Anchor Liberty Air 2 Pro Review: $ 130 ANC Earbuds Worth Listening

It is difficult to stand out in the wireless earbud market. You can find a pair of earbuds at almost every price point, with a range of many different features. Being within a particular ecosystem, such as AirPods for iOS users or Galaxy Buds Live for Samsung users, is an easy way to choose earbuds that are right for you. Anchor does not have a phone of its own to sell with its earbuds’ Liberty line, so its strategy is to deliver desirable features at a competitive price.

The $ 129.99 Soundcore Liberty Air 2 Pro buds do pretty well, but at this price a lot of other earbuds do. This is their competitive active noise-canceling and well-designed app that helps them stand out.

The buds themselves are designed with the same tip of a silicone ear as Apple’s AirPods Pro. (I think the name is not the only way Anchor drew inspiration from Apple.) The Liberty Air 2 Pro has a gold fan-like cover on its speakers, which serves no purpose other than to look cool, and a textured, matte. Is Finnish. They come in “Onyx Black,” “Titanium White,” “Sapphire Blue,” and “Crystal Pink”. The box includes nine different sized silicone ear tips, ranging from XX to XL, to create the best seal possible and hopefully maintain movement occurring in your ear canal.

It is extremely important to fit in earbuds not only for ANC but also for the best sound quality experience, especially in lower frequencies. Anchor is the tip fit test within the Sauercore app to confirm that you have chosen the best-sized tips. This app plays about 10 seconds of ringtone-SK orchestra music, then displays “good seal” or “bad seal” results for each earbud. (Yes, it’s basically the same as Apple AirPods Pro. Inspire does.)

There is also an audio test called Hearing, which claims to map your personal listening sensitivity at multiple frequencies to best tailor your EQ settings. It plays about 30 different tones per ear and asks you to confirm whether you can hear the tone. Next, you are presented with a graph of your results and an EQ preset saved in the app. My test resulted in deep bass and low trebleness, which made my music complete.

Both the fit test and the EQ settings test are some of the other earbud manufacturers doing these days, and although not everyone finds these tests useful, I appreciate having the option.

The case, large and almost stone-like in appearance, slides to open and close with a satisfying click. It most closely resembles the case of the Galaxy Buds Pro – it’s longer than it should be – but its larger size makes it unusable as most earbud cases. There are three battery indicator lights at the front and a button to tie the rear. This may sound like a small detail, but I’ve really come to appreciate the earbuds that have a physical button for pairing. The Jabra Elite 85T is far easier to use than tapping earbuds to pair you.

Like most earbuds, the Air 2 Pro has tap controls on your wearer: double-tap on the left bud to skip the next track, double-tap on the right for play and pause, or hold down for two seconds Keep the bud to toggle ambient sound mode. It is great that the buds react to my tap quickly, but I am disappointed at how limited the controls are. All of them can be customized in the app, but I wish there was also a single-tap or triple-tap option.

Either bud can be used independently of the other, and in-ear detection can be turned on and off in the anchor app. Take an earbud out of your ear, and your music will stop; Insert the bud into your ear, and it will start again. In-year detection was a bit sensitive to my liking. When I had a hood, for example, every time my earbud was knocked out by my hood, my music stopped even when the bud sat in my ear. A quick replay of the bud allows my music to be played again but the in-year detection feature was eventually discontinued altogether.

Battery life is comparable to other ANC earbuds. Anchor claims seven hours of battery life with the ANC turned off or six hours turned on. There are three additional charges in the case, which can be recharged wirelessly or via a USB-C port on the back. It was more than enough juice to get me to the point of my ear, the buds tight, the ear seal needed a break. There is also a 15-minute fast charging that can achieve a listening time of three hours when plugging the case into the outlet via USB-C.

Liberty Air 2 Pro supports SBC and AAC audio codecs. They have 11 mm drivers that make a more treble-heavy sound. While the music felt full and immersive with crisp isolation, I often wanted more bass. The app’s EQ pick-up helped, but it was not as clean as the bass in AirPods Pro. Funk and soul looked great in the 1970s, but the more contemporary R&B felt a bit flat.

I was most impressed with the active noise cancellation on the Liberty Air 2 Pro. Outside of Amazon’s Eco Buds, there aren’t really many options at this price that are included, much less do it well.

The Air 2 Pro has three ambient sound modes: Full Noise Cancellation, Transparency Mode and Normal. Within the full ANC and transparency modes, there are more specialized controls for managing sound levels. You can enable a transport mode to cancel low-end frequencies, such as train rumbles; Indoor mode for midrange frequencies; An outdoor mode that Anchor claims is best for city locations; Or build a custom mode to dial in the best settings for you. I set my ANC in transport and left it there for most of my time and found it equivalent to ANC in the Jabra Elite 85t, a set of earbuds that cost $ 100 more than the anchor.

Noise cancellation causes the outside world to fade, but it was not as different as AirPods Pro or Galaxy Buds Pro. And although the Transparency Mode is serviceable, it does not have the same earbud-less feel as AirPods Pro. A tone is the transparency mode that ejects low frequencies, through higher frequencies, such as sounds. This was helpful when listening to train announcements, but ultimately, it was very easy to take the earbuds out to hear an announcement.

Most apps for wireless earbuds are so bad that I open them once to set EQ settings and some custom touch controls, and that’s it. The Soundcore app kept me coming back time and time again, though, mostly to play it with the various controls offered.

When I was bored on the train, I would open the app and start testing all the transparency modes while strangers talked to each other in the car. I also enjoyed up-and-down EQ settings. The application is filled with pleasing colors and is easy to navigate, which is surprisingly rare in the earbud market.

In the qualified (and not so qualified) competition-filled wireless earbuds market, it is increasingly difficult to be influenced by a new bud. But the competitive $ 130 price tag of the Soundcore Liberty Air 2 Pro got me in, and their real active noise-canceling and well-designed app kept me coming back for more. They certainly could have used a bit more bass and a smaller case, but Anchor has built a pair of wireless earbuds that bridges the gap between a more budget-friendly option and a reliable, all-great earbud which I was excited to put my ear inside every day.

Photography by Becca Farce / The Reporter Door