CMF Buds Pro 2 Headphones Review

The CMF Buds Pro 2 look a lot like other stemmed earbuds that borrow the basic shape from Apple AirPods Pro (2nd generation) lineage. They use a mixture of glossy and matte plastics for added visual interest in an otherwise mostly monochromatic or tonal scheme. The outer edge of the stems is matte with subtle branding, too. Available in 'Dark Grey,' 'Light Grey,' 'Orange,' and 'Blue,' each set comes with a matching squarish case that includes a dial. The solid colors are a visual departure from the translucent retro-futuristic look of the Nothing Ear, produced by the parent company.

The earbuds feel decently comfortable. They're lightweight with three sizes of oblong silicone ear tips. Since they're light and don't fit too deeply in-ear, you won't feel a lot of pressure. That said, the buds are on the larger size and can inch out over time, requiring adjustment. Compared to more ergonomic designs or ones with additional stabilizers, their fit and comfort can vary depending on your ear shape.

The CMF Buds Pro 2 have good controls overall. Out of the box, the touch commands on the buds are intuitive. You can view the default controls for the left bud and right bud. They chime to indicate pairing status or when you enter a command. You can reassign these commands within their app to suit your needs, alongside the extra controls you can map onto the case's rotating and clickable dial. However, the case's controls are disabled by default, and it's possible (if you assign controls to the wheel) to accidentally trigger a command when the case is stowed in your pocket. Still, the option to add extra functions to the wheel is handy.

The touch controls on the buds are also a bit fussy and don't consistently respond, occasionally misfiring the number of taps you enter, though. On the upside, having more than a single tap somewhat mitigates accidentally registering a command.

These earbuds are remarkably portable, as you'd expect from Bluetooth buds. You can easily fit them into your pockets.

The charging case is good. Its squarish shape resembles the Nothing Ear's case silhouette with a clamshell opening design that lets it sit on a flat surface without sliding around. It charges via USB-C but not wirelessly. A pairing button resides inside the case and a single LED on the outside indicates pairing and battery charge statuses. The rotating control wheel is the only point of possible weakness and seems a bit flimsier than the rest of the case.

The CMF Buds Pro 2 are well built. The buds and case are made of good-quality plastic and silicone for the ear tips. The buds don't have obvious or rough seams to irritate your ears. There's some conflict on the product page and box as to whether the earbuds are rated IP55 or IP54 for dust and water resistance, but we don't perform compliance tests. In any case, they ought to stand up to raindrops and a bit of dust exposure.

The case's magnets and hinges feel sturdy, while the plastic has a pleasing matte texture. That said, the control wheel on the case feels a bit flimsy and it shifts a bit when clicking or rotating it.

The earbuds have good stability. For everyday activities like walks, office work, and commutes, they stay in when you tilt your head or lightly shake it. However, their in-ear fit isn't very deep, so more vigorous movements can knock them loose since their plastic isn't grippy, and neither are the ear tips.

• CMF Buds Pro 2
• Charging case
• USB-A to USB-C charging cable (26.7cm / 10.5 inches)
• 3x pairs of ear tips (S, M, L)
• Safety information booklet
• Connection guide booklet

When the Dirac Opteo setting is enabled with ANC on, the CMF Buds Pro 2 have a bassy and somewhat warm sound profile. Across the low-end, a big dose of extra rumble, punch, and boom is boosted, suiting dance and hip-hop genres well. The mid-range is tilted to emphasize low-mids like bass guitar harmonics. Meanwhile, vocals sound less present in the mix due to the relative de-emphasis in the high-mids through low-treble, which sounds warm or dull, depending on the track. A sharp boost to the mid-treble injects the mix with extra detail that can also come across as a little shrill. This tuning has more in common with the Anker Soundcore Liberty 4 NC Truly Wireless than the Nothing Ear (a) that the CMF shares their app with.

Through the app, you can access other EQ presets. If you choose to connect via the LDAC codec, it disables the Dirac Opteo setting. In addition to the EQ presets, you can enable the Ultra Bass setting, which does what it says on the tin by upping the bass in the frequency response. While the sound profile mostly adheres to the same curve, there's a bit less bass and treble and a little more mid-range when you disable ANC.

The earbuds' frequency response consistency is impressive. There's very little deviation in the bass through the mids between seatings. While treble varies a little, it's not a massive difference between wears, ensuring your audio sounds nearly the same between listening sessions.

The bass compliance is passable with our target response profile. The entire region is boosted for ample thump and punch, which you might enjoy if you like that extra low-end oomph on sub-bass synths and kicks on songs like No Business by Durand Bernarr and E-Whizz. Still, the added bass can make it harder for vocals and leads in other frequency ranges to come through with clarity.

The mid-range target compliance is very good. Although it tilts to emphasize the low-mids and slightly de-emphasize the high-mids, it's mostly balanced for melodic instruments and speech to sound mostly natural. The low-mid boost can sound somewhat muddy in busy mixes, though.

The treble compliance is middling. The low-treble range is relatively de-emphasized, which warms up vocals but can sound dull. A peak in the mid-treble brightens up sibilants (S and T sounds) and the harmonics of cymbal hits, but it can sound a bit piercing.

Their peaks and dips performance is great. There are small wobbles, which are subtle through the bass and mid-range, producing a smooth sound. The low-treble has a small peak that is a little harsh, followed by a dip that slightly dulls vocals. A peak in the mid-treble causes cymbals to jump out in the mix as somewhat piercing, while the dips and peaks in the upper treble can depend on your hearing sensitivity.

We encountered issues measuring the imaging results with these earbuds with our testing rig. However, we didn't notice issues with use or with other testing equipment. We'll update this section in the future.

These are in-ear fitting buds and as a result they bypass your pinnas, which correlate with your perception of direction and distance. They're also closed-backed, so they don't interact with your environment to create an open sound.

Through the Nothing X app, you can access the spatial audio effect. It's created by DSP, so it applies an effect to your audio regardless of whether it has been mixed and mastered specifically for the spatial audio effect. Functionally, it's a bit sparse and doesn't track your head movements, which would make it feel more immersive like the Apple AirPods Pro (2nd generation)'s Spatialize implementation. Still, it's an interesting way to hear your music differently or experiment with making an action movie seem more engaging.

The CMF Buds Pro 2 have impressive weighted harmonic distortion. Across the audible frequency range at lower and high volumes, they output little distortion, leading to a pure and clean signal.

These are the settings used to test these earbuds. Our results are only valid when using them in this configuration.

The CMF Buds Pro 2 have very good noise isolation. With the ANC set to 'High,' they cut out low-pitched noise well, as well as mid-range sounds like office chit-chat. You can also choose 'Adaptive' mode, which seems to perform similarly to 'High,' or choose a lower strength for less environmental isolation, as shown for comparison. While the buds have a fit test in the app to help you find the best ear tip size, the buds don't passively block shrill noises super consistently. That means some high-pitched noises can stick out more than others, depending on the frequency.

The CMF Buds Pro 2 have impressive noise isolation in common scenarios. They attenuate deep noises like street construction, alongside airplane din, and shrill racket such as squeaky brakes well. They perform similarly to the affordable Anker Soundcore Space A40 Truly Wireless, which edge ahead when it comes to office noises.

These don't have a dedicated wind mode to mitigate the noises produced by ANC when wind interacts with the mics. That said, the amount of unwanted noises from the interaction with wind that reach your ears depends on the angle of the wind blowing.

Their leakage performance is excellent. Depending on your environment and how high your volume is set, most people won't hear your audio. But if they do, they'll hear a very thin version of your audio. 

The microphone system is passable. It captures your voice intelligibly because it includes most of the range where human voices reside. But it cuts the lows, thinning out your voice a bit, and also boosts frequencies where sibilants occur, which can make your voice sound artificially piercing.

The mic's noise handling is satisfactory. It prioritizes your voice, but because the noise gating is constantly adjusting, intermittent background noise still comes through at times. Sudden sounds like trains are mostly filtered out, so callers can still hear you speaking.

The battery performance is satisfactory. With ANC on, the continuous battery life measured was 6.5 hours, which lines up well with the advertised battery life (when using the AAC codec). It's a little shorter than the more upscale Nothing Ear but longer-lasting than the pared-back Nothing Ear (a). The case provides an extra three charges and recharges the buds fully in under an hour. A quick charge of 10 minutes is advertised to yield 1.8 hours of playback with ANC. Depending on how you use the earbuds, it affects the battery life, so if you take a lot of calls, it reduces the battery life slightly, and the LDAC codec decreases the playback time to only 4.3 hours, according to the manufacturer.

Despite the brand name of CMF, the earbuds use their parent company's Nothing X app, which works with Android and iOS. Its functionality is good—in use, it's very similar to the Nothing Ear (a) with EQ presets and a three-band EQ, while lacking the more comprehensive graphic EQ with Q-factor supported on the Nothing Ear. If you want even more bass, you can choose Ultra Bass to augment any of the EQ presets. Take a look at the tour of the app.

It includes a fit test, alongside letting you remap the controls to your tastes and allocate commands to the charging case's wheel. You can adjust the strength of ANC or enable Transparency mode. Low-lag mode and LDAC codecs are available connection options, too, though using LDAC disables the Dirac Opteo sound mode. Control over multi-pair with two devices, and Find My Earbuds help you manage the buds. In lieu of a traditional voice assistant, you can integrate ChatGPT, which is more streamlined if you also get the CMF Phone 1 to match. However, unlike Apple, most of the functions are available outside of the CMF/Nothing ecosystem.

These Bluetooth earbuds only use their USB-A to USB-C cable to charge their case.

The CMF Buds Pro 2 have excellent Bluetooth connectivity. They can connect over AAC, LDAC, or the standard SBC codecs. You can enable Dual Connection via the app to pair a second device, though it's not a seamless connection, and you need to manually switch devices through the app. The app has a Low Lag mode, which was enabled for the measurements shown, so depending on your device and app, you may still experience A/V mismatch with videos. They support Google Fast Pair and Microsoft Swift Pair with compatible devices, but don't quick pair to iOS.

You can connect the earbuds to Bluetooth-compatible PCs for full mic and audio support.

The case's battery only charges via its USB-C port and holds up to three extra recharges for the earbuds.