Design and features:The Amps Air has an integrated microphone and music player play pause and cellphone call connect/disconnect controls for use with paired Bluetooth devices. The right earphone can also be used alone for one ear monitoring of Bluetooth streamed audio and telephone communications. This model is claimed by the manufacturer to be water resistant and comes with four pairs of ear pieces in various sizes, a USB charging cable, a charging cradle/recharger battery/carrying case that can also be used to charge a cell phone.
Sound quality: We found the Amps Air delivers sound quality that falls in the good range - it reproduces music and voice reasonably well despite the obvious shortcomings in its sound. The overall sound can best be summarized as boomy, thin, somewhat rough, and bright. Bass (as in bass drums, bass guitars, stand-up bass, etc.) has good impact and goes deep, but is somewhat boomy and a bit prominent. The midrange (voices, guitars, horns, etc.) is thin and gritty. The treble (cymbals, the upper range of violins, etc.) is extended, but is prominent, sizzly (sounds that should have a delicate shimmer have a sound reminiscent of bacon frying), and sibilant sounds have a slightly staticy quality; it can be overbearing and fatiguing with some program material. While the sound has a good sense of liveliness it is somewhat closed-in -- sound-wise it is somewhat obvious that you have something plugging up your ears.
Comfort: The Amps Air has a hybrid ear-insert/ear bud design - the earpieces insert into the ear canals and are intended to seal them as with typical ear-insert models, and they are also intended to be supported by the ear bowls like an ear bud model. As typical of in-ear models it produces a sense of pressure in the ear canal opening might be uncomfortable for some. Users with small ear bowls might find that this model feels too large, or that the earbowl support does not fit into their earbowl at all and that the earphones are just held in place, if at all, only by the section of the earphone that is inserted in the ear canal. Users with medium sized ear bowls will probably find that this model fits and stays in place with no problems for casual use, but they may not stay in place during vigorous head movement. Users with larger sized ear bowls may find that this model fits and stays in place with no problems for casual use, but they will not stay in place during vigorous head movement. Because of the size and weight of the ear pieces some users might get the impression that the fit is not particularly stable. Unlike many totally wireless models, pushing on the earphone's control buttons when the earphones are installed in the ears did not cause ear discomfort. When the volume level is changed using the paired Bluetooth source device (there are no volume or skip/scan controls on the earphone) the earphones sound staticy and the volume level match between the two earpieces becomes erratic.
