Nice earbuds with high-tech features.
I don’t remember my first set of headphones, but they were probably the ones that had horrible foam earpads that ended up crumbling after only using them for a short period of time. I’ve always preferred on-ear or over-ear headphones as opposed to sport-style earbuds. I’ve just never liked having the bud of the earphone shoved into my ear canal. They’ve never been comfortable until recently. When Apple started designing earbuds that rested inside the ear canal instead of being jammed into them, I started becoming a believer. I remember slowly noticing different brands of earbuds of a similar style being released to the market and finally, I got used to the earbuds that have ear gels. I’m glad that different styles of in-ear headphones have come out. The SoundCore Liberty Air 2 Pro are new true wireless earbuds that fit into that earbud/soft ear gel category for me. It’s been a pleasure to test them out and my thoughts on them are outlined in the review below. If you are looking for a quick summary – they are worth the investment and are a good substitute for higher-priced earbuds.
DETAILS
First of all the earbuds are available in four different colors – onyx black, titanium white, sapphire blue, and crystal pink. I had to go with the blue version because, well, it’s my favorite color. Next, the earbuds feature some pretty unique technology including:
- Pure Sound via Targeted Active Noise Cancelling: Choose your scenario via the Soundcore app and listen as ambient sounds disappear to leave you with nothing but pure sound.
- PureNote™ Driver Technology: Get a 45% boost to your bass, and a 30% wider frequency bandwidth than ordinary drivers. Drivers coated with 10 hardened nano-layers offer incredible stiffness to generate stunning accuracy and clarity.
- HearID Personalized EQ: To ensure a perfect listening experience, HearID intelligently analyses your unique hearing profile and creates a tailor-made sound set up just for your ears. Or take complete control of the sound with the adjustable EQ or 22 preset sound profiles.
Each of these technologies is direct from SoundCore. They really do add to the experience along with the other features included like having up to 26 hours of playtime (7 hours from a single case charge and 3 recharges from the case) and 6 noise-canceling microphones with noise reduction that ensure you have clear phone calls when you use the earbuds. The case charges with USB-C or with any Qi-certified wireless charger. The earbuds come with a huge supply of ear tips. There are 9 different sizes to select from including the ones that come installed on the earbuds. The sizes are XXXS, XXS, XS, S, M, L, XL, M+, and L+. Finally, you can customize your listening experience using the SoundCore app, which is free to download.
There are a lot of different areas that a set of earbuds can be judged. For me it comes down to sound, comfort, and features.
COMFORT
After taking the earbuds out of the box, I immediately placed them in my ears. I did this for two reasons. First, I wanted to get a feel for them and second, I wanted to know if I needed to switch out the ear tips. The tips that are already installed are the medium sized ones. I swapped those out for the smalls and then started the Bluetooth pairing process. The earbuds are very lightweight and I was impressed with how natural they felt in my ears. Sometimes I get that weird vacuum feeling when I wear earbuds, but not with the Liberty Air 2 Pros. The design of these earbuds is similar to the Apple AirPods. It has a stem that hangs down from the ear. Some people do not like this as a design feature, but I rather like them. They seem to make the earbuds feel more balanced in my ears. While I wore the earbuds, I didn’t have any discomfort. Sometimes I get earaches or even headaches if the fit isn’t right. But after wearing the earbuds for a few hours straight, I can say that they remained comfortable and easy to wear.
FEATURES
The Liberty Air 2 Pro earbuds come with a standard set of features that nearly all modern earbuds have these days – extra ear tips, a rechargeable case, long battery life, etc. But, there are a few high-tech features that are very interesting to learn about. I outlined them above in the DETAILS section, but wanted to call out my favorite feature here — the HearID Personalized EQ. The purpose of this feature is to cater the sound to your personal hearing ability. While I know that the test the app puts the user through can’t be classified as a ‘real’ hearing test, it does take you through a series of tones and pitches that helps to show what areas of sound you will hear the best and worst. That way, the app can punch up areas that you can’t hear so that you get a balanced sound. It’s very cool technology and I did notice a difference in the sound experience after I set it up. The touch-controls on the earbuds are a little hard to get used to. The area where you make contact for the controls is difficult to hit correctly 100% of the time. I missed it quite a bit. It would be nice if there were a tiny notch or pit you could aim for so that you know that you are hitting the right spot every time.
SOUND
The sound quality for the earbuds was above average. If I were to rate them on a scale of 1-10 with 10 being the most mind-blowing sound from a headphone I’ve ever heard, I would rate the Liberty Air 2 Pro earbuds around a 7. The sound is clear and crisp. Levels appear to be balanced and I was able to hear all layers of sound I didn’t have any issues with hollow-sounding songs or hard-to-hear voice tracks. Overall, I was incredibly impressed with the sound quality of these earbuds considering their price point and how I would actually put them up against earbuds that cost almost twice what these do. The only criticism I have concerns the active noise-canceling (ANC). While it works, it’s not a very dramatic shift between off, on, and transparency. I could still hear the fan noise that was on in the same room as I was and I could still hear voices from conversations across the house. These are things that are typically drowned out by ANC in my experience, but not with these earbuds.
CONCLUSION
The Liberty Air 2 Pro earbuds are well worth the investment if you are looking for a solid set of wireless earbuds. As I mentioned, they rate a 7/10 and they have a lot of great features. There were only two real things I would love to see improved on in future versions, but they are not deal-breakers to me.
For more information, visit soundcore.com, Facebook, and Twitter.