There are some pretty eye-catching interesting hardware designs on the box of these Liberty
2 Pro headphones from Soundcore. These drawings show an internal speaker construction that
I've never seen before. This video is sponsored by Soundcore, and today I'll be taking apart
their new in-ear studio performance headphones and see if the insides look as cool as the
box says they are. I decided to compare the Soundcore hardware side-by-side with Apple's
newest Airpod Pros, with that white q-tip stem design. The Airpod Pros probably have
that traditional speaker inside so it should be an interesting video.
Let's get started.
[Intro]
Let's start by taking apart the Liberty Pro 2's. Now it's not very often that headphone
technology is shaken up by something new. But Soundcore's tech is definitely different.
They call it the Astria coaxial acoustic architecture – which sounds like a bit of marketing jargon.
But I'll break down the naming while I break open the headphones.
Astria is the Greek goddess of purity, which Soundcore believes is a reflection of the
sound produced by the Liberty 2 Pro. Pure meaning it's true to life. So that's the first
word. The coaxial acoustic architecture means that instead of one traditional speaker inside
these wireless earbuds, we should find two. Coaxial means they are lined up on top of
each other and pump out sound at the same time so that the sound isn't disrupting or
competing with itself. The Liberty Pro 2's are ipx4 – meaning they're sweat resistant,
sealed shut, and very hard to get inside. That ipx4 rating is the same water resistance
rating that the Airpod Pro's have. So both of these are going to be difficult to open
and will also both probably be destroyed when I'm done. “F” in chat for the earbuds.
After slicing through the glued shut plastic housing and prying out the speaker unit, we
get our first loo at the coaxial drivers. It's definitely unique. That pointy niblet
in the center is the knowles balanced armature. And hidden in that bottom circular coin looking
thing is the normal speaker that's tuned specifically for bass. This is the world's first pair of
symmetrically aligned coaxial drivers in wireless headphones, which means that all the sound
is directly aligned with the listener's ears. The terminology of course isn't as important
as seeing the hardware itself though. Since the rectangular pointy niblet armature thing
in the center handles those mids and highs, that circular driver below it can focus on
just handling the lows, sharing the workload. Which makes the sound cleaner and clearer
than a normal headphone could with a single speaker trying to make all the noise by its
lonesome.
I'll pull apart that bass driver in just a second.10 Grammy Award-winning audio producers
worked on these Soundcore headphones to create that in-ear studio performance. You know how
movie theater sound systems and even home stereo systems come with different sized speakers
to handle the different sounds. Now these Anker Soundcore Liberty 2 Pro's can do it
all in a very tiny space. It's a little sound accurate theater for your ear.
It has a super small 65 milliamp hour lithium battery in each bud which has 8 hours of play
time. I'll come back to these in a second. Now let's talk about the Airpod Pro's. These
guys cost $250 – twice as expensive as the Liberty 2 Pros we just took apart. The Airpod
Pro's have a pretty seamless water-resistant design. So getting inside will once again
destroy the headphones, but it's the only way to see the hardware. Squeezing the headphones
pops open the seam between the head and the shaft and then I can slice my way around the
opening. Another difference between these and the Liberty 2's is that the Apple Airpod
Pro's do have a noise canceling feature which is also pretty unique. But you'll have to
decide for yourself whether it's worth that extra hundred dollars.
Prying out the speaker inside the headphone once again is very difficult. Both companies
are serious about their water resistance. Finally after physically slicing off the front
grill we get our first glimpse inside. Apple has positioned a large rectangular microphone
right inside the earpiece grill. The microphone blocks the speaker. The microphone is part
of the noise cancellation. It listens to the inside of your ear for unwanted sounds and
then cancels it out. The speaker is what we're here for though – and that's this guy. Which
I've kind of destroyed. It's got a large white diaphragm in the center with a clear rubber
surround. It's a singular speaker meaning that it has to produce all of the mids, lows,
and highs by itself. Don't get me wrong – both of these headphones sound great. I've paired
both of them up with my Android phone. This video is just comparing the internal hardware.
The Airpod Pros have one single driver and the Liberty Pro 2's have that new-age dual
symmetrical coaxial driver. And there are major physical differences between those two
methods of delivering sound.
I'll pop off the bottom of the stack drivers inside these Liberty Pro 2's so we can see
that lower dynamic speaker. And there it is, with it's own copper coil and clear diaphragm.
If you haven't been satisfied with the sound quality of wireless headphones in the past,
maybe it's time to try something different. Normally these Liberty 2 Pros are about half
the cost of the Airpod Pros, but with the link in the description of this video, you
can get an extra $40 off the retail price.
The Liberty Pro 2's are currently the only wireless headphones that exist with this astria
coaxial acoustic architecture set up. Taking apart the Airpod Pro 2 charging case. This
guy can hold 24 hours worth of charge and the buds themselves can last for 4 1/2 hours.
The case is once again obviously not designed to come apart, but that's never stopped us
before. The internals were actually pretty cool. Pulling off the top reveals the underside
of the plastic molded earpiece slots and then a few long ribbon cables headed down to the
dual internal batteries. It's a dual-cell 519 milliamp hour capacity, and all of it
charges up with Apple's proprietary lightning port.
The Soundcore case is also equally difficult to get inside. Pretty much no wireless headphones
can ever be repaired easily – which is a bummer. One good thing about the Liberty 2
Pro's though is that Soundcore has something called hearing ID which tests your hearing
and adjusts each earbud so that they are acoustically matched to how your individual ear hears sounds.
Every ear is different and these earbuds can adapt the audio accordingly. The Liberty 2
case does have USB-C charging and a pretty glamours charging pad on the bottom. Why manufacturers
don't make transparent tech anymore is beyond me. This thing looks pretty awesome. The Airpod
case also has wireless charging glued into the side panel. It's a bit smaller of a coil,
but still, both would look amazing with a transparent case.
Now that we are inside, there are 4 screws holding the wireless charging pad to the motherboard.
I can unscrew that and then we can see the undersides where the case can transfer it's
24 hours of battery life into the 8 hour battery of the earbuds for a total of 32 hours. The
internal case battery is 500 milliamp hours. I'm glad Soundcore sponsored this video. They're
some pretty cool technology to be seen inside of the Liberty 2 Pro's. I have my own pair
that I've been using for about a month now and both the lyrics and audio are super crisp
with some solid base. They are a bit larger than the average pair of earbuds so be ready
for that, especially if you run a lot. Personally, I'd be okay with them sacrificing a bit of
that 8 hour battery life for a smaller and lighter casing. Turns out the box is advertising
the exact hardware inside of their earbuds and that's pretty cool.
Since you made it this far in the video, Soundcore has made 10 awesome looking JerryRigEverything
Edition Liberty 2 Pro's and they're doing a world-wide giveaway. So if you want one
of these, I'll put the details of the giveaway down in the video description alongside that
limited time discount code for $40 off. Once again, huge thanks to Soundcore for sponsoring
this video. Come hang out with me on Instagram and Twitter. Thanks a ton for watching. I'll
see you around.