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Are the Cleer TREK ANC Headphones Worth Buying?
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May 29, 2025
Cleer has a solid track record with audio gear and you would think that the combination of their neodymium drivers and active noise cancellation circuitry would make the Cleer TREK a solid winner. But turns out that while there are some really good aspects to these, there are also some distinct issues and concerns that you want to know about prior to making a purchase decision. Tech expert Dave Taylor of https://www.AskDaveTaylor.com/ checks out the Cleer TREK and shares a candid review. Even given all of that, should you consider them for your holiday wish list? Maybe. Maybe not. Watch and learn the pros and cons of these active noise cancelling headphones. Check them out on Amazon: https://amzn.to/2ObbVbp
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noise cancelling headphones but do they
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work let's check them out Oh Dave kala
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here and I'm listening to these these
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are the clear track noise cancelling
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headphones and there's good and there's
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not so good so let's start with the good
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the good is they actually have good
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sound and that's done because they have
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12 millimeter NEMA neodymium drivers
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it's not the easiest word to say with
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extended bass now having said that you
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heard me use the word good these are not
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fantastic blow you out of the water sort
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of sound they are good it has an OK
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sound stage it has reasonable bass
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response and everything but I didn't
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find that it was really amazing and
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that's including when you turn out the
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active noise cancellation which also
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ends up acting a little bit like an amp
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in line so like the volume goes up a
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little bit but here's one of the things
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I found is that they don't get super
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loud now I have pretty good hearing I
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listen to a lot of different audio gear
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so I'm used to when things get really
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loud and when things aren't so loud and
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I just felt like even with maximum
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volume and you're not supposed to do
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that the maximum volume on a variety of
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different devices I felt like it still
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wasn't quite as loud as I really wanted
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for fully immersive audio experience
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your experience might be different I
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will say they are really good for phone
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calls with both echo and noise
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cancellation built in and microphone and
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all that obviously so use these for
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phone calls it's very comfortable and
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the people at the other end that have
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said to me wow you sound really good
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what's going on now you not on your
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phone well you know what's happening so
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that's a real plus
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now another plus is that they have
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really nice battery life they have in
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here a three hundred milli amp hour
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battery which is not very much except a
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five minute charge will get you an hour
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of playback and a full two hour charge
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will get you 13 hours of music listening
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with noise cancelling on that's actually
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pretty darn impressive now comes with
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bag and in the bag it comes with all
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sorts of different sized ear
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and they also have what they call the
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free bits which I'll show you what they
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look like let me just pull one out
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so these optionally go on top of the
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earbuds and they give you that little
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wing that you can actually sort of wedge
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in your ears so it gives you a lot more
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of a secure fit if you're the kind of
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person whose ears are not super
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headphone or earbud compatible and
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things keep falling out this sort of
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stuff can be your savior these can make
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things a whole lot better for me things
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work pretty well so I don't generally
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use those I will say however that it
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comes with small and medium and large
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both the ear tips which they call three
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bit wings and just the generic ear tips
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themselves the ones that just go on the
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end take the time to find the right size
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it makes a lot of difference with the
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sound having the right size gave me a
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whole lot more bass than when I had the
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default ones on so that's really
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important now it also has charging we
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just show you here so that's the active
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noise-cancelling circuitry in system and
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on one side it has a micro USB
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connection for charging and a little
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tiny LED light that is super important
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and way too subtle and then on the other
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side there's the on/off slider with
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nothing to indicate which one's on or
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off except the tiny LED and I found the
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LED super confusing in fact I found
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using this headphones really kind of
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confusing and so they have a chart and I
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can tell you from the chart that here's
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what's really important is that if you
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have active noise-cancelling on then the
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blue light is on solid if you turn it
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off the blue light is blinking if you
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actually have ambient aware which is
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sort of this middle ground between the
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two then you have double blue blinks and
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you know what I found that I was just
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constantly switching between them and
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the switching control is on this inline
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so the switching has nothing to do with
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whether this is turned on or off
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although obviously if it's turned off
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you can't turn it on from here so you
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turn it on here and you still have to
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enable it and then you're pushing this
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button and then you
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looking at this to try to figure out
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where it's blinking blue does that mean
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it's active or ambient or off so I found
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that I just constantly pushed buttons
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and tried to figure out what's going on
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slightly annoying I feel like if they
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maybe could have a three color LED or it
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would go red to say that the noise
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canceling was off and blue to show that
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it's on and flashing to show that it's
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an ambient mode or something I mean it
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already has red and blue because that's
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how it shows you at your charge level so
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I feel like they could just change that
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interface just a little bit not so easy
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with software but certainly with the
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hardware that would work now here's
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another really interesting thing I found
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and this was something that you really
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want to know about is that the volume
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control on the inline controller works
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perfectly normally on iPhones and
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Android phones and windows computers but
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you plug this thing into a Macintosh and
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you push volume up and it will go all
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the way to the top and you push volume
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down and it'll go all the way to zero so
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it is a really strange experience so if
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you're gonna use these with a Macintosh
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of any sort either a MacBook Pro or
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anything like that
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then you are either gonna have to get
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used to push one and then push the other
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when you get to the level you want or
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just using the volume control on the
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device itself not a crisis but something
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to know about so much so that the first
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pair that they sent me I actually
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plugged into my macbook and I was using
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it and I'm like what is going on I sent
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him back I said there's something wrong
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with your controls because it's sticking
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and then they sent me another pair and
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I'm like I'm seeing the same behavior
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maybe it's me maybe it's my device so
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then I plugged it into lots of different
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things I tried my my Samsung I tried all
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these different devices and it worked
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perfectly on all of them except my
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Macintosh so important to know if you're
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gonna plug these into your Mac system
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you might possibly be slightly
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frustrated now not much else to tell you
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about so that's sort of the Pro and the
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con the sound is good not great not
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earth-shattering you might find it's the
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little low
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volume even at maximum output and I'm
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not sure what's up there it might just
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be an impedance mismatch so you know
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even if that's the case though you would
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think that on some devices it would get
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loud and on other devices it would maybe
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be middle ground
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I really couldn't get this to be super
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loud on anything which was a little bit
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of a drag I don't necessarily need to
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hear super duper loud music but it's
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nice to have the option when you're
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hearing just like a favorite passage in
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a piece of music or favorite lyrics or a
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refrain or something you know what I'm
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talking about
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right so I gotta say I really like clear
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I really like their engineering the
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packaging obviously is really good the
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little bag is a wonderful way to carry
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things and yet I feel like their
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interface here the whole experience was
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just not what I was hoping for the LED
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feedback being here even though the
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control is up here turning this on and
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still not having noise cancellation till
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I push a second button on a completely
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different place on the headphones what
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the LED was showing me all of that I
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found confusing you again your
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experience might be different you might
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say dude seriously like spend sixty
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seconds using this darn device and
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you'll get it all wired I did not have
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that experience but you might so these
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might work great for you again keep in
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mind that they are super friendly with
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the vast majority of devices but not so
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much with your Macintosh systems so
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possibly not the best choice and finally
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I also have to say that I didn't find
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the noise cancellation to be all that
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overwhelming so when I had a lot of
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ambient noise around me I still felt
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like I had a fair amount of ambient
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noise now it might be that I have other
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noise cancelling devices that really do
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superb job so these do something I mean
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there's definitely a difference between
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having it on or not having it on but
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again if you're hoping you can wear
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these on an airplane and you have no
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idea you're flying probably not going to
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be a great match so yeah lukewarm review
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but hey you gotta say I am honest and
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straightforward with you right so
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clearly this is not a sponsored review
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because they would not be happy I was
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saying this but this is my experience
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yours may vary
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now let me just tell you about the price
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but before we get there if you could do
8:55
me a favor give me some feedback how do
8:58
you like this review how do you like the
9:00
way I'm presenting information what do
9:02
you think about how honest and
9:03
straightforward I am or would you rather
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I just said all the great things and
9:06
ignored everything else let me know in
9:08
the comments give me a thumbs up and hey
9:10
while you're at it click on that
9:13
subscribe button I sure appreciate when
9:15
people subscribe to my channel cool okay
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so the only thing left to talk about
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with these clear trek noise cancelling
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headphones is the price and they will
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cost you a hundred and forty $9.99 you
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can pick them up at amazon.com or clear
9:31
us and they come in this black and they
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also come in a really pretty
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sweet-looking red so I encourage you to
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keep them on your shortlist for
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possibilities for headphones with noise
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cancellation but keep in mind the
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limitations I had so stave tail that's
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all I got for you so I'll catch you in
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my next video
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