- Just when you thought there quite possibly cannot be
another wireless earbud for me to review,
well, the joke's on you, bud.
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It is increasingly hard to stand out
in the wireless earbud market.
From Bose to Apple, Skullcandy to one more.
A pair of earbuds exists at just about every price point now
with many different features sprinkled throughout.
Being within a particular ecosystem,
such as AirPods for iOS users or Galaxy Buds Pro
for Samsung users is an easy way to attract buyers.
But in Anker's case, it's having a very desirable feature
at a very competitive price.
These are the Soundcore Liberty Air 2 Pros and for $130,
they do a lot of things well,
but it's the active noise cancellation
and their really well-designed app
that makes them worth talking about.
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- The Liberty Air 2 Pros come in a large stone like case
that slides to open.
It is incredibly fun to fidget with.
It most closely resembles the case
of the Galaxy Buds Pro, longer than it is tall
but it certainly is not as pocketable
as most ANC buds cases.
There are three battery indicator lights on the front
and a button for pairing around back,
which sounds like a super small detail,
but having a physical button for pairing
is far easier to use than the tap to pair method
that buds like the Jabra Elite 85Ts use.
So thank you Anker.
The battery life is on par with other ANC headphones,
Anker claims seven hours of battery life with ANC turned off
or six hours with it turned on
and there are three additional charges in the case
that charges both wirelessly or via USB-C port around back.
This was more than enough juice to get me to the point of
needing to take the buds out of my ears
to take a break from the tight in ear seal
that these buds have
and a 15 minute quick charge in the case
when the case is plugged in via USBC
will get you back three hours of additional listening time.
Now the buds themselves are the same wonderful
iconic stem design we have come to expect
in wireless earbuds.
They have a gold fan like cover over their speakers
that is actually super cool and a textured matte finish.
Either bud can be used independently of the other
and the in ear detection could be toggled on and off
in the earbuds app.
Now I found the in ear detection to be like very sensitive
and almost too sensitive for my liking.
So I wear a hood often because I have,
I don't have a lot of hair on my head and I get very cold.
Anyway, when I had a hood over my head
and it would knock the earbuds even just a little bit,
the earbud would detect that it was out of my ear
and stop my music.
Now, a quick adjustment of the bud
would get my music playing again
but it was all just kind of annoying.
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All right, if you know me you know,
I'm all about the tap controls
and I got to say, the tap controls on these buds
is hella limited.
Right out of the box,
double tap on the left to skip to the next track,
double tap on the right for play and pause
or hold down for two seconds on either bud
to toggle ambient sound modes.
Although the buds are responsive to these taps,
that is a very limited amount of controls
at your fingertips.
And yes, all of these controls
can be customized within the app,
but I just found myself wanting a single tap
or even a triple tap option.
The Liberty Air 2 Pros come with
nine different size silicone ear tips in the box,
ranging from extra, extra extra small to extra large.
This is to create the best seal
and hopefully keep movement from happening.
Fit is extremely important in wireless earbuds.
I mean, not only to make sure
that you have the best seal for ANC,
but also to improve sound quality,
especially in the lower frequencies.
To confirm you have chosen the best size tips,
Anker has created the tip fit test
within the Soundcore app.
The app first measures the DB levels
of the space you are in to ensure it's quiet enough
for this test.
The app then plays about 10 seconds
of ringtone esque orchestral music,
and then it displays a good seal
or a bad seal result for each earbud.
There's also an audio test called HearID
that claims to map your personal hearing sensitivity
at multiple frequencies
to best tailor the EQ settings to you.
Anyway, it plays about 30 tones per ear
and it asks you to answer, yes I can hear that tone,
or no, I cannot.
Honestly it feels a lot like going to the ear doctor
minus like that whole bit when they stick that weird
like pointy thing in your ear.
Anyway next you're presented with a graph of your results
and an EQ preset saved to the app.
My test resulted in deeper bass and less treble
which did make my music sound fuller.
Both the fit test and the EQ settings tests
are not something revolutionary,
a lot of buds have these tests these days.
Some people might find them more useful than others
but I think it's good to have the option.
Also it creates this illusion that your buds are like
really being tailored to you
which kind of makes me feel a little special.
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I've made you wait long enough, let's talk audio quality.
The Liberty Air 2 Pros sport SPC and AAC audio codecs.
They have 11 millimeter drivers
that create a more treble heavy sound.
While music felt full and immersive with crisp separation,
I did find myself wanting more bass.
Upping the lows in the app certainly helped,
but it wasn't as clean sounding
as the base in the AirPod pros,
like seventies funk sounded really good
but more contemporary R&B like Doja Cat felt a bit flat.
But I was most excited to test the ANC in these buds.
There are three main ambient sound modes,
full noise cancellation, transparency mode, and then normal,
which turns off the ANC and the transparency mode.
Within the full ANC and transparency modes,
there are even more specific controls
for controlling the level of pass through sound.
The ANC mode features a transport mode
for canceling low-end frequencies, such train rumbles,
an indoor mode for mid-range frequencies and an outdoor mode
that Anker claims is best for city spaces.
Then there's also a custom mode
for dialing in the best setting for you.
I set my ANC to transport mode
and I left it there for most of my time with these buds.
It absolutely took out the lower frequencies
and it was very easy to slip into oblivion.
I found it most like the noise cancellation
on the Jabra Elite 85Ts.
On the train, the low rumbles disappeared,
but it still let through just a bit more sound
than the AirPod Pros or the Galaxy Buds Pro.
And although the transparency mode is realistic,
it doesn't have the same earbudless feel
of the AirPod Pros either.
It certainly still feels like
there was something blocking my ear canals
from the outside world.
There is however a vocal transparency mode
that takes out low frequencies
while allowing higher frequency, such as voices through.
It was helpful in listening to train announcements
but ultimately taking the ear bud out
to hear an announcement was far easier.
(upbeat music)
Okay, so I've spent a lot of this review
talking about the Liberty Air 2 Pros app
without like really talking about how beautiful it is.
And this is kind of rare for ear buds.
Like usually when I get a pair of buds,
I download their app, I dial in some EQ settings,
maybe change a couple of touch controls,
and then I never really open that app again.
But with the Soundcore app,
I found myself like going back to it.
Like if I was bored on a train, I'd open it up
and I would just play with all the settings I had.
If someone was like talking across the car, I would be like,
Oh, can I still hear them under this transparency mode
or with this ANC levels on?
It's just like really fun
and I think that's because it's so well-designed
it's so easy to use, and like the colors are beautiful.
I don't know, It was a really weird experience for me
to actually love an earbuds app.
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In a wireless earbud market full of worthy
and not so worthy competition,
it is increasingly hard to be impressed by a new bud,
but the Soundcore Liberty Air 2 Pros'
competitive $130 price tag, it brought me in
and then their true active noise cancellation
and well-designed app kept me coming back for more.
They certainly could use more bass
and they could absolutely use a smaller case,
but Anker has done a great job at bridging the gap
between a budget friendly option
and a really reliable earbud
that you're gonna be excited to put in your ears every day.
Let's talk audio quality.
That's like my favorite part in these videos always
cause then you get to bring in like the sights, like,
(vocalizes song), you get?
All good.
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