Samsung Galaxy Buds Live review in 2022: Great at this price!

Considering the Galaxy Buds Live has a unique open-ear design, it’s even more impressive that Samsung and sound manufacturer AKG could finetune its sound so well.

Warning: How good the Galaxy Buds Live sounds, is extremely dependent on your fit. There’s a reason why the sound gets such low ratings in many reviews. I had the perfect fit – and that will reflect in the score.

Like the in-ear models Samsung Galaxy Buds Plus and Galaxy Buds 2, the mid-tones on the Buds Live perform above average. Center-mid instruments like guitars and piano play have a natural tonality, meaning they’re not too warm, dark, cold, or bright. By pushing the mid-tones forward, these instruments aren’t just well-represented, they’re even dynamic, reaching lower tones as easily as higher ones. In high quality recordings, you can easily hear the clonks for heavier piano key strokes, or plucking of strings. Mid-vocals are impressive as well, giving male vocals or darker female vocals – take a certain Diana Krall – plenty of nuances.

The mid-tones flow fluently into the treble, in which higher vocals are clear but not very forward. They can have a little trouble outweighing (lower) mid-tones, but happily, also when they’re prominent like in Björk’s It’s Oh So Quiet, they also don’t become sharp or bright. Violins, cymbals, trumpets? A strange combination: they roll off quickly, but are nicely textured.

The open-ear design increases the space in the sound, with good separation between instruments, and effects coming from your left and right. A little metalness and sibilance – hissy sss-tones – can occur, but it’s nothing severe.

As open-ear designs don’t have ear-tips which can bring basses deeply in your ears, bass on the Buds Live is the least refined part of the sound. When a song pushes the mid-bass, things can become a little mushy and on rare occasions slightly distorting. Most of the times though, the mid-bass gives a steady and punchy slam. Moreover, the sub-bass is surprisingly deep. You won’t feel these darkest bass tones shaking in your ears, but the sub still rumbles gently. That the lows still sound comfortingly full, is partly thanks to the boosted lower mid-tones (like darker electronic tones and drums). Here too, however, things are kept perfectly within bounds. Everything is just well-balanced.

Furthermore, you can tweak the sound to your liking greatly with the app. Bass Boost, Dynamic or Clear do precisely what you expect from them, without overhauling the balance and tonality that makes the Buds Live so good.

If you want earbuds without rubber tips and prefer a balanced sound over a bass-boosted one, these Beans are something special.