Following another RAGING ear infection, I’m finally back and healthy. Time to shove MORE EARBUDS IN MY EARS!
And I finally get to revisit a surprising premium True Wireless bud. My friend Jeff at ElJefeReviews sent the NuraTrue Pro my way, and this elicited a really surprising reaction from me on first listen.
You can LITERALLY see that reaction in my podcast, where I set them up live.
Then my ear infection flared, and I spent two months keeping IEMs and tips out of my ears.
Finally getting that inflammation to calm down, I was really excited to take the NuraTrue for a spin again. They do not disappoint.
Hardware / Design
The NuraTrue are broad flat buds, with longer arms for eartips. A lot of the effects and ANC depend on a good fit IN the ear, and these buds might not work for folks who dislike deeper insertion eartips.
They come well accessorized for fit. You get four sizes of silicone eartip with one foam pair. I wish the foam tips were a little thicker, or that we got two sizes of foam. I really enjoy earbuds with “wing” attachments. Two sizes of wings are included to help press the bud against the side wall of your ear, and keep the internal fit a bit more snug.
The only design gripe I have is the snug fit of the buds in the case. I’ve been using them for a while, and it’s still sometimes a fumble-y experience quickly popping them out of the case.
The case is a standard container and charger. The buds themselves are rated for up to eight hours of playback WITH ANC ON, and I was close to that on my first full charge. The case extends runtime up to another 24 hours, for a total of up to 32 hours total playback before the whole kit needs to be recharged. The case does support Qi wireless charging, but it was a bit finnicky with my two wireless chargers, especially any charger that might prop a phone up vertically.
Fast charge is on tap, with five minutes of charging getting you around an hour of playback, but with battery life this long, I honestly haven’t encountered a situation where I NEEDED that speed. It’s nice to have of course. The NuraTrue are now in territory closer to my Beyerdynamic Free Byrd as premium earbud battery champs.
I don’t particularly care much about design as long as I get a good fit, but there is something a little unique about a black disc in your ear. It’s simple, but it’s distinct. A change of pace from AirPod clones, and I tend to get a better fit with earbuds that don’t have a “cut off cable” stalk design.
Sound Quality
The bold claims for the NuraTrue Pro, sound quality, audio codecs, and software personalization.
There’s a ton of cool tech on tap, but none of that matters if the sound isn’t on point. This is a difficult conversation to stage, as personalizing sound is just that: DEEPLY personal. In using the buds “straight out of the box”, and taking time to setup an ear scan to customize, it’s a unique listening experience which will likely be a little different for each listener.
With no customizing or spatial audio on, they’re a solid and straightforward consumer ear bud. It’s not a smiley face EQ, but just a bit of color to the upper mids and highs. I find some of the “crunchy mids” like guitar distortion can get a bit lost in the mix. Lows have a pleasant thump to bass, if maybe lacking some of the distinct articulation on bass attack, but it’s all pleasant and clear and colorful. Lows don’t get boomy. Highs are a touch bright for my tastes, but we avoid pop tracks veering shrill. It’s a “fun” sound.
This is where “quality” also helps. The NuraTrue Pro support the newest Qualcomm aptX Lossless codec, with true bit-for-bit CD quality playback. This has to be supported on both phone and earbuds, so older Qualcomm powered devices probably won’t support it. aptX Adaptive is also on tap for lossy 24/96 playback. Regular aptX and AAC are included as fallbacks for phones that lack higher quality support.
Juggling those codecs, the differences might be slight, but they’re appreciated.
There’s a difference between using buds in noisy environments, and wanting a higher quality experience when you’re settled in somewhere quiet. aptX Lossless is a nice step in the right direction for delivering that quality when you want it. Most of my listening was through Qobuz (which defaults to at least CD quality, but often supports higher quality streams) and I juggled a couple phones with 8+ Gen 1 and 8 Gen 2 SOCs.
I’m not sure I could detect any significant difference in audio quality from aptX Lossless to aptX Adaptive HD, but dropping down to AAC was noticeable, especially on Android.
Firing up the Android app, and customizing playback, something interesting happens.
The customized tuning does an EQ manipulation based on your ears. It’s supposed to highlight frequencies of sound to aid your specific hearing (and in my case hearing loss). I’ve always been a bit reluctant to engage with these kinds of modes. I find some of the corrections sound fantastic, and some of the corrections sound completely wrong to how I know or understand a piece of music.
That customized mode on its own scored about the same for me in my testing playlist. I know those songs REALLY well, and even if this EQ tweaking is built “for me”, it can sometimes change TOO much of what I know a song sounds like.
Then there’s the Spatial Audio mode, and my feelings are similar. Spatial audio “tricks” depend on EQ manipulation, stereo widening, and adding effects like reverb to simulate space. Most of the time I think spatial audio sounds wrong on music originally mixed for stereo playback. It sounds fun on action movies, and can sometimes help lift dialog out of sound effects and a film’s score.
For music though, I’ve never much considered it an “audiophile” effect. I think a LOT of people LIKE spatial because it makes music sound different. It’s a novelty. It’s not better.
Only engaging the spatial mode on the NuraTrue Pro, I felt about the same. It’s fun. It’s novel. I probably wouldn’t use it much for music.
Individually, I think the customized tuning and the spatial audio modes are kind of a shrug. I don’t much like either when they’re used on their own. Combining the two however gave me a bit of an “oh my” moment.
The spatial audio mode helps round off some of the edges created by the customized tuning. Juiced frequencies of sound that normally feel “manipulated”, aren’t as aggressive when they’re panned out farther in space. Likewise, the stereo effects that can sometimes place instruments in unusual places aren’t as ratcheted when the customized tuning can help lift details in the mix so I can hear it better.
Your mileage will certainly vary, but I can’t listen to these buds with only one option active. It’s all or nothing. I like having a more direct (flatter) option with the plain out of the box tuning, and the combo of Spatial+Custom is a really juicy fun “vibrant” mode. It’s like candy versus a healthy meal. I KNOW the buds are tweaking a bunch of things that usually annoy me, but the combo together is just DARN fun.
The Tech Bits
I like this flavor of ANC, where it minimizes environmental sound around you, but isn’t hyper isolating. There’s just a vague sense of traffic around you if you’re walking outside. The buds will minimize office “droning”, but incidental sounds like typing on a clacky keyboard still cut through.
It’s a natural roll off that feels a lot like you’re just wearing a good pair of earplugs, and avoids the worst of that “stuffy ear” feel some buds deliver.
Likewise the audio pass through is good, but feels a touch distant. Directional audio is clear, but maybe feels just a tiny step quieter than the surroundings. We don’t want amplified traffic sounds, but you’d want to get a feel for these buds. Thankfully, louder sounds seem to be rolled off, so we avoid a shrill shock.
A lot of folks will appreciate the two-device multi-point connection, and it works fantastically well. Trade off between devices is quick, and the user can set rules for auto-pause during the hand off. This is a critical feature moving forward for premium buds, and Qualcomm tech is well represented here. We shouldn’t tie features like this to proprietary partnerships. Two phones, or a phone and a tablet, or a phone and a PC, the earbuds dictate what pairings are allowed.
Lastly, we also get good options for controlling gain. You can choose to enable the new EU regulated volume maximum, or you can enable a higher gain output mode. I would recommend NOT maxing out the audio if you can help it, as they can get quite loud and that’s bad for your hearing health.
Wrapping This Up…
I really enjoyed these. They’re tech forward, one of the first out of the gate with Qualcomm’s new lossless tech, and this is maybe the most fun I’ve had with spatial audio and ear tuning. There aren’t any weak spots here. I can’t find any stumbles or serious dealbreakers.
This is one of the first to feature this kind of tech, and the price reflects that. Earbuds are FIERCLY competitive right now. The NuraTrue Pro are not cheap at $329. They’re near the top of the price pile for a consumer wireless earbud.
Depending on which features you care about most, it might not be too difficult finding an earbud to meet that need for $100 less. Maybe more.
The main recommendation comes down to the codec quality (which I have to believe other earbuds will adopt over this next year), and NuraTrue’s excellent ear scanning. They’re on the spendy side, but the customizing is a lot of fun.