Audio-Technica ATH-CKS50TW2 Earbuds Review: Max Power

As with all pocketable items, it's hard to keep track of the charging case for my earbuds—not to mention the buds themselves. I pop them in my ears and walk off. At some point I take them out and set them down without thinking about it. Then, when I need them next, I’m surprised to find the case empty. And when I do locate them, they’re often dead. Worst of all, sometimes the buds migrate away from each other between listens, so I’m left with just a left or a right.

That’s why I love the snap-together, magnetic connection that comes with the new ATH-CKS50TW2 earbuds. Between trips to the case, you can turn the buds off by just clicking the left and right buds together. You’ll never lose one or the other (or battery life between charges) again. That’s really helpful for this pair specifically, because they have more than 15 hours of battery life with noise canceling on. You might actually not want to take the case with you to recharge them for a day or two.

If you’re looking for a pair of noise-canceling buds in the AirPods price range, I think these are a compelling choice, especially if you’re as forgetful as I am.

Snap On

At first glance, these new buds look a lot like pairs that came out in the earlier days of wireless earbuds, when it was hard to pack all the modern conveniences into tiny packages. The bulky outer shell of the ATH-CKS50TW2 fully covers your ear canal on the outside when you put the buds in your ears, but the folks at Audio Technica have hidden a surprisingly comfortable bud beneath that bulk.

A long elephant trunk extends into your ear canal, with a soft silicone tip that seals it very comfortably from the outside world. Passive noise isolation is pretty solid, good enough for me to operate my myriad of Ryobi power equipment outside without turning ANC on.

The large exterior of these buds carries with it one awesome benefit: huge batteries. As I said earlier, you’ll get 15 hours of playback in the buds with ANC on (a whopping 25 hours with it off), and the included wireless charging case offers an additional 40 hours. That means up to 65 hours of playback in a pair of wireless earbuds, which is well over double what you can expect from the vast majority of competitors.