Beyerdynamic Amiron 100 review: A solid AirPods 4 alternative, If you can get them

Earbuds. It sometimes feels like they’re a dime a dozen — a quagmire of a product category with loads of contenders that do little to set themselves apart from the rest of the space. Case in point: The Beyerdynamic Amiron 100, a pair of buds that look and sound pretty good, but aren’t all that available and don’t quite do enough to set themselves apart.

What do I mean? Look at them — an attractive pair of buds, yes, but their rounded charging case and en-stemmed shells make them look like a lot of the competition. Their feature set is much like everything else around, with similar battery life and shared codec support with the nearest competition.

Before I get in-depth with the Amiron 100 — which are actually quite good, despite their identity crisis — I’d like to say one thing. Most people are going to be better off with Sony’s cheaper WF-C710N and their more interesting colorways. So, who are the Amiron 100 for, and are they some of the best wireless earbuds? Let’s find out.

Beyerdynamic Amiron 100 review: Cheat sheet

• What is it? AirPods 4 competitors with a legacy name attached
• Who is it for? Those looking for an alternative to the AirPods 4 with better ANC and a more secure fit.
• What does it cost? £149
• What do we like? Good sound, comfortable fit, and their touch controls
• What don’t we like? There’s no U.S. availability, and they do little to stand out.

Beyerdynamic Amiron 100 review: Price and availability

First things first — you can’t get the Amiron 100 in the U.S.. You can get their stablemates, the excellent Amiron 300 (which are worth the extra $100) stateside along with their over-ear cousins the Aventho 300 (which are also worth the extra dollars). It’s a shame that there’s no availability as yet for the Amiron 100, although it’s not like you’re not well served for alternatives.

If they do come to the States, it’s likely that they’ll launch at the same price as in the U.K.. Here, they cost £159. That makes them a direct competitor to the AirPods 4 with ANC — and I’d say they’re a very viable alternative to Apple’s in-ear buds.

In the end, that’s all a moot point. If you’re looking for a pair of earbuds to rival Apple’s option, you’re still best served by Sony’s excellent $119 WF-C710N. Had Beyerdynamic launched the Amiron 100 a year ago, things would be different — but Sony’s budget buds have completely shifted the ‘affordable earbuds' landscape. It’s almost not fair.

Either way, you’re not going to get them in the States yet, and while there are compelling reasons to choose them if they arrive, Sony’s buds are so well priced it's hard to justify.

Beyerdynamic Amiron 100 review: Build and design

• Extremely comfortable fit
• Excellent build quality
• Lovely, smooth, compact charging case

With their smooth case and tiny bud size, the Amiron 100 are an attractive pair of earbuds. I’ve got the Cream color option here, and it is a nice change from the usual white options that tend to dominate the field.

The color highlights are nice too. Here, it’s a kind of light bronzy silver, and it glints nicely in the light for some extra design glitter. It’s all plastic, but there’s a nice metallic sheen to make sure they look premium. Considering their price point, I’d say they look pretty good.

They are slightly larger than the competition, like the AirPods 4 ANC. The stems are chunkier, longer, and much fatter, but it doesn’t make much of a difference once they’re seated in your ears. The case is shaped well and slips nicely into a pocket, although it’s not as minuscule as the AirPods charger. You get more battery as a result, though.

Fit is the highlight of the package. As with so many buds that recognize that your ear canals aren’t completely circular, the Amiron 100 feature ovular tips that don’t reach too far into your ears — and it makes for a very comfortable fit. You might want to size up from the options that come pre-attached. I had to go for the L size for a better seal to improve ANC and bass reproduction.

They’re light too boot, so they don’t get fatiguing over time. They’re not going to rest on the concha of your ear either, so you don’t have to worry about undue pressure. I’d say they’re up there with some of the most comfortable earbuds that I’ve ever tried. High praise indeed.

Build is also very good, with a high-quality fit and finish. The plastics on use feel chunky and premium, and the metal hinge on the charging case is a nice touch. That closes with a satisfying ‘click’ as well, making them feel more expensive than they actually are. It’s almost AirPods Pro 2 like.

Beyerdynamic Amiron 100 review: Features

• Useful app
• No hi-res codec support
• Helpful customizable EQ

As a more affordable pair of buds, I wasn’t expecting an exhaustive list of features to go through — but there are some that would have been nice to get. There’s only support for SBC, AAC; AKA, the barest minimum. That’s about what you'd expect at this price though, so it’s not the biggest bugbear.

Some will be upset to see that there’s no spatial audio component here, given that the AirPods 4 support Apple’s standard. It’s a shame that it’s not there, but given how well Beyerdynamics’ implementation has worked on more expensive buds and headphones, I’m not too rattled that it’s not here.

The Beyerdyamic app remains an absolute treat, though. It connects immediately to your earbuds and then gives you a nice list of things that you can do with them. There are the expected settings — ANC on and off, voice assistant control, wear detect control, and the like.

There’s also settings for EQ, with a surprisingly powerful 5 adjustable bands. That’s more than some (Bose), and around the same as others (Sony), and it’s a nice extra to have. It’s more important than you think as well, as I’ll allude to later, given you’ll want to adjust the highs so that they sound their absolute best.

I like the battery readouts in the app as well, although they can be confusing. It’s good to see how many hours you’ve got remaining, although they often don’t match up with the specs that Beyerdynamic put on the box — I’ll never turn my nose up at more battery in my earbuds, if I actually get more battery.

The feature set of the Amiron 100 is about what you'd expect for the price. There are some ‘nice to haves’ that are missing, but you’re otherwise set with an expected array of features.

Beyerdynamic Amiron 100 review: ANC

• Focus on the lower sounds
• A lot of high-range frequencies get through
• I had to check if it was on once

Previously, ANC at this price would come with a caveat — “they’re low cost, so you can’t expect noise canceling that cancels out all of the noise like the really expensive models.” There’s still a smidgen of truth to that, but thanks to the likes of the Bose QuietComfort Earbuds and the Sony WF-C710N, excellent ANC is more than within reach for the budget-conscious consumer.

Which means it's not an excuse that the Amiron 100 can pull out of their hat to justify the disappointing noise canceling performance. It’s fine. When music is playing, you’ll block out the sound of a busy office environment or an incessant AC system, but little more than that.

Train carriages are quietened and buses become at least quieter, but when you compare the performance to some of the competition, they don’t manage to stack up. Even with music playing, my clacking keyboard can make it through, and the sounds of the outside world are able to creep into my listening.

It seems like Beyerdynamic has focused on the low range, which does make some sense. The sounds of engines, for example, do melt away. But that’s apparently led to a compromise in higher-range cancelation, with tire noise and fan sounds a particular issue.

It’s not bad. It does the job. But considering how good the ANC is from the similarly priced Bose option and the even cheaper Sony buds, it does feel like a missed opportunity.

Beyerdynamic Amiron 100 review: Call quality

• Crisp microphone quality
• Not great at voice isolation
• Expected performance for the price

The Amiron 100 are fine for most kinds of calling. To give them a test, I called a friend to chat. They’ve got solid mics inside, which make sure that I sound great to my call recipient, with plenty of clarity to my voice. There was no crackle or static to the call, and in a quiet environment, they had little problem making the call sound decent.

They struggled a bit more in a noisy environment, in my case, a busy cafe. The microphone could hear my voice, but it struggled to separate it from the conversations and ambient sounds of the coffee shop. It was fine, and I could have a conversation, but it wasn’t up there in noise isolation with the Bose QuietComfort Earbuds.

My friend came through clearly, and I had no issues hearing what they had to say. The Amiron 100 will be just fine for normal calling and conversation — although, as always, you might want something more dedicated for professional situations.

Beyerdynamic Amiron 100 review: Sound quality

• Solid bass reproduction
• The highs need reigning in
• Decent soundstage

The moment you connect the Amiron to your phone and open the Beyerdynamic app to explore the settings and features, there’s one thing you’re going to want to do first. Head into the EQ settings, make a new custom setting, and dial the highs down by about -1 and -2. Adjust the top two sliders for the best effect.

That way, you’ll dial in what are some very pervasive high frequencies. Pre-adjustment, cymbals are too piercing, and other highs can get uncomfortably loud. Once correctly changed, you’ll give the mids more space to breathe and kill off some of the unfortunate sibilance and the metallic, synthetic edge.

Once I’d adjusted my pair I was able to sit down for some proper testing with Qobuz, one of the best music streaming services. Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to make use of Qobuz’s excellent hi-res streaming thanks to a lack of a compatible codec, but the better the track to downsample, the better the end result in my ear holes.

Soilworks Harvest Spine roars with a melodic fury, blistering drum beats pummeling the listener into submission. Those kick drum hits are impactful and well-defined too, which is big bonus, and the bass guitar does a good job of standing out amongst the noise.

The mids make sure the distorted guitar lines are represented well, and now that the highs are properly dialled in, the guitar solos and cymbals are crisp and clear. Soundstage is very good for a pair of earbuds, making sure that the Swedish Ensemble are well spaced apart. Instrument separation is good as well, although there is some melding of the cymbals and some of the guitar distortion.

The multi-layered orchestral stylings of Ichiko Aoba’s COLORATURA descend into the depths of an atmospheric ocean, and the buds do a good job of replicating the delicacies of Aoba’s composition.

Twinkling highs give way to a simple piano, giving the Amiron 100 ample opportunity to show off their mid-range talents. The bass line is reasonably well defined, although some of the finer detail is lost (I’d wager down to the lack of hi-res codec and a slightly sloppier bass response). It’s a moving experience though, and the Amiron 100 give a stand-up performance.

Pat Metheny’s Last Train Home and its chuffing hihats and smooth guitar line are a test for any set of buds, and the Amiron do an admirable job. There’s some great space to the recording, with each instrument easy to place within the mix.

The piano to the right is well defined with good decay, while the bass skips and jumps with reasonable timing. There’s perhaps some control issues in the low end on occasion, but it’s otherwise a great jazzy experience.

Beyerdynamic Amiron 100 review: Battery life

• About average
• 6 hours ANC on, 7.5 ANC off
• 27 hours from the case

The stats presented by Beyerdynamic are about what you’d expect from a pair of earbuds that cost under $200. That’s more than Apple’s AirPods line, and around the same as the Bose offering. Not quite as much as Sony’s cheaper offering, though.

I did see some strangeness with the battery while I was testing though. The battery percentage readout while I had ANC on at mid-volume told me they’d last for 7.5 hours when fully charged — that’s the claim for the ANC off.

Some listening later (2 hours), and the buds had dropped to 5 hours. That’s half an hour of battery that’s melted into the nether, but it’s still more than the claimed battery life on the box.

You’ll likely be able to pull more than the claimed battery then, which is always a bonus. It doesn’t stop the battery readout from being strangely inaccurate, however, and I’d wager the app overestimates how much listening time you actually have left.

Beyerdynamic Amiron 100 review: Verdict

The Amiron 100 are not a bad pair of buds by any stretch of the imagination. They sound fine, much better than the AirPods 4, and they’re built impeccably well. They’re comfortable, relatively handsome, and they make a fine case for 159 of your finest British pounds.

But there are two main problems. The first is the availability — Stateside, we’re yet to see a release date. They might not even arrive at all. Then there’s the second, and it’s a transparent blue one; the Sony WF-C710N. They’ve managed to shake the space up more than I’d considered, and made life far trickier for buds that cost more than $119.

Their performance is comparable in many ways. They do sound good, and they’ve got decent battery. But the Sonys are so much cheaper and offer better ANC that the potential savings make so much more sense. Don’t worry about their lack of U.S. sales — just buy the WF-C710N.