Soundcore is related to Anker. I'm not sure if Soundcore is a separate company or a product line, but I found Soundcore thru buying Anker products.
Anker has had some of the best USB hubs, chargers (wall warts), battery packs, and cables that I've seen. We have several in my family. They have replaced the OEM chargers and cables. Now that things are moving to USB C I will be buying updated ones soon as well.
Thru Anker I learned about sound core. My first Soundcore product was the Liberty 2 Pro ear buds. I bought a set when they were first released and had them for a while. I also bought my wife and daughter a set after I had them for a while and knew how well they worked.
Fast forward and we have both a Q20 and Q30 noise canceling head sets, Motion+ bluetooth speaker and 2 Wakey alarm clocks too.
I work from home and use the Q30 when I need to block out ambient household noises so I can concentrate on work. I love them. They do a GREAT job. So when the Liberty Air 2 Pro were announced I was intrigued. Noise cancelling in an ear bud. Improved sound quality, and compared to the Liberty 2 Pro these seemed like the would be smaller and more comfortable, with noise canceling and only a minimal change in listening time (7 hours, vs 8 hours).
GIven past experiences with each of the other items, I bought 3 pairs all at once this time, for myself, wife, and daughter.
These work great! They are comfortable out of the box for me, while my wife and daughter changed the in-the-ear soft cap to a smaller size. Several sizes are included to make sure you can find that size that gives the best fit and maintain comfort while holding in place securely.
More importantly is the sound. Impressive sound while keeping the noise cancellation capability. It really is amazing. These cut sound very well. I haven't done exhaustive comparisons, but just in the brief time I have them I think they are as effective at noise cancellation as the Q30 headset. In some cases I think it's better. On the Q30 without playing any noise, I can hear the "white noise" cancellation audio. I don't notice that so much on the Airs. At least not yet. Perhaps I will as I get used to them and use them for noise cancellation without listening to music more often.
Battery life seems to be prety good, though I have noticed they tend to not seat on the charging pads in the case as well as the Liberty 2 Pros. I have had them in the case and not charge. They actually stayed turned on and the battery ran down even though in the case. It's only happened one time. I don't know if that's because now I am more deliberate when I put them in to make sure they are seated well, or if that one time was just a fluke. My wife and daughter haven't had that happen.
The noise cancellation does a good job in default settings, however the Soundcore phone app allows these to be tuned more closely to the type of noise you want to filter out. It also allows similar sound equalizer settings to the Liberty 2 Pro ear buds, with several pre-set options, as well as a custom tuned setting you do by going thru a type of hearing test, or a simple equalizer that you can adjust as you prefer. I wish it had the full range of presets from the Liberty 2 Pros, but given different speakers and drivers, it may be those are still coming and just haven't been created yet for these.
I gave 4 out of 5 for comfort. It may be I'm just not used to how these feel, but I find the Liberty 2 Pros to be more comfortable and to have slightly better sound. However, the active noise cancellation and impressive sound from the Liberty Air 2 Pro is a powerful combination. I especially like that the Air 2 Pro noise cancellation performance is in line with the Q30 over the ear style headset. Wow.
Finally, call quality. Calls are crystal clear. It takes a bit of an adjustment to "hearing yourself" internally but not thru your ears. This is normal, and it's why some phones have had side tones to put your voice in your ear for years. As for the mic, I've only spoken to a couple of people with these. So far the comments indicate these work better than the Liberty 2 Pros and MUCH better than the Q30 for picking up my voice. Comments are that I'm clear, good volume. The Liberty 2 Pro people said I was hard to understand or hear but it was acceptable in a pinch, and the Q30 was just plain bad, low volume and couldn't understand me unless I spoke very loud and emphatically. In fact I don't use the Q30 at all, and rarely the Liberty 2 Pro, for phone calls for that reason. I don't spend a lot of time on the phone so it's not a problem for those. With the Liberty Air 2 Pro I will be finally able to leave these in my ear and use them for phone calls. I've very happy about that.
Myself and my family are all very happy with these. Myself, my wife, and my. daughter all grab these first now when listening to pretty much anything.
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