While the majority of gamers I encounter still favor over-ear headsets for their consoles or PCs, the market landscape has witnessed a surge in low-latency gaming earbuds over the past few years from companies like JBL, Razer, HyperX, among others. Sony has now entered this arena with its $200 Pulse Explore buds, setting them apart primarily due to the inclusion of planar magnetic drivers—a speaker technology usually reserved for high-end over-ear audiophile headphones but rarely seen in earbuds.
Unique design
Somewhat bulky and a little bit strange-looking in your ears, they’re designed to be used with Sony’s PS5 gaming console and its new PlayStation Portal remote player, as well as Windows and Mac computers (the included PlayStation Link USB adapter is required for PS5 and Nintendo Switch use). Also, like most other wireless gaming earbuds, the Pulse Explore can be paired with your smartphone via Bluetooth.
The fact that these are good gaming earbuds isn’t surprising. However, that they’re as good as they are for listening to music is a revelation. In fact, they sound clearer and more articulate than Sony’s flagship WF-1000XM5 earbuds, with tight, powerful bass. That doesn’t necessarily mean they sound better than XM5s, which sound a little fuller. But I wasn’t expecting them to compete at all with the XM5s for music listening.
As I said, the reason for that sound seems largely due to the buds’ planar magnetic drivers. Sony recently acquired Audeze, which is known for its planar magnetic drivers and in 2021 made a pair of $1,299 wired planar magnetic earbuds called the Euclid that are currently listed as “sold out.” Planar magnetic drivers are prized for sonic accuracy and being less prone to distortion. They’re typically larger than standard dynamic drivers found in the majority of headphones and harder to drive.
I can’t say the Pulse Explore look and feel like high-end earbuds. An all-plastic affair, they’re relatively lightweight for their size. Their charging case, which features a sliding cover, is also on the large size, but I did like it. It was easy to get the buds in and out of the case.
The Pulse Explore earbuds come with four sets of ear tips, so you should find a set that fits your ears well. But like all noise-isolating buds, it you don’t get a tight seal, the sound quality will suffer, and I suspect that users who’ve posted negative reactions to their sound probably didn’t get a good fit.
Overall, I found them comfortable to wear over long periods. (The earbuds are rated for five hours of battery life at moderate volume levels with two extra charges in their charging case.) While I was able to get a tight seal with the largest set of ear tips, I ended up switching to another set with a more conical shape that fit my ears even better. Since I test a lot of earbuds, I have a lot of extra ear tips to choose from, but most folks don’t have that luxury.
Dual-device connectivity
It was simple to connect the earbuds to the PS5. You plug in the PlayStation Link USB adapter to the USB-A port on the PS5, then press the link button on the case while the earbuds are still in the case. What’s also nice is that you can simultaneously be connected to your phone via Bluetooth and take a call if it comes in while you’re gaming. While you could pair these with a PC via Bluetooth, you’ll likely want to use the PlayStation Link USB adapter with your Mac or Windows PC because it creates a lossless low-latency connection with the buds. With the Nintendo Switch, you’ll need a USB-C to USB-A adapter to plug in the dongle, but no dongle is required for the PlayStation Portal remote player. (It’s a shame you need a dongle for the PS5, as it’s unclear why the technology can’t be built into the unit like it is with the Portal.)
To test the buds for gaming, I split my time between a PS5 and a PlayStation Portal. Once you connect to the Portal (or PS5), the buds will automatically re-link with the device when you take them out of their case while also remaining connected to your phone. In my 10 hours or so of game testing, I didn’t notice any lag, and they sounded very good all over, offering an immersive audio experience similar to what I’m used to with a decent over-ear headset.
The earbuds are compatible with Sony’s 3D Audio supported games (I played Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales and Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater), and Sony says they’ll “enhance your perception in 3D Audio supported PS5 games as audio cues are positioned with an incredible degree of accuracy across all three dimensions.” Microphone performance seemed quite good for multiplayer games, and the onboard volume controls worked just fine while I was connected to both the PS5 and PlayStation Portal.
Limited features, but they nail the earbuds basics
Earbuds in this price range typically have a pretty robust feature set. In comparison, the Pulse Explore buds have no active noise canceling (aka ANC), no ear-detection sensors that automatically pause your music when you take the earbuds out of your ears, and no companion app with an equalizer or other features (that I’m aware of). These are truly bare-bones earbuds. In fact, the volume control buttons only worked when I was using the buds with my PS5 and PlayStation Portal, and there were no controls for skipping tracks when I was using the buds with an iPhone 15 and Google Pixel 7.
I spent more time listening to music than gaming because I was surprised by how good they sound. Alas, they don’t support Sony’s well-regarded LDAC audio codec for Bluetooth streaming. They do support the AAC audio codec.
While they may not offer the same sound quality as high-end over-ear planar magnetic headphones, they exhibit some of the same sound traits: well-balanced audio that’s clear, accurate and open (wide sound stage), with bass that goes deep but is well defined. These are earbuds that will make you want to do a deep dive into your music library to hear how they sound with various tracks. While they may be a little harder to drive, I didn’t have any issue with how loud they play using my iPhone 15. (The volume was slightly lower with the Pixel 7.) The WF-1000XM5 buds do play louder, and, as I said, sound a bit fuller with bigger bass.
I was also impressed with their voice-calling capabilities. Callers told me they did a very good job suppressing background noise while my voice came through relatively clearly, even on the noisy streets of New York. They’re in the upper echelon of earbuds for voice calling.
Pulse Explore final thoughts
At a price point of $200, investing in gaming earbuds like the Pulse Explore, especially ones that don’t inherently exude a premium aesthetic, might seem steep at first glance. However, the incorporation of planar magnetic driver technology by Sony and presumably Audeze into these earbuds at this price range is quite revolutionary. Notably, Sony’s forthcoming $150 Pulse Elite headset, slated for release on Feb. 21, also boasts these innovative drivers.
Granted, when compared to other earbuds in the $200 range—akin to the street price of Apple’s AirPods Pro 2—the Pulse Explore may appear lacking in certain features expected from such a price tag. Yet, once a snug fit is achieved, the passive noise isolation performs admirably, effectively muffling a decent amount of ambient noise. Remarkably, the earbuds deliver excellent sound quality and excel in call functionality, meeting the primary criteria for many users. While numerous individuals utilize their gaming headsets as daily drivers, especially during desk work, the Pulse Explore presents a compelling argument to serve as your go-to everyday earbuds despite the absence of certain features. In my experience, they surpassed my initial expectations.