Asus ROG Invitations Avid gamers to the Open-Ear Audio Social gathering

Open-ear audio is type of a giant factor now, however in case you’re not in on the pattern, let me again up for a second. “Open-ear” is a sort of audio product design (sometimes wi-fi earbuds or headphones) that doesn’t block out ambient noise. The concept right here is that you may nonetheless pay attention to your environment a bit and be snug for lengthy durations of listening with out a silicone tip crammed inside your ear.

I’ve tried fairly just a few open wireless earbuds at this level, and there’s rather a lot to like; they’re nice for biking, calls, and train, however up to now, gaming has not been a class you may sometimes discover open-ear choices in. Don’t fear, although; Asus ROG is on it.

With two new open-ear merchandise launched at CES 2026, Asus ROG is giving players the good thing about open-ear audio. Probably the most distinctive of the 2 is a pair of open earbuds known as ROG Cetra Open Wireless Earbuds, which, like different open earbuds, wrap round your ear as a substitute of being inserted into the ear canal and blocking all the pieces out.

After all, open-ear design isn’t sufficient for a pair of gaming earbuds, so Asus ROG can be together with a 2.4GHz dongle that offers you an ultra-low latency wi-fi connection just like what you’d get on competing gaming earbuds from Razer. That latency is huge once you’re gaming, since each millisecond counts from a aggressive standpoint. Different gamer-centric prospers embrace a removable neck strap meant to stabilize the earbuds and bodily buttons for anybody who doesn’t wish to screw round with contact controls in the midst of a match. Asus says you’ll get 16 hours of battery in Bluetooth mode, however there aren’t any estimates for once you’re listening with the two.4GHz.

If earbuds aren’t your factor, there’s additionally a wired-only hi-fi headset with an open-back design made in tandem with China-based audio firm HiFiMan. This headset, known as the ROG Kithara, has 100mm planar magnetic drivers and a microphone that makes use of MEMS expertise. Whereas I haven’t tried a MEMS microphone, I have tried wi-fi earbuds that use MEMS drivers for sound, and I’m a giant fan, so my hopes are excessive when it comes to mic readability.

Since these headphones are wired solely, they arrive with an array of attachments that ought to make them appropriate with plenty of totally different wired jacks, together with 4.4mm balanced, 3.5mm, and 6.3mm. These are open-backed headphones, too, so there’s no lively noise cancellation (ANC) right here—that requires a seal round your ear—however I’ve a hunch that these headphones sound fairly darn good.

Whereas Asus doesn’t have confirmed pricing on both of those open-ear merchandise but, it says that they’ll be out there for retail in early February.

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