Late last month, we got the chance to attend Anker’s Soundcore press event in New York City. There, we were dazzled by their latest $149 true wireless earbud innovation, the Soundcore Liberty 2 Pro. USB-C charging and a nice feature set turned our heads, and the quick audio demo had us curious to find out more. What makes the Liberty 2 Pro unique is the Astria Coaxial Acoustic Architecture (ACAA) design of their drivers. Now, after its launch on October 8, we got our hands on a pair of these earbuds to try out for ourselves. Let’s dive into the Liberty 2 Pro and their ACAA drivers.
Soundcore Liberty 2 Pro Specs
| Driver size: | 11 mm Dynamic driver and Balanced Armature |
| Impedance: | 16 Ω |
| Frequency response: | 20 Hz – 20 kHz |
| Battery capacity: | 65 mA x 2 (earbuds); 500 mA (charging case) |
| Playtime: (varies by volume level and content) |
Up to 8 hours (32 hours with the charging case) |
| Charging time: | 1.5 hours |
| Audio code format: | SBC, AAC, aptX |
Specs displayed from product splash page…
Build, Comfort, and Features
Out of the box, you get the Liberty 2 Pro earbud pair, seven sizes of silicone ear tips, 3 sizes of ear wings, a USB-C to USB (A) cable, and a charging case.
Each individual Liberty 2 Pro ear bud houses a button on the top. Double-tap the right ear bud button for Forward Track, and do the same on the left ear bud for Back Track. Pressing either button once toggles between Play and Pause. By default, holding either button for one second pulls up your mobile device’s voice assistant. However, you can use the free Soundcore app to change this to finagle the volume, where one ear bud raises the volume and the other lowers it.
With seven tip sizes and three wing sizes, you have a wide range of wearing options to satisfy many different ear sizes and shapes. I found the already-installed tips combined with the large-sized ear wings to be the perfect fit for me. Swapping out the tips and wings was pretty easy, since the ear buds guide you with hooks and grooves.
Once I had my perfect fit, the Liberty 2 Pro was a dream to wear, where consecutive hours of wearing and use did not bring forth any noticeable fatigue. Despite not being from Soundcore’s sport-oriented line, finding the right wing size allowed me to take the Liberty 2 Pro’s to the gym. There, sweating and jogging had no effect on the headset’s stability. Considering all of the sizing options that Soundcore gives you with this product, you have a high chance to find a fit that is both comfortable and secure. The Liberty 2 Pro’s scored solid marks in the comfort department.
Also, thanks to that high level of stability, using the media control buttons on each ear bud is a breeze, whether you are pressing, double-pressing, or holding the buttons.
Moving onto the charging case, the case slides up to open and reveal the headset. The ear buds snap magnetically into place making both storage and retrieval easy. While the Liberty 2 Pro ear buds themselves give you up to 8 hours of listening, the charging case expands that usability to up to 32 hours in total. If you suddenly and fully drain your Liberty 2 Pro’s, and you want to continue to use them as soon as possible, it takes only 15 minutes of being docked in the case to give you up to 2 hours of listening time. That is perfect for when you are in a pinch.
The Liberty 2 Pro’s charging case features both USB-C and wireless charging. Whether you want high-speed charging or the convenience of plopping the case on a wireless charger and walking away, it is all up to you.
The Liberty 2 Pro earbuds, along their charging case, sport impressive builds. You have a comfortable headset that is easy to use and simple to handle. Being a product of the times, you have no-nonsense charging options in both USB-C and wireless. From right out of the box, the Liberty 2 Pro dazzles with its design quality and physical features alone.
More Features, Performance and Final Thoughts
The meat and potatoes of the Soundcore Liberty 2 Pro is the Astria Coaxial Acoustic Architecture (ACAA). It is a driver implementation that was designed in coordination with 10 Grammy-award winning recording engineers. What was achieved was a sound presentation that delivered respectable mids and the crispest highs while still dealing full and rich bass. Overall, the Liberty 2 Pro’s present clear and vibrant sound.
Where you get to experience all the various ranges in which these ear buds can deal out comes through their free Soundcore app for iOS and Android. Through the Soundcore app, you can tweak headset button settings as well as toggle through a considerable collection of pre-loaded EQs. You can even go further with customizing the Liberty 2 Pro’s using the app’s HearID functionality.
I personally liked the wide variety of EQ’s the Soundcore app and the Liberty 2 Pro’s had to offer.
Out of the bunch, four EQ settings in particular stood out to me as the most practical, effective, and enjoyable. The default, Soundcore Signature, dealt a warm and vibrant bass, with sharp highs and strong percussion, while producing good mids and vocals. Bass Booster lives up to its name, cranking up the bass, while surprisingly maintaining very sharp highs in an EQ where I expected highs to take a step back. Vocal Booster pushed mids to the forefront, with highs and lows taking a very noticeable dip.
However, Acoustic ended up being my favorite EQ setting with the Liberty 2 Pro’s. This EQ allowed for the crispiest of highs while still dealing a surprising strong and smooth bass. Vocals and mids were still present at a solid level. Usually, when fiddling with EQ settings that claim to boost either bass or treble, one usually takes a dip to satisfy the focus on the other. However, with the Liberty 2 Pro’s ACAA drivers, I experienced a very respectable representation of both low and high ranges equally. Do not get me wrong; Vocals and mid ranges did not suffer. However, the other two ranges took center stage here, and it was quite an enjoyable listening experience.
The HearID function was an interesting one. You put yourself in a quiet setting and use the app and ear buds to take a hearing test of sorts. You tap and hold on the screen whenever you hear tones, sort of like how you would raise your hand when taking a doctor’s hearing test. Afterwards, the app will make a custom EQ setting for you. The test is quite easy to take, and the resulting HearID custom EQ was actually pretty good. Considering that it was customized for me, it did end up sounding better than the Soundcore Signature EQ, even though the Acoustic EQ still remained my favorite.
Lastly, the battery life with the Liberty 2 Pro’s was more than impressive, where I was able to use the unit for about a full week of normal listening routines before having to recharge it. My listening routine sat at about 2 to 3 hours a day, or 4 hours every other day when I brought them to the gym. That would leave me at approximately 21 hours a week of listening off of a single case charge, a much lower usage mark than the touted max of 32 hours, which the Liberty 2 Pro’s and charging case can provide.
The Soundcore Liberty 2 Pro’s admittedly caught me off guard. It simply looked like any other $149 ear bud product you could get now. However, its performance and feature set shined, leaving me to dub it the best ear buds I’ve used in 2019. With the holiday season around the corner, if you’re looking into buying a pair of casual listening ear buds for yourself or anyone else, the Liberty 2 Pro is definitely an ear bud product you should check out.
Look into Anker / Soundcore’s Liberty 2 Pro true wireless headset for yourself here, you will not be disappointed.
† As usual, there are no affiliate links contained within this post. We were provided a Soundcore Liberty 2 Pro review unit for review purposes and were not compensated for this review.
