ASUS ROG Cetra True Wireless Speednova

I think it's fair to not expect an ASUS ROG product to be ranked high in a value offering list. In this case, purely because of the lack of personal experience with TWS sets that also offer 2.4 GHz connectivity, I really can't tell you whether the ROG Cetra True Wireless SpeedNova is overpriced or not. If you want that low latency wireless audio experience in a TWS IEM form factor, then there are not too many options to begin with. ASUS also adds some more ROG-ness here with RGB LEDs that you can customize, including with dynamic lighting effects, at the expense of battery life. Battery life is thankfully long enough to begin with, even with ANC on, and gets better when you consider there is fast charging and wireless charging on offer. I'll also give a shoutout to the auto ANC mode which does a good job, even if the actual noise cancellation is mostly achieved from passive isolation here that is not guaranteed with this shell and nozzle combination. ASUS could certainly have thrown in more ear tips for this price, but I suspect the typical customer looking at the ROG Cetra True Wireless SpeedNova is unlikely to be aware of tip rolling in the first place. Indeed, this is where the crux of my impressions lie. The ROG Cetra True Wireless SpeedNova is clearly calling itself wireless gaming earphones and yet the tuning is not really ideal for gaming. There's also the part where I feel the engineering team and the marketing department haven't got into the minutia here, with the product page taking liberties with some facts such as calling Bluetooth codecs a 2.4 GHz connection option. The app feels simultaneously bloated and lacking, especially for EQ which is crucial here for discerning listeners. ASUS is doing good things on the keyboard front to address enthusiast needs, but this feels like a wasted opportunity where they could have targeted audiophiles and technophiles too. PEQ would have been a good start, for example, and using better drivers would be even better. The product page barely has any information on the actual sound signature and the drivers contributing foremost to said sound, instead talking about things like Dirac Opteo technology that most people will barely notice in this implementation. Ultimately, if you don't need the more specialized features available here, I feel you can do better for the asking price with other options I mentioned on the previous page—whether you are a gamer or an audiophile.