Tom’s Guide Verdict
The EarFun Wave Life headphones sound straight-up awful.
I do not recommend these to anyone who enjoys listening to music.
Im not going to string you along.
The EarFun Wave Life headphones are categoricallynotsome of thebest headphonesout there.
But for just $79/$59, could these headphones be worth it in a pinch?
Ill discuss everything in this EarFun Wave Life headphones review.
Do not believe that $59 is a sale price it is the real MSRP.
The cheapestgoodheadphones Ive tested are the $79JLab JBuds Lux ANC, which performed like a much pricier model.
Yes, theyre $20 pricier than the EarFun Wave Lifes, but the JLabs areso good.
These buttons are for ANC, power, and volume up/down.
I kept the default prefs, but its nice to have the option.
Its not all bad, though, dont get me wrong.
The headband has a nice 34 inch or so of foam, and the cups themselves are soft.
The mesh casing of the actual cups, though, is very flimsy and thin.
I can actually feel the drivers themselves through the foam.
The headphones are also really light, whichcouldbe either poor build quality or purposeful for ease of use.
I did appreciate the lightness as it made listening for hours comfortable.
This was at least 320 feet away, so I was really impressed with the range overall.
I was also able to connect to my phone and laptop simultaneously using dual unit connectivity.
From there, I was able to manage this connection in the EarFun Audio app.
If you want to listen via wired playback, the Wave Lifes have that option!
Bizarrely, though, its not via a 3.5mm audio cable youd normally expect its USB-C. Its also only about 3.3 feet long, which is pretty short in the grand scheme of things.
Theres also a customizable EQ, which does its best to mitigate the abysmal out-of-the-box sound quality.
If the actual build of the drivers is poor, then theres very little an EQ can do.
Why didnt EarFun just ship the headphones with a better EQ enabled?
I just dont understand.
However, I was left disappointed.
The ANC certainly doesnt filter out 94% of ambient sound, as per EarFuns claims.
Then, bizarrely, the Normal mode didnt just switch off ambient/ANC.
It actually increased the volume of the air con in the office.
I could hear the steady hum of the fan as if it was just a few inches away.
Even Normal mode suffers from the same issues ANC does.
I couldnt quite believe the poor sound quality; I thought I might have been hallucinating it.
The Wave Life headphones have a strange combination of tinniness, muddyness, muffledness, and distortion.
The music sounds as if played from underwater.
The Wave Life headphones have a strange combination of tinniness, muddyness, muffledness, and distortion.
However, the hi-res platform barely made a difference.
When I listened to Black Magic Woman by Eric Clapton, I thought that Erics vocals sounded alright.
Not good, but alright.
However, the bass and percussion were so muffled and muddy that it ruined the whole track.
Next, I switched up genre to the aforementioned 90s acid house.
I listened to Loaded by Primal Scream, which actually sounded decent for a while.
The start of the track has a pretty minimal soundscape, with just percussion and piano.
Then the brass comes in and it was just more of the tinny, muddled mess I criticized earlier.
Its like choosing between rotten egg or rancid milk for dinner.
Mmm neither, thanks.
After Loaded, I played (It goes like) Nanana by Peggy Gou.
This synth beat was muddy, and the house drum machine was tinny.
Well, yes, it did fix most of the muddiness.
But lowering bass brought in another issue: major tinniness.
Its supposed to have a groovy bassline.
With the EarFun Wave Life headphones, I had to make a choice: muddiness, or tinniness.
Its like choosing between rotten egg or rancid milk for dinner.Mmm neither, thanks.
But the Wave Lifes soundso much worse, that I would only ever recommend the Pros over these.
He said I sounded pretty good, but there was a lot of fuzziness on the sibilance.
When I asked him, Do I sound better than my AirPods Pro 2?
He said that it sounded like I was saying AirPodzzzz.
So, I guess these would be good headphones for the bees in your life.
I was able to play with EQ and find one that either reduced tinniness or muddiness.
Ideally, Id like to find an EQ that reduces both, but that didnt happen.
The JLabs JBuds Lux ANCjustovertake the Wave Lifes, with 70 hours no ANC and 40 hours with ANC.
EarFun Wave Life review: Verdict
Yeah, I dont think anyone should buy these headphones.
But then again, would said people be reading a review about them in the first place?
Im not so sure.
However, thats pretty much where the positives end.
The sound quality is not just bad, its abysmal.
It sounds like, as per my headline, the most talented musicians are doing inebriated nightclub karaoke.
In short, the Wave Life headphones are not good.
Dont waste your money definitely check out theJLab JBuds Lux ANCheadphones over these.
