ALPHA Active Noise Cancelling Bluetooth Headphones

I’m a university professor in need of a solid set of headphones for distraction-free video conferencing, recording lectures and demonstrations, and listening to music. And I’m not an audiophile. I had been an ear bud user until I got my first set of headphones a few years ago – the Sennheiser PXC 550. These were a great all-around set (light and comfortable, excellent sound, great mic, and solid battery life) for multiple years, but I could not get or stay connected to my PC very consistently (way too frustrating!). I tried the Bose QC45 for a short time recently. They were light, super comfortable (plenty of room for my large head and ears, no cabin pressure, not too hot), and they sounded great. The downside – they did not play music and/or stay connected consistently to my Galaxy S22 Ultra and they were expensive ($280 Amazon sale). Enter the Cleer ALPHA. I read some great Amazon reviews on Cleer products, although relatively few of them, and decided to give them a shot. Purchased for $170 from the Cleer website ($200 minus 15% exclusive pop-up offer). I’ve been using them a lot for a few weeks now and love them. Why? They connect seamlessly to my Galaxy and [perhaps more importantly] to my Surface Laptop Studio (Win 11), and they stay connected. They have great audio for video conferencing (Zoom and Teams meetings mainly) – I hear others and they hear me…loud and clear. The mics work extremely well for recording my lectures/demos in Camtasia; they may be too good because they pick up my key strokes and mouse clicks. The battery life is maybe a few hours less than advertised, but still more than reasonable. The Dirac Virtuo really does spatially enhance the music listening experience, but I believe the Cleer+ app EQ allows plenty of adjustments. The standard bass, mids, and highs are all super clear, balanced, and robust…IMHO better than the slightly flatter sounding QC45 and about on par with the PXC 550. The noise cancelling works as well or better than all I’ve tried (Bose QC45, Sennheiser PXC 550, Sony 1000XM4, Technics EAH-A800, Soundcore Q35), as does the ambient mode (which has 10 levels of “effectiveness”). The auto play/pause wear detection and the touch controls on the right ear cup are nice features that work well, but I personally wouldn’t miss them if they were absent. My only [minor] negatives on the ALPHA headphones – they are noticeably heavier than almost all I’ve tried, the ear cups are not quite big enough for my larger ears that stick out a bit more than some, and the touch controls sometimes don’t work as expected (trying to adjust the volume sometimes pauses music, but it probably just takes time/practice to get it down). It takes several seconds to find the best fit and seal over my ears. Once fitted, they do cause a little fatigue after an hour or so, but I’m OK with taking them off for a breather now and then. Maybe Cleer will make a thicker/deeper ear cup pad for us larger-eared folks!? The numerous positives about these headphones help make the less-than-perfect fit around my ears quite tolerable. If you have similar needs or desires to mine, you should seriously consider buying the Cleer ALPHAs…they’re absolutely worth it. I have no regrets!

I have had mine for about 7 months now. I bought them because I wanted to try something new after owning Sony’s WH-1000XM2 for about 4 years. I bought these mainly because of their look, plus online reviews say they are okay. However, I can’t walk with them on without my music stopping, and if I am standing or sitting somewhere, I cannot turn my head or the music will stop. Being in the gym with them on is even worse. My second complaint is that although the build quality looks and even feels good, The paint started to peel off after a couple of months of using them, and then the sponge cover for the top of my head and the right earmuff are both already done. Although the earmuffs are easy to replace because they are magnetized on there, finding a replacement is close to impossible unless I have been looking in the wrong places.

Other than my complaints above, the sound quality is great and I would give it a 4 star if I was rating just that alone.