GravaStar Sirius Pro Review: True Wireless Earbuds Ready To Do Battle

Gravastar Sirius Pro Review

Well, the GravaStar Sirius Pros are ready to make you look cool during battle, but hopefully, the battle won’t last all day. These very conceptual, even editorial, earbuds deliver great sound in a case that looks like it burned in with battle droids, but unfortunately, their batteries don’t hold up to their aesthetics or their sound.

What we like

The $129.99 GravaStar Sirius Pro true wireless earbuds. First off, they sound great. 

I wish the design team spent as much time with the charging system as they did with the case. No other earbuds offer a case that looks like a movie prop. I would not be surprised to see these on a set with some airbrushing to hide the logo. The snap-open top hides the Sirius Pros so without really looking or playing with the case, most people wouldn’t know what they were looking at. To totally confuse them, pop open a beer and just sit the case down again. Yep, it includes a built-in bottle opener.

The Knowles Balanced Armatures and 7.2mm Dynamic Drivers combine for some outstanding sound. I found the sound profile fresh and clear. The Sirius Pros deliver serious bangs and pops, clicks and jingles for gamers, and a very impressive sound canvas for music listeners as well.

There is a separation of sound that I experience with the Sirius Pros that I don’t hear in other headphones. I think the Drivers and the Knowles armatures offer a depth that single drive earbuds can’t. Driving both mechanisms requires power, which likely contributes to the Sirius Pro’s power use.

In my experience, the mids get lost among the outstanding separation of the highs and the pounding bass. Brass Monkey’s drumbeats sit in near-real space in the ear but reverberated across my head and through my body. The Beastie Boys’ vocals, however, feel pushed down around the music. The same for Avril Lavigne’s Sk8tr Boi, which emphasizes the deep growling baselines over vocals.

All that said, the GravaStar Sirius Pros offer great sound in the price range. I’m not sure I would recommend them for Broadway or orchestral music, but they do fine with pop music. Those who like to sing along won’t mind slightly muted vocals that they can complement with their own renditions. I must say I did enjoy some Miles Davis. Perhaps music mode is unintentionally tuned for Jazz. 

The Sirius Pros can handle serious volume, so be careful where you start your auditory journey. Unlike the PuroPros we reviewed, there is no noise limiting. These earbuds will take out your ears if you aren’t careful.

Music and movie modes emphasize different parts of the soundscape depending on the context, though subtle. I found more echo in Movie Mode as the earbuds seek a larger canvas and a bit more vocal distance in Game Mode.

Like the switch of sound modes (gaming, music, movie), simple taps turn on active noise cancelation, what GravaStar calls ENC, or Environmental Noise Cancellation. Gamers will appreciate Gaming Mode which switches down the latency. 

Communications leverage Bluetooth® 5.2 with the AAC and SBC codecs. An IPX5 rating communicates safety during a rainy run or a sweaty workout.

The Sirius Pros also come in a reusable display box, that can be used to display anything, or just look cool empty. Buyers will also find a chain and a rubber ring intended to transform the charging case into a necklace, which would look cool in the dark with the LED illuminated.

What could be improved

To use earbuds, one must be able to remove them from the package. I can’t believe that the Sirius Pro design team didn’t recognize the slickness of the earbud’s surface, or how they sit in the case. I struggled mightily to extract the Sirius Pros from their metal charging prison. I pried. I shook. I used a rubber jar opener (which was completely ridiculous but it worked)—I finally, however, landed on Post-It flags. They are just sticky enough to grab the edge of a Sirius Pro bud and extricate it.

As much as the case looks cool, it does so sitting on a desk. Between the difficulty in removing the Sirius Pros from the case, and the bulkiness of the case, these are earbuds better aimed at home use (or travel via a bag of some sort) than an audio accessory carried in a pocket. They may gain some wear by banging up against your keys, but they may also pop open in a pocket. The earbuds probably won’t fall out, but they may be prone to damage depending on what metallic jetsam they collide with.

For an extra $20 GravaStar ships the Sirius Pros in War-Damaged Gray or Yellow. If you want to wait, carry the Neon Green or Space Gray pair in your pocket regularly for a few weeks and you’ll battle-damage the less expensive pair.

Battery life is also an issue, with only 4 or so hours of playback time. They are the first earbuds tested by Serious Insights that ran out of juice during our initial listening period. While the case can charge the earbuds 3 times before it runs out of juice, the overall power performance is subpar. 

The USB-C charging port lies on the case’s bottom, so the Sirius Pros look as cool when charging as they do when just sitting around. I would love to see GravaStar incorporate wireless charging and move the USB-C port to a lower edge on the thin side. Fast charging would also be a good feature at this price point.

GravaStar could also improve the charging experience with an LED panel with multiple lights that indicated the battery status of it and the earbuds. The light as it is, offers some fun with its switching color button, but it’s for looks, offering no functional purpose save flashing during case charging.

GravaStar Sirius Pro: The Bottom line

If you have a hundred and thirty dollars to spend on earbuds with a Sci-Fi-inspired case, then, by all means, buy a GravaStar Sirius Pro in the style of your liking. Plenty of alternatives exist, some with better sound, others with better environmental ratings, and still others with more features, like wireless charging. No other earbuds, however, will receive as many looks as the GravaStar Sirius Pros, nor look so good just sitting on the desk.

GravaStar provided the Sirius Pros for review. Images courtesy of GravaStar.

Serious Insights is an Amazon Affiliate. Clicking on an Amazon link may result in a payment to Serious Insights.

For more serious insights on hardware and accessories click here.