Cleer Enduro ANC Review

The Cleer Enduro ANC are active noise-cancelling headphones which feature active noise cancelling, aptX adaptive connectivity as well as long-lasting battery life – with over 60 hours of listening over Bluetooth with ANC turned on.

Video Review

See the Enduro ANC up close in our video review and learn more about how the headphones perform in our mode demos and microphone tests.

Design

Cleer Enduro ANC

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The Enduro ANC come in navy and light grey colour options. For this review, I’ve been testing the navy variant of the headphones, which features a brown coffee coloured accent colour that is found on the underside of the headband and earcups, as well as on accent pieces of the headphones. I will say, the brown colour isn’t one I’ve seen before on headphones and is a step away from the bright and vivid colours we usually see on these headphones, but it does give them some visual sophistication that gives the headphones a mature look.

The headphones feature a plastic and metal design. Whilst most of it is plastic, the headband features a slim brushed metal finish as does the earcups which feature brushed metal discs around the outer side of the earcups. The headphones keeping a plastic build for most of them gives them a fairly light weight that makes them comfortable to wear for long listening sessions. This isn’t the only element that makes these headphones comfortable to wear, though, the headphones also feature soft leatherette padding on the headband and earcups which moulds to the shape of your head nicely – and around glasses if needed.

As far as adjustability goes, the headphones have a good degree of it. Not only is there some clicky adjustability from the headband, but the earcups also tilt, swivel and can fold in if needed, meaning that you should be able to get a good fit with these headphones, regardless of how you wear them. I also found the headphones to have just the right amount of clamping force, enough to keep them in place but not too much to make them uncomfortable – I’m very happy with how these fit.

All of the headphone buttons can be found on the left side earcup, which is indicated by a small letter on the headband. This is probably me being a bit picky, but I would have preferred a large letter on the inside of the earcup as it’s an easier reference to see in a hurry. The buttons feature both track controls and volume controls, so you can have full control of the headphones without needing to get out your phone to make adjustments. There’s also a specific button for toggling the listening modes. You’ll want to make use of the play/pause button on the side of the headphones as there are unfortunately no ear detection sensors on these headphones.

Interestingly, there’s only a single port on these headphones – which makes them a lot like Apple’s AirPods Max, which are far pricier. I can understand why a Cleer may have chosen to have Type-C only on the headphones as they’re ANC headphones which most users will be using wirelessly with Bluetooth. But on the other hand, they’re headphones…? Luckily Cleer has included a 3.5mm to USB Type-C cable in the box if you choose to use the headphones wired, but this will mean that you’ll need a specific cable to use the headphones wired, you can’t just grab the nearest AUX cable. I found that the headphones did not need to be turned on to use wired, plug in the cable and you’re good to go.

Overall, I think the design of these headphones is good. They fit well and their design characteristics such as their weight and soft padding make them comfortable to wear for long listening sessions.

Sound Quality

The overall sound quality of the Enduro ANC is good, they have a warmer sound signature that provides punchy bass – all of this is powered by 40mm Ironless Drivers. Most of my testing has been done with the headphones in their active noise cancelling mode, however, I found all the listening modes to share similar sound characteristics, it’s good to see that the sound profile remains consistent and does not drastically change between modes.

These headphones sound is fairly balanced, considering its overall warm sound signature. The bass is controlled and punchy when needed and the mid and treble frequencies sound clear and all of these do a good job at not overwhelming one another. I do wish that the mid frequencies were a little brighter in some tracks to give a little more detail, I noticed this mainly within electronic and dance music which can usually have quite prominent bass. Listening to more acoustic and instrumental tracks from artists such as Tom Odell demonstrate a clear representation of the higher end frequencies such as vocals and instruments such as piano.

These headphones do have their own app, which I’ll talk about in some more detail in a little bit, so you can adjust the EQ sound profile of these headphones to match your listening habits and sound taste.

I did find the headphones to be a little quiet in comparison to what I am used to, so they can leave you a little underwhelmed unless you crank the volume a bit. I found myself listening at 60-70% depending on the track, of course, this element is relative to my experiences with other headphones but usually I only need to be around 50% volume – at 50% on the Enduro ANC, the headphones sound rather quiet.

Microphone Quality

The quality of the microphones on the Enduro ANC is very good. The microphones picked up my voice clearly and to a good volume, meaning that if you need to make a phone call with these headphones on, the person on the other end of the phone should be able to hear you fairly easily and clearly.

Features

The headphones feature both active noise cancelling and ambient listening modes – as well as a regular mode. The ANC works well at cutting out background noise such as low-pitched noise, hums and whirring sounds but does let a little of the high-end seep through. The ANC works well against fan noise, so if you use these in the office next to a fan or air conditioning, these should be able to tune out the background noise quite well. The ambient listening mode on these headphones is fantastic, there is no prominent white noise when active and I’m able to clearly hear what is going on around me.

The headphones feature Bluetooth 5.0 connectivity as well as support for aptX adaptive, to provide you with a higher quality wireless listening experience. The headphones also support Hi-Res playback, although only over a wired connection.

As I mentioned earlier during the review, the headphones also feature a companion app named Cleer+. The app allows you to check the battery life for your headphones, to the minute, but also allows you to tweak the amount of ambient noise being passed through the headphones as well as tweak the EQ graph for the headphones. I would like to see this app taken further, possibly with some presets that can make changing the sound profile of the headphones with a quick and simple press.

The headphones also include some accessories in the box. There are not only the USB Type-C charging and 3.5mm to Type-C audio cable, but also an aeroplane adapter and carrying pouch so you can use the headphones on your travels or store them safely away, so they don’t get scratched whilst in your bag.

Battery Life

The Enduro ANC headphones tout an impressive battery life of over 60 hours of listening with ANC turned on, if that’s not enough time for you to listen on a single charge, you can push that further by listening with ANC turned off. This is an impressive battery life to have and there should be no need to worry about remaining battery life with the headphones as you can keep them topped up on charge easily.

When it comes to charging the headphones, this is done using the USB Type-C port on the headphones. The headphones feature quick charging, which is great to see and will provide you with a quick top-up for additional listening, 5 to 10 minutes of charging will provide you with up to 2 hours of extra listening time.

Conclusion

The Cleer Enduro ANC offer good sound quality and active noise cancelling at a compelling and competitive price. The headphones are a little quiet volume-wise and it would’ve been nice to see a 3.5mm port on the headphones so a specific cable was not required for a wired connection, but those small downsides don’t outweigh the benefits of the comfortable design and impressive long-lasting battery life.

The Cleer Enduro ANC noise cancellation headphones are available to purchase on Amazon.