1MORE PistonBuds Pro

Specifications:

Model：

EC302
Earbud weight (Single):

4.5g
Case Weight:

30 g
Gross Weight:

39 g
Earbud Dimension：



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17 × 18 × 21.4 mm
Case Dimensions

58 × 23 × 37.7 mm
Earbud Battery Capacity (Single):

38 mAh
Case Battery Capacity:

410 mAh
Earbuds Charging Time:

1 hour
Case Charging Time (Wired):

2 hours
Speaker Impedance:

16 Ω
Bluetooth Range:

10m (Open space)
Bluetooth Version:

Bluetooth® 5.2
Bluetooth Protocols:

HFP / A2DP / AVRCP
Playtime* (ANC Off):



Earbuds Fully Charged Music Playback:

7.5 hours
Case and Earbuds Fully Charged Music playback:

30 hours
Playtime* (ANC On):

Earbuds Fully Charged Music Playback:

5 hours
Case and Earbuds Fully Charged Music playback:

20 hours
Audio Codec:

AAC / SBC
Input:

5V 1A
Working Temperature:

0℃ ~ 45℃
Frequency Range:

2.400 GHz ~ 2.4835 GHz

What’s in the box​

Headphones x 1Pair



Charging Case × 1

Type-C Charging Cable x 1

Silicone Ear Tip x 3 Pairs (XS / S / L)

The 1more PB pro comes in the typical one more packaging secure and efficient. The buds themselves are small and should fit every ear well, for me they were comfortable and securely fit, passive isolation was good. The IPX5 makes them good for walking or working out without worries but always clean them afterwards for a better lifespan.

Sound without customization is balanced towards a smooth V-shaped signature Bass has a little more emphasis but overall is controlled and mids are clear and have warmth in the lower mids upper mids are good with treble being detailed and polite. soundstage is above average. The LL mode worked as advertised but without it most games and shows were fine too. I did fine it to be soft but not on all devices sometimes I was looking for a little louder response. ANC is decent though far from the best in class most should fine it adequate combined with the passive isolation all features can be customized in the app. I tested them in a very noisy cafe and they overall performance was decent. The call quality was clear but in more demanding cases the background noise did interfere a little. It should be noted that my testing method is extreme, substantial and harsh, but I just give them the real world testing they need. Battery Life was very good getting six hours with ANC and an additional two and a half without.

Conclusion:

For the price the pistonbuds pro, offer a decent number of features and a better than average performance. I just finished with the ComfoBuds Mini that were very impressive but more expensive. I think these would offer most a good lower budget offering, if you’re looking for that then these will work for you.

Intro
This model has the EC302 index, but this designation is almost never found. Most sellers use a commercial name referring to the legendary Pistons. Yes, yes, the same Pistoms from Xiaomi.

Not everyone knows that the 1MORE brand is closely associated with the Chinese tech giant. At one time they developed headphones for Xiaomi, and maybe they do it to this day. Moreover, the level of quality of their own products 1MORE has never been inferior to its older brother, and sometimes even surpassed it with attention to detail. PistonBuds Pro is a good example of this.
You can watch the full video review on the "SoundPrice ENG" YouTube channel:

Specifications
These headphones in particular use 10mm combi-diaphragm drivers, which do a pretty good job. I think that talking about sensitivity and impedance does not make much sense here, because the analog signal is born directly inside the headphones.

PistonBuds Pro support Bluetooth version 5.2 and SBC and AAC codecs. Especially for game lovers, a low latency mode is provided here. Each earbud has a 38 mAh battery plus another 410 mAh battery carries a charging box on board. My tests showed that the playtime is approximately the same as stated.

Each body of these Pistons has two microphones, which, according to the manufacturer, using the DNN algorithm isolate your speech from background noise and allow you to make calls even in noisy environments.

Accessories
PistonBuds Pro are sold in a small but nice box, on the back of which you can find all the necessary information about the product.

Included with the headphones, apart from the basic set of charging box, cable and four pairs of silicone ear tips, there is nothing else. Although, if desired, a very advanced “manual” can also be included here, with instructions in several languages, including English.

Eartips
Native 1MORE ear tips are of good quality, but for me they turned out to be too small. Look at this. Yes, they are just toys. Flat and with a tiny tube. I believe that the headphones were specially equipped with such small tips - for a deeper fit in the ears. But I could not get along with them and was forced to use big ear tips from other headphones.

Charging box
The PistonBuds Pro charging box is made of black matte plastic and is decorated with a glass plate on top. Beneath it, we see the company logo on the background of a radial texture that shimmers beautifully in the light.

There is an LED on the front to show the charge level, and on the back, there is a USB type-c connector and a pairing button.

At the bottom of the box you can find some information about what you actually hold in your hands.

This box is compact and elegant. I really like it. A special "thanks" to the developers - for the absence of a stupid soft-touch.

The lid is spring-loaded and opens and closes with a pleasant effort. Inside the box, we will not see anything special: a couple of seats with contacts for headphones, and the serial number of the product.

If you are wondering how the headphones fit here with the ear tips I have chosen, then I will answer you: no way. With native tips, the Pistons sit on the base calmly. But in my case I have to remove the ear tips every time I need to charge the headphones. Such are the things...

Earbuds
The headphone shells are beautiful, strict and elegant. I can't fault the build quality. Basically, everything here is made of plastic, with the exception of the top panel, which, it seems, is glass. It's also possible that it's plastic though. Under it hides the LED and the touch button.

The opening of one of the microphones is located on a barrel-shaped ledge, at the bottom. The second headphone mic is located somewhere near the output of the sound tube. It is needed for feedback through the ear: after all, when we speak, the sounds of speech enter the ears from the side of the skull, but the sounds of the street get there to a lesser extent. This allows you to better highlight the native speech against the background of external noise, including the voices of people standing nearby.

On the inside of the shells, in addition to the charging contacts, there are also infrared proximity sensors that are needed to automatically turn off and turn on playback when you remove the Pistons from your ears. This feature, by the way, can be disabled if desired.

To connect the headphones to your smartphone or player, you just need to turn on the bluetooth on your gadget and open the lid of the Pistons charging box. The earbuds will automatically sync with each other and start searching for a device to pair with. When you see "PistonBuds Pro" on the screen of your device, click "connect" and that's it. The pistons are ready to use.

As for management, everything is very simple. The front sides of the headphones are touch buttons. By default, double tapping starts and stops playback, and allows you to answer calls. A long press changes the noise reduction mode, and a triple tap allows you to access your phone's voice control.

Pistons are very good at isolating your own speech even in noisy environments (and this does not even require straining your voice), and therefore you can play Tony Stark and do many things with the help of your smartphone's voice assistant. For example, I tried to find out the weather, make search queries on the Internet, change tracks and change the volume. It's cool, it's convenient - it's the 21st century.

Ergonomics
Ergonomically, I really like the PistonBuds Pro. They have good autonomy, excellent passive sound isolation, low weight, good fit in the ears. In addition, the headphones have an IPX5 waterproof rating, which allows you to use them even in the rain.

These shells is very convenient to insert and remove from the ears, but there are a couple of negative points associated with it. Firstly, with this shape of the headphones, we become a bit like a Frankenstein monster, and secondly, with large ear tips, such as mine, the headphones stick out of the ears and it will not be very comfortable to wear them with a hat.

ANC (active noise cancellation)
Now about the ANC system. 1MORE uses its own active noise cancellation technology called QuietMax. Noise cancellation works very, very decently, which, frankly, I did not expect. Additionally, I was pleased with the fact that with good noise reduction performance, it has practically no effect on the quality of the music. At least, on the street, no matter how hard I tried, I could not catch the degradation of the sound.

PistonBuds Pro has three noise canceling modes – standard noise canceling, wind noise reduction mode and transparent mode. The latter is designed to simulate the absence of headphones in the ears. In fact, it does not reduce, but enhances external noise. Thus, you can hear quiet sounds and talk to people calmly without removing the headphones from your ears.

The standard noise reduction mode noticeably reduces the volume of the rustling of car tires, the sounds of engines running at a distance, the rumble from a computer and other household appliances, and etc. Of course, especially sharp sounds, such as slamming doors, loud voices, and even more so a car horn, it misses.

When there is a strong wind outside, the standard noise canceler starts to fail and intensifies its howling. To solve this problem a special regime was created - wind noise reduction. And this thing really works. Truly, it is available for inclusion only through the 1more proprietary application.

1MORE MUSIC App
By the way, there you can also control the functions of the touch buttons on the headphones, update the firmware and even turn on the relaxing sounds of nature.

Also, in the application, several equalizer presets are available to us, which, according to the company, were created using the Sonarworks software. The equalizer settings are quite adequate and viable. They do not totally ruin the sound, but really give it certain flavors.

Sound
According to 1MORE, the sound of these headphones was tuned with the help of a sound engineer Luca Bignardi - winner of several Grammy awards. These are far from the only brand headphones created with his participation. And, I must say, I begin to respect this man in absentia. I remember once upon a time, I saw his autograph on the box of E1001 headphones, the sound of which I still consider a very successful example of a dark, but detailed sound.

PistonBuds sound, though not dark, but correct - without critical distortions or heartbreaking peaks. For obvious reasons, their sound is limited in detail, but within the limits of what imperfect Bluetooth codecs allow, these wireless iems produce very competent and high-quality sound.

I would say that there is almost complete compliance with the Harman curve, only without a rise in the 4-5 kHz region. For me personally, the latter is only a plus, and I boldly declare that in terms of frequency balance, the Pistons are ideal for me. Separately, I want to note a very tight and solid bass. Not super-massive, namely tight and biting, but at the same time weighty.

Treble is set to neutral. They are noticeable but not accentuated. And this, in my opinion, is correct. Due to simple bluetooth codecs, raising the high frequencies in level would hardly bring a good result.

Conclusion
In my opinion, 1MORE has released very good true-wireless headphones. With a price in the region of $ 60, this product definitely claims to be a market success.

Thanks for reading! Best regards!
Alex aka 'sOnicrate' from SoundPrice, 2022.04.15