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13.11.2023 - 14:47 / theverge.com
Sony’s first pair of true wireless earbuds designed for the PlayStation 5 will arrive on shelves early next month, and I’ve been testing them out over the last couple of days. The $199.99 Pulse Explore earbuds offer lossless, ultra-low-latency audio when using the company’s new PlayStation Link wireless protocol. With most devices such as a PS5, PC, or Mac, that’ll require plugging in the included USB dongle. But Sony has baked support for PlayStation Link directly into its new PlayStation Portal handheld streaming gadget.
The Pulse Explore buds also support plain old Bluetooth, and in a super convenient twist, you can listen to audio over PS Link and Bluetooth simultaneously. So it’s effortless to take phone calls or listen to music on your phone in the middle of a long Spider-Man 2 session.
Sony has outfitted the Pulse Explore buds with planar magnetic drivers, which are far less common than the dynamic drivers found in the vast majority of earbuds. It’s not terribly surprising to see: Audeze, the headphone maker that Sony acquired earlier this year, specializes in planar magnetic driver technology. In the case of these earbuds, Sony says the Pulse Explore can “reproduce soundscapes with ultra-low distortion to deliver rich details and deep clear bass so you can hear exactly what the game developers intended.”
And in my relatively brief experience with these buds so far, clarity and separation are easily the biggest strengths I’ve noticed. It’s easy to distinguish small details and individual sound effects, even during moments of chaotic action in RoboCop: Rogue City, and the Pulse Explore earbuds did a fantastic job of making me feel like I was smack dab right in the middle of Alan Wake 2’s eery world. Sony’s 3D audio tech is well represented, giving gaming environments a real feeling of depth and immersion. If you occasionally use these for music, that’s more of a mixed bag, as the tuning used here can be light on deep bass for any purposes beyond gaming. These won’t replace Sony’s 1000XM5 in anyone’s bag.
And the PlayStation division’s first earbuds certainly give off a unique vibe while doing all of those things. Each earbud has an identical design with a volume rocker on one side and PlayStation Link button on the other. They are not at all what I’d describe as small, but Sony includes four total sets of silicone ear tips in the box to cover a wide range of ear sizes. The Pulse Explore buds fit into my large ears without any issue and proved surprisingly comfortable despite their chunky dimensions.
The location of the volume rocker took some getting used to, but I got there after a few hours of gameplay. It’s worth noting that the physical volume control only adjusts your games / PS Link
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Developer Teyon has announced that it has pushed out a new patch for the recently-released RoboCop: Rogue City. The update brings with it a host of bug fixes, as well as updates to localisation, as well as minor environmental fixes.
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By Sheena Vasani, a writer covering commerce, e-readers, and tech news. She previously wrote about everything from web development to AI at Inside.
The PS5 celebrates its third birthday this week, and PlayStation is doing a lot to mark the occasion. A slimmer model of the console goes on sale tomorrow, the PlayStation Portal will be available next week, and two new accessories that can be used with both, as well as the regular version of the console, are now available for pre-order. The Pulse Explore Earbuds and the Pulse Elite Headset, both of which were revealed alongside the Portal.