Noise Master Buds 2 review: sound on some fronts, flawed on others

We reviewed the Noise Master Buds back in April last year and found that these truly wireless earphones offer clean sound and good battery life, but struggle with ANC. We also pointed out that the Rs 7,999 price tag might hurt these earphones, as the competition in this segment is quite stiff.

A year later, the brand has introduced the successor to these earphones, the Master Buds 2, and, with a slightly higher starting price, they face the same challenge: overcoming stiff competition. If you’re in the market looking for new wireless earphones under Rs 10,000, should you consider the latest offering from Noise or look in another direction? After using these earphones for a month, I am ready to answer this question.

Table of Contents

Design

While the case design of the Master Buds 2 remains similar to its predecessor, the bud design has been changed to add passive noise cancellation via wingtips on top of active noise cancellation (I’ll talk about the effectiveness of the implementation later in the review). The issue with these wingtips is that they often slip out of their position. While the wingtips are designed to be easily replaced (multiple sizes are shipped with the retail box), they can still come loose from their position every now and then.

Before I talk about the earbuds’ design, I want to talk about the case design, as I have never had as many issues with a case as I did with this one. Taking the earbuds out of the case was a task in itself unless I picked them up by the wingtips, which was far from ideal, as they slipped easily from their position.

The cramped design frankly made it quite difficult to pick out the earbuds from their respective slots. But not just that, putting them back in their position also caused issues many times, and it didn’t come intuitively to me, as it does in other cases.

Now let’s talk about the earbuds. As many other reviewers have already shared, the earbuds do cause slight discomfort in the ears. Wearing them for long hours is not very comfortable, and over time, I became reluctant to use them for long periods. That said, I must share that these earphones stay in place regardless of the activity you’re doing. You could be running, dancing, or even shaking your head just to test if they will move from their position, but these earphones stay put, unlike any other earphones I have tried to date.

Design-wise, I hate to say it’s been more of a miss than a hit from Noise. There are many less complex design choices that the brand could have made to make these earphones more comfortable to wear and take out/put back into the charging case. While I appreciate that the earbuds offer an extremely stable fit, it is hard to trade off the in-ear comfort for the same.

App connectivity and Controls

While the Master Buds 2 can be connected to your devices directly via Bluetooth settings, the Noise Audio app allows you to install firmware updates and get access to customisation settings for these earbuds. As far as the app is concerned, it is fairly intuitive to use and allows you access to most of the functions/information you would need regarding the earbuds. I’m listing down all the settings/features that the app allows you to access:

  1. Battery level of each earbud
  2. Equaliser (presets – Jazz, Club, Rock, etc, and custom)
  3. Noise cancellation (ANC, Transparency, and off)
  4. Dual pairing
  5. Focus mode
  6. Find my device

Initially, I had issues with connectivity as the dual pairing function was not behaving as expected (issues with device switching). I even faced some issues with the in-ear detection functionality, too. However, after updating to v.1.0.0.2, most of the issues I had with a reliable connection were ironed out. Even in-ear detection, which was an issue in the beginning, performed well consistently after the firmware update.

The controls for the earbuds are fairly intuitive: single-tap on either earbud for playing/stopping music, single-tap on right earbud for volume up, single-tap on left earbud for volume down, double-tap either earbud to answer/end a call, tapping and holding either earbud to reject a call, double-tap right earbud for next track and left earbud for previous track.

Sound quality

The Master Buds 2 come with 10mm PU+ PEEK drivers, which have been claimed to increase efficiency and reduce distortion. These earphones come with LHDC 5.0 Hi-res audio support, which enables 24-bit audio at 96kHZ. This is a rare feature in this price category and enables nearly lossless sound quality, improved connection stability, and low latency. On top of this, the brand has made it clear in its marketing that the sound of these earphones has been fine-tuned by Bose. While these features do look impressive on paper, here’s how my real-world experience with these earbuds was.

The Noise Master Buds 2 deliver a sound signature that’s pleasant and competent, though it doesn’t quite push the envelope for what you can find at this price point. The mids are arguably the highlight here. Vocals come through with a satisfying warmth, making them well-suited to vocal-driven tracks. Listening to Adele’s “Hello” or Ed Sheeran’s “Perfect,” the lead vocals sit nicely forward in the mix without sounding shouty or recessed. Acoustic guitar work, especially in John Mayer’s “Stop This Train,” also comes through with noticeable texture.

Bass response is more measured than punchy. There’s enough thump to give hip-hop and electronic tracks a sense of rhythm and weight – Billie Eilish’s “bad guy” still delivers that signature low-end pulse, but bassheads might find the sub-bass to be a bit underwhelming. The low end is tight rather than booming, which actually works in favour of cleaner genres but might leave EDM listeners wishing for more.

The highs are where things get a bit inconsistent. Treble details are present, but slight muddiness can dull the sparkle on tracks that depend on crisp top-end detail. On a song like Daft Punk’s “Get Lucky,” guitar work doesn’t quite come through with the clarity you might hope for.

Instrument separation is decent but not a strong suit. On busier, more layered tracks, for example, Queen’s “Bohemian Rhapsody”, individual elements tend to blend together rather than occupy their own distinct space. Casual listeners likely won’t mind, but anyone used to more analytical earphones will notice the congestion in complex passages.

The soundstage, similarly, feels somewhat closed-in. There’s a sense of width, but it doesn’t extend far beyond your head, which limits the immersion factor on live recordings or cinematic tracks where spatial cues really matter.

In summary, the Master Buds 2 offer a balanced, easy-listening profile that handles vocals and mainstream genres well. It’s a solid all-rounder for everyday listening, but those chasing more detail, expansive staging, or thunderous bass will find better options in this segment.

ANC, and other notable features

Brands often claim to have the best noise cancellation in the segment, but these claims seldom turn out to be true. However, I must commend Noise for actually delivering on this front. In this price range, I’ve not had a better noise cancellation experience with any other TWS than I did with the Master Buds 2. The combination of rubber wings for passive cancellation and the ANC works surprisingly well to isolate you from ambient noise.

I found that even in particularly loud environments, these earphones did a fantastic job at noise cancellation and suppressed unwanted noises quite aggressively.

Now that we’ve talked about the good, let’s talk about the bad. Noise AI feels like an unnecessary inclusion just to get on the hype train. The AI companion gives generic and rarely useful replies that are neither insightful nor more convenient than other AI assistants that you can access on your phone anyway. The only AI feature on Master Buds 2 that I am still optimistic about is AI transcription (allows you to transcribe your meetings/discussions with a single tap), but this feature is not yet available and will be introduced with a future update.

Battery life

The Master Buds 2 are said to offer up to 30 hours of battery life with the case and 6 hours of playtime with just the earbuds. In my experience, the earbuds offered battery backup on par (if not better) with the claimed numbers. The case for Master Buds 2 comes with a USB Type-C charging port, and the case doesn’t take too long to charge either.

To keep it short, the backup offered by the earbuds, especially with the case, is good enough for you not to be bothered by it time and again. For frequent travellers and even those who take part in daily commutes, Master Buds 2 are more than capable of delivering the juice for long sessions (even with ANC switched on).

Verdict

At Rs 8,999, the Master Buds 2 feel slightly overpriced due to the availability of some impressive options at cheaper price points. While these earbuds stand out from the rest of the crowd with the segment’s best noise cancellation, some issues in the design department let it down. If you can look past these issues, you get impressive sound, good battery life, and LHDC 5.0 support.

Editor’s rating: 7.5/10

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Cons

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