DunRock Semi review: Great or just semi-good?

The DunRock Semi are DunRock's first semi-in-ear earbuds. Did they get it right on the first try? These earbuds have ANC, which is very rare for semi-in-ear models. Why is that? And could these be your perfect true wireless earbuds? I'll cover all of that in this review.

In this article

• 1. Specifications: DunRock Semi
• 1.1 Sound quality
• 1.2 Microphone: calls and video meetings
• 1.3 Fit
• 1.4 Earbud controls
• 1.5 Battery: how long do they last?
• 1.6 ANC
• 2. Conclusion: our verdict
• 3. Alternatives

Pros and cons

Here are the pros and cons of the DunRock Semi. See at a glance whether these earbuds are right for you. 

You can clearly see that these are semi-in-ear earbuds without silicone ear tips, rather than full in-ear earbuds. 

DunRock Semi specifications

Here's a big pile of specifications. But I understand if you'd rather scroll straight to the review below.

• Price: ~ €70
  
• Codec: SBC, AAC, LDAC
• Bluetooth: 5.3
• Multipoint: Yes
• Range: 15m
  
• Bluetooth version: 5.3
• Frequency range: 20Hz - 20,000 Hz
• Fit: half in-ear. Active noise canceling (ANC): Yes
• ANC noise reduction: -28 dB
• Multipoint: Yes
• Battery life with ANC: 4 hours
• Number of microphones: 6
• Driver size: 13 mm
• App available: Yes
• Microphone noise filtering (ENC): Yes
• Release year: 2025
• Battery life without case: 5 hours
• Battery life with case: 24 hours
• Water resistance: IPX4 (Protected against splashes from all directions)
• Earbud battery capacity: 80 mAh
• Charging case battery capacity: 380 mAh
• Pouch: No (charging case included)

What stands out: semi-in-ear & ANC. We haven't seen that combination before. Plus multipoint, which lets you connect 2 devices (such as a laptop & phone) at the same time. Handy. 

I wrote this review of the DunRock Semi during a road trip to Spain. I brought the DunRock Semi along. Just so you know ;) 

DunRock Semi sound quality 

Let's get straight to it. These earbuds sound very good. You usually get a little less bass with semi-in-ear earbuds , but that's not the case here. The sound is rich and full, with the whole frequency range present.

You could describe them as a little bass-heavy, but a lot depends on how you position them in your ears. You won't get their full potential unless you put them in properly. I'll explain more in the section on fit.

These earbuds have stems. You'll notice that keeping the stems close to your jaw and gently pressing the earbuds into your ear canals brings out their full sound. So pay attention to that. But I promise, that's the last time I'll mention fit in this section on sound.

Another nice touch is that these earbuds have their own app: the DunRock app. I haven't seen brands like this offer their own app before. That puts DunRock alongside the major brands. Sooner or later, DunRock looks set to join those big names, but for now you're still getting top-tier quality at midrange prices.

Sound quality score: 8

Is everything about the sound good, then? No. The best way to put it is that a lot depends on your taste. Of course, you can adjust the sound to your liking in the DunRock app. But out of the box, these earbuds sound a little punchy. A bit like the sound of most JBL earbuds. Nicely bass-heavy, without being overbearing. 

Edit: I know I promised not to talk about fit again. But now that I'm wearing them again while making the final edits to this review, I want to stress how important it is to press the earbuds properly into your ear canals. A little deeper, in other words. If you just rest them in place, you won't hear the bass I'm describing here. Take a moment to position them properly and press them in gently. Suddenly, you'll hear their full potential.

Another interesting thing: when you turn on active noise canceling, through the app for example, the sound is fuller than when it's switched off. Maybe it creates a better seal. That could be it, but I notice a clear difference. I can't explain it straight away, but it's definitely there. If you're not getting enough bass, try turning on active noise canceling in the app.

Microphone: are the DunRock Semi good for calls?

The DunRock Semi's microphone is better than the DunRock Bubble's. Then again, the DunRock Bubble is two years older. The first clue that the DunRock Semi are better for calls is that they have six microphones. Six microphones! I still remember when earbuds had just one.

What are all those microphones for? First, there are three per earbud. The same three-microphone setup is mirrored on both sides. Three plus three, in other words.

During calls, all three microphones on each earbud are active, so six in total. Two microphones per earbud pick up and record your voice. The other microphone listens for your surroundings rather than your voice. People nearby, for example, or traffic. At the same time, the DunRock Semi's chipset tries to filter out background noise and send your voice to the person you're talking to.

I could have summed that up much more briefly. It's called ENC, environmental noise canceling. This technology reduces the background noise the other person hears. In other words, they can hear you more clearly. A filter for your earbuds, then. Not a physical filter, but an innovative filter powered by computer processing. Pretty neat, right?

Microphone score: 8

All that explanation about the DunRock Semi's microphone is nice. But how good is it really? I always say a recording is worth a thousand written words. So let me record a sample so you can judge the microphone for yourself. Here you go! 

Listen to the DunRock Semi recording here:

Overall, your voice comes through very clearly. You can hear that in the recording above. I should mention that I recorded it on my phone, which requires an app. In this case, I used Easy Voice Recorder Pro by Digipon for Android and chose mp3 as the file format. So the audio is compressed. Still, this is fairly close to what the other person will hear, perhaps a little better in an actual call.

Why does your voice come through so clearly? Partly because of the stem. The microphone sits at the bottom of it, which puts it physically closer to your mouth than on other earbuds. That's advantage number 1.

Buy DunRock Semi

Another advantage, of course, is the six-microphone setup. The DunRock Bubble Pro have the same. And while the Bubble Pro are better in many areas, the DunRock Semi come fairly close in call quality. Think about it: 6 microphones. Not 1, not 2, not 3... you know how this goes. But yes, 6 microphones. That's a lot.

As mentioned, these earbuds also have ENC. That stands for environmental noise canceling. It's a filter that separates your voice from background noise. So the other person hears you rather than the people chattering around you. Handy if you work in a call center, for example. Or if you're walking through a supermarket at its busiest.

These earbuds also handle wind noticeably better. Earbuds and wind usually aren't a happy pairing. From top-end models costing up to €300 to budget earbuds, wind is a challenge for all of them. But earbuds are getting better at dealing with it, and these perform much better in wind tests than many others. That's good news if you like walking the dog or spending time outdoors. Taking calls while cycling is still difficult, even with these earbuds. But that's true of top-end models too.

Fit: how do the DunRock Semi feel?

Remember, we're talking about semi-in-ear wireless earbuds. That means earbuds without silicone ear tips. They don't have those soft rubber pieces that go into your ears. It just occurred to me: could that be why they're called DunRock Semi? Probably.

Semi-in-ear earbuds have a hard shell that rests in your ear canal, a bit like Apple's original AirPods. It's not about good or bad, or about quality. They're two different things. It's a matter of taste: some people like apples, others prefer pears. Some people like semi-in-ear earbuds, while others prefer full in-ear earbuds.

Fit score: 7

That always makes fit a little tricky to judge. But within the semi-in-ear category, I'd rate these as good. They are a little thicker and larger than the slimmest, narrowest semi-in-ear earbuds. That's worth keeping in mind. If you have very small ears, you're better off choosing something else.

 

Another thing I noticed: rotating the earbuds slightly helps them sit better. Keep the stem close to your jawline and angle the speaker opening a little into your ear canal. Suddenly, you get much fuller bass. That's an important tip.

ANC: how good is the noise canceling?

Now let's talk about ANC. ANC in semi-in-ear earbuds? Yes! These semi-in-ear earbuds have ANC. This is a development that has only reached earbuds in the last few months.

You might be thinking: hasn't ANC been around for ages? It has, but until now it was only available in earbuds with ear tips, also called full in-ear earbuds, and headphones that could create a good seal. Semi-in-ear earbuds without silicone ear tips missed out. That makes sense, because semi-in-ear earbuds don't naturally create a perfect, gap-free seal in your ear canal. In short, there's always room for sound to leak through, more so than with full in-ear earbuds.

So how did DunRock make it work on the Semi? A lot of thought went into the fit. The aim was to create semi-in-ear earbuds that seal well enough to make ANC possible. And it worked reasonably well. The noise canceling is definitely noticeable.

Fit score: 6

Is this active noise canceling as good as on full in-ear earbuds, such as the DunRock Bubble Pro? No, definitely not. What's more, the effectiveness of active noise canceling depends entirely on fit. That's always true to some extent, but even more so with these semi-in-ear earbuds. If you don't position them properly, you won't notice the active noise canceling at all. You'll also notice worse sound. Less bass, in other words.

Having active noise canceling on these semi-in-ear earbuds is a neat gimmick. We'll happily give them that. But it's a gimmick and not much more. Many people actually see hearing some of their surroundings as a big advantage of semi-in-ear earbuds. So this feature is somewhat at odds with what their target audience wants. Anyway, let's move on.

It's worth mentioning that you can adjust the ANC to your liking in the DunRock app. Many other earbuds at this price only let you switch ANC on or off. With these, you can set the exact ANC level in the app. There's also a wind noise option you can turn on or off. It's there to stop wind from interfering with the microphone when ANC is on and causing that crackling sound in your ears.

Earbud controls 

These earbuds use touch controls. Just touch them and they respond. The touch panel has a smoother surface, so you can feel exactly where to tap. Handy, because you can't see the earbuds when they're in your ears. That last point took me a while to work out. 

You can also customize the controls in the app. Don't want 1 tap to change the volume? No problem, just change it in the app. You can adjust the other controls too, including 3 taps, 2 taps or 1 tap.

Controls: 9

Another useful detail is that the touch controls sit right at the top. Some earbuds place them closer to the middle, which makes the earbud shift every time you tap it. That doesn't happen here. At worst, tapping the controls presses the earbuds a little more securely into your ear canals.

How do the DunRock Semi touch controls work?

 

Overall, the touch controls work well. You can easily feel where they are, they're in the right spot, and you can customize them. No complaints there.

Battery: how long can you listen?

You can listen for five hours before the earbuds need to go back in the charging case. Turning on active noise canceling can reduce that by an hour, to four hours. That said, I've used them for longer than four hours with ANC on. So I think that's a conservative estimate.

Battery score: 6

The charging case gives you 28 hours of total use. In other words, you only need to recharge the case after listening to 28 hours of music through these earbuds. That's decent performance, but certainly not the best on the market.

If you love long listening sessions, these aren't the best earbuds you can buy. Their strengths lie more in the smaller fit and relatively compact charging case.

Conclusion: are the DunRock Semi good?

Overall, the DunRock Semi are a solid choice if you're looking for semi-in-ear earbuds. Don't want silicone ear tips in your ears? These are a good option.

The sound is rich and full, and you can adjust it to your taste in the app. Call quality is good thanks to the stems, six microphones and ENC. The fit depends a lot on your preferences and what you're used to. But for semi-in-ear earbuds, they fit well. They may feel a little bulky, but that's something you can get used to.

Battery life is a little underwhelming, but certainly not annoyingly short. The controls are perfect, or almost perfect. And the ANC comes with compromises. It feels more like a feature that was squeezed in, but it's still nice to have. All in all, a solid pair of earbuds.

Buy DunRock Semi

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Alternatives

DunRock Semi vs. DunRock Bubble Pro

Here's an interesting comparison: the DunRock Bubble Pro versus the DunRock Semi. The DunRock Bubble Pro are full in-ear earbuds, of course, and a little more premium than the DunRock Semi. The sound is fuller. Active noise canceling works better, much better in fact, and the microphone is a little better too.

Overall, the DunRock Bubble Pro are a bit more capable than the earbuds in this review. But perhaps it's not quite a like-for-like comparison. Full in-ear versus semi-in-ear, after all.

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• These are the best noise-canceling earbuds
• These are the best earbuds under €50
• These are the earbuds with the best microphone
• Also explore our article on AirPods alternatives
• See the best earbuds for running or in the gym
• Also check out the DunRock Bubble review (the best-selling earbuds at Eardopes).