After what seems like a career of reviewing high-end headphones, it’s a pleasure to review something less expensive but still impressive.

Cleer Audio Alpha Headphones

I’m talking about the Cleer Audio Alpha Headphones, which include adaptive noise reduction, compatibility with mobile phones, spatial audio featuring Dirac Virtuo, long battery life, and optional control with an app. There’s a conversation mode, Bluetooth 5.1, and for purists, a cable connection to the amplifier of your choice.

These are a lot of features for headphones that list at $219.99. But what’s important is how does the Cleer Audio Alpha sound? Quite good, and certainly a top contender in this price range. The truth is my expectations were low, but listening tests confirmed that these headphones had good frequency response, wide dynamic range, and an adjustable soundstage.

Highlights

Cleer Audio Alpha Headphones

  • The Cleer Audio Alpha Headphones are full-featured and a nice bargain at the asking price.
  • There’s a nicely constructed case included for travel and use around the house.
  • The instructions are easy to follow, and in large enough print that a magnifying glass is not needed.
  • Soft touch controls are easy to use and reliable.
  • Noise reduction is effective.
  • The Dirac Virtuo processing sounds natural and extends the soundstage.
  • You can get Midnight Blue or Stone colors. Both are attractive.

Sleep alpha 2 colors

Introduction

Headphones seem to have had a bit of a renaissance the last few years, with more and more choices at just about every price level. People are using them when they travel, for watching television or listing to music without disturbing others nearby, and increasingly they are doing double duty for making calls.

Secrets Sponsor

Cleer Audio has a variety of products, including earbuds and smart speakers. The Cleer Audio Alpha headphones, under review here, are at the top of the Cleer Audio headphone offerings. Based in San Diego, California, the brand has received many innovations awards at CES 2020, the world’s largest consumer electronics trade show. Cleer isn’t as well known as the incumbents, but they’ve made a splash with a feature-packed headphone with good sound at a low price point.

Cleer Audio Alpha Headphones SPECIFICATIONS
General Weight:

330g

Driver:

40mm Ironless™

Frequency Response (Bluetooth):

20Hz-20kHz

Frequency Response (Line-in):

20Hz-40kHz

Headphone Type:

Over-Ear

Foldable:

Yes

Microphones:

Qualcomm® cVc™ 2-mic Beamforming

Inputs:

Bluetooth, Passive Line-in 3.5mm

Bluetooth Version:

5.1

Audio Formats:

MP3, SBC, Qualcomm® aptX™ Adaptive

Range:

Up to 15m

Bluetooth Multipoint:

Yes, pairs seamlessly to multiple devices

Battery Life:

35hrs

Charge Method:

USB-C

Quick Charge:

10min charge provides 4hrs

Features:

Adaptive Active Noise Cancellation
Ambient Sound Control
Conversation Mode
Dirac Virtuo™ spatial audio
Touch Controls
Wear Detection Auto Play/Pause
Sound Personalization via Cleer+ App

MSRP:

$219.99

Website:

Company Site

Company:

Cleer Audio

SECRETS Tags:

Cleer Audio, Cleer, Dirac Virtuo, closed-back headphones, Bluetooth, Headphones Review 2022

Design

It’s probably easiest to go through the physical design first, and then illuminate the features of this headphone.

First off, once you unpack the Cleer Alpha Headphones from their nicely designed box, you’ll find a sturdy travel case. Inside are the headphones, in either Midnight Blue or Stone. Both colors are attractive. The folks at Cleer sent me the Midnight Blue model for testing and evaluation.

Sleep open case

The Alpha seems mostly made of hard plastic, with black foam on the headband while the over-the-ear cups are faux leather. The headphones fold easily into their carry case.

The Alpha’s feature wide-band noise cancellation, with an ambient mode that allows outside sounds in if you desire them.

Since the Alpha’s can pair with a smartphone, the company has paid attention to call quality, and they use Qualcomm® cVc™ with 2 beam-forming microphones and wind noise reduction.

In a first to my knowledge, Cleer is using Dirac Virtuo spatial audio to widen the soundstage and move the audio outside your head. In addition, Cleer is using what they call an Ironless driver, a 40mm diaphragm that is claimed to produce excellent, high-resolution sound.

There’s Bluetooth 5.1 and aptX, which is considered the highest quality wireless codec, although not all music sources support it. A big holdout is Apple with their iPhones.

Battery life is listed as 35 hours, and there is a quick charge mode that will give you 4 hours of playback with only a 10-minute charge.

Like just about everything electronic today, Cleer provides a free app for control of EQ settings, and noise control. You can also update the Alpha firmware with this app. It works on iOS and Android.

The Alpha’s also have some intuitive touch controls on the ear cup, allowing users to pause and play music, adjust the volume, and answer and disconnect calls.

Setup

The headphones come in an attractive outer box. The inner box has the headphones, charging and audio cables, and instructions. There’s also the previously mentioned travel case.

Case and booklet

Setting the Alpha’s up involves a standard Bluetooth pairing by holding down the power button, or simply connecting a 3.5 mm audio cable to the headphones and your audio source.

In Use

I did the bulk of my listening connected directly to my FiiO M15 digital audio player. It has excellent playback accuracy. The FiiO also provides a Bluetooth connection. The direct connect sounded better than Bluetooth, which was no surprise, and I wanted to test the audio quality of the Alphas without letting the Bluetooth codec intervene.

The phones themselves seemed a little heavier than headphones in this price range. They were not uncomfortable, and the ear cups were cool to the touch. I expect the added electronics contributed to the overall weight.

I also found the headphones had a bit more clamping pressure than I expected. Again, not uncomfortable for short-term listening. After a few hours, it might start to bother some users, while some will just get used to it.

Operating the Alpha’s is simple. As mentioned, there is a power/Bluetooth pairing switch on the right ear cup. On the left ear cup, a single button controls audio mode. One press turns on noise reduction. Another press turns it off and puts you in ambient mode. A double press turns on the Dirac Virtuo mode. A single press takes you back out. So that there’s no ambiguity, a voice announces the mode you are in.

Side view with buttons

I found the noise reduction to be effective. In a quiet room with only a ceiling fan running and no music going through the Alpha’s, turning noise reduction on made the room dead quiet. I then moved over to a sink and let the water run while I was about 4 feet away. Again, the Alpha’s tamed the noise with music running.

In the ambient mode, some of those sounds came through, but they were still slightly reduced. It was possible to have a conversation with the headphones on and switched to ambient mode.

The headphones also have touch controls. Volume can be controlled with a swipe, and tracks can be changed on compatible equipment, like most smartphones.

I thought the headphones sounded quite good on a variety of music. I was pleased to note that the headphones played with the power off. It’s good news if you’re on a long flight and the batteries go flat. This is listening with the included cable. If you’re wireless and the batteries go, you’re up the proverbial creek.

Secrets Sponsor

I listened with and without noise reduction, and with and without the Dirac Virtuo mode. I’ll comment on the differences within my reactions to some music selections.

Goldfinger

My first listen was to the excellent high-resolution remaster of John Barry’s score for Goldfinger. The headphones sounded quite good but compared to more expensive headphones I sensed a bit of midrange forwardness. The high frequencies were quite clean, and the bass was there, but perhaps not as deep as higher-end phones. I did not find the bass lacking, however.

Sometimes noise reduction systems adversely affect high frequencies. Quickly switching between noise reduction and no noise reduction, high frequencies sounded the same. That’s a plus for the design of the electronics. I tried the Dirac Virtuo mode and found that it did indeed widen the soundstage. I did not hear any negative artifacts because of the sound field expansion. So, in general, I would say the Dirac processing works, and I found myself wanting to turn it on most of the tracks I sampled.

Alpha and Omega

Alpha and Omega – a lush choral and organ album by Scottish composer James MacMillan. This is a terrific sounding recording that is a good headphone test. With Dirac Virtuo on, I had a nice spread of the singers in a large acoustic space. The organ gave me some bass to savor. Again, here, I preferred the Dirac Virtuo mode. As I test, I listened to some high-end Focal headphones I had on hand from a previous review. I found their frequency response just a bit wider, the imaging was more precise, and without Dirac, I still got an equally wide image. Still, I was struck by how nicely these far less expensive Cleer headphones did on the same tracks.

Return to Ommadawn

Return to Ommadawn – Mike Oldfield’s modern sequel to his widely popular album Ommadawn from 1975. This is acoustic music with many layers. It can challenge any headphone by presenting instrument positions accurately. I thought the Cleer Alpha’s rendered the tracks nicely and created an involving experience. Again, Dirac Virtuo contributed to the overall accuracy of the reproduction.

Star Trek the Motion Picture Limited Edition

Star Trek the Motion Picture Limited Edition – This is a recently released 2-disc set of the soundtrack and music that was written but never heard in the first Star Trek theatrical voyage. Jerry Goldsmith mixes a standard orchestra with some electronic. There are lovely strings, and deep bass. It all sounded good in this remaster. The music was for sure the best part of the movie.

Conclusions

With credible sound, a nice travel case, and the Dirac Virtuo feature, I find the Cleer Audio headphones to be a good value.

Likes
  • Competitive sound at this price point.
  • Noise reduction and Dirac Virtuo add value to the package but can be turned off for a more direct audio feed.
  • The Alpha’s work without being powered on.
  • The Alpha’s come with a sturdy case, good for safe travel.
  • The headphones are physically attractive in either color.
  • Earpads are removable, replaceable.
  • Documentation is easy to understand and in large print.
Would Like To See (and hear)
  • A slight reduction in the mid-range frequencies. The bump can be nice on vocals, but to my ear flatter is better.
  • While heavier than many competitive headphones, I don’t find it objectionable in short to moderate length listening sessions. I do find the clamping pressure just slightly more than I’d like for lengthy sessions.
  • While Dirac Virtuo does work, I’d like some width adjustments to match it to different recordings.
  • The app seemed glitchy in my trial, but it wasn’t needed for using the Alphas. It would be needed for any firmware updates.

Of course, you can find better headphones in almost every parameter, but not at this low price. And of course, most high-end headphones don’t offer noise reduction or equalizers. Not because they can’t, but most prefer to pass the sound from the source to the headphones without intervention. Still, the Cleer Audio engineers have offered us a lower cost headphone that is more all-purpose than most of the high-end headphones, and without taking a big hit on audio quality.

There are a lot of headphones in this price range. I haven’t heard a lot of them, because I spend a lot of time with higher-end products. Still, the sound of the Cleer Alpha headphones is musical, even with the imposition of electronic noise shaping. Listening on Bluetooth to the same tracks was a good experience, but the sound was slightly more compressed, and frequency limited. I could hear this in the sizzle of the percussion in the high-resolution Goldfinger tracks and the choral singing in Alpha and Omega. That’s just inherent in Bluetooth codecs, no fault of the Cleer Alpha.

I tried the Cleer app on my iPhone but could never get it to pair properly. I’m running an iOS beta, so perhaps that was the issue. For my testing, the app wasn’t needed, as volume, noise reduction, and the Dirac feature can be controlled directly from the headphones.