EarFun Wave Pro X headphones review: Another budget banger!

EarFun is no stranger to delivering loads of features at a relatively budget-friendly price point. The Wave Pro X are another example of that. With some tuning, the headphones sound great, and the ANC works as advertised. It is not the strongest ANC, but sufficient enough to drown out most ambient noise. The audio quality and feature set are complemented by the lightweight form factor, making them one of the most comfortable headphones I’ve personally used – and that’s coming from someone who wears glasses.

The closest competition to the Wave Pro X would be the Baseus Inspire XH1 (check out our review), and while the latter sounds marginally better thanks to the Bose tuning and has better ANC, they are also pricier. And despite the higher price tag, they lack support for Qualcomm’s aptX codecs. This makes the EarFun Wave Pro X headphones a better value-for-money package. 

The Wave Pro X are priced at $130 and are available via the official global store. They are also listed on Amazon for the same price, and at the time of publishing, both platforms are offering a 20% discount with the coupon code 'EFWPXNBC'. However, neither lists the white variant, and EarFun tells us it will be available at a later date.

The memory foam padding on the earcups and the band, paired with the 259-gram weight, makes the Wave Pro X headphones super comfortable. The earcups themselves are deep enough so your ears don’t touch the mesh or drivers inside. At the same time, the soft memory foam sits comfortably on top of glasses with just the right amount of clamping force. We did not face any discomfort over long hours of use.

The size adjustment is handled by defined steps, and you get 12 levels of adjustability. The lightweight design is also complemented by the fact that the earcups swivel to lay flat on your shoulders, and they also fold to shrink the headphones into a smaller accessory. Interestingly, the case accommodates the headphones with the earcups lying flat but not with them folded. If the case were designed to fit the folded earcups, it could have been a smaller package overall.

EarFun advertises the Wave Pro X as the world’s first Dual-Coaxial Acoustic Architecture (DCAA) ANC headphones with Auracast support. While these aren’t the first with dual drivers by any means, they are the first to combine Diamond-like carbon (DLC) and Liquid-crystal Polymer (LCP) drivers. Usually, earbuds use multiple drivers to manage different frequencies, so the setup is not as common among headphones. The Wave Pro X use 40mm DLC and 10mm LCP drivers for a more refined music listening experience – on paper.

Another feature that the company is promoting with the Wave Pro Xs is Hybrid Active Noise Cancelation (ANC). Again, these aren’t the first headphones with hybrid ANC, but they offer two types of AI-powered ANC enabled by an eight-microphone array: ‘Ear Adaptive’ and ‘Environment Adaptive’. EarFun says these can deliver “millisecond adjustments to create an uninterrupted, fully immersive soundstage.” There is also a wind noise cancelation option. More on these later.

The headphones are powered by the Qualcomm QCC3095 chip, which Qualcomm categorises as an SoC for mid-tier Bluetooth headphones. This enables support for LDAC, SBC, AAC, aptX Adaptive, aptX Lossless, and LC3 codecs. They also come with Hi-Res Wireless certification. Of course, the listening experience heavily depends on the audio source. With Bluetooth LE (Low Energy) support, the Wave Pro Xs are among the few smaller-brand headphones that support Auracast. This allows other Auracast-compatible devices like speakers, headphones, or earphones to tap into the audio without having to pair to the source. This also gives each individual user their personal volume control. By itself, Auracast is a pretty significant Bluetooth upgrade, but it needs support from larger brands to become a mainstream technology.

Out of the box, the EarFun Wave Pro X use the stock tuned ‘Default’ EQ, which sounds quite closed off, almost muffled. However, the ‘Rock’ and ‘Hip Hop’ presets feel much more open without compromising audio quality. If you’re not tuning each frequency for a custom EQ, we recommend switching to the ‘Rock’ or ‘Hip-Hop’ presets. But if you want to make a custom EQ, the EarFun Audio app offers a simple and a professional EQ adjustment. Pretty much all the adjustments you would need are present in the professional EQ setting. Furthermore, there is a ‘My Sound Profile’ option as well, which runs a test to tune the EQ for your ears.

The bass feels punchy yet crisp without any distortion at max volume. I kept it at 30-40% volume as it was the most comfortable, with occasional sessions at 50-60%. Of course, you can tweak the EQ to make the bass feel even more punchy if you so desire. All this customization is much appreciated considering these headphones don’t cost an arm and a leg.

With LDAC or aptX enabled, the Pixel 9 Pro XL automatically switches to HD Audio (in Developer options). Specifically, with LDAC, the 'Playback Quality' setting becomes available, allowing you to choose the highest bitrate of 990kbps. With headphones or earphones in the past, I’ve faced audio stability issues with the Pixel 9 Pro XL in 990kbps mode. With the Wave Pro X, I did not notice any inconsistencies, though that seems to be a fix brought by Pixel updates.