These $200 audiophile earbuds mix planar and dynamic drivers and they look like they might actually be decent for gaming

Although a lesser-known brand, Soundpeats earbuds seem to be pretty well-liked for the price judging by various comments and reviews online. And for CES 2026, it's just announced the Aura Nebula earbuds, which look like they might offer a good balance between audiophile quality and gamer-oriented features and pricing.

The earbuds feature a "breakthrough hybrid five-driver acoustic system paired with a sophisticated three-way electronic crossover." That crossover refers to a 10 mm dynamic driver, a 6 mm planar driver, dual balanced armatures, and a "micro-planar tweeter." Presumably the whole "three-way" thing is excluding the latter tweeter, as that's just more planar gubbins.

So, there's a mix of dynamic, planar, and dual balanced armatures here. We've seen plenty of triple-driver earbuds before, but not so many that are specifically mixing planar with dynamic. This combination is probably what helps the price stay so "low", as these are "set to launch this Spring at $200." That's expensive, of course, but it's hardly the, err, $1,300 of the fully Planar Audeze Euclid.

Soundpeats explains the benefits of its driver combination as follows:

• 10 mm Dynamic Driver: Delivers tight, physical, and impactful low-end that you can feel.
• 6 mm Planar Driver: Provides fast, expressive, and texture-rich midrange.
• Dual Balanced Armatures: Offers extended clarity and pinpoint accuracy.
• Micro-Planar Tweeter: Adds airy treble extension and a rewarding sparkle to the high notes.

Balanced armature drivers were originally made for hearing aids, and tend to do really well with clarity for mid and high frequencies. Dynamic drivers are of course the ones we're most used to, and they're capable of producing very—drumroll, please—dynamic sound, which can be useful for punchiness and so on. Planar, on the other hand, can offer a wider soundstage.

All these different kinds of drivers have their benefits and drawbacks, but here, presumably, the engineers at Soundpeats will have tailored and balanced things to get the best out of all three.

Apart from this, the main draw for us PC gamers is that these earbuds have a low-latency gaming mode. That's something plenty of earbuds have, of course, but not all of them, especially higher-end ones that aim at the audiophile market more than the gaming one. If Soundpeats gets this right alongside the mixed-driver audio, these could potentially be some decent but not too expensive audiophile earphones that actually make sense for a gamer. Though of course there's no saying for sure without testing.

It also comes with the whole gamut of features, supporting high-bitrate codecs such as LDAC, has hybrid active noise cancellation (ANC), "3-mic AI call noise reduction", and a supposedly "wind-resistant S-shaped exterior design." And it has all the other gubbins you might want from some expensive earbuds: wireless and fast charging, dual device connection, a multi-band EQ in the app, and a low-latency gaming mode as previously mentioned.

Best gaming headset 2026

1. Best overall:
Razer BlackShark V3

2. Best budget:
Corsair HS55 Stereo

3. Best wired:
HyperX Cloud Alpha

4. Best mid-range wireless:
Turtle Beach Stealth 600 Gen 3

5. Best audiophile:
Beyerdynamic MMX 330 Pro

6. Best wireless audiophile:
Audeze Maxwell

7. Best for streaming:
Audio-Technica ATH-M50xSTS StreamSet

8. Best noise-cancelling:
AceZone A-Spire

9. Best earbuds:
Steelseries Arctis GameBuds

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