Anker - Soundcore Space 2 Wireless Bluetooth Noise Cancelling Over-the-Ear Headphones with 50H ANC Playtime and Comfort - Linen White

The Anker Soundcore Space 2 wireless headphone continues the tradition started by its predecessor (Soundcore Space One) by offering features and performance that punches way above its weight. Inside the box includes the following items: Anker Soundcore Space 2 headphones Soft carry pouch USB-C charging cable 3.5 Aux cable The headphones are light and have a very attractive design. While mostly made of plastic, it does not feel cheap. The ear cup and head band cushions are thicker and seem improved over the Soundcore One. Ear clamping pressure is firm and I was able to comfortably wear these headphones for hours without discomfort. My ears did sweat a little after extended use but that’s because it’s now summer time and I’ve been frugal with my air conditioning. Setup Setup was easy. Just download the Soundcore App and connect to the new headphones. Once the app connected to my new Soundcore Space 2, it upgraded the firmware to v1.53. The physical layout of the physical controls/buttons are very intuitive. There are 2 buttons on the left ear piece and 2 buttons on the right ear piece. The left earpiece contains a USB-C charging port, a 3.5 Aux connector, a button for turning the headphone ON/OFF and Bluetooth pairing and another button for switching between the Noise Cancellation modes. The right earpiece contains a button for increasing/decreasing volume (or advancing/repeating tracks) and a multi-function button MFB (used for answering/ending/rejecting calls, bringing up your System Voice Assistant or the new Anka Voice Assistant, AI Translation or Nap Mode) Sound Quality Overall, I am very happy with the sound quality. The overall sound is spacious and clear with very good bass response. The default settings do seem to emphasize the bass a little but you have the option to use the many available equalization presets to get the sound to your liking. Of the presets available, I liked the “Soundcore Signature” and “Acoustic” the best. The “Acoustic” setting seemed more spacious to me with more emphasis on the midrange. If none of the presets are to your liking, you can manually adjust the 8-band equalizer to have a custom profile. After playing around with the equalizations options, I settled down on using the HearID Sound settings. This involved measuring your hearing response and having the app automagically produce a sound profile to fit your measured hearing response. Noise Cancellation The noise cancellation performs very well. It offers 3 modes (Noise Cancellation, Normal, and Transparency). With Noise Cancellation, it effectively blocks out the low frequency noise so I didn’t hear my air conditioner or fan running in the background. With nothing playing, outside voices do come through a little but if I am listening to music, I don’t really notice it. I thought the Space One had excellent noise reduction and the Space 2 might be slightly better to my ears. With Transparency mode ON, it seems to add a low level of white background noise when nothing is playing. Overall, I thought the active noise cancellation modes were excellent. Call Quality To test call quality, I connected the Soundcore Space 2 to my laptop and recorded my voice using the microphone in the Soundcore Space 2 as well as the microphone on my laptop. The recording from the Soundcore Space 2’s microphone was louder and clearer than the recording from the laptop’s microphone. Battery Life Battery life was excellent. It’s rated for 50 hours of playback with ANC ON and 70 hours with ANC OFF and can fast charge for 4 hours of playback in only 5 minutes. I didn’t do a rigorous test of battery life but the headphones lasted several days of testing without the need to recharge. Fast charging did seem to work as advertised as I was able to charge from 60% to 100% in only about 30 minutes. Miscellaneous Features I briefly tested the new Anka Voice Assistant which was actually quite capable. You can access Anka by doing a long press of the MFB button on the right ear cup (if you have programmed it to bring up Anka) or by saying “Hey Anka”. I asked Anka for the weather and other simple questions and it seemed to perform similarly to Alexa. Based on my short experience with Anka, it seems like Anka is AI-based. I then programmed the MFB button to bring up NAP mode, and when pressed, it basically plays back some “white noise” tracks to help you sleep. I don’t think I will ever wear this headphone while sleeping but I can see a use case where you are on a plane while wearing headphones in NAP mode to drown out the background noise to help you take a nap. Finally, I tried out the AI Translation.feature of the Soundcore 2. This uses your phone to offer real-time translation between English and another language. The default other language was Spanish and I couldn’t figure out how to change it to another foreign language or whether this was even possible. For testing, I played a YouTube video of a person speaking Spanish and it actually seemed to do a pretty good job of it translating. The realtime Spanish translation appears as English text on the phone and in verbal English on the headphones. Sometimes there is a delay in the translation and if the person is speaking a mix of Spanish and English it can mess up the translation a little. Overall, this feels like an experimental feature that could function well in certain use cases (like listening to a lecture given in Spanish). Summary Overall, I can easily recommend the Anker Soundcore Space 2 to anyone looking for a wireless headphone with active noise cancellation. The Anker Soundcore Space 2 punches well above its weight offering performance and features that approach premium wireless headphones but at a fraction of the cost. It is a leader in price/performance.

The soundcore Space 2 headphones are not my first soundcore (or Anker) product. I have a set of soundcore Liberty earbuds and my daughter has the previous generation Space One headphones (she absolutely loves them). I also have several of Anker's solid charging cables. The Space 2 headphones are an excellent value and delivery sound quality on par with more expensive options. Pros 1. Solid build quality and comfortable to wear. The hinges that allow them to fold for storage are tight and there is no squeaky plastic sound when adjusting them or wearing them. Plastics are nicely textured with a subtle design and plenty of adjustment. The headband is nicely cushioned for wearing for longer periods and is comfortable to where with my glasses. It also does not stick to my head (I am bald). My daughter has braids, the headphones easily extended to fit over her hair and we had no issue with her hair getting caught in the hinges. 2. Active noise cancelling (ANC) is effective and noticeably improved over my daughter's Space One headphone (which were already good). Mechanical noises are muted almost completely even at low volume and at moderate volume all background noise, including most conversations, is blocked out. Thankfully there is a transparency option which allows you to listen to the world around you when needed or to hold a conversation without having to take the headphones off. 3. There are physical buttons for volume, noise cancelling mode, play/pause/call, and power/pairing. There also some limited options to configure button behavior in the soundcore app. 4. Good sound quality with high quality audio connection support (Bluetooth LDAC for Android and Hi-Res for wired). There are lots of audio adjustments via the soundcore app. The app offers an audio test (HearID) to make a custom equalizer curve just for you, that you can then tweak to your liking. The HearID setting really improved the clarity for me and I added in a bit more bass to get the get the sound just where I wanted it. Volume is also very good (I rarely listen at above 80%) and I experienced no distortion at max volume (even with bass heavy music). 5. Excellent battery life. I have not had to recharge them yet, but in the 6 days I have owned them, I am averaging around 1-2% per hour of listening with noise cancelling enabled - this is in line or a little better than the 50hours quoted by soundcore (battery life is even better with noise cancelling off). 6. Wired operation (with an included 4ft headphone cable) is available for devices with a headphone jack. 7. Works well as a headset and manages ambient noise well. Phone calls were clear on my end and people on the other end said I sounded better than when using my cellphone with reduced background noise. 8. The headphones have 4 built-in white noise tracks that can be enabled to help you sleep, concentrate, or meditate. They actually work really well when paired with the excellent noise cancelation. 9. Supports multiple Bluetooth connections and allows you to manage them via the soundcore app. Things to Consider 1. The soundcore app works well and really is required to get the most out of these headphones. Default audio settings are decent, but these perform even better with the adjustable equalizer available in the app. You also have to use the app to enable wearing detection and the white noise feature (nap mode), which are off by default for some reason. There are also a lot of other features/settings in the various menus that are worth finding (battery level, auto off, volume limiting, Bluetooth connection management, notifications, help/guides, support). 2. Wearing detection works well most of the time to pause playback if you take the headphones off and is pretty handy (once you configure it in the app). You do have to keep the sensor clean and it might not work in dim light.

The Anker Soundcore Space 2 Wireless headphones are a great buy at this price range. Good sound that can be customized the way you want, long battery life and comfortable. Great straight out of the box, and better with the Anker Soundcore App. After a charge they are ready to use. They come with a carry bag for convenience, and the cups fold 90 degrees and in for a smaller size. The cups are labeled left and right. The left side has a 3.5mm jack, USB-C charging, on/off power button, and a multi-function button (MFB). The left cup has volume, and a noise cancellation (NC) button. Everything is buttons, not touch, so no accidental changes will happen. Buttons are in good positions to press and have a good response. The MFB and NC buttons can have their functions modified/changed in the Anker App. They are rated for 50 hours battery life and have a fast recharge to get you back to the music for a few hours. The package contains a 3.5mm and USB-C cords. The NC goes from full NC to Normal, and then Transparent by default. Full NC is very good. The earcups fully cover your ears with a good seal. The Normal may feel better for longer periods, and transparent lets you hear everything around you. I used them for 3 hours in a car dealership and the NC was great. Didn’t hear the repairs being done, and it blocked the waiting room TV as well. Towards the end when I was waiting for my name to be called, I switched to transparent and could hear everything. The earcups are comfortable. After 2 hours they felt great, at about 2.5 to 3 I started to feel them, so a long time with comfort. Phones calls came in crystal clear. I was able to hear and be heard with no issues. The calling button functions cannot be changed. The MFB and NC buttons can be changed in the App based on long, single or double presses. With the App, in addition to changing the button functions you can also set the equalizer and sound balance. The default is flat setting. There are 21 different settings by music type, bass or treble on or off etc. With this you can really customize the music to your liking. The first 5 settings show up on the top of the sound page. You can pick your top 5 for ease of use, but all are always available to use. If you don’t like any of them, you can use the EQ to make custom settings with 8 bands. There is also a 3D sound setting more a more in depth music presence, and HearID Sound to personize the headset. It asks your age, does the beeps from a hearing test, and then asks you decide between several music playbacks. I found, depending on the type of music it could help over the default EQ settings. The HearID did make vocal clearer for me. I had no problems using Hi-Def sources to listen too. Overall, these are great ANC headphones. Simple button use, and with the App you can customize the sound to your liking. Even without the App, the headphones are good out of the box. You load everything in the carry bag and go. Comfort for hours and excellent sound. A solid set of headphones for anywhere you go.

I’ve been using the Anker Space 2 headphones exclusively for listening to my favorite tunes, podcasts and bed time tracks and I’ve been pleasantly surprised. I’m a bit of a snob when it comes to headphones. I love music, it’s my passion and for a while my life. I like to feel the music and be immersed in it. I notice and hear every little note, hi hat, bass thump and guitar strum. So I love a great sounding pair of headphones. That being said, while these aren’t the best sounding headphones I’ve ever experienced. They certainly provide what I look for in a pair of headphones. My only gripe with it is that it requires the use of an app to activate those features. Not a huge deal, or a deal breaker by any means. But you have to take a couple of extra steps with a separate to get there. I get it though, everyone has different preferences when it comes to sound. So having an integrated app allows everyone to tune it to their liking. The app allows your to customize the EQ to your liking or you can use a preset simply called “3D Sound”. That was my favorite preset. It gives me that immersive sound I look for in headphones. I smiled when I toggled it on. Initially I was unimpressed with the sound quality, but after I loaded up the app and started messing with settings I was impressed. The 3D sound preset makes you feel like you’re sitting in an hall and the music envelopes you. It would be cool if you could tweak the EQ further while in this mode, but for now the app seems to lock it to their setting. All in all, I have to admit that the sound quality is superb for this price point. Build quality is also excellent. They feel premium. The pads on the earcups are soft and squishy, very comfortable. The headband is strong while lightweight. They sit perfectly over my ears and provide excellent noise cancellation. If I had to nitpick and complain about anything, I would say the over reliance of an app. But like I said before, I’d be nit picking. You obviously need to use software to get the most out of these, so BE SURE to scan the QR code in the box and download the app. I was excited to use the “white noise” function for taking naps and falling asleep but a lot of the stuff on the app for it is the same stuff I already use on YouTube. I suppose the upside to using the Anker app for this purpose would be that you don’t end up with some crazy conspiracy video or other irrelevant video playing while you’re asleep lol. If you’re still reading, and on the fence about these headphones. Go ahead and buy them, I think they’re an excellent value. It’s hard to find better headphones in this price point. They are comfortable and sound great. Especially in 3D sound mode.

The Anker Soundcore Space 2 headset (try saying that fast five times…) is… fine. I know that is not exactly a ringing endorsement, but the audio quality lands somewhere between fine and good. The headset is light and comfortable, though it does get warm over time. ANC does a solid job blocking nearby noise, but transparency mode can introduce a hiss and some playback distortion. “HearID” is a game changer, while “3D Sound” sounds awful. The default Soundcore tuning is a little flat and lifeless, but once you dial it in with HearID and the EQ, it can sound quite good. If my thoughts seem a little scattered, that is because they are. This headset has some genuinely excellent features such as LDAC, multipoint LDAC, amazing battery life, and wear detection but the audio quality and heat buildup keep me from really heaping on the praise. I cannot call this headset great, but it is good. And, hey, sometimes good is enough. UNBOXING: Anker includes the headset, a travel pouch, 3.5mm cable, and a small USB-C charging cable. EXPERIENCE: Users should download the Anker Soundcore App from their Google or Apple app store to complete setup and fine tune the headset. I had a firmware update out of the box. This headset is light. The cushions are springy. My ear never felt like it was touching the inside of the ear cup. But the cushions and casing itself are fingerprint magnets. The ear cushions look greasy after just a bit of wear. And while light, heat build up is awful. It is summer here and I found it difficult to keep these on for more than an hour at a time due to heat build-up. Out of the box, sound quality is a bit flat. Setting up HearID within the Soundcore App does help the experience and tweaking the EQ does help, but it is important to keep audio expectations in check. I also noticed some audible hissing and playback distortions while passthrough audio was enabled. I must shout out HearID feature which conducts a hearing test to adjust frequencies to your specific hearing needs. I think this feature works well. There is also a 3D Sound mode that just made everything echo and I could not find a point in it. Anker has a sensor built into the left speaker for wear detection, but you should know that wear detection is not enabled by default out of the box. You need to turn the feature on from within the Anker Soundcore Application. With wear detection on, media playback will pause if you take the headset off. Google fast pair worked great. After I paired the headset with my phone, my Google TV instantly asked if I wanted to pair with it. Other positive quality of life features include physical buttons on the headset, an amazing 50+ hour battery life, LDAC support, and a 3.5mm jack for legacy devices like PCs and gaming consoles. I appreciate Anker providing a travel bag for travels, and, speaking of traveling, ANC works well. Microphone quality is fine. Except for voice calls in wind, the people I spoke with had no problems hearing me. CONCLUSION: My biggest gripes with this headset are heat build-up, greasy cushions, and good but not great audio playback quality. There is a richness with other headsets that is simply lacking here. Vocals can easily become muffled or drowned out in the signature default mode. Tweaks with HearID help a lot, but even with those tweaks, there is still something lacking in the overall audio quality. Still, I know I will use this headset on travels and at home. I love the battery life and baked in features. I am recommending the Space 2, but be sure to download the app. 4/5