CMF’s clip earbuds hit the balance between cheap and good

CMF 的夹耳式耳机在廉价与品质之间找到了平衡点

The CMF Clip Pro are a very comfortable option for those that hate things in their ears. 对于那些讨厌耳道内有异物感的人来说，CMF Clip Pro 是一个非常舒适的选择。

Clip earbuds are an exercise in compromise. It’s an inherent aspect of their design — and physics. They can be more comfortable for people that don’t like something jammed in their ear, but sound response suffers. Ambient awareness is great because you can easily hear the sound around you, which means to hear your own music the buds need to be turned up and potentially leak sound out to your neighbors. For what they offer, they can also get pricey, with popular pairs from Bose, Sony, and Shokz reaching $200. The CMF Clip Pro, though, are under $100, and while they still have those compromises, they handle them well. 夹耳式耳机本质上是一种妥协的产物，这是其设计和物理特性所决定的。对于不喜欢耳塞塞入耳道的人来说，它们确实更舒适，但音质表现会受到影响。由于能轻松听到周围的声音，它们的环境感知能力很强，这意味着为了听清音乐，你必须调大音量，这可能会导致声音外泄，影响到周围的人。此外，这类产品往往价格不菲，Bose、Sony 和 Shokz 的热门款式售价可达 200 美元。不过，CMF Clip Pro 的售价不到 100 美元，尽管它们依然存在上述妥协，但处理得相当不错。

CMF is Nothing’s budget sub-brand, and because it tends to release earbuds in the $40–$60 range, I was expecting the same when I first heard about the Clip Pro. But instead, the Clip Pro are $99 — the same price as Nothing’s Ear 3A that just came out last month with more features (and also more issues). Only a few days after release and the Clip Pro are already on sale at $79, which puts them at the price I think they should be. CMF 是 Nothing 旗下的平价子品牌，由于其耳机产品通常定价在 40 到 60 美元之间，我最初听说 Clip Pro 时也预想了类似的价格。但实际上，Clip Pro 的定价为 99 美元——这与上个月刚发布、功能更多（但也伴随更多问题）的 Nothing Ear 3A 价格相同。不过，Clip Pro 在发布仅几天后就降价至 79 美元，这正是我认为它们应有的价位。

Instead of being placed inside the ear canal, the Clip Pro’s speaker sits just outside it and a band wraps around the ear to keep them secure. Clip Pro 的扬声器并非置于耳道内，而是悬挂在耳道外，通过一个环绕耳廓的支架来保持稳固。

Comfort is the Clip Pro’s big advantage. The flexible band avoids any pinching around the helix, and I didn’t experience any discomfort with how the speaker orb or battery/control capsule sat in and behind my ear. A clip design is the best option for those that have trouble fitting earbuds in their ear canals. 舒适度是 Clip Pro 的一大优势。柔性支架避免了对耳轮部位的挤压，无论扬声器球体还是电池/控制舱体，在耳内及耳后的位置都不会让我感到不适。对于那些耳道难以适配入耳式耳机的人来说，夹耳式设计是最佳选择。

Not having the sealed fit in your ear canals, though, affects the sound consistency, and I wouldn’t suggest doing any critical listening on the Clip Pro — or any clip earbuds, for that matter. Even so, the sound balance didn’t negatively affect my listening of my regular playlists and KCSN radio station app. By default, there’s a bass boost, which is necessary without a sealed fit but doesn’t cause the sound to be overly bassy (which other Nothing earbuds can be). 然而，由于无法实现耳道密封，声音的一致性会受到影响。我不建议使用 Clip Pro（或者任何夹耳式耳机）进行严苛的听音需求。即便如此，其声音平衡度并没有影响我日常播放列表和 KCSN 电台应用的收听体验。默认设置下，耳机带有低音增强，这对于非密封式设计是必要的，但它并不会导致声音过于浑浊（这是其他 Nothing 耳机有时会出现的问题）。

There’s a three-band EQ in the Nothing X app to adjust to taste, although as with other Nothing earbuds and headphones, the EQ can be tricky to use. Increasing a slider doesn’t always boost that frequency band, but instead lowers the other frequencies (increasing the bass, for example, actually brings down the mids and highs). It takes some getting used to and extra finagling. The Clip Pro support fixed spatial audio, which adds more space to the sound (I didn’t find it objectionable, but preferred the sound without it), as well as high-res audio over LDAC. The differences with high-res on an open-ear design are so minute, it’s not worth it, especially with any ambient noise around. Nothing X 应用中提供了三段式均衡器供用户调节，但和其他 Nothing 耳机一样，这个均衡器用起来有些棘手。调高滑块并不总是能增强该频段，反而会降低其他频段（例如，增加低音实际上会削弱中高音）。这需要一些时间去适应和反复调试。Clip Pro 支持固定空间音频，这增加了声音的空间感（我并不反感，但更喜欢关闭后的效果），同时也支持通过 LDAC 传输高解析度音频。但在开放式设计上，高解析度音频带来的差异微乎其微，并不值得折腾，尤其是在有环境噪音的情况下。

While listening to my radio app, the DJ’s voice could get difficult to understand during talk breaks with traffic going by. Boosting the volume can solve the problem, but it can also cause the sound to leak out to be heard by those close to you (benchmates on the bus or subway, for example). Turning on anti-leakage mode in the app cuts higher frequencies, but also adversely affects sound quality. The sound only leaks at high volumes, so it’s best to just turn them down. 在使用电台应用时，当有车辆经过，DJ 的说话声有时会变得难以听清。调大音量可以解决这个问题，但也会导致声音外泄，被周围的人听到（例如在公交或地铁上坐在你旁边的人）。在应用中开启“防漏音模式”会切断高频，但这也会对音质产生负面影响。声音只在高音量下才会外泄，所以最好的办法还是调低音量。

There are multiple options for adjusting the volume in those situations, including directly from your device, with buttons on the capsules that rest behind each ear, or with a dial on the case (assignable in the app). The dial is also a button that can play and pause, skip forward and back, or call up your phone’s assistant. 在这种情况下，有多种调节音量的方法：可以直接通过设备调节，使用耳后舱体上的按钮，或者使用充电盒上的旋钮（可在应用中自定义功能）。这个旋钮同时也是一个按钮，可以实现播放/暂停、切歌或唤醒手机语音助手。

There isn’t quite enough resistance to the dial, so at times while the case was in my pocket, volume would go up or down by a click or two. I ended up disabling the dial and either using the buttons on the earbuds, which work well although with a slight delay, or just pulling out my phone instead of the case. And with functionality disabled the dial becomes a great fidget toy. 旋钮的阻尼感不足，有时放在口袋里，音量会因为误触而增减一两格。最终我禁用了旋钮功能，转而使用耳机上的按钮（虽然有轻微延迟，但工作良好），或者直接掏出手机操作。在禁用功能后，这个旋钮倒成了一个很棒的解压玩具。

The Clip Pro are pretty good with calls and don’t exhibit the buggy functionality I experienced with the Nothing Ear 3A, where the compression on my voice would drastically adjust based on the ambient sound when I started talking. The noise gate is still very aggressive to filter out any surrounding sound and can clip the very end of a word, but when I was speaking at normal volumes while walking down the street, my wife was able to understand me easily. Soft-spoken people might run into issues, though. When I spoke quietly, I sounded very muffled and it took her lots of concentration to try and figure out what I said. Clip Pro 的通话表现相当不错，没有出现我在 Nothing Ear 3A 上遇到的那种 Bug——即说话时语音压缩会根据环境音剧烈波动。虽然噪声门限依然非常激进，会过滤掉所有环境音，有时甚至会截断词尾，但当我在街上以正常音量说话时，我妻子能轻松听清我的话。不过，说话声音较小的人可能会遇到问题。当我轻声说话时，声音听起来非常闷，她需要非常专注才能听清我在说什么。

That call quality epitomizes the CMF Clip Pro, and it’s the same with their sound. The earbuds are good at what they do under the constraints of the technology. And their comfort, along with their price, make them great when you don’t want something deep in your ear. 这种通话质量是 CMF Clip Pro 的缩影，音质表现亦是如此。在技术限制下，这款耳机已经做到了它该做的事。凭借其舒适度和价格，如果你不想让耳机深入耳道，它们会是一个非常棒的选择。