Edifier NeoBuds Pro earbuds Debuts and promises wireless hi-res audio for $99

Edifier, a company that has been making a name for itself as a designer of audio gear that offers very good quality at affordable prices, is taking to Indiegogo for its latest product: The NeoBuds Pro.

The $99 true wireless earbuds offer active noise cancellation (ANC), plus a feature that is hard to find at any price — hi-res audio. Pre-orders start now and Edifier says they will ship in August, which is also when we can expect the NeoBuds Pro to show up at retailers like Amazon.

Edifier’s Indiegogo campaign page claims that the NeoBuds Pro are the “first hi-res ANC earbuds,” but technically, that title belongs to Sony, which introduced the hi-res-capable WF-1000XM4 earlier in 2021. Edifier’s press release makes a more nuanced (and more accurate) statement, in which it says, “the Neobuds Pro are the first hi-res-certified, noise-canceling, truly wireless earphones in the market that boast a dynamic driver, Knowles balanced armature, and LHDC+ACC codec.”

Edifier says the NeoBuds Pro qualify on both fronts, thanks to their hybrid driver configuration and LHDC support. But the slight catch here is that even though LHDC (which stands for Low Latency High-Definition Audio Codec) is officially supported by Android 10 or higher, mobile phone companies still have to add LHDC to their handsets in order for folks to be able to use it — and only a few manufacturers have done so. These include Poco, Xiaomi, and Oppo, but the biggest brands selling Android phones in the U.S., like Samsung, Google, OnePlus, and Motorola, do not support LHDC yet. Apple still only supports SBC and AAC Bluetooth codecs and shows no signs of adding either LDAC or LHDC support to iOS.

This means that while the NeoBuds Pro may indeed be wireless hi-res-capable, you won’t be able to experience that higher level of audio quality unless you own an LHDC-compatible phone.

Still, if you’d prefer to wait and buy from a retailer like Amazon, the NeoBuds Pro should show up by the end of August.