True wireless earphones are typically more expensive than their wired and semi-wired counterparts, and when you add features like ANC (active noise cancellation) to the mix, the price goes up even higher. That made us initially skeptical of the reasonably priced ($149.95) Ausounds AU Stream ANC, especially when we've seen the earphones sold for even less online. The good news is that they deliver solid performance on just about every level. Of course, there's plenty of room for improvement—the design is a little bland, an app would be nice, and the on-ear controls could be better—but especially when found at a discount, the AU Stream ANC earphones are a solid value.

Design

The earpieces adopt the increasingly familiar stem design we've seen on pairs like the Apple AirPods Pro. Their matte black plastic surface is rather nondescript, with the AU logo the only real visual marker. The in-ear fit is relatively secure, as is the case with most true wireless pairs. The earphones ship with three pairs of silicone eartips in small, medium, and large sizes.

Each earpiece houses a touch-sensitive outer panel, with controls mirrored on each ear, a rare choice that limits the overall number of possible controls. Both ears play, pause, or answer a call with a single tap, skip a track forward with a double tap, or summon your phone's voice assistant with a triple tap. A long hold activates or deactivates ANC, and will also decline an incoming call. The controls are fairly responsive, but like many touch-sensitive buttons, we sometimes had to tap things twice, and this can lead to accidentally performing the wrong function. It's also odd to have a track forward control and no track backward, and it's annoying to have no volume controls on the earpieces—volume can only be adjusted on your device itself.

The earphones ship with the aforementioned eartips, as well as a rounded, flip-top charging case. A USB-C charging cable is included, and connects to the back panel of the case. Internally, there are status LEDs that let you know how much battery life the case has left.

Ausounds describes the earphones as waterproof, but their IPX5 rating can more accurately be considered water-resistant. The earpieces can handle water splashing from any angle, and so can probably handle rain and sweat just fine, but they can't be submerged in water or exposed to heavy water pressure like you might use to rinse them off under a faucet. Also, like all true wireless pairs we've tested, the IP rating extends only to the earphones themselves, so don't place them into the charging case when wet.

The earphones stream via Bluetooth 5.0, and support AAC and SBC Bluetooth codecs, but not AptX.

What's missing? There's no app, and in this price range, we see plenty of true wireless pairs with free apps that have adjustable EQ. An app would also provide a way to adjust and control the ANC other than simply turning it on and off.

Ausounds estimates battery life to be roughly 5 hours, with an additional 15 hours in the charging case. These numbers are fairly standard, and your own results will vary with your volume levels and your mix of ANC usage. One advantage of the charging case, however, is its compatibility with Qi wireless charging pads.

Performance

The earphones deliver decent noise cancellation, especially for the price. Low frequencies are tamped down noticeably, though not to the degree they are on more capable pairs. Higher frequencies are more or less handled by the eartips passively attenuating the overall volume of surrounding noises, while midrange and lower-frequency noises, from train rumbles to AC whirs, get a solid amount of reduction.

There is some faint hiss created by the ANC circuitry, as is often the case with affordable noise cancellation—you'll rarely notice it, but in quiet rooms, when you turn the ANC on, the noise floor actually gets a bit louder due to the hiss. Again, it's common, and it's not an unpleasant sound (think very low volume white noise).

The noise cancellation doesn't have a seriously noticeable impact on the sound signature—we noted a slight difference in overall volume when the ANC was activated, but it's so minor it's not a concern. Generally speaking, this is quality ANC for the price, but not the main selling point of the earphones.

Internally, each earpiece houses a 13mm titanium driver delivering a frequency range of 20Hz to 20kHz. On tracks with intense sub-bass content, like The Knife's "Silent Shout," the earphones deliver powerful low-frequency depth, and at top, unwise listening levels, the drivers don't distort. At more moderate volume levels, the bass is still powerful, but the high-mids and highs are sculpted enough to create a solid balance between the lows and highs.

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Bill Callahan's "Drover," a track with far less deep bass in the mix, gives us a better sense of the AU Stream ANC's general sound signature. The drums on this track sound almost thunderous, though the bass isn't boosted to the degree that things veer into unnatural territory. Still, anyone looking for an accurate sound signature will find the lows far more heavy than they are on a flat-response pair. Callahan's baritone vocals also receive plenty of low-mid richness, and things would sound muddy if it weren't for some equal boosting and sculpting in the high-mids and highs, lending the vocals some treble edge and the acoustic strums crispness.

On Jay-Z and Kanye West's "No Church in the Wild," the kick drum loop receives enough high-mid presence for its attack to retain its punchiness, though we typically hear it sound a bit punchier. The highs, however, seem notably boosted—the vinyl crackle and hiss that is usually relegated to background status is pushed forward in the mix here. The sub-bass synth hits that punctuate the beat are delivered with gusto—this is a bass lover's sound signature. All three vocals on this track are delivered with enough presence to not be overshadowed by the bass boosting.

On orchestral tracks, like the opening scene from John Adams' The Gospel According to the Other Mary, the lower-register instrumentation gets far more bass boosting than it needs, and things do sound a bit unnatural here. That said, the highs are once again boosted and sculpted to match, so that even though things don't quite sound natural, they are crisp and deep at the same time.

The mic offers above-average intelligibility. Using the Voice Memos app on an iPhone 8, we could understand every word we recorded. There was some Bluetooth distortion around the edges, as is typically the case with true wireless in-ears. But the signal was full and loud, the mic doesn't sound too distant, and there's even some notable bass depth, rather than the thin, faraway sound we often get.

Conclusions

The Ausounds AU Stream ANC earphones offer a lot of solid functionality for the price. That said, they can be much improved with an app offering adjustable EQ and ANC, more responsive on-ear controls, and some sort of volume button. The best marriage of audio performance, ANC, and design we've experienced in a true wireless pair recently goes to the Apple AirPods Pro, but they cost $100 more. If you really just want quality audio and can skip the ANC, the $180 Jabra Elite 75t and Jaybird Vista are both excellent, bass-forward options for the price. And if you want to spend less, the $80 Anker Soundcore Liberty Air earbuds are our top budget-friendly pick. But if you want ANC and $150 is your absolute limit, you should definitely consider the AU Stream ANC.

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