So today we’re going to check out a couple of new earbuds from SoundPEATS. The Opera 03 and the Opera 05. If you’re wondering what are the differences between the 3s and the 5s, these are basically identical, only that the Opera 05 has dual balanced armature drivers as opposed to just one in the Opera 03, and that their color scheme is different. That’s it!

Otherwise they share so many more similarities like both being Hi-Res Wireless certified and supporting LDAC streaming, both are active noise cancelling earbuds with transparency, and both are rated to have up to 7 hours in the earbuds with ANC and up to 20 hours of battery with the case. That’s assuming you’re not streaming hi-res audio over LDAC, because that codec is very power-intensive.

What’s interesting is that they’ve got this label on the earbuds “designed by SoundPEATS”, which may seem unlikely, because SoundPEATS is known to rebadge products. But I actually believe them this time, and this is something that I’ll get into later in this review. Before that, we’re going to see if there are any big performance differences between the two in terms of sound, noise cancelling and call quality.

Design

SoundPEATS earbuds tend to look very plain and cookie cutter, so the Opera series do stand out. And I do get the sense that SoundPEATS is trying to make these look more like IEMs, from the metal face plates right down to the nozzles. But there are a few problems with its design.

First, the cases are a bit too big.

It would have made sense if the cases have big juicy battery inside like the Mini Pro HS. But what’s preventing it from being smaller probably has to do more with the size of the earbuds. Which leads me to the second problem.

I have no issue with big earbuds. There are examples of earbuds like the Bose QC II and the Soundcore Liberty 3 Pro that fit pretty well in my ears, and fit pretty snugly despite being big. But not these ones. There’s something very wrong about the way it's shaped. First, they jut out too much. And second, they do not lock into my ears at all. I have to push them really deep into my ear canals just to keep them plugged in.

So if you’re thinking of working out with these earbuds cause they’re IPX4 or something, don’t, they’re just going to fall out as soon as they get sweaty or wet.

Sound Quality

Another issue I have with them is that they don’t even lock the bass in that well, and that applies to both models. According to my frequency sweep, they should sound relatively bass heavy with a prominent midrange and an airy soundstage. But in actual fact they sound thin in the mids with little to no bass at all, precisely because I was not able to fit them into my ears properly.

I did record some binaural sound samples that should give you some idea of what these are supposed to sound like, should they fit into your ears better than they fit mine. Have a listen.

The Opera05 with its dual BA drivers did have cleaner separation of the vocals, but beyond that it’s very hard to tell them apart. After all they both are tuned in pretty much the same way, save for the dip in the 5 khz range that we’re seeing on the Opera05, perhaps to make it sound a bit more spacious.

App

That being said, if you want to, you can also tweak their sound quality in the SoundPEATS app. There are EQ presets to choose from, and a pretty solid graphic EQ. That’s more or less all that you can customize in the app. It doesn’t have custom controls, ANC settings, or even a Game mode toggle for these earbuds. But the app does still add value overall considering the price of these earbuds.

Call Quality

Testing their call quality using some really loud cafe style background noise, and some wind noise coming from my trusty fan, their call quality sounds quite decent. Even in noisy conditions they were able to cut a lot of background noise without also cutting out my voice. My voice sounded a bit robotic but it’s not a bad trade off overall. Pretty good. Listen to the call quality samples here.

Active Noise Cancelling

In terms of active noise cancelling, if it’s not a priority for you, these are pretty okay. They aren’t better than earbuds from Sony and Bose in this area, but they do cut some low frequency noise as you can hear in these ANC samples.

Transparency

In terms of transparency, it’s decent. It’s not the most transparent passthrough I’ve tried in this price range, but it’s still quite usable in a pinch, if you need to order a coffee over the counter, or listen to train announcements.

Conclusion

To conclude, I said earlier that these do seem to be designed by SoundPEATS. And here’s why.

It’s an open secret that SoundPEATS rebadges labelless products that are designed and produced by a factory which also supplies other brands. Yes, there is still some customization by SoundPEATS to make these earbuds work with their own app, perhaps also to sound a certain way. But the bulk of the design itself is often not theirs.

For these Opera series, you can tell that whoever designed these really focused on aesthetics and specs, but didn’t know how important it is that they fit well, because fit is everything. It has got a gigantic influence on the way it sounds and how much noise it blocks. Fudging up the fit is a rookie mistake that brands used to make back when TWS earbuds were still a new thing, and back when there was a lack of consumer feedback. (Remember the Earin M-1?) So if SoundPEATS claims that they designed these earbuds, I believe them, because I doubt they’ve had much experience actually going through the process themselves of designing their own earbuds, which might explain its terrible fit and bulkiness. That’s just a theory, maybe I’m wrong and these are also rebadged. But hey, they do look great, great call quality too, and their prices are very attractive. Otherwise I find both the Opera 03 and Opera05 very hard to recommend even if they are Hi-res certified.