Standard earbuds and headsets can’t compete with the comfort level of open-ear headphones

I don’t know how to say this other than just coming out and saying it. I don’t enjoy sticking things in my ears, and that dampens my enthusiasm for earbuds. I do own some earbuds, and they play very specific roles in my life, but outside of those contexts they don’t see a lot of use. (For the curious: my on-stage IEMs are earbuds, and I like the sound isolation of noise-canceling earbuds for long flights.) I’m willing to admit that I’m a weirdo on this front. The enormous popularity of wireless earbuds just can’t be denied. Some of y’all are happy to wear them all day, and I’m not here to try and change your ways. You do you. But for me, open-ear headphones are the clear winner when it comes to all-day comfort.

If you haven’t run across open-ear headphones before, here’s the difference. Open-ear headphones are kind of like standard headphones, in that they lay flat over your ear and create sound for you to listen to. But unlike standard headphones, there’s no band across the top of your head and they don’t squeeze your head or ears. At most, there’s a little downward pressure on your ear due to gravity. In terms of size, open-air headphones are more like standard earbuds than headsets. They’re small, portable, and recharge in a little case. But unlike earbuds, open-air headphones don’t need to be poked into your ear. There’s no ear tip. They simply rest on the outside of your ear, using a wraparound ear hook to stay in place.

That basic design fundamentally changes the experience in many ways. Since open-air headphones don’t fill up your ear canal, they don’t isolate you from your environment. You’re better able to interact with people around you. When I’m using earbuds, I usually have to pull one out in order to talk to friends and family, which can be a little irritating for simple one-sentence interactions. Open-air headphones let in sound from the outside world. That makes them a compelling choice for places like the office, where you want to stay attentive to nearby coworkers (and your boss) even as you sit in on remote meetings or listen to music as you work.

I especially like open-air headphones for my home office, where it’s nothing short of a marriage-saver. My wife and I both work from home most days. We give each other space to get things done, but we also like to acknowledge each other’s existence from time to time. (Strange, I know.) Wearing earbuds means that every time she talks, I have to remove a bud and ask her to repeat herself. Wearing open-air headphones lets me talk with her naturally, even without pausing my background music.

I should note that the isolating qualities of standard earbuds can be quite helpful in other scenarios. My on-stage IEMs are supposed to shut out noise from the sound system in the room. When I get on a flight and put in my earbuds, I want them to erase the cabin noise. That’s the point.

But for me, at least, fatigue eventually sets in with earbuds and headsets. A well-designed headset gives me many hours of comfortable use, but I do reach a point where I get tired of having something squeezing my skull. Earbuds vary when it comes to comfort, but I eventually lose patience with having something lodged in my ear. Open-air headphones function between those extremes, giving me an ultra-light option that puts almost no pressure on my ears or head.

Until recently, open-air headphones suffered from one problem that kept me from using them as often as I’d like. Almost none of them are made for gaming. Standard wireless tech is designed for the world of phone calls, video chats, and listening to music and podcasts. For those use cases, latency is not a big concern. If the wireless tech making them work introduces a small bit of delay, almost no one will notice. But in gaming, that kind of latency is a non-starter. Any gap between the action on the screen and the sound that I’m hearing in my ears is intolerable.

To be clear, this latency concern is 100% a solved problem. We have the technology. Folks use wireless headsets and earbuds for gaming all the time. A 2.4GHz wireless connection is snappy enough for even the most latency-sensitive ears.

The trouble with open-ear headphones is that basically none of them offer a 2.4GHz wireless connectivity mode. They connect via Bluetooth, which has advantages for many contexts. But if you’re interested in a single audio solution that can switch gears from a Teams meeting to a Diablo IV run without breaking a sweat, you’ve largely needed to avoid open-ear headphones.

Now, all that’s changed. There’s a new set of open-ear headphones on the market, and they offer the comfort of an open-ear design, the effortless portability of earbuds, and the low-latency audio of a gaming headset. I’m talking about the ROG Cetra Open Wireless gaming earbuds.

These open-ear headphones basically create their own category. They’re a bit bigger than your standard buds, but they only weigh 11 grams, so you hardly notice the soft silicon ear hook that holds them in place. 14.2mm DLC-coated diaphragm drivers produce precise, full-range audio that’s plenty loud. They connect to your devices with either advanced Bluetooth® 6.0 or ultra-low latency 2.4 GHz connectivity. Battery life is excellent. You’ll get up to 16 hours of audio when using Bluetooth with the mic muted, RGB lighting off, and on-board audio modes disabled, and up 48 hours counting the recharge capabilities of the charging case. They stay in place quite well without additional help, but workout warriors will appreciate the included detachable reflective neck strap which boosts security and visibility.

The ROG Cetra Open Wireless also do more than most open ear headphones to recreate the advantages of standard earbuds. Generally speaking, it’s nice to have an audio solution that doesn’t disconnect me from the outside world, but there are times when I want that separation. In those moments, I can enable Immersion Mode, a dynamic frequency filter that selectively attenuates low-frequency background noise such as rumbles or fans. Open ear headphones don’t always compete with headsets and buds when it comes to producing thumping bass, but the Phantom Bass tech available with the Cetra Open Wireless uses perceptual audio processing to restore low-end perception.

Gaming performance sets the ROG Cetra Open Wireless apart from the competition, and it’s ROG SpeedNova wireless technology that makes it work. These open-ear headphones come with a small USB Type-C dongle that allows your device to connect to the ROG Cetra Open Wireless via a 2.4GHz connection. This connection type makes it a great fit for PC gaming handhelds like the ROG XBOX Ally X, Android smartphones, laptop and desktop PCs, the Nintendo Switch and PlayStation consoles. Crucially, the dongle offers one-way passthrough charging. You can use these open-ear headphones even while charging the device that you’re gaming on.

Overall, I’m not here to criticize the audio gear that you own and love. I admit that my reluctance to wear earbuds makes me a bit of a weirdo, even in my own friend group. But I do suspect that there are more people like me out there, folks who have been jealous of the portability and convenience of earbuds but never able to get much use out of them due to comfort concerns. If that’s you, check out open-ear headphones as an alternative. The design is incredibly comfortable, and if you need your set to offer excellent gaming performance, you can get what you need with the ROG Cetra Open Wireless.