Monster DNA Fit Review
True wireless earbuds built for workouts with a powerful sound
Verdict
The Monster DNA Fit are sporty truly wireless earbuds that offer workout-friendly sound, but if you want the best sports earbuds with an ear hook design, we think there’s better options out there.
Pros
- Lots of extra eartips
- Powerful sound
- Good battery life
Cons
- Unbalanced sound profile
- The fit slips when sweat hits
- Big charging case
Key Features
- Water resistanceIPX5 water resistance to dispel water and sweat
- ANCSix built-in microphones to bat external sounds away
- Fast chargingAn hour playback from a 15-minute charge
Introduction
The Monster DNA Fit are true wireless earbuds built for workouts with an ear hook design to make sure even during the toughest, sweatiest sessions they’re not going to budge.
Monster also promises active noise cancellation when you want to drown out the world and a transparency mode to let it back in, with wireless charging skills to give you a more convenient way to power them back up.
While not super pricey, they’re also not a cheap set of buds. So are they worth picking up for the next time you need to pick up the heavy stuff or hit some HIIT? Here’s my take.
Availability
The Monster DNA Fit cost $129.99, making them cheaper than the Shokz OpenFit, but pricier than the Soundcore Sport X10 and JBL Endurance Peak 3, which are two sets of ear-hook wireless sports earbuds that really impressed us on sound, design and overall performance.
Design
- IPX5 water resistance
- Dedicated volume control
- 12 sets of eartips
The DNA Fit doesn’t look like your typical ear hook-style earbuds or earphones, with a more unique triangular shaped core that meets the flexible earhook that wraps around the top of your ear and reaches behind it to keep it securely in place.
The all-black bud carries an IPX5 water resistance rating and that means it can resist a sustained low pressure water jet spray. What that means in real terms is that it can handle sweat and a rainy workout. I did some serious sweating in the UK heatwave earlier in 2023 and thrown water over my head on many a run and the DNA Fit has survived those soakings.
To improve the secureness of the fit, Monster has included an impressive 12 different ear tips sizes, so I’d be surprised if most can’t find a good fit. From a fit point of view and getting something that feels secure, you may need to try a few different sized ear tips to get something reliable. The combination of the ear hooks and tips didn’t always feel perfect for us and maybe the hooks need to clamp a little more reliably than they do. During a running race, I found they slipped around when things got hot and sweaty.
I always prefer to see built-in physical buttons over touch ones and thankfully Monster has taken the physical approach, baking buttons into the outer of the buds to switch between listening modes and to play and pause audio. Monster also includes dedicated volume rockers on both sides of the earbuds, which is a nice approach and makes it easier to adjust volume when you’re doing more frenetic or faster workouts.
When not in use the buds live inside of a charging case, which is a little on the big side. It’s got some weight to it as well, so if you’re hoping to carry it around, you’re going to notice it in a pocket or a bag or running belt.
Features
- Good performing active noise cancellation
- Up to 8 hours battery life
When you bring ANC into the equation, it’s really about making sure you get an optimal earhook and eartip fit to get the best results. Monster uses six microphones here to deliver that ANC and indoors in a gym competing with other general gym sounds it performed well and it was a similar story outdoors competing against traffic noise. But if you at any time lose that optimal fit, its ANC powers are affected.
Transparency performs well when you need to let sounds back in, and it’s easy to switch between those ANC and Transparency modes from the onboard controls.
It’s a similar story with handling calls where Monster says it’s using echo cancelling and noise suppression smarts to deliver clearer calls in busier environments. I’d say the call quality replicates what you get listening to audio. A little muddy, not exceptionally clear and if you want these for phone calls, there’s going to be better options.
On a more positive note, the battery life is good, though it isn’t better than other truly wireless sports headphones. Monster claims you should get 8 hours of playback time from a single charge and 34 hours in total with the far from pocket-friendly charging case. That case is a QI certified wireless charging case, which offers a more convenient charging option and there is a quick charge mode to give you an hour of playback from a 15-minute charge.
I’ve not had to charge them on a regular basis over a few weeks of testing, though I’d say that 8 hours represents what you get from them without ANC on. I mainly used them with ANC enabled and it was a little short of that 8 hours, but with that quick charge mode you can quickly top things back up when they’re not in use.
Sound Quality
- Powerful but not super clear sound
- Bass tracks have muddy quality
It’s fair to say the sound you get from the Monster DNA Fit definitely feels in keeping with Monster sports headphones of the past. It prioritises power and delivering big sound, but it comes at the expense of offering something that’s exceptionally clear and balanced.
There’s no EQ modes here, so you’re essentially stuck with what you get out of the box. Using the Songs to Test Headphones with playlist on Spotify to get a good sense of how it handles a range of genres, the more bass heavy tracks had a very muddy quality to it where bass feels too prominent in the mix. When you want that extra finesse, it’s just not there.
Switching over to podcasts and audiobooks and the priority is with power and warmth over delivering exceptionally clear voices. It’s a bright sound overall, but if you’re hoping for the best sounding and most balanced sounding truly wireless sports earbuds, these don’t deliver that.
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Should you buy it?
You want earhook sports headphones with lots of ear tips: If getting a good seal with ear tips is an issue for you generally, Monster makes sure you’re well covered here with the DNA Fit.
You want the best earhook sports headphones: While the DNA Fit offers good performance, we’d say that there are better fitting truly wireless sports earbuds with ear hooks available for less.
Final Thoughts
The Monster DNA Fit offers pretty good value for money for a set of truly wireless sports earbuds. It does its best to make sure everyone can enjoy a strong fit, delivers sound well suited to workouts and also has features like ANC and solid battery life.
There’s something about the ear hook style though, especially when things got sweaty, that felt the design still needs some finessing while you can definitely get a better, more balanced sounding truly wireless sports earbuds elsewhere.
How we test
We test every set of headphones we review thoroughly over an extended period of time. We use industry standard tests to compare features properly. We’ll always tell you what we find. We never, ever, accept money to review a product.
Find out more about how we test in our ethics policy
Tested across several days
Tested with real world use
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FAQs
There currently isn’t an app for the DNA Fit headphones, but Monster say they are working on producing an app.
Full specs
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Editorial independence means being able to give an unbiased verdict about a product or company, with the avoidance of conflicts of interest. To ensure this is possible, every member of the editorial staff follows a clear code of conduct.
Professional conduct
We also expect our journalists to follow clear ethical standards in their work. Our staff members must strive for honesty and accuracy in everything they do. We follow the IPSO Editors’ code of practice to underpin these standards.
Editorial independence
Editorial independence means being able to give an unbiased verdict about a product or company, with the avoidance of conflicts of interest. To ensure this is possible, every member of the editorial staff follows a clear code of conduct.
Professional conduct
We also expect our journalists to follow clear ethical standards in their work. Our staff members must strive for honesty and accuracy in everything they do. We follow the IPSO Editors’ code of practice to underpin these standards.
