Design and features:These earphones work with or without the noise canceling feature being turned on, and you can use the noise-canceling feature without listening to music. The Ally Plus has integrated microphones and touch sensitive volume, music player play/pause, and call connect/disconnect controls for paired Bluetooth devices, and a monitor function that can be used to make ambient sounds easier to hear while wearing the earphones. Additional features include an automatic pause feature that pauses audio when either earphone is taken out of an ear, support for unspecified digital voice assistants when used with Bluetooth devices that have those capabilities, and manufacturer claimed water resistance. This model comes with five pairs of ear pieces in various sizes, a USB charging cable, a charging cradle/carrying case with a built-in rechargeable battery that the manufacturer claims can be used to recharge the earphone batteries approximately 2 times between its own charges, and a carrying pouch.
Sound quality: We found the Ally Plus delivers sound quality that falls in the very good range - it reproduces music and voice very well although it does have some noticeable sonic quirks and excellent active noise reduction. The bass (as in bass drums, bass guitars, stand-up bass, etc.) has good impact and goes deep, but is prominent and boomy. The midrange (voices, guitars, horns, etc.) is fairly even, but a bit hazy, grainy, dark, and congested, and somewhat overwhelmed by the bass depending on the program material. The treble (cymbals, the upper range of violins, etc.) is fairly extended but a bit prominent and smeared (sounds that should have a delicate shimmer sound blurred). While the sound has a decent sense of liveliness, it is somewhat closed (sound-wise it's fairly obvious you have something plugging your ears) and does a decent job of recovering room ambience (the sense of the acoustic space in which the audio program that's being listened to was recorded). Warm character. The overall sound can best be summarized as bassy and a bit dark. Noise Canceling: Excellent noise reduction across the entire frequency range with the low frequencies reduced the most. A slight rushing noise can be heard when there is no audio program to drown it out.
Comfort: As typical of in-ear models they produce a sense of pressure in the ear canal opening that might be uncomfortable for some. Users with small ear bowls might find that the earphone body feels a bit bulky in their earbowl and that they stick out too far and feel like they may lever out of place, but that they will generally stay in place during casual use. Users with medium and larger sized ear bowls will probably find that this model fits and stays in place with no problems for casual use. Incidental contact with the touch controls can cause unintentional volume level changes, playing, pausing, or switching between noise cancellation and ambient sound monitoring.
