Soundpeats GoFree 2

Verdict

The Soundpeats GoFree 2 serve up good, customisable, air conduction sound from a light and comfortable ear hook design to make them a solid but not impeccable set of sub-£100 / $100 open ear earbuds.

Introduction

The Soundpeats GoFree 2 is another in a growing number of true wireless earbuds that feature an open-ear, air conduction design to deliver sound to your ears while keeping you aware of what’s around you.

With the GoFree 2, Soundpeats wants you to put them to good use in all listening scenarios, whether that’s working at your desk, travelling into work, or heading out for a run. It’s promising rich bass, detailed audio from a design that should be comfortable to wear all day long.

While not as budget-friendly as Soundpeats’ open-ear Run Free headphones, these air conduction buds certainly aren’t as pricey as other more high-profile options. So do they sound good enough to pick up? Here’s my verdict.

Availability

The Soundpeats GoFree 2 are available now and cost £72.99 / $84.99, so they’re an affordable but not quite budget option in Soundpeats’ range.

Compared to other similarly designed, open-ear, air conduction buds the GoFree 2 cost considerably less than the Shokz OpenFit (£180 / $180) and the more unique-looking Huawei FreeClip (£179.99). 

They’re also cheaper than the great JBL Soundgear Sense (£129.99) and the Soundcore AeroFit (£99.99/ $80) The price actually puts them much closer to the Sivga SO1 (£69.90 / $69.90), which are some of the best open-ear, air conduction headphones I’ve tested for sound quality and offering value for money.

Design

• Earhook-style design
• IPX5 rated water resistant design
• Includes touch based controls

The GoFree 2 are ear hook-style earbuds that won’t clamp to your ears like a set of Powerbeats Pro and offer a very similar look to the Shokz OpenFit. It’s a combination of a slim, flexible ear hook that wraps over the top of the ear and opens at the end of that hook to help keep it securely in place. That’s connected to the earbud that sits near the front of the ear.

Unlike the OpenFit, the balance in weight between those two components feels better and delivers an overall more comfortable and secure fit. I’ve used them to sit down to work, travel and work out and they’ve never felt like falling out of place nor has the predominantly silicone build offered any discomfort when used for longer than an hour at a time.

They’re only available in black, which is a shame as it could benefit from a few extra colour options. They’re IPX5 rated in terms of water resistance, so that’s not the best or strongest level of protection you’ll find on a set of truly wireless earbuds, but for the price that’s welcome splash protection.

There are controls of the touch variety that sit on the outside of the buds and encompass single, double, and triple taps, as well as a long press to adjust volume, skip tracks, activate your phone’s smart assistant and answer or reject calls. 

I’d say some of these controls work better than others. I found long pressing to skip audio the best example, while the single tap to adjust volume is more like a short press and often gets confused with wanting to play or pause audio. You can’t customise those controls unfortunately, so if they don’t work for you, you’re stuck with them.

When they’re not in your ears they sit inside a matte black plastic charging case with a USB-C port at the rear and a small notification light at the front to let you know how the case’s charge and when the buds are charging. It’s a traffic light system so if you see red, it’s time to get them charged.

Features

• Bluetooth multipoint support
• LDAC audio
• Up to nine hours battery

There are some extras such as Bluetooth Multipoint sharing, a game mode for low latency streaming and support for LDAC Bluetooth codec to give it appeal to high resolution audio fans though it feels like a feature a bit misplaced here. The multipoint support feels more useful but only one of these modes can be enabled at a time and is done from inside of the companion app.

Battery life on the GoFree 2 is fine without really standing out. It offers 9 hours of a single charge and a total of 35 hours with a fully charged charging case. There’s no rapid charge feature and will go from 0-100% in around two hours. I found an hour’s listening at louder volumes saw battery drop on average 10%, which would mean those battery claims are pretty accurate. You can view battery status per bud in the Soundpeats app as well, which is another reason to get it downloaded to make the most of these buds.

Sound Quality

• 16.2mm driver
• Average call quality
• Muddled bass

The GoFree 2 uses 16.2mm dynamic drivers to power sound performance with EQ presets, a custom equaliser, and an adaptive EQ (which seems to be a beta feature) inside of the free Soundpeats companion smartphone app. 

Soundpeats states that they’re capable of delivering crisp, dynamic, detailed audio and rich bass. That’s not how I’d describe what I’ve experienced with them, but they’re better sounding than other more expensive open ear air conduction headphones I’ve tested.

From my perspective, I’d say the Shokz OpenFit and the Sivga SO1 sit at the top for air conduction sound quality with the JBL Soundgear Sense below and the GoFree 2 below that effort. They can pump out good overall sound quality and the open-ear experience is strong, performing well even in louder environments, but in terms of giving you balanced sound, warm bass response or exceptional clarity, it falters. It’s a similar story when you’re using these earbuds for calls. Don’t expect sparkling results basically, but it isn’t a horror show at least.

It’s certainly not as middling as the pricier Soundcore AeroFit Pro, and that’s helped by offering a few more EQ presets, but treble performance isn’t sparkly and can feel harsher when different EQ presets are in use. The bass feels muddled too, with mids having a boxy quality to them. It always feels like there’s the foundations of a good overall sound here, but when it all comes together, it only ever sounds just okay.

On Islands by The xx or Teardrop by Massive Attack where you get a consistent rumble of bass, these headphones are woolly in that department. There’s good power there to elevate bass-heavy tracks but it’s a rumble more than a pleasing thud. On tracks that yearn for more finesse like Stevie Wonder’s Love’s In Need Of Love Today or Bob Dylan’s Man in the Long Black Coat, vocals carry a nice warmth that the headphones are capable of a good time. It just is not as bright sounding or as balanced as what you’ll get from the OpenFit or the Sivga buds.

Latest deals