Earfun Tune Pro

Excellent customizable sound at a fantastic Price

Following up on last year’s excellent Wave Pro, Earfun have a new entry in the sub $100 ANC market
with the Tune Pro. I have been fortunate enough to be listening to the Tune Pro for over a month now, using it on many trips, including bringing it to Munich High End. I loved the irony when in some rooms with $1 million+ systems, that I had something in my bag that sounded better at a fraction of the cost.

Given the Wave Pro is still available at $79.99, I think Earfun are probably eating into their own market with the Tune Pro. So, is it better than the Wave Pro? And how does it compete with other sub $100 ANC headphones? So these are the questions I will hopefully answer in this review. But first let’s get into the unboxing experience.

Unboxing and Build Quality

The Earfun Tune Pro arrives in clean, minimal packaging that reflects the company’s pragmatic approach: The back of the box:

Opening up, you see the headphones nicely protected:

Inside the box, you’ll find:

• Tune Pro headphones
• USB-C charging cable
• 3.5mm audio cable for wired use
• User manual

Note: You do not get a carry case with the Tune Pro, but it folds up nicely and is well built enough, that I just had it in my laptop bag on my recent trips.

The headphones themselves feature a nice but a now standard design that prioritizes functionality over flashy aesthetics, here they are with my well-used Earfun Wave Pro’s from last year:

While the design isn’t particularly distinctive (and shares many similarities with the Kiwi Ears Ardor), the build quality is excellent for the price point:

The controls are intuitive and easily accessible on the right ear cup, with physical buttons that provide tactile feedback; the left ear cup just has one button to toggle the ANC modes, so straightforward to remember:

Comfort

The headband features decent padding:

And the headband mechanism shows decent extension for larger heads:

The earpads have similar depth to the Wave Pro, though with the Wave Pro design makes them look deeper from the outside:

The earpads have decent internal dimensions:

Features and Connectivity

The Earfun Tune Pro boasts a similar set of features as the Wave Pro, with both sharing the excellent Earfun Companion app to allow configuration of these features. There are many more features that I haven’t mentioned below, like low-latency ‘Gaming mode’, multi-point connectivity and the ‘Theater mode’ to give a spatial quality to the music with some DSP tricks (though this mode is incompatible with the EQ).

But, I feel the following are for me the key features:

Active Noise Cancellation And Transparency

The ANC performance is excellent for headphones in this price range, as was the Wave Pro before it. You don’t get performance of flagship models from Apple, Bose, or Sony, I did find it excellent on some of my recent flights, cutting out the majority of background noise.

Multiple ANC modes allow you to tailor the level of noise cancellation to your environment, I especially like the Wind noise cancellation as it does a nice job of limiting the ’noise’ generated by wind on the external microphones.

It might sound like something simple but, for example, the fact it remembers the ANC mode on restart is very useful and for me makes the Tune Pro a much better ANC headphone than the similar priced UGreen Max5C which always turns on with ANC off, which I find very annoying.

Transparency (or Ambient Sound) is ok for briefly listening to the outside world but doesn’t sound ’natural’ so it is not something I would use.

Microphone

I thought the microphone did a decent job when on some work calls. It did suffer when I was outside walking, but that is typical at this price point.

Companion App

Perhaps the most significant advantage the Tune Pro has over headphones like the Final Audio UX3000 and Kiwi Ears Ardor is its companion app.

The app provides extensive customization options, including:

• Multiple ANC intensity levels
• Transparency mode adjustments
• Firmware updates
• Button customization

But the standout feature for me as it was with the Wave Pro is the level of EQ customizations: So you get a bunch of standard EQ profiles for things like Jazz or more Bass.

But then you can generate a personalised EQ:

And finally, you can control the 10-band PEQ:

The EQ functionality is particularly useful, as it allows you to address the slightly peaky treble that might be present in the default tuning, depending on your sensitivity to high frequencies.

Battery Life

Battery performance is nothing short of amazing, with ANC off you get up to 120 hours, and with ANC on you get 80 hours from the 1100mAh battery. On all of my trips over the past few weeks, I never felt that I was in danger of running out of battery, and you can fully recharge with 3 hours.

Bluetooth Performance

The Tune Pro features Bluetooth 5.3 with support for SBC, AAC, and aptX codecs, ensuring good wireless performance across various devices. Connection stability proved reliable during testing, with minimal dropouts even in crowded signal environments.

Multipoint Connection

The headphones support connecting to two devices simultaneously, allowing you to seamlessly switch between, for example, your computer and phone. This feature worked reliably in testing and is a welcome addition at this price point.

Sound Quality

The Tune Pro has impressed me with its reasonable balanced sound signature and the flexibility to fine-tune the experience to personal preferences. However, I would suggest using the mobile app to personalize the sound to your personal tastes first, but for this review I did listen to the “out of the box” sound signature first.

Note: There are dual drivers in the Tune Pro, and I don’t think these dual drivers actually helped the overall sound, and they possibly contributed to the treble being a bit ‘peaky,’ as you will see in the measurements section later.

Default Sound Signature

Out of the box, the Tune Pro delivers a V-shaped sound signature with an emphasis on clarity and detail. The tuning is impressive for headphones in this price range, offering good resolution across the frequency spectrum.

Bass

The bass response is tight and controlled rather than exaggerated. There’s sufficient impact for genres like hip-hop and electronic music, but it never becomes overwhelming or muddy. The low-end extension is good, with sub-bass that you can feel in tracks like Massive Attack’s “Angel” or Billie Eilish’s “bad guy.”

Mids

The midrange presentation is natural and clear, allowing vocals and instruments to shine. Listening to acoustic recordings and vocal-centric music reveals good timbre and presence, with both male and female vocals reproduced convincingly.

Treble

Here’s where the default tuning might require some adjustment depending on your preferences and sensitivity. The treble has excellent detail and extension, but there’s a slight peak that can sometimes make cymbals, high-hats, and certain vocal sibilance a bit prominent. This is easily addressed using the companion app’s EQ, where a small reduction around 8-10kHz creates a more refined high-frequency presentation without sacrificing detail.

As noted in my comparison with the Kiwi Ears Ardor (which shares a similar design), the ability to easily adjust this treble characteristic through the app gives the Tune Pro a significant advantage over its design sibling.

Soundstage and Imaging

For closed-back wireless headphones, the soundstage is reasonably spacious with good width and adequate height. Imaging is precise, allowing you to place instruments and vocals accurately within the sound field. Complex orchestral pieces maintain good separation even during busy passages.

ANC Impact on Sound

Unlike many ANC headphones that suffer significant sound quality degradation when noise cancellation is active, the Tune Pro maintains its tonal balance remarkably well with ANC enabled. There’s a very slight bass emphasis in ANC mode, but it’s subtle and actually complements the overall presentation when listening in noisier environments.

Comparisons

vs. Earfun Wave Pro

The Tune Pro represents an evolution from last year’s Wave Pro, offering a slightly improved sound tuning, better battery life and similar ANC performance for a slightly cheaper price.

They offer similar comfort and ultimately the decision between these 2 might come down to looks:

While the Wave Pro is still an excellent option in its own right, if you can get the Tune Pro at a discount (I have seen it as low as $55), it makes a more pragmatic choice.

vs. some other similar-priced ANC headphones

The Final Audio UX3000 is a more expensive ANC headphone but one that is often recommended, so I thought I would add it here for comparison. For me there is no comparison, the UX3000 is not as comfortable with tiny earpads:

It is also very clampy, at least on my large head, and has no App customization options, so while it has a reasonable default sound signature, I think the Tune Pro can very easily be customized to be a better sounding headphone.

Here are some more comparisons, and I included the excellent value for money Tronsmart Q20s:

I found the Tune Pro to be slightly more comfortable than the Tronsmart Q20s.

And finally up against the UGreen Max5C:

As I mentioned earlier, the UGreen lacks proper EQ customisations, though its Jazz preset does a good job of taming the bass on that headphone. But it has other quirks that made it a less enjoyable headphone for me.

vs. Flagship ANC headphone

When compared to premium offerings from Sony, Bose, and Apple, the Tune Pro lacks some of the refinement and absolute noise-cancelling performance of those flagship models. However, in terms of pure sound quality, especially after some minor EQ adjustments, the Tune Pro competes surprisingly well against these headphones. Tonally, after a bit of EQ adjustment within the Earfun Application, you get a better-sounding headphone, but if sound quality alone is your priority at this price, I would suggest going for a cheap open back planar like the Hifiman HE400SE.

Specifications and Measurements

Here was the Tune Pro when connected via usb to my Macbook Pro:

Measurements

All measurements were taken using my KB501X soft wear pinna.

These measurements are available on my measurement database here

Frequency Response

Let’s start with my recommendation after some EQ tweaking (with the EQ I have in the screenshot shown earlier in the review): Note: You might see how in this graph, how I would argue this headphone sounded better than setups at Munich High end that cost 10,000 times the cost.

But some subtle EQ profile tweaking can give some pleasant alternative tunings:

Here are those 2 alternative profiles within the new preference bounds:

But the default sound signature is much more V-shaped:

And while the Jazz preset is not bad, you can effectively tweak the Jazz preset using the 10 band EQ in the Earfun App to get a much closer match to Harman.

And are my raw measurements of this default sound signature:

You can see it is a V-shaped by default but some treble peaks. Note: I also spotted that the ANC Wind noise cancellation option seems to cause the upper midrange FR to change.

The only problem I feel with this headphone after EQ is that the treble with various peaks that are impossible to fix with the 10-band EQ within the Earfun App. However, a third party PEQ utility could potentially be used to solve some of these peaks.

I personally would go for the lower measurement above, but for those with like lots of bass, you certainly can get that with the Tune Pro.

FR comparisons

Here is the Tune Pro against the Wave Pro (both using my recommended EQ tweaks):

So while the Wave Pro is great with these ‘Harman’ EQ tweaks, the Tune Pro has a much smoother midrange showing that even though it is the cheaper headphone, it does have the better sound signature.

So comparison with the various similar other ANC headphones I referenced earlier:

You can see the Tune Pro lives up to its name with the best tuning of any of these headphones.

Distortion measurements

The Tune Pro shows only minimal distortion even when playing over 100dbSPL:

And as a percentage it does show a little peak but still below the hearing threshold:

Rating

The Earfun Tune Pro earns a 5-star pragmatic rating based on its exceptional value proposition and performance:

1. Sound Quality: Mostly balanced tuning with the ability to fine-tune through the app
2. Feature Set: Comprehensive for the price, including effective ANC and EQ app support
3. Build Quality: Solid construction with comfortable fit for long listening sessions
4. Battery Life: Outstanding longevity that exceeds most competitors
5. Value: Exceptional performance-to-price ratio that challenges much more expensive options

Conclusion

The Earfun Tune Pro represents one of the best values in the current ANC headphone market. By combining good sound quality for an ANC headphone, effective noise cancellation, extensive customization options, and excellent battery life in an affordable package, Earfun has created a compelling option for budget-conscious listeners who don’t want to compromise on performance.

While the design may not turn heads, the sound quality certainly will – especially after taking advantage of the companion app’s EQ capabilities to dial in your preferred sound signature. The ability to address the slight treble peak gives these headphones versatility that rivals can’t match at this price point.

For anyone seeking high-performance wireless ANC headphones without the premium price tag, the Earfun Tune Pro should be at the top of your consideration list. They deliver the essentials exceptionally well while offering customization options that allow them to grow with your preferences over time.