The Nothing Ear 3A look great… and sound good enough

Summary

Nothing has had a strong visual identity since the Ear 1 were released in 2021 for $99andchallengedthenotionthatahighlyfeaturedheadsetrequiresahighprice.TheEar3AhavethesametransparentlookasNothing’spreviousearbuds,withaclearcaseandstemdesignaccentedbyasolid-coloredbody—thistimeaddingastrikingpinkalongsideyellow,black,andwhiteoptions.AndNothingcontinuestoimprovebothANCandaudioperformance.ButtheEar3AalsosharethebuggyperformancethathasplaguedNothingearbuds.While$99 is an attractive price for them, be ready to deal with some minor adaptive ANC and call quality issues. The Nothing Ear 3A look great… and sound good enough At $99, Nothing can get away with some minor flaws, especially when the earbuds look this good. The Good

• Great overall performance for the price
• Robust EQ The Bad
• Default sound is bass-heavy
• Some inconsistencies with adaptive ANC The Ear 3A have 12mm dynamic drivers and support the high-res LDAC codec, along with SBC and AAC. Their default sound is very heavy on the bass, and while it gives bass lines extra punch, the midrange — which includes vocals and guitars — gets covered by the excessive low end. Bassheads might enjoy it, but it’s far too much for my taste, and I expect that will be the same for most people. Where I might ding some points for this on other earbuds, the Nothing 3A save themselves from that because of the robust EQ in the app. There’s a simple interface with four presets and a custom 3-band EQ, a nice 8-band parametric EQ that gives you more advanced adjustments, and some additional EQ profiles from users curated by Nothing. In less than a minute I was able to adjust the EQ to something far more balanced to my ear (I added a downward slope to the bass below 115Hz, mid boost between 220–540Hz, another slight cut to the shouty frequencies between 2–3.5kHz, and some extra highs above 6.6kHz for a more open sound). It gave Chris Robinson’s voice more presence on “Thorn in My Pride” and his brother Rich and Marc Ford’s guitars nice crunch and bite as the song builds through the solo. And even with the cut to the low end, Johnny Colt’s bass supports the band throughout. ANC performance is improved over previous Nothing earbuds, with solid cancellation particularly in the lower mids and bass range, so low drones like air conditioners or plane cabin noise get filtered out very well. For $99,theyalsodoadecentjobwithhigherfrequencies,butifyouplantousethemconsistentlyinacoffeeshopyou’llstillhearordersbeingcalledoutabit.AndifthehighANCsettingistoomuchforyou,therearemidandlowsettingsthatletinabitmoreofthelowendtogroundyouinreality.There’salsoanadaptiveANCsetting,buthere’swheresomeoftheminorissuesIencounteredstarted.Whileoutonwalksaroundtheneighborhood,occasionally(maybetwoorthreetimesduringanhourwalk)theANCintensitywouldquicklyadjusttoletinmuchmoreambientnoiseandthenswitchbacktoitspreviouslevel.Thewholeexperiencelastedmaybetwosecondseachtimeandwasdisorienting.Itriedtotakenoteofwhatmighthavetriggeredit,butcouldn’tfindaconsistentsituationthatwouldcauseittohappen.Ingeneral,whenevertheadaptiveANCmakesachangetotheintensity,it’ssuddeninsteadofthemoregradualchangethatmy[AppleAirPodsPro3](/headphone-review/777798/airpods-pro-3-review-active-noise-cancelling-live-translation-headphones)or[SonyWF-1000XM6](/tech/877503/sony-wf-1000xm6-earbuds-review)do—forhundredsofdollarsmore.TheoneissueIwasabletofigureout,alsoaboutvolumeattenuation,waswithmycallquality.WhiletalkingtoafriendIregularlycallwhentestingearbuds,ifIwasjustlisteningtohim,hecouldn’thearanythingfrommysideatall.Notraffic,nowind,nobreathing,nothing.Atonepointhewonderedaloudifthecallhaddisconnected.WhenIwastalking,IsoundedclearandnaturaltohimifIstartedtalkingwhentherewasn’talotofambientnoisearoundme.Whenthesoundaroundmegotlouder—suchasmorecarsdrivingby—abitofthatsoundleakedthrough,althoughmyvoicestillsoundednatural.ButifIstartedtalkingwhiletherewasalotofnoisearoundme,myvoicesoundeddarkastheearbudsstronglyfilteredoutupper-midandhighfrequencies,includingdoingagreatjobtampingdowntheloudambientsound.BoththeANCandcallqualityissuescouldbeaddressedwithfuturefirmwareupdates(mytestingwaswithfirmware\mathrm{1.0.1.59}),andifyouuseoneofthestaticANCsettingsinsteadofadaptiveANC,ordon’tplanonmakingcallsinnoisyareas,thenthey’reanonissueanyway.TheNothingEar3Aalsoinclude32MBofon-devicestorage,allowingthemtorecorduptotwohoursofacallortakeanaudiosnapshot(Nothing’sterm)ofuptooneminute.Whenyouthenaccesstheapp,youcantransfertherecordingsontoyourdevice.Whenbeginningacallrecording,amessageplaystonotifyeveryone.Icaneasilyseetheuseofrecordinganimportantcalltomakesureyoudon’tmissanyinformation(althoughthiscanalsoeasilybedonethroughyourphone),butIhaveyettofindareasonfortheaudiosnapshot.Itonlyrecordsuptoaminuteofwhatyou’relisteningto,notanythingaroundyouusingtheearbuds’microphones,atlowerfidelity.It’suniquetotheNothing3A,butalsogimmicky.I’mgladtheNothingEar3Areturnedtoapriceunder$100 after the $179 Ear 3. Nothing is at its best when it’s challenging what can be done for less — and I’m more forgiving of its minor flaws. While the sound wasn’t my taste out of the box, the fact you can make meaningful adjustments and tune it to your preferences makes them more versatile than most earbuds at the same price. Photography by John Higgins / The Verge Most Popular
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By John.Higgins

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