I always try to make an effort to check out some neat-looking tech at PAX, and this year SAN Sound’s SANWEAR-GAMETYPE earbuds caught my eye. Its polygonal case, with its sharp corners, immediately caught my attention, but it was the fact that, unlike most modern earbuds that are enclosed in their case, the SANWEAR-GAMETYPE are instead slotted into the sides.
San Sound SANWEAR-GAMETYPE – Gaming Earbuds That Minimize Lag
There’s a reason for this, however, as there’s a lot of tech hidden inside the case that would interfere with its goal: minimizing the usual audio lag you get from Bluetooth earbuds. You see, the case is designed to be plugged into your console or PC, acting as a receiver for the earbuds and eliminating the lag typically associated with Bluetooth headphones. Additionally, the earbuds feature full 360º audio, so if something’s behind you in the game, you’ll hear it behind you in person. They ran me through a few demos, and there were a few times when the 3D audio tricked me pretty well—at one point, I genuinely thought someone was playing a guitar in the booth next to us when it was actually part of the audio demo.
Noise-canceling is all the rage right now, and I’m not gonna lie, I love it in my Sony headphones or my Pixel Buds Pro, especially on a long flight to drown out the noise. San Sound opted to remove that, however, in favor of a more natural noise cancellation through a tighter seal on your ears. The tips of the earbuds have hooks that slide into your ear and literally hook in, and while I could still hear some of the noise from the convention floor, it was muffled to such a degree that it didn’t interfere with the audio from the earbuds and was probably one of the best earbud seals I’ve tried in a minute.
Your phone also works in tandem with the case, which serves as the hub where you can customize anything from the colors of the case to the audio presets like bass or mid-tones and gesture controls. Wired earbud fans need not fret—there’s something for you here, too, as I was told that SAN Sound is working on a pair of wired earbuds that are due to be announced soon.
A Premium Price for Premium Gaming Audio
The rub here is the $300 price tag, but that honestly seems to be the norm for gaming headwear nowadays, so it’s not out of the realm of normalcy when you compare it to its peers in the space. The earbuds are out now in two styles, though I only got to see the pricier $300 version, so I’d recommend visiting their site and seeing if maybe these might be your new gaming earbuds.
