasts at reasonable speeds with out the necessity to blast my ears. That is an enormous good thing about open earbuds over conventional buds that depend on microphones that simply get overwhelmed by wind shear and resistance.
Triple Punch
{Photograph}: Ryan Waniata
Inside every bud’s rubbery body is a “three-magnet extremely linear speaker” that accounts for the Acefit Air’s spectacular sound high quality. Acefast says the audio system cut back distortion, and so they’re lots loud to the purpose that I not often pushed them above a 3rd of max quantity. That’s a great factor, since turning on the EQ in Acefast’s app oddly lowers stated quantity, however I didn’t discover the necessity to use EQ anyway.
