Key Takeaways
- The Cleer Audio Alpha Black Edition is a stylish and comfortable pair of wireless headphones with great ANC and excellent battery life.
- The headphones offer impressive features, including adaptive noise cancellation and Dirac Virtuo spatial audio processing.
- While the sound quality is good, the Alpha Black Edition faces tough competition in its price range and may not stand out as much as some of its competitors.
The Cleer Audio Alpha Black Edition is a great-looking set of wireless headphones. The all-black design is stylish and helps push the credentials of Cleer's "flagship" headphones, but these are much more than just a decent-looking pair of cans.
Cleer has packed an impressive range of hardware into the Alpha Black Edition, including adaptive noise cancelation, patented 40mm Ironless drivers, up to 35 hours of playback, and, most interestingly, Dirac Virtuo spatial audio processing.
It's a cracking spec sheet—but how does the Cleer Audio Alpha Black Edition sound?
Cleer Alpha Black Edition
The Cleer Audio Alpha Black Edition wireless headphones pack a decent array of audio technology into a tidy-looking package. With shades of Sony's XM4, the all-black, brushed-plastic design looks stylish, while the thick cushioned earpads are comfortable for long listening sessions. The Alpha Black Edition headphones have great ANC, while the companion app is useful and features handy custom EQ options. The 35 hours of playback is also a major plus. In terms of sound quality, the Alpha Black Edition are good and helps make most tracks shine, though they're perhaps not quite there in terms of the fierce competition at this price point.
- Brand
- Cleer
- Battery Life
- 35 hours
- Material
- Plastic/metal
- Bluetooth
- 5.1
- Noise Cancellation
- Yes
- Waterproof
- No
- Weight
- 330g
- Colors
- Black, White, Blue
- Supported codecs
- SBC, aptX Adaptive
- Folding/Storage
- Yes
- Charging
- USB-C
- Multipoint
- Yes
- Battery charge time
- 10mins for 4 hours
- Carrying case
- Yes
- Frequency range
- 20-20,000Hz
- Driver
- 40mm Ironless
- Stylish, comfortable
- Excellent battery life
- Great ANC
- Useful companion app
- Travel case
- Little heavy
- Dirac Virtuo mixed bag
- Difficult to stand out in a very competitive marketplace
Style and Comfort
The Cleer Audio Alpha Black Edition looks really tidy. The all-black design definitely has shades of Sony's XM4 headphones, but given those are some of the best in the business, it's a worthy nod.
Unlike the XM4s, though, there is less brushed plastic on show. The rear of the Alpha's earcups has a metallic circle featuring the headphone and company names, which are covered with glossy plastic. These circles serve as the Alpha's touch control area on the right earcup (more on these in a moment) and also add another material to the mix.
Cleer has gone with delightfully thick, cushioned padding on the Alpha Black Edition earcups. Although these headphones are a little on the heavy side, weighing 330g (Sony XM4 weighs 254g, while Apple AirPod Max weighs 385g), the cushioning and padding of the earcups and headband remain comfortable for long wear periods.
I like the overall size of the Alphas, too. You don't feel like you're wearing an enormous, clunky headset, with the Alpha's sitting flush to your head and the sleek earcup and headband design fitting nicely; despite carrying a little extra weight, they're well balanced.
There are integrated buttons around the bottom of both earcups. The left button is used to switch between ANC modes with one press, toggle Dirac Virtuo with two taps, and access your voice assistant with a long press. On the right is the power and Bluetooth pairing button, which you can use to connect with a second device by way of the Alpha's multi-device support.
Touch Controls
The Alpha Black Edition's touch controls are located in the rear of the right earcup. You swipe up and down to adjust volume and side to side to change the track. Tapping twice pauses and unpauses your audio, as well as answering and hanging-up calls (while you can long-press to reject an incoming call).
I found the touch controls a little sensitive for my liking. As is so often the case with touch controls, they accidentally trigger when attempting to adjust the headset, which can be a little frustrating when you're on a call. Still, they are mostly useful and work well.
Interestingly, if you cover the right earcup, the Alpha's switch into conversation mode, lowering the playback volume to allow you to hear the person you're talking to. It's like a quick-access ambient mode designed for those moments on planes, trains, the supermarket, and so on.
It's actually quite handy, too, as I found when traveling on a train recently. I could keep my headphones on, didn't have to push the ANC button to find the right mode, and ordered my cup of tea without issue. Holding your hand to the earcup again switches you back to the previous mode.
Connectivity and Battery Life
The Cleer Audio Alpha Black Edition uses Bluetooth 5.1, but there's also a 3.5mm wired connection option.
Bluetooth codec support comes from SBC, as you'd expect, and Qualcomm's aptX Adaptive, which is nice to see. aptX Adaptive scales its bitrate between 279Kbps and 420Kbps, and also integrates aptX's Low Latency mode to reduce connectivity issues and keep audio quality high.
Delivering up to 35 hours of playback while using ANC, the Alpha Black Edition's 800mAh battery has enough juice to keep you going all day and then some. For context, the Sony XM4 delivers up to 30 hours with ANC, while Apple's AirPods Max manages 20, illustrating how good the Alpha Black Edition battery is.
ANC and Dirac Virtuo
ANC is important, and the Alpha Black Edition does a great job of blocking out the world around you.
There are three ANC modes: Ambient, Noise Canceling, and Smart Noise Canceling. The difference between regular ANC and the smart mode is that the latter adjusts to changes in your surroundings automatically, while the regular mode is a steady level of audio blocking.
It works well. On a busy train journey, the Alpha's reduced the thrum and bustle of the background noise significantly. Most background noise will disappear if the earcups are snug to your ears.
Now, the Dirac Virtuo spatial audio is a different proposition. Dirac Virtuo is designed to turn almost any audio source into a more immersive, spatial audio experience.
The Dirac Virtuo mode does work, and I had some success watching films but nothing of the sort while listening to music. At times, it feels like the world around you is expanding, and you're sitting in the middle of it all. At others, it feels like the technology isn't working properly, and Dirac Virtuo mode is forcing the audio to do something it wasn't designed to.
Also, it would be useful to know whether you've switched it on or off when using the on-earcup controls. Looking at the Cleer app can quickly reveal its status, but for music that doesn't respond to the spatial audio mode, there is no way of quickly discerning the difference.
Sound Quality
The Alpha Black Edition uses Cleer's 40mm Ironless drivers, a patented driver technology designed to reduce distortion. I'm not sure how much distortion they reduce, but they certainly deliver an engaging and high-quality listening experience.
There is some slight elevation in both bass and treble, but nothing significant and certainly not enough to become a distraction. The sound profile is geared towards quality rather than fun, and it gives the Alpha Black Edition a good soundstage that's mostly well-balanced.
The low-end copes well with most applications. For instance, Hans Zimmer's Mountains soaring low-end range is represented well, but the high-end can't quite match it when the soundscape changes at the halfway point. Similarly, Massive Attack's Angel sounds brilliant, with the Alpha's capturing the deep, moody opening notes, delivering the ticking and thocking clearly and accurately.
I also enjoyed listening to the whole of Crosby, Stills, and Nash's eponymous and iconic album from start to finish. The Alpha Black Editions do an excellent job at capturing the trio's cascading and flowing harmonics, with Wooden Ships and Helplessly Hoping particular standouts. It's a testament to the headphone's gentle tuning.
Cleer+ App
The Cleer+ app is a handy additional tool for audio tuning. Its useful EQ tool includes five frequencies to adjust, and the undo option is great when you're experimenting and tweaking. There are also numerous preset EQs.
You can also adjust the Ambient ANC from the Cleer+ app. Moving the slider increases the background volume allowed to seep into your listening experience, and having the option to change is handy.
Should You Buy the Cleer Audio Alpha Black Edition Headphones?
These headphones have a great deal going for them. The Alpha Black Edition cost $200, which is a good price-to-performance point.
The extensive battery life and ANC are the standout features of the Alpha Black Edition headphones. While the audio quality is good, they're competing directly with the Sony XM4, which won award after award for good reason. It's not Cleer's fault; the Sonys are just ridiculously good in all areas.
That doesn't mean you should steer clear of the Alpha Black Editions. Even with Sony's XM5 launching, the XM4 hasn't dropped much in price. The Alpha Black Edition is considerably cheaper than Sennheiser's Momentum 4, and for me, looks a million times better than the AirPods Max bulky earcups.
It's a very competitive market, yet the Cleer Audio Alpha Black Edition may have just carved itself out a niche that you might enjoy getting into.