Hey gang, Valkor here. When I first started attending the Luxury Tech Show, I always went in with the mindset that I probably won’t walk away with anything but coverage of the show. And I was totally OK with that. Thankfully, I’ve always been able to walk away with an item or two that I can review here on the site. And the next tech item up for Val-Cave approval comes from SOL Republic, a company I’ve followed through many tech events such as CES. And for their first entry to the cave, they’ve brought their latest Bluetooth earbuds – the Amps Air Wireless Earphones. Experiencing them on the LTS show floor was one thing, but bringing them home was a whole other experience entirely.
The Amps Air are little ear buds stored inside a capsule-like case; each bud projects its own signal so you can use one (for talking purposes) or both together (for listening to music, playing games etc). At the top of the buds, you have the Sol Republic logo, while underneath are the charging points, which the case doubles not only as storage but also a charging base. And no need to worry about the Amps Air jostling about inside the case or accidentally popping out as the buds attach within the case magnetically. On the right side of the case you’ll find both USB and a microUSB port; with the USB port, you can use the case to give your device a quick boost when it's running low. Continuing with the buds, you’ll find that they both have LED lights that change color depending on their status. Once charged, the Amps Air seamlessly connects via Bluetooth to whatever device you wish to use them with such as a smartphone, tablet, or gaming device.
Setting up Amps Air was easy as you simply take them out of the case, pop them in your ears and wait for the voice prompt to let you know that they’re “ready to pair”. After that, it’s all about what device you want to use them with. For my testing purposes, I went with the Samsung S7 for music and the Nexus 7 for movies and gaming. Hell, I even tried to connect the buds to my PS4. They didn’t connect, and I didn’t expect them too. But I had to try. Yea, I really put the Amps Air through the wringer.
The Bang:
First up, let’s talk comfort. Given the minuscule size of the Amps Air, I have to say that they’re quite comfortable, especially for long term use; I’ve sat through hours of listening to music and gaming without ever wanting or needing to take them out. I’m not saying they feel non-existent, but they give off the feeling of not being there while actually being there. Now the audio is where the Amps Air shines. Again, I tried them out at the LTS show and they sounded amazing! And testing them out in the cave produced the same results across the board with music, movies, and gaming. The audio was well balanced with a powerful bass that didn’t distort even at the highest volumes. With both movies and music, you get a big, bold sound with crystal clear vocals that don’t overpower the background. And with movies and gaming, the Amps Airs does well-handling sounds from any direction, which is definitely on par with the bigger gaming headphones. Plus it gives you that winning edge. Last but not least, I was really impressed with how well the Amps Airs handled phone calls. Usually, with earbuds, you get that effect “underwater effect” where things sound muffled. However, when I received my first phone call, it didn’t sound that way at all. The other party came through crystal clear and of course, they could hear me just fine. I was already won over by Sol Republics Amps Air and having to try them out in the cave put them over the top. Amps Air is small, lightweight and most importantly their sound quality is pretty damn impressive.
The Slack:
For the most part, anyone who buys Amps Air will pretty much use them for music. However, if you go beyond that, I found out of all of the gaming apps I tested with the earbuds, one came across distorted (Pokemon Shuffle). There may be others, so I just wanted to put it out there that the earbuds may not work with every app.
If you want to know more about SOL Republic and their products, just click that logo to the right for more. But for now, I highly recommend investing in a pair of Amps Air; you get great sound quality, damn good bass, and an overall immersive audio experience that's definitely worth the price of admission. So out of TOV 5 stars, I’m giving SOL Republic Amps Air Wireless Earbuds a perfect 5.
