I have worn a ton of earbuds in my time as a freelance reviewer, ranging in price from $25 all the way up to more than $300. Of all the earbuds I’ve tested, those under the $100 price point (and some above) have one maddening trait in common. Most of them are absolute garbage when you head out on your bike.
Whether you’re commuting back and forth to the train or hitting the trail for a morning workout, you might want to take some tunes or a podcast along with you. The only problem is, unless you’ve spent a fair chunk of change on your earbuds, you’ll be hit with an earful of wind and static once you get over about 5 mph. In those cases, your only choice is to hold up a hand and cup it over the earbud to stop the wind, but then you’re riding a bike literally with a hand tied behind your back.
Before I go on, I should mention that I do not use earbuds properly when riding a bike, meaning I wear both of them and usually with active noise cancellation (ANC) turned on. This is stupid; I am stupid. I know this, and I want to emphasize that you should not be stupid. I tell myself that I’m hyperaware at all times with my head on a swivel, but if I’m being honest, I’m not vigilant enough. Putting all that aside, you’ve probably figured out by now why I like these buds — the CMF by Nothing Buds — so much.
Put simply, that wind noise simply is not there when you wear these while riding a bike. Even at speeds of up to 28 mph, there is no wind noise. I was so surprised by this on my first ride with them that I actually checked my pocket to make sure I had actually brought the correct buds. I had. So let’s chat about them.
The CMF Buds are an adorable set of true wireless stereo earbuds from the same company that makes the CMF Watch. They're a great companion on your bike ride because they completely eliminate wind noise, which is not something you often find at this price point.
How I found the CMF Buds
I have been testing the CMF Buds review sample provided by CMF for about three weeks. When I first got them out of the box, I was struck by the design. Like the CMF Watch Pro I reviewed earlier, the company paid a lot of attention to detail when creating these buds. The case is a simple plastic square with rounded corners and a circular knob in the corner. The knob doesn’t do anything except provide entertainment when you need a fidget toy, but its inclusion is indicative of the look and feel of the whole product. It’s one of those details that most other earbud makers wouldn’t have bothered with.
Why the CMF Buds are a score
Great design and good sound for the price
The buds will give you five hours of playback on a charge (with ANC on) and another 19 hours or so of battery life with the case. There are three sizes of ear tips in the box, which is not a lot by modern standards, but it should meet most people’s needs.
As for audio quality, they’re OK. They are not amazing earbuds by any stretch of the imagination, but they serve their purpose well. They are very bass-heavy, which muddies the rest of the frequencies with pounding thump. If you’re into that, I won’t judge. In the app (which we will discuss in more detail in a moment) you can configure the equalizer, and there is an ultra bass boost you can turn off, but more likely, you’ll have to spend a fair amount of time playing with the ultra bass and the equalizer to find a sound you enjoy.
You will do that in the Nothing X app (on iOS and Android — I paired them with my iPhone), which you’ll also use to further configure the controls on the earbuds. You can set different controls with a double tap, triple tap, tap and hold, and double tap and hold, but curiously, not with a single tap.
ANC is pretty good, but transparency mode is not. When you activate transparency mode, you will sound a bit muffled in your own head when you talk, but you can hear others pretty well. Overall, these earbuds are priced correctly for the $39 they cost.
ANC holds up against the wind
It needs to be said that even without their bike-riding prowess, the CMF Buds are a score. Finding any set of earbuds that sound decent and have ANC for less than $50 is a win. At $39 they’re particularly good. The fact that there’s even an app that allows you to configure the buds is also a win — that’s not common for the sub-$50 price point.
But the resistance to wind noise is an absolute win and utterly shocking for a set of cheap earbuds. That is the reason I will grab these buds when it’s time to head to Target or hit the trails on my bike. They may also be the reason I end up in the hospital, but we already established that it would be my fault. So if you want a set of earbuds to wear on your bike (one at a time for safety), the CMF earbuds are a great way to go that won’t break the bank.