'An odd choice': Cleer has put audiophile-grade perks in open earbuds, and I'm confused

• Cleer Arc 5 have been unveiled
• Premium open earbuds with sports loop
• Offer Dolby Atmos and THX Spatial Audio

I was under the impression that the best open earbuds were designed for sports users, but I must have missed a memo. The Cleer Arc 5 have just been unveiled, and they're aimed at a very different market.

These new earbuds, unveiled only four months after the Arc 4, are undoubtedly premium buds; they cost $219.99 (about £170, AU$340), and to my mind only the $299 / £299 / AU$449.95 Bose Ultra Open Earbuds cost more — although the 2026-launch Shokz OpenFit Pro are roughly the same price as these new Cleer buds (and also offer spatial audio support, albeit not the THX-certified kind).

From a glance at the specs list, there's a lot to like from Cleer here. The buds have 16.2mm drivers, up to 12 hours of stamina in the buds (up to 60 with the case), support for a wide range of wireless codecs — LDAC, aptX Adaptive and aptX Lossless —and a case with a built-in touch screen. But it doesn't seem like that's all.

The name of the Cleer Arc 5 game is, according to the company, that special kind of spatial audio. Not only are the earbuds optimized for Dolby Atmos, but they're certified for THX Spatial Audio too, using head tracking. As far as I can recall, that's brand-new for open earbuds (the aforementioned Shokz set can do head-tracked immersive audio, but they don't come with the THX badge of approval).

Traces of spatial audio

Spatial audio tools like Dolby Atmos and THX aren't just useful for movies or gaming; they help build on the soundstage of your music. It's a feature popular with some (though not all) audiophiles, since it can bridge the gap between affordable and high-end kit.

But you know what's not so popular among audiophiles? Open earbuds. This form factor is useful for safety when you're in busy public areas, but the nature of the beast is typically that the audio quality suffers.

In this kind of earbud, the driver is held a little further away from your ear — there is no seal created betwixt ear canal and ear-tip to maximise the sound wave's journey from driver to ear drum. Surrounding sound gets in, and detail, definition and impact (particularly through the bass) are lost as a result. Even the best open earbuds usually struggle with audio quality, compared to budget in-ears.

So it feels like an odd choice for Cleer to be offering fancy codec support and features within open earbuds, since you may not really get to appreciate them owing to their physical design.

Despite features like Dynamic Bass Enhancement, which could go some way toward fixing this problem, I'd still be surprised if you can really appreciate spatial audio when noisy traffic is zooming and honking all around you.

I bet they'll sound fantastic when you're somewhere quiet, though: the specs list puts them above and beyond most alternatives I've tested recently.

I've been proven wrong about open earbuds in the past, and hopefully I will be again. Otherwise, it's going to be hard to justify the meaty price tag on open earbuds you can't appreciate…

The best open earbuds for all budgets

➡️ Read our full guide to the best open earbuds
1. Best overall:
Shokz OpenFit 2+
2. Best cheap around-ear design:
Huawei FreeArc
3. Best cheap clip design:
Shokz OpenDots One
4. Best high-end clip design:
Bose Ultra Open

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