Earfun Air Pro Review – Doin’ it Right

Sound –

Tonality –

True to their marketing, the Air Pro’s deliver a sizable wallop with a bass-focused tuning. However, the execution does differentiate them from your standard consumer TWS earphone. Specifically, they have quite an impressive midrange and treble tuning that is progressive and natural with a dip at 1kHz for bass separation, progressive climb to 3kHz prominence and gentle fall off above. There’s a lick of emphasis around 4 and 5kHz that give it a hint more clarity and crispness but mids and treble sit in harmonious balance, both behind the bass. Bass itself experiences a wideband boost through the mid and sub-bass. This gives them a thick, meaty low-end expression yet without too much congestion or warmth in the midrange as they do clean up through the upper-bass and lower-mids. Unfortunately, the codec support does mean they are fairly mediocre from a technical POV, albeit I do think the listening experience is enjoyable going by the tuning alone. I’m not sure why, but I was unable to measure this earphone reliably on my rig. You can refer to rtings for their frequency response graphs here.

Bass –

Surely the focus of the sound, the Air Pro provides a big, full bass presentation. There is large emphasis in the sub and mid-bass especially. This gives it a full, warm sound. As the mid-bass does tend to steal more attention, notes are rounded and full over thick and weighted. In my opinion, the shelf extends slightly too far and would benefit from a lower-frequency fall off as notes are tubby and bloated, conversely, the mid-bass could have been attenuated. Extension is okay, the Air Pro doesn’t provide much pressure and physicality at the very bottom, but the sub-bass bump does give it a good sense of depth and power regardless.

There is certainly heaps of impact and punch here, especially on mid-bassy tracks. Driver quality is average, not bad but not too remarkable. Note attack is slightly soft and decay is slightly slow. Overall note definition leaves some to be desired but not to the extent that bass sounds one-note and lacking texture as was the case on their earlier Free. It sounds a little woolly but not exceedingly boomy or muddy. Bass is big, somewhat bloated but impactful and engaging. Note presentation is passable in order to retrieve texture and prevent too much spill into the midrange.

Mids –

Considering the level of bass emphasis, the midrange is surprisingly clean, clear and very well-separated from the bass overall. This can be mostly attributed to the cut through the lower-mids and upper-bass to a lesser extent. In fact, the midrange voicing is a touch on the clear and articulate side, albeit with somewhat laid-back positioning relative to the low-end. In so doing, vocals aren’t stretched thin nor is there any intensity despite the small upper-mid emphasis. There also isn’t any thinness or odd timbral characteristics here, as the big mid-bass does imbue a medium warm tone that retains a natural presentation and prevents dryness in context of the lower-mid cut. The net result is quite pleasing and leaves little to complain about.

Coherence isn’t perfect and one shouldn’t expect superb linearity and perfectly structured notes. Vocals are moderately laid-back for those prioritizing balance albeit, they are never overshadowed, veiled or diminished due to the smart and well-compensated tuning. If you don’t mind a laid-back midrange, then there is much to enjoy here, and the voicing is more natural than the vast majority of bass-forward competitors. The mdirange is naturally voiced and tonally inviting. Clarity is slightly increased as is emphasis on articulation. In turn, you get a slightly coloured presentation with a little additional warmth and gloss but this was pleasant and euphonic in nature to my ears. I was very pleased with the voicing on offer here, it will rely most on your individual preferences regarding vocal presence.

Highs –

The high-end sounds relatively even to me, laid-back but nicely voiced just like the midrange. There’s a lick of 5kHz emphasis which introduces a bit more crispness into the voicing but without any of the sharpness you’d see with higher emphasis in the 6-8kHz range. It means you get a bit more presence that helps treble instruments and details pop in lieu of the big bass but never does treble fatigue. Note attack is fairly soft so the leading edge isn’t as defined as you’d see on a pricier TWS earphone or wired model around this price. Though well present, it does mean small details can get skimmed over and notes aren’t especially well delineated on complex passages. This is something you can expect on many budget TWS earphones, the Air Pro has the advantage of being well tuned which gives them a more balanced voicing than many competitors.

This is chiefly with regards to note body. While notes aren’t especially well textured, they also aren’t thin or brittle. The background is clean and dark and there’s minimal background detail or air, but enough headroom that this doesn’t become a closed off sound either. The sound does start to break up here with minimal audible information either due to limitations in the driver or, more likely, the limited codec support. I found a similar trend on the much pricier GT220, extension isn’t great but the tonality is very pleasing. As below, it appears that both companies have worked optimally with a limited platform and price point. The tuning here is even and undoubtedly well-executed while the technical performance is merely average.

Soundstage –

The Air Pro provides a fairly intimate soundstage but the laid-back mids and highs grant the impression of greater dimensions. They have a slight width bias and can stretch just to the periphery of the head. Despite the big bass emphasis, separation is quite good in the midrange with a palpable air around each element. This helps to keep the sound organized and neat. Imaging is okay, directional cues are clear but layers aren’t especially well defined nor delineated. They don’t have an especially impressive sense of dimension. Altogether, a fairly surface level listening experience but sound balance, separation and direction.

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