You may not have heard of GravaStar. In fact, until we were contacted out of the blue, we’d not heard of them either. That matters little though, as on the back of spending time with the stunning GravaStar Mars Pro Bluetooth Speaker, we’ve gone fully private with our audio, making the most of the GravaStar Sirius Pro Earbuds. They may run at the complete opposite end of the audio spectrum to the hefty Mars Pro, but they are equally as good.
In gaming terms, earbuds are an essential part of the set-up. Granted, their Bluetooth capabilities may not allow the chance to sync with our Xbox Series X or Xbox Series S, but gaming has long moved on from the confines of a single console. Now we play our games on the go, making the most of Game Pass titles that are Cloud enabled; as long as we’ve got a phone to hand, that commute, that time spent hidden from others, that time alone in the corner, has never been better.
The GravaStar Sirius Pro earbuds help immerse us into those worlds in the best possible way too. Neatly fitting into our ears with the help of a variety of sized bud-tips, the War-Damaged Grey edition that we have been using for the last few weeks looks great. Equally though, GravaStar caters for multiple personal tastes – a War-Damaged Yellow like our Mars Pro, Matt Black, Space Grey and Neon Green versions fill out the stable.
Whatever colour you decide on, you can be sure that the Sirius Pro earbuds will look the business. They come in a well thought-out case, one that is itself a visual delight. It certainly plays on the mecha-futuristic feel that GravaStar are looking to own, with the case itself a chunky old affair. It’s certainly not as pocketable as the pebble stylings of our Google Pixel Buds or even our EPOS GTW 270 buds that have kept us gaming for months on end, but it’s not far off. It looks great though with the GravaStar logo front and centre, a USB-C charging port on the underside and charging LEDs providing instant gratification.
Getting the buds out is nicely done too. The flip top is held down by a small button on the side of the case; a press of this pinging the lid open and allowing full access to the buds. A small magnetic hold keeps them in place and connected to the charging points in case the lid ever accidently opens, but on the whole we’ve found this to keep those buds in place and intact at all times. Oh, and that case doubles up as a bottle opener too. What more could you want?
Ripping the earbuds from their holder and again there’s some serious delight. Each are adorned with the GravaStar logo on the top – the pronged attack of the Mars Pro evident here – whilst a further LED will blink away to show connection. After an initial set-up in the same way as any buds that are on the market, the Sirius Pros have stayed connected to our phone without any hassle; solid throughout.
They fit the ear very nicely too and whilst pretty small and without any form of tail, they are comfortable to wear for hours at a time. In fact, we’ve sat with these in place for several hours without any problems, gaming on our phone via Game Pass and the Cloud, listening to music and taking calls. GravaStar state that there’s four hours of charge from any one power hit with these, and that seems about right. That’s not a huge amount and does mean you’ll have to consider use-scenarios, but dropping them back into the case will triple those hours for times when you’re out and about or sweating it out down the gym; IPX5 ratings keep them safe from sweat and weather.Â
The GravaStar Sirius Pro earbuds sound great too. As we found with the Mars Pro, GravaStar know what it takes to deliver some audio. The Sirius Pros have 7.2mm drivers built in, with Knowles balanced armatures in house. We’re no audiophiles, but do know a good sound when we hear one and that is provided pretty much every single time with the Sirius Pro earbuds. We’ve never been left wanting in terms of the mids, lows or highs that we’ve been after, preferring to grab for these over other buds when the time calls to stick on the tunes. It’s helped that there are ‘Music’, ‘Movie’ and ‘Gaming’ modes to cycle through.
It’s here where a small issue crops up and that has been when gaming through our phones, with a little touch of lag in place. It’s something that is most certainly improved with GravaStar’s ‘Gaming’ mode switched on, but it’s still not perfect.. We’re not sure whether that is more to do with the Cloud gaming that is delivered through Game Pass, or the fact that Bluetooth is always going to feature some lag, but rarely would we ever find the need to be playing high intensity games that rely on pinpoint audio accuracy across the Cloud. We save that for our full-on Series X systems and wired headsets.
On the whole, the only other problem we’ve occasionally come across with the Sirius Pro earbuds is in regards to the touch-sensitive button magic that is on the outer surface of the buds. There’s nothing particularly new here and anyone familiar with touch-buttons will probably come across similar issues, but there have been times when we’ve accidentally paused audio, skipped tracks or wotnot through in accurate button presses. Moving through the Gaming Mode, Movie Mode and Music Mode options with a triple tap of different buds has been a struggle, as has the quad-hit that is needed in order to get your personal digital assistant – our our case, Google Assistant – to come out and play. Get there though and you’ll gather up the benefit with boosts in all the right places. The touch sensitivity is a reason that we’ve stuck with our EPOS GTW-270’s for so long; personal preference has dictated the physical button for the win.
Aside from that, again GravaStar have created a brilliant audio unit in the Sirius Pro. It’s certainly one of the most standard-out of earbuds that you will find on the market, at least in visual terms, and whilst they don’t have the proper wow factor that the Mars Pro speaker has – honestly, that thing gets soooo much commentary – they sound just as good as you could ever want. Perhaps the battery life could be a tad longer, perhaps the sensitivity of those buttons could be turned down a little, but should you go and splash the cash on the GravaStar Sirius Pro earbuds, you’ll be left more than happy with your choice.
You’ll even be sold on the box that they come in. GravaStar have certainly not skimped on that either.Â
Huge thanks go out to GravaStar for providing us with their Sirius Pro earbuds for review. You can fetch a set for yourself by hitting up GravaStar direct.
