Well, Anker stepped up and dropped it’s most impressive earbuds yet, the Anker Soundcore Liberty Buds 2. I just picked them up. Just doing my initial thoughts and impressions. Now, if you know anything about Anker, you know lately they have disturbed the market with the their Thus Chip that has mastered the phone problems of all earphone in the world.
Everyone has praised them for finally focusing on the phone call ability of the earphones world because this has been a areas that isn’t being paid attention to for years. So many are just ok with barely making it possible to make phone calls that are clear and dependable in perfectconditions. But not Anker and Soundcore. So they dropped their liberty 5 Pro Max bean shapped earphones earlier this year.
They even made sure it had a recording feature for AI recording and transcribing. I got them and it was useful but for me the Anker and Soundcore hardware still were lacked the sound quality of others, even though they were cheaper. For me sound quality was the first thing on the list for me. And while they gave you options like EQ and Presents, it was always the lack of driver quality that always held it back. Sure you increase bass and treble extension but the quality of the bass and treble extension matter and was linked to the quality of the driver.
Anker just didn’t put enough into the quality of the driver as they did other areas for my taste. They relyed on the EQ to get the user in the ballpark of what they were looking for. And while this is ok and good for most. When you come from brands like Sony, bowers and wilkins, Bang and Olufsen,Noble, and Sennheiser, it’s hard to walk away and be happy with what they had delivered in comparison despite the gimmicks and phonecall quality.
So when I saw that these shipped with different driver this time around with more emphasis on acoustic sound and separation along with more defined bass. So I wanted to give it a shot to see if made more dynamics than the previous one which just lacked it. On top of that it was more focused on sound and phone calls still but less gimmicks like the record features. I had hoped they would one day focused more on the tuning of the drivers too.
Initially I was quite mad about the results. The default sound is just lacking and reminded me again of all the other Anker sound earphones that just was designed to deliver basics in hopes you could find the rest in EQ. But as I tinkered with the EQ presents and Hear ID. I finally found that the volume with Anker’s Signture preset was the key. You need about 45%-50% for the present of EQ to actually kick in with the energy you need to hear real changes and quality. I mean there is a huge difference in the sound from 40% to 50%. It’s like they stored all the dynamic ranges in the volume level of 45% and higher and turned it off with anything less. So you don’t get a subtle, gradual change like you do at 10, 20, 30, and 40. You get this huge difference in dynamic and this is due to the quality of the drivers.
But this time I will say it’s a very good result this time out. It has details and hits in bass that at times isn’t heard on anything I have. So there are some wow moments you get here with this sound this time out and something that Anker could be proud of for sound more than they have before. I always said if they ever focused on the sound while bringing over this THUS chip being that they don’t have spend a lot of time on this being that they are the best now, it would truly make things different and more challenging for all other makers.
Well, they might have just gone and done it this time folks. The bass is full and powerful and impactful, the treble is crisp and defining, with revealing mid ranges that is up there with the very best. Even the Vocals might just rival Sonys vocals.
You take that and add to their new small design that fits into your ears perfectly and disappears and you got problems people. I’m still testing right now but this thing is kinda really impressing the heck of my ears and mind. I would have to say that I believe this is smallest and lighter design earphone with flagship powerful sound that I’ve ever experienced. The power of these little light weight earphones are truly blowing my mind right now. Again, none of this was present at first until I turned up the volume to that 45-50% range. Yes I would prefer a more subtle, gradual change instead of such a big difference between 40% and 50% dynamic ranges and power. But hey, the quality is here folks and in a big way.
Now, unto the concerns or the parts that still show that Anker still has some growing to do. The battery life is impressive, as long as you don’t use the unit to the best if its abilities. I hate that about some earphone makers. There is no way you should go from 12 hours to 4 using or doing anything that is available to you in the app. I just don’t see the value of telling the customer that they shouldn’t use things that are presented to them in fear of this big of drop of battery life. It’s not even reasonable. Now, for me I rarely use ANC, but one place I would is on a plane or train and I hate to think it would hit my battery life this bad. So again, Anker, work on this. Sony can give you 9 hours with AnC and LDAC. In fact LDAc shouldn’t hit your battery life like this period. I understand ANC , but not LDAC. This seems to be a problem most cheaper earphones makers seem to fall at.
Now speaking of ANC, this is an area that Anker can take another bow for. They really made improvements here. Its one thing to block out sounds on phone calls but a bonus if you can do it for AnC for sound around you when you just listening to music or audio books. Its up there with big boys like Sony and Apple. So close , one could easily pick them and not miss a thing from the others. So saving that money might not cost as many features or cool things as you might think anymore with the new Anker earphones.
More testing is needed, yes. But my initial thoughts is that this is one heck of a disruptor in the space of Bluetooth and might take spots away from some of the very best in the world today especially when you add the amazing fit, small design, and phone call abilities that far and away head and shoulders over all other earphones in the world, then you have a serious consideration with a price tag of $129.
