- Nothing ‘headphones/earphones’ spotted in Japan Audio Society certification
- The model (no. B170) is listed with a date of ‘2025/03’
- JAS codeveloped the Hi-Res Audio standard, but Nothing’s buds won’t have it
Another day, another hint that Nothing’s next cheaper CMF spinoff earbuds could launch at any minute – but we can now expect a launch this month and without any Hi-Res audio credentials.
In case you missed it, Nothing’s still-unreleased CMF Buds 2 Plus were spotted in an FCC filing in February, alongside the image you see above. We also got some key specifications, including Bluetooth LE support for connectivity, a 460mAh battery, and the return of the rotary dial in the corner of the case for volume and track-handling – as we spoke about at length in our CMF Buds Pro 2 review.
At the time, we assumed the new cheap Nothing buds would land alongside the then-unconfirmed Nothing Phone 3a and Nothing Phone 3a Pro as a set of earbuds to bundle with the new phone. On March 4, the phones arrived, but the CMF Buds 2 Plus never showed.
So what does this new listing on the Japan Audio Society website tell us? Chiefly, a date of “2025/03”. Although the listing doesn’t expressly confirm that the date pertains to the launch (and not just the publishing of the certification) other Nothing products listed below it supply a date that corresponds to the actual launch of the product; model numbers relating to the Nothing Ear (a) and Nothing Ear are listed with a “2024/04” date – which is when they both launched.
It makes sense: the CMF By Nothing Buds (which the Buds 2 Plus will supersede) launched in March 2024 precisely a year ago, and I don’t need to tell you about the fast-moving pace of phone iterations and their portable audio accessories.
CMF Buds 2 Plus: it’s a no for hi-res audio – and for the money, we expected that
Although we can’t tell how good the Buds 2 Plus will sound from the new JAS filing (or exactly when they’ll launch this month), we can tell a little bit more about the Bluetooth audio credentials. That’s because the Japan Audio Society helped establish the Hi-Res Audio standard alongside Sony in 2014, developing the logo you’ll see on Hi-Res Audio Certified products.
At the top of its listings, the JAS writes: “The ‘(+HRAW)’ in the category column means the product has conformed to ‘Hi-Resolution Audio’ standard and ‘Hi-Resolution Audio Wireless’ standard”.
Three Nothing products in the Society’s most recent listings have been given an +HRAW suffix, including the Nothing Ear (a), Nothing Ear, and April 2023-issue Nothing Ear 2 – but not the new B170. So, we can safely assume that you won’t be getting LDAC or hi-res audio support playback up to 1 Mbps (or frequencies up to 24bit/192 kHz) with these cheap incoming CMF by Nothing buds.
Honestly, it’s a tad churlish to expect hi-res support given the aggressive price tags Nothing’s CMF subsidiary has come with to date. The CMF Buds Pro 2’s asking fee was just $59 / £59 / AU$99 at launch in July 2024.
How much can we expect the non-Pro CMF Buds 2 Plus to cost? We can’t say for sure, but I wouldn’t be too surprised to see a sub-$50 / £50 price point.
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