Based mostly in San Diego, Cleer began as a ardour undertaking for a few audio lovers. Through the years, it has grown fairly a bit with quite a few profitable merchandise underneath its belt. Alpha is the corporate’s flagship over-the-ear headphones. It is usually one in every of Cleer’s hottest merchandise and what they name their “final Cleer headphone.” Priced at $200, the Alphas undoubtedly provide loads. They may not be essentially the most beautiful pair of headphones, however for his or her worth level, they’re fairly spectacular.
Cleer Is Beneficiant With Equipment however Falls Brief in Consolation
Alpha comes superbly packaged. You get a hard-shell, zippered carry case with a dangling loop and a pocket on the again. Whereas the case is sort of stable and good for being taken on the go, it’s admittedly a bit giant for once you don’t have plenty of baggage area. Not like the Sony WH-1000XM5it might probably’t collapse thinner when the headphones are eliminated.
By way of equipment, you get a 3.5mm audio cable for when your cans run out of juice, a Kind-C charging cable, and a flight adapter which provides one other level to the headphones’ suitability for journey.
So far as appears to be like are involved, Alpha isn’t precisely what you’d name eye-catching. The earcup exterior options shiny plastic with a matte plastic rim round it that hosts two neat rows of noise-canceling mics. The scarf is fairly primary wanting too. There’s a skinny layer of plastic going round your head with extenders that, when in use, reveal a metallic headband inside. The plastic isn’t notably fancy-looking and the uncovered metallic doesn’t look very good when the extender is being utilized.
You get an honest quantity of reminiscence foam cushioning with leather-based coating on the ear cups and the scarf. The padding isn’t very beneficiant, it’s simply what’s wanted to maintain your ears sufficiently snug. I do want the ear cup cushioning band was a bit wider. With the band being a bit skinny, the power was utilized on a smaller floor space therefore leading to extra stress than what I might’ve preferred. The world proper round my ears began feeling drained round half an hour after I put these headphones on. I’d say the identical factor for headband padding. Whereas the quantity of padding was wonderful, the width of the band fell simply shy of being huge sufficient.
I need to add although that, with a variety of extension settings, the clamping power is sweet sufficient and appropriate for all head sizes. Weighing 0.7 lbs, the Alpha isn’t what you’d name heavy both.
If the headphones carried a bit of extra padding, I’d have handed these headphones within the consolation division. The Turtle Seashore Stealth 700 Gen 2, as an example, fall in the identical worth vary and have beneficiant leather-based padding beneath the scarf that rests comfortably towards the highest of your cranium. Even maintaining the nice clamping power and weight in thoughts, I discovered the Alpha extra uncomfortable than snug.
Intuitive Navigation
I’m a giant fan of buttons, contact controls typically annoy me, however the Alpha’s intuitive contact choices are very simple to get used to. The left cup hosts an motion button together with the Kind-C charging port and charging LED, whereas the precise cup sports activities the facility button, the three.5mm port, and the facility plus Bluetooth LED. The best earcup’s exterior doubles as a multi-function touchpad which together with the 2 analog buttons controls a lot of the performance.
Swiping up and down on the touchpad tweaks the amount whereas swiping horizontally controls takes you to the following or the earlier observe. Double tapping the ear cup performs and pauses your music. The motion button is for toggling between ANC and Ambient Mode, turning spatial audio on/off (extra on this later), and accessing the voice assistant.
Respectable Sound That Meets, However Doesn’t Exceed, Expectations
Music on the Alpha sounds fairly good; it isn’t the push-you-out-of-your-seat kinda good, although. Having stated that, if you happen to’re a hardcore audiophile, it’d be finest so that you can cease studying. In case you’re a mean shopper searching for good sound at a worth level that is sensible, these headphones are a superb possibility.
I listened to plenty of pop and a few rock on these. The 40mm drivers did make the bass sound good, but it surely isn’t the type of bass that you just’d really feel in your chest. It’s respectable however has the potential to hold extra energy. The V-Moda S-80 On-Ear Headphones, for instance, can be found for across the similar worth however their bass is unquestionably loads higher. It has that low-end thump and packs plenty of punch. On the similar time, it’s not too overbearing or overly thick. It lets different components of the combination shine, too.
PSB’s M4U 8 MKII can be a superb possibility on the similar worth level with wonderful bass. The lows on the PSB headphones are wealthy and clear. They’ve loads of presence and area inside them. Whatever the quantity, the bass stays highly effective all through.
Whereas the low-end lacks just a bit oomph, the high-end is ideal. It’s wealthy, vibrant, and clear. It stands out and calls for consideration. The mids are fairly balanced and sound full, too. Total, the sound on the Alpha is well-balanced and layered. I like that each one the weather within the orchestra had been recognizable, and had adequate area to shine. They didn’t sound like they had been clustered collectively.
As talked about above, these headphones additionally provide the choice of spatial audio which is meant to “transfer the audio out of your head, and make you are feeling like you might be on the heart of the efficiency” as per Cleer’s promise. Spoiler alert: it didn’t. It might have elevated the richness of the sound by a small margin, however didn’t blow me away.
In case you’re on the hunt for good noise-canceling headphones, these are value contemplating. The ANC is highly effective and considerably mutes ambient noise. As is the case with most ANC modes, the low-frequency sounds had been muted higher than high-frequency ones. The dialog three of my workmates had been having proper beside me was fully silenced, however the high-pitched fixed creaking of a chair close by was a bit of audible. The most typical drawback with ambient modes is the unnatural hiss they characteristic. Fortunately, the ambient mode on the Alpha steers away from that subject.
A Good Mic and Wonderful Battery Life
In line with my buddy, my voice sounded fairly ‘clear and crisp’ on the decision we had been on for round 20 minutes. He additionally remarked that he couldn’t hear any of the actually loud chatter behind me.
Alpha guarantees 35 hours of battery life and means it. To my shock, this declare wasn’t even barely exaggerated. It fees insanely quick too, and went to 100% from 50% in simply half-hour. One odd factor that I didn’t fairly perceive was that it didn’t cost whereas it was turned on, and I needed to fairly actually flip it off with a view to cost it.
The corporate does promise multi-point connectivity on these but it surely’s a bit glitchy. It glitched each single time I attempted it and it took me a number of makes an attempt to modify from PC to cellphone and vice versa.
There’s additionally a companion app that’s fairly easy. You get to regulate just a few modes comparable to ANC and spatial audio on/off in addition to experiment with tone presets and an equalizer. The presets aren’t unhealthy; they do their job of emphasizing barely totally different devices in a observe however don’t depend on them to dramatically improve your listening expertise.
Ought to You Purchase the Alpha?
In case you’re searching for pretty good sound, intuitive controls, nice battery life, and a very good ANC, the Alpha is an effective possibility. Nevertheless, if you happen to’re upgrading solely since you need highly effective bass, you would possibly need to think about the V-Modas or the PSB headphones talked about above. And if you happen to’re searching for a cushty match, the Stealth 700 is an honest decide. At $200, which is sort of mid-range, it’s not truthful to count on mind-blowing sound on these anyway, although. In different phrases, these are fairly good headphones for the common shopper who’s not wanting to spend so much.
