Between 3ANC Ear Buds

⭐️⭐️

Status Audio’s Between 3ANC Ear Buds

Brand: Status Audio (https://www.status.co/)

Color: Onyx (Black)

Make: Between 3ANC Wireless

Form Factor: In Ear

Impedance: 16 Ohm

Noise Control: Active Noise Cancellation

Frequency Response: 25000 Hz

Cost: $179

Buying earbuds is like buying a pair of jeans, hard to do without trying them on. Its the last hurdle to online shopping, and one that was sorely missed when buying Status Audio's Between 3ANC ear buds.

Like jeans, all of us have our own subjective views of what makes a great pair of ear buds: Sound quality, fit, style, noise cancellation, equalizer software, hands free controls, and more. A lot goes into deciding if a pair will be worn everyday or if its just pulled out from the lower drawer for a specific occasion. So, this review should be taken as its intended, a general review that's specific to my needs but hopefully helpful to you in deciding if you purchase the Between 3ANC ear buds from Status Audio.

Also, it needs to be known that I'm tone deaf. (shrugs) So, I'll leave a lot of the sound quality review to true audiophiles that have the capabilities and knowledge and Ill focus on style, fit, features, battery life and just a dash of sound quality.

Apple's Air pods are the industry standard or baseline by which I measure other makes and models and is the starting point for this review. Between 3ANC from Status Audio also comes with a sleek stylish carrying case that's noticeably larger than Apple's. I have the ear canals of an ant (Do ants have ear canals? ToDo: fact check if ants have ear canals.) So this larger carrying case had me worried about the size of the Between 3ANC, and rightfully so. The ear buds come with three different sizes of ear wings, the smallest being on the ear buds when shipped and still a bit too large for my miniaturized canals. I'm precious, so I also have an allergy to latex, so I swapped the standard ear wings with foams ordered from Amazon and the smallest size of these caused the ear buds to be crowded in the case. I'm certain that if I tried a larger size of wings, the case wouldn't close.

With a myriad of options available, each brand aims to carve out a niche that promises superior sound quality, active noise cancellation, and user-friendly features. Among these contenders, the Between 3ANC earbuds by Status Audio has generated significant buzz. However, my own Active Noise Cancellation is going to quite the buzz as this review isn't great for Status Audio's entrant in the battle of buds.

A feature of Apple's case surprised me in its importance while going unnoticed until the Between 3ANC's case having the ear buds face each other, instead of away from each other. As a result, the Between 3ANC earbuds ear wings touch and sometimes "mush" together so that pulling one out of the case drags along the other. After almost losing the left ear bud several times, I now have muscle memory to hold the left bud in the case with one finger while pulling the right bud out and placing into my tiny ear canal.

Status Audio's ear buds are designed to provide a seamless audio experience with active noise cancellation (ANC) capabilities. This technology enables users to enjoy their music or podcasts while reducing ambient noise effectively. Being tone deaf, I can say that I noticed an improvement from the Air pods' noise cancellation and sound quality as a whole. So, on these two fronts (noise cancellation and sound quality) I rate the Between 3ANC as better than Apple's Air pods, if only slightly. I'm afraid the praise stops there.

My biggest complaint is that the earbuds don't turn off automatically when they're removed from the ears, unless they're placed back into the case. It seems like common sense and not sure why Status Audio hasn't included this feature, but I often would miss large segments of podcasts or playlist and need to rewind to return to the point of removing the buds. In my opinion, both Apple's and Status Audio's cases are too large to carry in my pockets, so I rarely have the case on me and so carry the buds by themselves in my pocket. With Apple, I'm confident the Air Pods are in "sleep mode". Not so for Between 3ANC.

Moreover, the compatibility with popular voice assistants has been a selling point for many earbuds and will only continue as new AI agents are released and we become more and more dependent on voice commands. If the buds are continually operating, this could hinder the overall voice command experience, causing frustration when the earbuds respond unexpectedly.

Every design consideration comes with trade-offs. In the case of the Between 3ANC earbuds, it is paramount to weigh the benefits of the active noise cancellation and audio quality against the practicality of your specific needs before investing. Some might find the sound quality and ANC features worth the minor inconvenience I found with the case and ear wings and automatic sleep mode.

Battery life was consistently longer than Apple's, lasting a full work-day where as the Air Pods required a recharge before the work day ended. I also liked the equalizer software that is downloaded to run with the ear buds, allowing even tone-deaf me to adjust the sound to my liking. Settings that would probably make an audiophile cry, but that sounded better to me than the defaults.

The look and style of the Between 3ANC is nice, in a "large is the new tiny" kind of way. Gucci has hefty sunglasses, Hermes tank-like purses. I actually found the look of the ear buds sleek and stylish. Hand controls (taps and swipes on the ear buds themselves) worked better than I have found with Apple's Air Pods. The ear buds did fall out of my ear(s) several times while I gardened, but, not nearly as much as the Air Pods.

In summary, the Between 3ANC earbuds by Status Audio present an acceptable entry into a crowded space, but more attention needs to be made to the smaller details to warrant the price (which is comparable to Apple's Air Pod Pros.

2 out of 5 stars.

(ToDo: Find another analogy for your freakishly small ear canals. Ants don't have ears. Update text and remove notes.)