Standing Audio Professional X evaluate: premium earbuds with critically spectacular sound

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Standing Audio Professional X: Two-minute evaluate

American audio firm Standing Audio was harm by the curse of poor timing with the discharge of its next-gen premium earbuds and challengers to our greatest earbuds shopping for information. That’s as a result of lower than two months after the agency unveiled the Professional X, Apple lastly launched its newest buds, the AirPods Professional 3, which barely undercut the underdogs’ newest launch by way of value.

I don’t suppose Standing wants to fret a lot about competitors from Apple, although, as a result of the product distinguishes itself in a number of key areas (and, in fact, truly works equally as properly for Android customers).

For one, the Standing Professional X has three audio drivers per bud, another than the AirPods Professional and two greater than most earbuds I check. This trio works collectively to ship well-defined and high-quality audio that sounds incredible, making these a few of the finest earbuds you may attempt.

The earbuds additionally look nearly as good as they sound, with the ellipsoid design language carried between the buds and the case to make them look a few of the classiest buds I’ve seen. It’s not all for present both as I discovered the match dependable.

Standing has nailed extra of the fundamentals with strong Lively Noise Cancellation (ANC), helpful contact controls and wi-fi charging within the case.

The primary let-down for me was the battery life, which principally scraped 5 hours in the event you’ve obtained ANC turned on. That’s fairly poor while you have a look at averages in the marketplace, even for high-end buds, and guidelines them out for sure use circumstances.

In actual fact, the general function set is a little bit bit anemic, and there are a number of frequent perks that aren’t obtainable on the Professional X. It’s clear that the emphasis right here is on the audio high quality and design, not the helpful extras that always justify a better value.

That’s the one division the place the AirPods Professional 3 cleanly beat the Standing Professional X; don’t count on any reside translation or coronary heart price monitoring right here. However Standing has Apple beat within the two different predominant areas, and that’s ok for me.

Standing Audio Professional X evaluate: Value and launch date

(Picture credit score: Future)

Launched in ‘batches’ each few months from July 2025
Prices $299 / £272 / AU$470
Pricier than big-name rivals

The very first thing to know concerning the Professional X is that they’re not low-cost devices; these are dear buds that bump elbows with some top-notch rivals.

The official retail value for the Standing Audio Professional X is $299 / £272 / AU$470, although it’s price noting which you can pre-order them for $249 / £226 / AU$384. Once I say ‘pre-order’, I don’t imply that the buds aren’t out, however (on the time of writing at the very least) Standing is promoting them in waves, with one each couple of months. For the aim of this evaluate I’m taking the RRP as the true value of the buds although.

That value means the buds value greater than the brand new AirPods Professional 3, which go for $249 / £219 / AU$429 and roughly match the choice that tops our greatest earbuds checklist, the Technics EAH-AZ100, which go for $299 / £259 / AU$478.

In different phrases, I went into this evaluate anticipating nice issues.

Yet another factor: the Professional X’s predecessor, the superb Standing Between 3ANC, value $249 (approx. £249 / AU$399).

Standing Audio Professional X evaluate: Specs

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Drivers

12mm driver + 2x Knowles balanced armature drivers

Lively noise cancellation

Sure

Battery life (ANC off)

8 hours (buds) 24 hours (case)

Weight

5g (buds) 48g (case)

Connectivity

Bluetooth 5.4

Waterproofing

IP55

Standing Audio Professional X evaluate: Options

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Poor battery life
Respectable noise cancellation
Fewer options than rivals

Based on Standing Audio, the Professional X will final for 8 hours of listening time, with the charging case extending it to 24 hours in whole. That determine have to be for listening with ANC turned off, as a result of when it was enabled, I obtained a far shorter listening time: roughly 4 and a half to 5 hours. That’s not precisely a aggressive stat because it falls under common by a substantial method.

A greater function is the noise cancellation which, whereas not best-in-class, was strong sufficient to plaster over annoying background noises. The Ambient mode is likely one of the higher examples of pass-through sound I’ve used, with surrounding sounds fed into your headphones with out sounding amplified in any respect.

You’ll be able to toggle between these modes utilizing the Standing Hub app which additionally allows you to customise the contact controls, select between one among 5 equalizer presets (plus a customized mode with an eight-band EQ for the audiophiles), discover the buds in the event you’ve misplaced them (with location monitoring and audio cues), arrange multi-point connection and toggle whether or not your voice is hidden by the ANC while you speak within the telephone. Hidden within the app’s settings is a Dynamic EQ mode which boosts bass and treble when the amount is low – it’s turned off by default although.

There are a number of options which you’ll count on at this value level that you just’re not getting, together with surround-sound audio (see ‘spatial audio’), toggle-able wearer detection, match exams or the power to alter codec or music stream bitrate. The slender function set is one thing we’ve knocked previous Standing buds for and whereas there are extra right here (the Between 3ANC didn’t allow you to change contact controls, for instance, and GPS buds monitoring is a good software), I’d nonetheless wish to see a little bit extra to justify the worth.

By way of connection specs, the Professional X helps SBC, AAC and LDAC, at 24-bit/96 kHz. In my testing I didn’t have any connection points between the buds and my telephone.

Standing Audio Professional X evaluate: Design

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Elegant search for bud and case
Helpful contact controls
Case helps wi-fi charging

The Standing Audio Professional X are a few of the extra refined earbuds I’ve examined this yr by way of design. They’re stem-toting buds, though ‘stem’ looks like an odd alternative of phrase for the ellipsoid pillars standing tall from the earbuds.

Regardless of the scale of the stems, which made me fear concerning the reliability of the ear match, the Professional X stayed in my ears with none shifting or points. The contact controls labored properly and had been simple to make use of, because of the scale of the sensor space so that you don’t want any precision to pause or skip your music.

The buds have an IP55 score in opposition to mud ingress and jets of water, so don’t submerge them in puddles or sinks in order for you them to maintain working.

Now onto the case; it’s a small rectangular field that weighs about 48g (in keeping with my kitchen scales, although I couldn’t discover an official determine from Standing Audio). It’s not too big a case though I did discover it in my trouser pocket. I like the way it shares apparent design DNA with the earbuds, although I do really feel Standing missed a trick by not copying the buds’ two-tone shading.

In a neat addition, the case helps wi-fi charging, so that you don’t must depend on its USB-C port in the event you don’t wish to.

One thing I want to say is that, throughout testing, one of many earbud charging connectors within the case stopped working. I wrote this off as an anomalous error and Standing had been fast to switch the check unit with one other one – which didn’t break – however I really feel compelled to say the difficulty after I found a Reddit submit through which folks shared tales of the identical situation occurring, albeit in previous Standing buds.

Standing Audio Professional X evaluate: Sound high quality

12mm driver + twin balanced armature drivers
Equalizer plus a great deal of presets
Max quantity needs to be increased

(Picture credit score: Future)

Standing is placing all its eggs within the ‘sound quality’ basket with the Professional X. The buds haven’t one, not two however three drivers: a 12mm dynamic driver and two Knowles balanced armature drivers, with the triumvirate designed to individually hit bass, center and treble respectively.

This gambit pays off: the Professional X sound incredible and also you gained’t discover a lot better in the marketplace within the wi-fi realm. By default the sound profile is impartial, however the aforementioned app presets allow you to pull oodles of treble or bass out of your tunes – as soon as you’re employed out what every means, because of the lack of a information (take a guess which has extra bass: Standing Signature, Standing Audiophile or Knowles Most popular? That’s proper, there’s no method of figuring out – and that’s the one info you’re given). No matter your style, you’ll be capable of cater your listening to it.

Treble is distinct and glowing, whereas bass is well-defined and mids stay clear and robust. The standard is excessive, and you’ll hear the inflection in vocals and the squeak of fingers on a guitar string. There isn’t as outlined a soundstage as on another high-end buds although, past the pure separation which you can understand when the standard of strains is increased.

The Professional X don’t go fairly as loud as I might’ve preferred both; a number of instances once I was listening open air they didn’t attain the amount or oomph I’d have preferred to fight noisy conditions, regardless of the respectable noise cancellation.

Standing Audio Professional X evaluate: Worth

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Let’s be clear, these are dear buds
…however it can save you cash with pre-order

It’s all the time onerous to defend the worth proposition of top-end buds. In spite of everything, premium tech merely doesn’t offer you worth for cash; you should purchase respectable buds for a 3rd of the worth that don’t drop the standard by a 3rd – and the good points sonically listed here are completely worthy in the event you worth them, however they’re incremental.

So Standing goes an extended approach to justifying the Professional X’s value with the high-quality audio and premium design, however the query of whether or not they’re nice worth for cash can be rather a lot simpler to reply if the function set was extra fleshed out.

Ought to I purchase the Standing Audio Professional X?

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Standing Professional X rating card

Attributes

Notes

Ranking

Options

The unimpressive battery life and lack of tremendous options hurts the buds

3/5

Design

These look nice and match into ears properly.

4/5

Sound high quality

The specs don’t lie, and three drivers makes the audio sound incredible.

4.5/5

Worth

Are you able to count on nice worth from premium tech? That is fairly good, although the function set would sway the needle.

3.5/5

Purchase them if…

Don’t purchase them if…

Standing Audio Professional X evaluate: Additionally take into account

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Header Cell – Column 0

Standing Professional X

Standing Between 3ANC 

AirPods Professional 3

Technics EAH-AZ100

Drivers

12mm driver + 2x Knowles balanced armature drivers

10mm driver + 2x Knowles balanced armature drivers

Customized driver, customized amplifier

10mm driver

Lively noise cancellation

Sure

Sure

Sure

Sure

Battery life

8 hours (buds) 24 hours (case)

8 hours (buds) 30 hours (case)

8 hours (buds) 24 hours (case)

12 hours (buds) 17 hours (case)

Weight

5g (buds) 48g (case)

13.6g (buds)

5.5g (buds) 44g (case)

5.9g (buds) 42g (case)

Connectivity

Bluetooth 5.4

Bluetooth 5.2

Bluetooth 5.3

Bluetooth 5.3

Waterproofing

IP55

IPX5

IP57

IPX4

How I examined the Standing Audio Professional X

Examined for one month
Examined at dwelling, within the workplace and on walks

As I discussed earlier on this evaluate, I examined two evaluate samples of the Standing Professional X resulting from one breaking, and it means the full testing interval for the buds exceeded a month, longer than we normally give buds.

I paired the buds with my Android telephone and used apps like Spotify, Apple Music, Tidal, YouTube and WhatsApp for varied varieties of testing. I listened at dwelling, on varied varieties of public transport and on walks round my neighborhood.

I’ve been reviewing devices at TechRadar since early 2019 and have examined many various earbuds in that point.

First reviewed in September 2025

Standing Audio Professional X: Value Comparability