ARC 3 GAMING Open Ear Gaming Earbuds

WHY DID I BUY THESE EARBUDS?I’m primarily a PS5 player, looking for an alternative to the [oversized] over-the-ear headsets (Astro A50 to be exact), and I needed decent mic quality that no one complains about in the party chat. After 2+ weeks of testing and tinkering to my liking, in one sentence.. I can say these earbuds have met all my primary needs.Feel free to read on to see what else it does and does not do for me, and my thoughts on how it may compare to the PlayStation branded Pulse Explore earbuds.BLUETOOTH! Major compatibility problem for most. I was well aware of it’s limited connectivity when I got it, and I have a Galaxy S23 so it is one of the few phones with BT LE. It works, granted my first attempt at connection did not go well.. I was only hearing from one earbud and mic was not picking up. I was going to write it off and deduct a star from my score but.. My S23 got a system update this week, I retried connecting, and it worked just as well any other earbuds should.PC/PS5/PHONE APPLICATIONS. Nocompanion app for the phone, none on the PS5, but I did my configurations on PC and the app is very easy to use and customize the earbud functions, add or remove functions etc. for example there are 3 noise cancelling/ambient modes to swap between, I reduced it to 2 for simplicity. There are probably more in-depth youtube videos on the app.ACTIVE NOISE CANCELLING. Great.AUDIO & MIC. I’m not an audiophile by any means, but they do sound great. I’ve been playing Warzone, Spider-Man 2, Resident Evil 4 and Gran Turismo 7 since I got them, I want to say I’m hearing just as well as I do with the Astro A50 and maybe better since I believe it’s employing spatial/3D audio whereas I’ve stuck with the old 5.1 audio on my headset.Mic quality I’ve been told is good, it was too loud initially but I turned the sensitivity down on the PS5 to around level 3 and other than the first person I tested it with no one since has said anything like “put the Astros back on your mic is trash” cause they haven’t noticed a massive drop off in quality. Win in my books cause these are earbuds.PS5 FUNCTIONALITY. All controls you could do on a PS Pulse headset are here, volume+/-, chat/game balance, and mute. Unfortunately that also means the Mute button on the Dualsense controller will no longer mute the mic, you’ll have to initiate it from the buds. It will also display the volume balances, battery life and mic status on screen.So I’ve customized the taps on the earbuds like this: (L) one tap = mute, two taps = Vol-, 3 = ANC on/off, long hold for game audio balance | (R) one tap = mute, two taps = Vol+, 3 = blank, long hold for chat audio balance. I’ve gotten used to these settings and making quick adjustments I need feels natural for me. In the PC app you can tailor the potential 4 function buttons each to your liking.COMFORT. You may have heard these are among the most comfortable earbuds you can get. I won’t be the person to say otherwise. It comes with 4 sets of tips in addition to the ones placed on them. I felt discomfort in the original tips after about 2 hours with the default tips, I sized it down one and these fit perfectly. I’ve had it in my ears for as long as 6 hours in one sitting and its almost unnoticeable.BATTERY LIFE. As I just mentioned, I had it on for an entire 6 hour session before, from what I remember they were still above 50%. These will last as long as you should need them to.WHAT DON’T I LIKE? Well the bluetooth compatibility is very very limited, only a few Android phones released this year will connect to it. So it won’t connect to my iPhone, it wont connect to a smart TV, smart watches, nothing else that your other earbuds could. But, it may be connecting to your future purchases as BT LE becomes more common.And while on the subject of bluetooth, no simultaneous audio from the transceiver and the BT device. It will automatically swap if you receive a call, or you can manually fully switch over by holding both buds at the same time for a few seconds, but you cannot get audio from both at the same time.You may be able to hear that white noise if nothing else is being played and you’re sensitive to that.No wireless charging case.THOUGHTS ON THE PULSE EXPLORE BUDS. The Pulse Explore may be functionally the same as the arc3 Buds, but compatible with almost all your bluetooth devices and I believe it will do simultaneous audio. That is probably where the advantages stop though, I’ve read there is no ANC, no button customizability, and the volume buttons may not work over bluetooth. For these reasons, I can’t see how they can be better than the arc3 Buds, but simultaneous audio and compatibility may be more important to someone else. I ordered a pair for science, I may update this section when it releases next month.*** UPDATE *** I tried the pulse earbuds for a week, didn’t like them as much. It’s just as I suspected above, but the simultaneous bt audio isn’t enough for me to give up the comfort and the customizability of the taps on these arc3 Buds.So these are all my thoughts on the arc3 Buds. Anything I left out may just not have been that important to me personally. $200 is steep, but I think they’re worth it overall.

I’ve been putting these earbuds through the proverbial grinder for some time now and I have to say, I’m quit satisfied overall. Despite an initial fitting issue (I have relatively small ears), once that was sorted it was all sunshine and rainbows. The buds do come with a good selection of silicone ear inserts to swap out.The buds are super easy to set up and use. Simple tap controls on the buds make it really easy and convenient to adjust volume levels and noise canceling.There is also a handy little app that you can install on your phone that helps you set the buds up for best sound and best fitting for your ear shape/type.Now for the sound….I was pretty blown away at how clear and concise the surround was. I play a lot of shooter/looters and fast action games that require precise and clear sound levels and these buds performed 10/10. The bass could be a *tad* better but overall the sound is amazing. You can also adjust and create presets in the desktop app which is convenient.Storage case is nice and solid and makes it super easy to charge the buds, which by the way, does not take an unreasonable amount of time. Speaking of fine…once fully charged the buds last a really long time.My only “gripe” is that unless you already have a USB-C port on your rig, you will need an adapter, as it doesn’t come with one. Not a huge deal, however.The price point is on the high end, but truthfully, worth every penny if you want great sound without having to wear a full headset.I’ve fully switched from my Razr headset to these buds and the only time I go back to the headset is if the buds need a charge. Really loving these!!

Works great the sound quality is good. I use it for games only. And the range is very far