2024-01-23 14:00:00
At first glance, Sony’s PlayStation Pulse Explore may seem like the strangest in-ear headphones on the market today, whether or not they’re designed specifically for gaming. The shape of the case, the shape of the device, the proprietary PlayStation Link protocol and the so-called “planar magnetic drive.” . Nothing here is traditional or boring.
The PlayStation Portal was met with similar wonder and admiration, but Portal actually managed to turn indifference into sympathy by providing fairly solid but unique features for specific users, so can Pulse Explore do the same?
Okay, so if you want a pair of gaming in-ear headphones, what are your biggest concerns? You may care about good sound, and here the inclusion of so-called “planar magnetic” drivers is important. These come from audio maker Audeze, which Sony recently acquired, and they’ve experimented with these drivers in products before that cost much more than these, but they’re often distinguished by accuracy, depth, and avoidance of some of the classics we’ve seen in products like the Pulse Explore It’s been praised for its traps – it also means you get the full benefits of 3D sound, which is used by many third parties as well as Sony’s own PlayStation Studios in its major flagship games. Lossless also has almost no lag, so that’s a plus too.
However, there is an obvious trade-off here. The case is large, three times the size of traditional Bluetooth in-ears, but that’s not a big deal when it’s not going to be in your bag every day.What is important is that the device itself is huge, e.g. enormous . They are so big that comfort is lost, and they have to be twisted into place to ensure a good fit. But even though they’re big, battery life is still “only” five hours. Of course, there are still 10 hours left in the box, but if you run out while playing the game, they’ll go back to the box anyway.
There’s still Bluetooth, dual connectivity to smartphones, support for the AAC codec and a good set of microphones ensuring pretty good background noise cancellation, so aside from active noise cancellation, there’s nothing glaringly missing.
PlayStation Link allows you to connect directly to PS5 or PlayStation Portal without the help of a 2.4GHz dongle, but if you want to use a dual connection between console and PC, such dongles are also included, e.g. &
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The main competition probably comes from Sony’s own inZone Buds, and while they don’t support 3D audio and don’t have PlayStation Link, they also produce surprisingly good sound with their Dynamic Driver 8.4mm X drivers, which we’re talking about here That’s up to 36 hours of battery life, not 15 hours.
But with Link, Sony is building an ecosystem, and if you’re already invested in that, buying the Pulse Explore is a scam, even at the 1,699 that Sony seems to be asking for. If you ask me, that’s a bit much, especially considering the limitations, but the sound quality is hard to argue with.
Here is an ad:
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