These Odd-Looking Earbuds Rival the Best From Apple, Sony, and Bose

The Pro X, like the Between 3ANC before them, use multiple drivers: a dynamic unit for the lowest frequencies paired with a dual set of Knowles balanced armatures for the upper-mids and highs. Just like in a tower speaker that has a woofer, a midrange, and a tweeter, multi-driver earbuds divide and conquer by sending specific frequencies to a driver that’s been tuned to handle them.

Out of the box, the earbuds are set to Status Signature—the Pro X’s default tuning. It’s a nicely balanced EQ that boosts neither highs nor lows, yet still possesses a warm tone. There’s effortless detail in the midrange, and the highs have excellent clarity. Bass is tightly controlled; even when pushing the Pro X to 95% volume, Billie Eilish’s bass-tastic “bad guy” sounded perfect, with no discernible distortion.

Switching to the Knowles Preferred preset gives a big bump to the upper mids and highs to show off what those balanced armatures can do. Normally, this kind of tuning doesn’t do it for me, but on the Pro X, I was impressed by how enjoyable it was. If you’ve found yourself drawn to Bose’s high-energy sound signature in the past, this preset gets you very close.

If you can’t find your favorite balance from among the five available presets, you can roll your own. In fact, one of the best features is creating custom EQ presets by starting with an existing one. I goosed Status Signature’s low-end just a tad, and got exactly the mix I wanted. On that note, I have to give Status props for its app; it’s super clean and very easy to use.

The soundstage isn’t especially wide—I’d place its extremities about 3-6 inches outside my head—but it’s got excellent precision. Individual elements stand out from each other so clearly that you can mentally point at the various musicians playing in front of you. A jazz classic like Dave Brubeck’s “Take Five” benefits a lot from the Pro X’s clear separation of sounds, letting you appreciate each instrument in its own space.

I did most of my listening on an iPhone 16, but it’s worth noting that the Pro X support Sony’s high-quality LDAC Bluetooth codec. If you’re on Android, make sure you’ve got it enabled for an even smoother, more refined performance.

Against the Crowd

I swapped the Pro X with Sony’s WF-1000XM5, Bose’s QuietComfort Ultra Earbuds, Sennheiser’s Momentum True Wireless 4, and Technics’ EAH-Z100. The Status Pro X more than held their own on sound quality. I personally still prefer the XM5’s sound signature thanks to its more resonant bass response, but that’s more about my taste than any shortcomings of the Pro X—they’re excellent.