Crossbeats Arc Buds OWS review: Spatial Audio on a budget

Rating: 3.5/5

At a time when true wireless stereo (TWS) earphones are available at a wide range of price points and features, Open-Ear Wearable Stereo (OWS) earphones are a niche category, still carving its space in the market. The technology, however, is not widely available, making each new entrant an exciting prospect – such as Crossbeats Arc Buds OWS – promising a blend of immersive sound and situational awareness.

Crossbeats Arc Buds, claimed to be India’s first OWS earbuds, come with features like spatial audio and head-tracking that are specifically found on premium offerings. Priced at Rs 3,699, these aren't your traditional TWS earbuds; they aim to deliver an immersive audio experience without isolating users from their surroundings. But can they deliver on their promise of exceptional sound quality and comfort? Let's dive into the details to find out if the Crossbeats Arc Buds OWS truly stand out in this emerging category.

Design

The Crossbeats Arc Buds OWS are available in two classic colour options: Black and Blue. The case, while somewhat large, boasts a design reminiscent of the iconic Nokia 1100. This ensures that slipping it into your pocket won't be an issue, even if you prefer a more tight fit in your trousers. As for the looks, there’s a light blue strip (or grey, in the black variant) on the case, lending it a distinctive visual touch.

The case's curvy lid features a pattern of punched "x" marks, contrasting with its flat bottom. The lid itself operates with a smooth, soft open/close mechanism, although it is slightly wobbly.


A USB Type-C port is conveniently located on the back, and the case's overall shape is reminiscent of a smooth stone that one may find near a river bank. The soft-touch finish and absence of sharp edges contribute to a comfortable grip.

Inside the case of Crossbeats Arc Buds OWS, the earbuds rest flat, and an LED indicator displays the remaining battery percentage for the case. The charging animation indicates which earbud is being charged and the LED remains illuminated even when the case is closed until both earbuds reach a full juice.

As for the earbuds themselves, they sport a dolphin-shaped ear hook design crafted from soft, rubbery material. They sport a three-tone colour scheme - glossy blue, matte blue, and glossy light blue. The flexible build allows them to comfortably fit a variety of ear shapes.

Each earbud has multifunction touch controls, like tap to pause, long touch to enable/ disable Spatial Audio and more. The earbuds feel solid in both appearance and feel. Since there’s no textured grip, the Crossbeats Arc Buds OWS remained securely in place even during extended wear without any subtle pain over the ears.

Features and performance

Before talking about the performance, let’s take a look at the earphones' features and specifications. The Crossbeats Arc Buds OWS come with 14.2mm Titanium drivers paired with TruReverb Technology. There is AI-powered noise cancellation for calling and support for voice assistants like Google Assistant and Siri. The best feature of the earphones is Spatial Audio with Head Tracking Technology.

The Crossbeats Arc Buds OWS earphones reproduce a clean sound output by leveraging the TruReverb Technology. This allows the earphones to filter out the noise and throw crisp lows, clear mids and bold highs right into the ear canal.

Since the earphones are a bit farther away from the ear canal opening, there is no pressure on the cartilage surrounding the area, hence, no pain even if the earphones are worn for a longer period of time. If you are a bass lover, you may be slightly disappointed. While the earphones do not have that ‘thump’ that the in-ear earphones have, they still emulate this part of a musical composition in a decent manner.


While you won't experience the deep, physical vibrations of low frequencies, you'll still perceive the powerful bass that distinguishes itself from the rest of the music.

For example, Goth (Slowed + Reverb) by Sidewalks and Skeletons, and Ethereal Symphony by Aurora Night – both the songs have strong bass (bass guitar + bass drum). We didn’t experience the full, physical “rumbling” sensation in our ears, but perceived a distinct, impactful bass that doesn’t make the sound flat.

The sound quality was impressive across various genres - from Bollywood to house, electronic to downtempo, and even dubstep. As far as sound bleeding is concerned, it is minimal and it noticeable when working in a quiet environment.

Watching movies was also a treat on these earphones – thanks to the Spatial Audio with head tracking – which created an immersive listening experience by making it feel like the music is surrounding us in a 3D space.


While Spatial Audio places different elements of an audio track (vocals, instruments, etc.) at various points around a user, creating a sense of depth and directionality, Head Tracking takes spatial audio a step further using sensors to detect the head movements. So when users turn their heads, the audio adjusts accordingly, maintaining the position of the sounds relative to the user.

Crossbeats Arc Buds OWS earphones offer a combined effect, making audio listening more immersive and realistic – like being in a concert hall where sounds come from all directions, not just from the earphones.

For example, when watching Tenet on Netflix, there is a scene in Sanjay Singh’s house where The Protagonist and Dimple Kapadia are having a conversation. We could listen to a faint honking and chatter of a busy Mumbai street, ice banging on the whiskey glass while conversation, water flowing in somewhere in the vicinity and background music – all this, without having any impact on the dialogues which are clear and sharp.

Similarly, in Interstellar movie when the scientists are on the ‘Water Planet’, the gushing of water and music are clearly separated. In the docking scene, there is clarity in dialogues despite there being multiple sounds of spaceship rumbling, and computers beeping.

In conclusion, the Crossbeats Arc Buds OWS earphones offer a commendable listening experience, creating a sense of spaciousness akin to being surrounded by speakers. While the audio reproduction may not be the absolute best available, considering the price, these earbuds deliver impressive value with features that are still relatively uncommon in the market.

Coming to calling, the earphones come with AI Noise Cancelling and the feature is backed by 4 microphones. Crossbeats says that the mics are placed strategically to collect human voices even in noisy environments. When talking on a call, the person on the other side did not complain about any distortion in voice.

Situational awareness is one of the strong features of the Crossbeats Arc Buds OWS earphones – as it lets some percentage of surrounding noise and voice seep into the ear, bringing in the element of safety. When we used it, we listened to the music on the highest volume but were still aware of the surroundings such as the honking of a car or bicycle bells, coming from behind.

Coming to connectivity, the earphones come with Bluetooth v5.4 – making it easy to connect with our smartphone. The process was a breeze and we did not feel any problem with this functionality, however, we did notice some latency in the connection between the two earbuds themselves. Sometimes we had to separately ‘power on’ each earbud.

Battery

The Crossbeats Arc Buds OWS earphones are claimed to offer up to 100+ hours playtime, and up to 28 hours per charge. We found the company’s claims to be fairly accurate. We mostly used the earphones for watching films with Spatial Audio enabled. This seemed to draw battery at higher speeds but the case did a good enough job to juice them when idle.

Verdict

The Crossbeats Arc Buds OWS earphones deliver a surprisingly immersive audio experience at an affordable price point, offering a compelling blend of innovative features and solid performance.. While the audio quality may not rival the absolute best in the industry, its spatial audio and head-tracking capabilities create an immersive listening experience rarely found at a price of Rs 3,699. The standout features, like situational awareness, further enhance the user experience. If you're seeking a comfortable, feature-rich, and budget-friendly pair of earbuds that do not sacrifice audio quality, the Crossbeats Arc Buds OWS are definitely worth considering.


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