Tranya Nova Lite Review

Tranya Nova Lite are great earbuds for anyone looking for a full package at $50. But, while they’re perfect for students and commuters, they’re less suitable for sportspeople. Learn what we’ve found out in our 9-category test.

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• List price (MSRP): $59.99
• Manufacturer: Tranya

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Related: Best ANC earbuds – Most comfortable earbuds – Best earbuds for calls

Our Conclusion

Tranya Nova Lite offer a lot for little money. Good sound, effective ANC, excellent call quality, fully customizable controls and EQ, Game Mode, Bluetooth multipoint, and many more.

Naturally, for around $50, you can’t expect perfection. But again, at this price, it’s hard to complain. I can easily recommend them to students and commuters who want a budget solution.

Of course, I have some grime with the Nova Lite. Read the full review to find out what I’m talking about.

Pros & Cons:

Compare similar earbuds

Our Analysis and Test Results

Our tests showed that the Tranya Nova Lite offer excellent “intelligent” active noise cancellation and ambient sound mode for their price (50 dollars). On the other hand, passive noise isolation could be better.

Audio quality could also be better if they avoided boosting the 6kHz region, which you can’t tweak using their in-app EQ.

Sound

Tranya Nova Lite have a boxy sound with a noticeable bass boost and hollow-sounding vocals. Custom EQ helps a lot but can’t quite save the earbuds from their saturated tuning. But beware of using the Tranya audio app.

Key points:

• Bassy, kind of boxy sound with thin vocals out of the box.
• More balanced sound signature after applying equalizer settings.
• The soundstage is averagely wide, while the imaging is pretty accurate but with a few blurry spots near the center channel.

Check our Tranya Nova Lite A/B sound test

When using their default audio settings, their sound is very muted and overly bassy—so much so that it veils the midrange. Fortunately, customizing EQ settings provides a much better result.

However, there’s a hump around 6kHz that you can’t reduce, and it affects the overall tuning of the Nova Lite.

Bass: Muffled but much better after EQ

By default, the bass sounds undistinctive and muffled. There’s too much energy in it, and it bleeds into the midrange.

Lowering the frequencies below 125Hz in the equalizer reduces the stress on the 12mm dynamic driver so it can play the audio in a slightly more controlled way.

Suddenly, the bass feels more nuanced and smoother, great for listening to any music genre you want. Even metal, although double pedals could’ve sounded tighter to be more enjoyable.

Tranya Nova Lite frequency response

Learn how to read and understand our frequency response graphs.

Midrange: Quite balanced (after EQ)

Midrange frequencies are quite problematic out of the box. There’s a strong bass presence, which adds a ton of warmth and muddiness.

Fortunately, applying our custom EQ settings helps the mids to breathe and sound more balanced. Male vocals start to sound great, while the females remain a bit thin due to the 6kHz hump.

In order to mitigate that 6kHz hump, you can slightly reduce the 4kHz. That also eats away some of the loudness from electric guitars, but to reduce a kind of boxy, shouty sound, that’s a worthy sacrifice.

Treble: Nicely shimmery but could be more textured

Treble frequencies sound clear and shimmery, especially when you boost them in the app’s EQ. Increasing the 8kHz and 16kHz adds clarity and air, which nicely balances out the bass.

That said, there isn’t much detail behind the shimmer, so while cymbal crashes sound pleasant, you can’t quite hear the sizzle of the vibrating metal that more premium earbuds can achieve.

It’s worth mentioning that the earbuds’ volume is all over the place. Even at 10-20%, they’re already pretty loud, sometimes almost unbearably. It’s probably a firmware issue, as I haven’t tested any earbuds that would act like this.

Have a listen to how our custom equalizer settings sound next to the default sound and other sound profiles:

The soundstage is pretty big but could use more details to make its size more apparent. Nevertheless, you never feel like the sound is trapped in your head.

Moreover, the imaging is pretty good but has a few blurry spots in the center and left and right channels where you can’t quite pinpoint where the sounds are coming from.

Sound glitch causing irregular loudness

Earbuds suffer from a strange audio glitch that affects loudness. Firstly, they’re somehow already really loud at 20% volume. Secondly, their sound mutes and becomes less congested when you enable some of the ANC modes, either using touch controls or via the app.

Furthermore, opening the app and fiddling with equalizer settings makes earbuds forget their original tuning. Since there’s no “Default Sound” button to press on, you’re stuck with whichever EQ preset you pick.

This has to be a software glitch that I hope Tranya can soon fix, as it not only makes these earbuds difficult to test but also annoying to use.

Sound Comparison

My conclusion

Overall, for $50 (the Canadian Amazon entry price), Tranya Nova Lite earbuds aren’t too shabby. If you could reduce the 6kHz hump, they would’ve been excellent for the price.

I hope Tranya fixes the volume issue, as it really hurts the user experience. I advise you to try our custom EQ settings and customize them further based on your taste.

Also check other:

• Best cheap earbuds

Comfort & Fit

Tranya Nova Lite have an elegant AirPods-like design that fits comfortably in your ears but can’t securely hold the earbuds. That’s why sportspeople might need to look elsewhere.

The Nova Lite’s ergonomic design is almost identical to the EarFun Air 2, except that the Tranyas have a slightly shorter stem. That makes them similarly very comfortable.

The packaging holds 3 pairs of silicone ear tips, which come in an oval instead of circular shape. That better contours the ear canal shape, so you feel less in-ear pressure. The latter never evolves into pain.

However, while you can wear Tranya Nova Lite all day, they could’ve provided a more stable fit.

When I tested them, they fell out of my ears after just a few head swings.

That makes them less suitable for gym-goers and outdoor sportspeople who don’t want to lose them in the middle of the road (they are hard to find due to their beige/cream color).

Comfort and fit during activities:

• Commuting: Comfortable for hours, no irritation.
• Exercising: Passable for lighter workouts like weightlifting but not jumping.
• Running: Earbuds would bounce in your ears and slowly push out of your ears.

Compared to other similar models

Tranya Nova Lite are the most similar to EarFun Air 2 and Air S, although the latter are slightly better at stability.

Durability

Tranya Nova Lite are built to withstand sweat and rain but not pouring water (IPX5). They’re overall sturdy, but their glossy exterior gets scratched easily.

Nova Lite are rated for an IPX5, which makes them sweatproof and water-resistant to use in the rain but not underwater. Even taking them under the showers isn’t advisable.

Nonetheless, you can take them to the gym or for an outdoor walk without fear of injury from sweat or a summer storm.

How did they feel in my hands?

Nova Lite have an AirPods-like shape with a long stem that pushes the microphone closer to your mouth. While they’re glued together from 4 parts, they feel robust and shouldn’t break unless you really want them to.

Charging case durability

The charging case is lightweight and feels okay in your hands. The only real issue is the thin hinge connecting the lid to the case, which might break upon impact.

Another small cosmetic problem is the glossy finish, which gets easily scratched. I already have a few scratches from simply having the charging case on my desk.

Are they suitable for…

• Wearing in the rain: Suitable as long as you’re walking through a light and not pouring rain.
• Running & exercising outside: Suitable but avoid overly dusty roads due to the lack of a dust IP rating.
• Sweating: Suitable, even if you sweat pretty heavily.
• Dipping underwater: Not suitable, as you need at least an IPX7 rating for that.

Durability comparison

Tranya Nova Lite are pretty average regarding their IPX5 rating but perfectly usable for everyday tasks. TOZO NC7 are slightly more robust and can be taken under the shower thanks to an IPX6 rating.

Battery

We tested the battery life of Tranya Nova Lite at 6 hours and 28 minutes (with ANC). They support Qi-wireless charging. However, there is no official mention of fast charging.

Tranya Nova Lite battery comparison

Despite slightly overestimating their battery life, Tranya Nova Lite fall above the average among ANC earbuds on the market.

In our test, where we left them playing music at 50% volume and with ANC enabled, we got precisely:

• 6 hours and 28 minutes on a single charge.

Officially, they should’ve lasted 8 hours per charge, although Tranya doesn’t disclose if that’s with or without active noise cancelling. 

There’s an additional 24 hours inside the charging case, which also supports Qi wireless charging. It takes 1.5 hours to charge the earbuds from 0-100%, but there’s no mention of fast-charging support.

Be aware that the charging case can be picky about which charging cable it wants to use.

It refuses to charge with my stock Samsung cable but has no issues charging via stock Huawei cable.

Battery rating comparison

Here’s how Nova Lite’s battery rating compares to ratings of similarly priced competitors:

Note: The battery rating considers battery life compared to alternatives, wireless charging support, and the speed of recharging.

Features

Tranya Nova Lite has many features, a few helpful customization options, and great call quality. In contrast, it also has very sensitive controls and an app that uses a lot of battery during usage. And I hate the ads!

Costing only around $50, Tranya Nova Lite have a ton of features. Here’s a complete list:

• Active noise cancelling
• Ambient sound mode
• Game Mode
• Find the device
• Custom Equalizer
• Custom controls
• Bluetooth multipoint
• Wearing detection

You can customize settings for most features, while some are enabled permanently and cannot be fiddled with, like Bluetooth multipoint and wearing detection for music playback and ANC modes.

The latter has caused a few issues during our testing, as it prevents the earbuds from activating ANC while in our MiniDSP E.A.R.S. measuring rig. Of course, average users won’t experience any problems.

Moving to the Tranya Audio app, there are 2 things that I dislike about it.

• First is the battery drain. My smartphone lost 1% of its battery each minute while using the app.
• There are ads showing in the app. If you’re using the app, you probably bought Tranya headphones, so why would you see ads for different Tranya headphones? It ruins user experience.

Find the device

The “Find the device” feature works automatically, and it shows their location on the map. 

While that’s helpful if you lose them in the middle of the run, Tranya should add the option to play a loud sound from one of the earbuds so you can also find them in your house or the middle of the road, as the location alone isn’t accurate enough.

Custom equalizer

Tranya app even offers a custom EQ with 10 frequency bands and -/+8dB adjustments, which gives you good control over the sound.

We made separate EQ settings for ANC ON and ANC OFF modes. Here are our settings:

Unfortunately, a 6kHz frequency band is missing, which would help tremendously, as that frequency is the most problematic (funny how that frequency band is shown in the marketing material).

Custom controls

Touch controls are fully customizable, unlike the ones in the EarFun Air 2 (even though the EarFun and Tranya apps are almost identical in many aspects).

Tranya app lets you use all 4 major gestures (single, double, triple, and long taps) without any exceptions (even a single tap can activate Game Mode or ANC).

Furthermore, gestures can be turned off, which is especially important for a single tap gesture, as it often suffers from ghost touches.

Microphone quality

Tranya Nova Lite have great call quality for the price, even beating Apple AirPods Pro 2 in noisier environments.

Tranya Nova Lite microphone test: (no noise test from 0:00-0:22, with background noise test from O:22-0:43)

Call quality from the dual built-in microphones isn’t the clearest, but you sound full and easy to understand thanks to enhanced voice signals. Despite the heavy noise reduction of earbuds, they don’t butcher your voice.

Even when exposed to loud outside noise, the voice pickup unit successfully blocks it while keeping your voice understandable with minimal distortion.

Because of that, I can easily recommend them for phone and non-professional video calls.

Features rating comparison

Since Tranya Nova Lite have a ton of features, their rating is among the highest compared to competition.

Noise Isolation

Tranya Nova Lite have a decent passive noise isolation that primarily reduces high-frequency sounds. Nonetheless, they should be fine for bus rides if you also plan to listen to music to drown out the remaining noise.

Nova Lite are pretty basic for passively isolating noise. While they start isolating at 200Hz, that only becomes noticeable from 600Hz and up.

However, a 5dB reduction isn’t enough to meaningfully reduce annoying things like speech or traffic noise, so you must also listen to music in order to drown out the remaining noise.

The effectiveness is (again) very similar to the EarFun Air 2, EarFun Air S, and Edifier TWS1 Pro 2.

Here’s a table of how effective is Tranya Nova Lite’s passive noise isolation at blocking specific frequencies:

How severe is sound leakage?

Sound leakage is moderate but manageable. You can take the earbuds in a library if you keep the volume down. You shouldn’t have issues with that since they’re already loud at 10% volume.

Noise isolation rating comparison with other models

Noise Cancelling

Tranya Nova Lite have a pretty effective active noise cancellation that matches some of the more expensive competitors. Even ambient sound mode is good, albeit you can hear some background hum.

Considering the price, Tranya Nova Lite have great active noise cancellation performance. It matches the already good TOZO NC7 and even Edifier NeoBuds Pro 2, which cost $130.

That means they’re great are reducing the upper bass and midrange frequencies, although the abovementioned competitors are better are sub-bass frequencies.

Furthermore, the competitors’ performance similarly struggles around 1kHz, where the Nova Lite actually does the best job. Others are again slightly ahead at reducing frequencies between 1kHz and 3kHz.

Overall, these earbuds are quite suitable for commuters who want to block engine noise and other sounds on public transport. In contrast, they could be better for office as they struggle with speech.

• Nevertheless, they’re a suitable fit for our best budget noise cancelling headphones guide.

Here’s the table with the Nova Lite ANC test results:

How good is ambient sound mode?

Ambient sound or transparency mode boosts ambiance quite naturally, with just a bit of thinness in human speech due to the boost between 600Hz and 2kHz.

The only thing slightly bothersome is the background hiss present when using transparency mode. It occurs when the microphone’s signal gets overly boosted.

Noise cancelling rating comparison

Bluetooth

Tranya Nova Lite have an indoor Bluetooth range of 40 feet, support seamless dual device connection, and have a Game Mode. However, the latter is slower than advertised.

As far as I’ve heard during testing, the Tranya Lite earbuds have a solid Bluetooth connection with zero random stutters. Since they support Bluetooth 5.3, they should not interfere with other wireless devices.

In our indoor connection range test, we got:

• 40 feet (or 12.2 meters), with a few stutters present right after passing the second brick wall.

That means you can walk into neighboring rooms without experiencing audio cuts, whereas you might have connection problems if you go further.

How to use Bluetooth multipoint

Bluetooth multipoint support works by default and in its simplest form. You connect Tranya Nova Lite to two different devices and audio plays from whichever device you press play.

You don’t get to see which devices are connected in the app, nor can you switch between them (like in EarFun Air 2) or manually select the source (Sony WF-1000XM5).

How to pair Tranya Nova Lite?

1. When pairing them for the first time, all you need to do is open the case’s lid and remove the earbuds. Pairing mode initiates automatically.
2. To pair them to a different device, put them in the charging case and hold the button on the back until you hear “Pairing” out of them. You can also leave them outside the case without being connected to any device. They should start pairing automatically.

What Bluetooth codecs do they use?

Tranya Nova Lite support basic SBC, LC3, and AAC Bluetooth codecs. Unlike their more expensive Tranya Nova, the Lite version doesn’t have aptX Adaptive.

Is there any audio lag?

There’s no audio lag when watching video content on YouTube, Facebook, and other social media platforms.

On the other hand, there’s a noticeable lag when playing mobile games. Fortunately, enabling Game Mode lowers the audio latency to 90ms, which is more than the advertised 38ms. However, while that’s visible, it is definitely playable.

Bluetooth rating comparison

Should You Get Tranya Nova Lite?

There’s a lot to like about these earbuds for the price. Some features truly stand out, like their ANC technology and sound, making them a suitable buy for students and commuters.

However, you have to live with their quirks, which are loudness swings, changing EQ after changing the ANC mode, and overly sensitive touch controls. Look elsewhere if you don’t have patience for that.

Pros & Cons

Who are these best for:

• Students who want good sound, low latency audio, quality microphone for calls, and ANC for pleasant commuting.
• Frequent commuters who need an affordable pair with good ANC and punchy sound.
• Casual gamers who need a fairly low latency during gaming and long-lasting comfort.
• Users on a budget who want capable features

Who should avoid them:

• Gym goers and active users, as these earbuds don’t stick in ears that well.

How do Tranya Nova Lite compare to the competition?

Here’s their value rating compared to similar alternatives:

Are they worth the price?

At $50, Tranya Nova Lite is definitely worth their price. However, I hope Tranya fixes the abrupt loudness issue and weird EQ swings when changing ANC modes (as well as gives you the option to disable the wearing sensor).

Tranya Nova Lite alternatives

EarFun Air 2

TOZO NC7

What’s in the Box?

• Tranya Nova Lite true wireless earbuds
• Charging case
• USB-A to USB-C charging cable
• 3 pairs of silicone ear tips (S, M, L)
• Quick user guide (in 3 languages)

Specifications