GoKawiilThe same qualities that make these so awesome for gaming also hinder their performance while listening to anything else. Wearing the Cetra Open Wireless is sort of like walking into a fancy store where there’s music playing: The sound just sort of pours in vaguely from all over, which feels really nice and comfortable, but it also feels a little soulless, without the musicality I’ve come to expect even from other gaming-first earbuds like the SteelSeries Arctis Nova Buds. Even the Balatro soundtrack, which is objectively a jam, just didn’t feel quite as groovy as it normally does when I’m sneaking in a game on the bus.
Photograph: Brad Bourque
Weirdly, I find they work better in noisy environments. When the world around you is quiet, it becomes more apparent that there are just little speakers pointed at your earholes. Wear them somewhere with a lot happening, like the grocery store, and it’s easier to ignore that they don’t have the fullest sound. They didn’t work well on my bike at all, something I’ve heard is the case for most open wireless headphones, as the wind shear above around 10 MPH is much louder than the music.
Speaking of volume, I don’t normally push earbuds past around 40 percent on my Pixel 9 Pro, but I found myself keeping these turned much further down than most pairs. There also felt like a bigger difference between ticks, so it really only feels like there are a couple of usable volume points between “almost muted” and “way too loud.” The volume that works well for the walk to the barcade down the street is far too loud to hear my favorite machine once I’m inside, and I find myself adjusting more frequently than I’d like for a pair of headphones that’s supposed to be an effortless mix.
Fit and Finish
At least they’re comfortable, with a soft silicone arm that wraps around the back of your ear and holds them mostly in place. Because of the rounded arm, you can rotate them a fair bit around your ear, which is great for dialing in a good fit, but I find if I budge them by accident I have to refit them, otherwise they bounce against the outside of my ear.