CMF Buds 2 Plus and Buds 2 Review: Budget earbuds with flagship sound – what’s the real difference?

But what are the differences with the standard Buds 2, and should you consider the new, more upscale CMF Buds 2 Plus? There are some key differences between the Buds 2 and the Buds 2 Plus, so let’s delve in, fire up our favorite Spotify playlist, and give each pair a spin. 

CMF Buds 2 Plus vs CMF Buds 2 specs and differences

Design and Colors

CMF’s consistent and quite attractive design language has taken the reins here, with the two pairs of earbuds following the same aesthetics. We get two very solid charging cases in a standard squircle shape, which are made of lovely sandblasted matter plastic that’s honestly a joy to interact with. The hinges are made of stainless steel, mind you, ensuring a very sturdy build and helping the case close with a satisfying “thud”.

Just like the CMF Buds Pro 2, there’s the rotating dial on top of the fairly large but lightweight charging case, but this is where most similarities unfortunately end. The CMF Buds Pro 2’s dial doubled as a clickable button and allowed you to control the volume, the audio playback, and even launch the voice assistant on your phone, however, that’s not the case with the Buds 2 and Buds 2 Plus. The dials here serve purely aesthetic purposes and only allow you to attach a lanyard to the charging case, with no customizable or interactive functions available. 

The buds themselves are pretty standard ones, with nothing too fancy or extraordinary going on for them. While we do like the transparent cyberpunk design of Nothing’s own earbuds, CMF has gone for a much milder styling here, and that’s still perfectly okay. 

The earbuds fit very snug in the ears. They are quite lightweight, so you’ll barely even feel them after a while. As one might expect, CMF has included two extra pairs of silicone tips that will fit smaller or larger ear canals.

As with most other earbuds out there, each of these has a touch-sensitive areas that let you control the audio playback, accept and decline calls, as well as switch between the noise-cancelling modes via touch. 

Both earbuds are IP55-rated, which means that they will easily survive the occasional water jets, but by no means should you use them while swimming or enjoying any other water sport: that’s a big no-no. 

In terms of colors, there are major differences. The standard Buds 2 are available in Dark Gray, Light Green, and Orange, while the CMF Buds 2 Plus come in Blue or Light Gray colors. 

Why do my CMF Buds 2 and CMF Buds 2 Plus have fairly low max volume out of the box?

Out of the box, the volume is too low. At first, I thought I was going crazy and wasn’t using the earbuds correctly, as even turning up the volume on my phone to the maximum resulted in a fairly low volume, nearly twice as low as what other earbuds can potentially deliver. 

Turns out the earbuds have an internal volume setting that’s a bit hidden and not obvious at all. By default, it appears that most CMF buds are set at around 60-70% volume, so even if you max out your phone’s internal volume to the max, you might still find the buds’ loudness lackluster. 

The solution to this quirk is to assign a volume up shortcut to any of the buds, for example a double-tap gesture, then trigger that gesture a couple of times, and the buds should now be utilizing a 100% of their potential loudness. This way, you can use your phone’s internal volume setting to control the volume properly. After that, you can unassign the “volume up” gesture, and map another, more useful feature. 

Sound Quality

Off to the most important aspect of any audio product––the sound quality.

CMF Buds 2

The standard Buds 2 come with 11mm PMI (polyimide) dynamic drivers and strong N52 magnets, CMF’s standard new Buds come deliver surprisingly decent audio quality. 

The highs are quite clear and detailed, while the mids are also lovely, though a warmer sound wouldn’t have hurt. The bass is rich and boom, especially if you enable and dial up the Ultra Bass feature inside the Nothing X app. Bass heads will generally have a great experience with these earbuds. BigXthaPlug and Bailey Zimmerman’s All The Way sounds wonderful on the Buds 2, simultaneously treating us to crispy clear vocals and deep, commanding thumps.  

The CMF Buds 2 come with Dirac Opteo tuning, which eliminates accidental sound resonances or unintended audio colorations by utilizing advanced measurement-based corrections. The feature is available in the equalizer selector, and honestly, it definitely elevates the sound quality in comparison with all other equalizer presets. 

There’s no lossless support here, as only the AAC and SBC codecs are supported,

CMF Buds 2 Plus

Meanwhile, the Buds 2 Plus utilize slightly larger 12mm LCP (liquid-crystal polymer) dynamic drivers and N52 magnets as well, providing similar sound quality. Technically, judging from the specs alone, the sound quality should be slightly better, but as with all things audio, you might never notice a difference. 

The CMF Buds 2 Plus sound just as good as the Buds 2, with rather clear highs, rich mids, and a decadent amount of bass (if you want it). Sleep Token’s Take Me Back To Eden brings out the best in progressive metal while also elevating the vocals of the track, making for a pleasant experience. 

Sadly, there’s no Dirac Opteo tuning here, and honestly, that’s a shame. At least to my ears, this feature elevates the sound quality in a noticeable way and definitely made me reach for the regular Buds 2 more often. 

The major difference here is that the CMF Buds 2 Plus support lossless audio, allowing you to use Sony’s LDAC codec if your device supports it. Enabling this will affect your battery life, but you won’t notice an audio quality difference if you’re on the Spotify free plan or listening to music through the YouTube app.

The CMF Buds 2 Plus can also conduct a sound test on your ears, detecting your sensitivity to various frequencies and thus adapting the sound to uniquely suit you. This feature isn’t available on the CMF Buds 2. 

Noise Cancellation and Transparency

Both of CMF’s earbuds support active noise-cancelling, but the Buds 2 Plus are better endowed in this aspect. 

That’s because they support stronger 50dB noise-cancelling that works across a slightly wider 5400Hz range. In contrast, the CMF Buds 2 slightly weaker 48dB noise-cancelling over a narrower 5200Hz range. Not a difference you’re likely to notice.

Both the CMF Buds 2 and Buds 2 Plus also feature a Smart Adaptive ANC mode, which automatically tailors the strength of the noise-cancelling effect given the ambient sounds. It works very well, boosting the ANC when it detects loud rumbling noise or toning it down when you’re by yourself in a quiet room, this feature works well. 

Software

To squeeze the most out of these CMF Buds, you have to use the Nothing X app, which lets you control the noise-cancelling, determine what each control shortcut does, enable or disable various features, and change the equalizer settings. It’s a fairly straightforward app and comes with a pretty rich and detailed manual and FAQs about each of these buds. 

One cool hidden feature that’s still in beta is CMF’s AI-curated “news podcast”, which uses the voice of Tim Holbrow, CFO of Nothing. You can mix-and-match different news categories to create your own news podcast. A very nifty and cool feature that we hope rolls out of beta soon; that’s one of the cooler AI features we’ve seen this year!

Battery life and Charging

When it comes to battery life, one can only sing praises for both of CMF’s earbud models. Both last long and charge very fast, so there’s pretty much no downtime in your potential audio-listening experience. 

Each of the CMF Buds 2 comes with a 53mAh battery inside, while the case itself features a 460mAh battery inside. The same applies to the Buds 2 Plus, but they enjoy an ever-so-slightly better battery life across the board, which could be an important reason to consider the newer buds. 

While neither pair of earbuds supports wireless charging, we get fast charging on both. For example, a 10-minute charge of the CMF Buds 2 Plus case will get you eight hours and a half listening experience, while the CMF Buds 2 will score a potential battery life of seven hours and a half. 

Conclusion

In all honesty, you can’t go wrong with either one of these. 

Starting at £59, the CMF Buds 2 Plus are the slightly improved version of the buds that now support lossless audio and deliver better battery life. They do sound great, but as with all things audio-related, any difference might fly past your head. 

At £49, the regular CMF Buds 2 offer immense value. Not only are they affordable, they sound great, too! In fact, after having the chance to use either pair for a couple of hours, I can honestly say that I definitely reached out for the regular buds more often than the newer Plus model, and the reason for that could be the magical Dirac Opteo tuning that makes everything sound oh-so-enjoyable.

If you aren’t concerned with lossless audio and just want a pair of affordable but absolutely wonderful earbuds, put the CMF Buds 2 on the shortlist.