cmf Buds and cmf Neckband Pro launched – Here’s a look at their sound signature, ANC, and microphone performance
Cmf by Nothing has been trying to make inroads in the budget segment of the Indian consumer market for a couple of months now. Carl Pei’s brands have been known to make a dent in the market share held by established players across budget segments in the world of consumer tech.
First, there was OnePlus which took on the biggest names in the smartphone space, and then now, there’s Nothing, capturing the mid-range segment.
Entering the budget segment, from the same line of companies that were established by Carl, is cmf. They have fared decently well, and are expanding their product range to include two new audio products – cmf Neckband Pro at ₹2,499 and the cmf Buds at ₹2,999. These join the Buds Pro, Watch Pro, and their POWER 65W GaN.
Both the cmf Neckband Pro and the Buds have similarly shaped budsWhile the Neckband Pro is a new product in itself, the Buds join the Buds Pro that were launched a couple of months ago.
For these products, I wanted to focus on the performance specifically, because that is what would help them stand out. They are fairly well built and there is not much to complain about in the features department as well. I tested these earbuds and spent some time with both the cmf Neckband Pro and the cmf Buds and here’s how they fared in my tests –
cmf Buds Performance Review
As you can see in the graph below, there is a boost in the sub-bass frequencies which also affects the performance of the cmf Buds in the mids and the highs as well. Tracks like Rescue Me by OneRepublic and others, which are vocal heavy, sounded fairly hollow, and there was a ton of echo. The vocals were crisp, however, not as intimate, when it came to their imaging. The soundstage of these earbuds is limited, but during the time I spent playing Counter-Strike 2, neither notice the lack of immersion nor there were footsteps or essential sounds in the game that I missed. The latency was also not an issue.
