KizunaAI AVIOT ANC Earbuds - more than just a gimmick

Written by Ross Locksley on 30 Sep 2025

So here's a little known fact about your aged UKA editor-in-chief: I'm a bit of an audiophile. Not just in a "listens to a lot of music" way, but in a "heavily invests in equipment" manner. There's a taste of this obsession over on the Anime Independent blog, where I discuss anime music available in HD, and you'll see a bit of my equipment there too. My main HD setup comprises a FiiO M11 Pro DAP connected to some Bang and Olufsen BeoLab 8000 speakers which also serve the TV and Turntable, but honestly I can't really let rip with those while my wife is in the house. 

That leaves me using either my Sony WHX10000M3 Noise Cancelling headphones (I haven't liked any of the subsequent updates) or my Nura set, great for their haptic feedback which really allows you to "feel" the bass. Finding these too bulky for travelling, I stick to my Sony WFX1000M5 earbuds, which have excellent noise cancelling. Now they have a rival!

Virtual Idol double-act!

All this serious audio nerdistry doesn't however stop me from having my head turned by cool audio equipment with an anime flair. During an early trip to Japan circa 2012, I made it a mission to find the iconic Sony Walkman NW-S764 MP3 player that had been paired with Hatsune Miku for her 5th anniversary, with 3939 units in Miku blue, and 3939 in black. Did it do anything special? Not really, but it was very cool and I had to have it, even if there's no English language for the menus...

A similar thought entered my mind when we posted a news story about the AVIOT TE-VR1-KZN earbuds that featured a vocal collaboration with the original VTuber KizunaAI, easily the most popular of her peers with over 4 million subscribers. AVIOT had a reputation for quality and I'd seen reviews on sites such as PC Mag, so I reached out and, very luckily, was granted a review set to test. What really drew me to them was that Japanese playfulness with technology that Sony used to embody, with unusual and experimental flair combined with top-end quality - I hoped to find that spirit reproduced here.

I was very excited when they arrived - the presentation is lovely! A quality fold-open box with a magnetic seal, replete with an illustration of KizunaAI that folds all the way around, there's no doubt who the earbuds are dedicated to. Instructions are provided in English which is very helpful - even better you can set the earbud audio prompts to Japanese or English, both voiced by the VTuber star herself. This requires changing the language pack through the app available on iOS and Android. It takes a few minutes to load, but once set, remains on your language of choice.

Branding on the ear buds is very subtle. I think I can just about pull off the pink interior, though I fear my wife will steal these...

The buds come in a white pill-shaped charging case replete with AVIOT's logo and KizunaAI's signature. It's a subtle branding that carries over to the buds themselves, which are white with just a black heart-shaped logo and silver caps. 

While inserted, the ear buds are very comfortable. I pretty much forgot I was wearing them after a while, which is more than I can say for the Sony MX5's which are slightly more bulbous and like to fall out. I struggled with the Bluetooth connection initially, but found pairing much easier if you have the buds in your ear (instructions suggest they can stay in the case). Initially only one ear bud connected, but I soon had it working properly and this is mostly down to my ham-fisted faffing about than any issue with the headphones themselves. 

I put the set through its paces - opting for some live orchestral performances of Asticassia and The Witch from Mercury, taken from the score for Mobile Suit Gundam: The Witch From Mercury by Takashi Ohmama. This was a fine way to test the sound separation and deep bass, both of which were crisp and punchy. The bass is a touch light for my tastes but the  reproduction of the instruments was rich and detailed. 

Next up I wanted something with a bit more drive, so I switched to Luft by Aldious, which has a lot of bass and drums. Now each of the AVIOT crossover buds has been tweaked for the character's tastes, and you can certainly see that this set prioritises the treble as the vocals were dominant throughout. However, the electric guitar riffs came through crystal clear and the upper end is very clean on these ear buds. My personal tastes lends themselves to a bit more depth, but if you're a fan of vocals, this is an excellent experience. 

Of course, I couldn't test these headphones without listening to the lady herself, so I fired up Hand Sign and Omajinai to see how they fared given the settings are essentially customised for KizunaAi's voice. As an artificial performer, her voice contains a lot of notes on a high-end register and honestly you can tell the engineers really paid attention as reproduction is absolutely stellar. This basically cemented my opinion on the strengths of these ear buds - they suit light pop-music and melody-based songs. They don't lack for bass but it's not where they're focused. By the time Youtube music had moved on to Future Base (my favourite KizunaAI song by the way) I was pretty much hooked on the sound reproduction. I'd found a few new favourite songs too!

Noise cancelling worked very well, I couldn't hear a thing outside the music indoor, even with my iPad playing a Youtube video at top volume. When the music dipped very low there was minor outside bleeding, but that's nothing unusual. General outside background noise is substantially reduced, traffic is still noticeable to a degree but then I prefer that to being run over.

KizunaAI's vocal range really pops on the AVIOT ear buds, with far more life than my other headphones - when they say the settings have been optimised for the virtual idol, they're not kidding!

The TE-VR1-KZN earbuds advertise a 19 hour playtime per charge, with a highly respectable 62 hours total if you include the charging case. I haven't crunched the number of hours I've been using these but I can say I haven't charged them since they arrived a week and a half ago.

AVIOT has you covered with lots of different styles too - the latest announcement was a pair of beautiful dark green buds based on The Apothecary Diaries, and I think my favourite in terms of aesthetics are the HoloLive AVIOT x Myth set. I'd recommend using a company like Jump Ichiban who charge £156 for the earphones and around £26 shipping - currently they're offering the Oshi No Ko (TE-VR1) and Apothecary Diaries (TE-Q3) sets. Amazon UK also gets sets occasionally. You can buy directly with a third party shipping service too.

From what I've observed, after-market prices on these ear buds is bordering on ridiculous, so if you find a pair you like, I'd advise jumping on them. I'll certainly keep enjoying mine!