ARC 3 GAMING Open Ear Gaming Earbuds

These are so great I forgot my earbuds/headphones used to be an issue.I have some great wired headphones (Sennheiser HD 6xx) but I don’t always need perfect sound, they can make my beard itchy and I don’t always want to be tethered to my desk so they can be annoying to wear all day while gaming. I tried some other low delay earbuds (VP10 earbuds), they were nice too as I thought an 8 hour battery life was enough but they died on me almost every day and I eventually broke one because they’d fall out so I’d stuff the earbud(s) in my pocket and forget and finally one day I stepped on one – oopsie. I tried a few other random ones… returned them all.I pulled the trigger on these and I never looked back, haven’t even thought about it since. I’ve been using these every day, I was pretty nervous about the price but they sound great, have very little delay (I play a lot of Valorant and FPS games), stay connected even when I run to the bathroom and kitchen, and the battery life is so amazing, they haven’t died on me yet – despite hours of gaming – and I’ve had them for months now. They don’t fall out of my ears like other headphones I’ve had which is another small plus. The noise cancellation is kind of weird, it isn’t perfect but it blocks out a lot of sound in a very noticeable way. If I’m midgame and there’s gunfire going off in my ear I can’t hear people behind me or around me honestly, but it’s not really anything I was worried or cared about so I haven’t messed with it or the program settings if there are any.The only issue I ever have is the constant dings it makes whenever I take them out or touch them when it reconnects or mutes the microphone I never use.It’s so nice to not have to worry about annoying earbuds anymore honestly, so I had to write a review. I FREAKING LOVE THESE THINGS.

These open ear headphones are great. I generally have a very utilitarian view of earbuds/headphones: I used them to listen to audio books, podcasts, and music while I’m walking. If they stay in my ear, maintain a stable Bluetooth connection, and sound ok, I’m satisfied. Although I’ve used other premium priced earbuds/headphones over the years, this is the first pair that I literally just sat and tried different audio sources (including Dolby Atmos specific audio) just to listen to how good it sounds.The biggest surprise to me was how well they perform when walking outdoors with relatively high levels of noise (e.g., traffic noise from a 6 lane road while walking on a sidewalk). These are not noise cancelling headphones. And, you might think the open ear design would make it useless in, for example, 80db loud situations. But, I while walking on a sidewalk near heavy sidewalk, I was able to call the police department (non-emergency number)) and report an obstruction in the road. I was able to hear the the police operator and the operator could hear me fine. Listening to spoken word (audiobooks or podcasts) are challenging in noisy conditions. However, listening to music works reasonably well. The earbuds supports Dolby Atmos “3D Sound” which is similar to Apple’s Spatial Audio.The headphones’ case has really unique features over and above charging the headphones. It turns on its ultraviolet (UV-C) to disinfect the headphones when placed in the case. It has a step counter that is independent of your smartphone or smartwatch. It provides preset equalizer settings. It can even be used as a remote control for the headphones. The case also has a “Find My Earbuds” function which can be used to search for either the left or right earbuds by causing it to emit a low volume beeping sound. I searched for Dolby Atmos tracks and Apple Music and am really pleased by how well this sounds/works. It also support Head Tracking so that Dolby Atmos audio” “shifts in space” as you turn your head/body. This is great for gaming or movie watching. I, however, turn it off when walking since this audio space shifting is, for me, unwanted in this specific situation.The one minor issue I encountered was just after unboxing it. The display turned on and showed a QR code with instructions to scan it for some kind of settings synchronization. Unfortunately, my one year old smartphone could not interpret the QR code after a few tries (it has no issues with other QR codes) and the display then cleared and defaulted to the initial screen a one line message in Simplified Chinese (which translates to Swipe Right). From there, I was able to get to the setup menu and select English as my language.

Great-sounding headphones with ANC