Anker B09CGM6FJ7 Soundcore by Anker Liberty 3 Pro Noise C (Open Box)

UPDATE I: Another Firmware release has addressed the Transparency Mode to make it sound almost as if there's no buds in your ears. Not super hearing, but very natural. I now rate the Transparency mode at 9/10 .. UPDATE II: I finally got an email from Soundcore after a 10 day wait. However, they said had sent me two previous emails in response to my initial email and a follow-up. Someone online mentioned they had all Soundcore's email get sent to the Spam folder. I checked mine and there they were! I let Soundcore know and they admitted they were working on a solution. That seems to work OK now, at least for me. Soundcore got me new buds within 4 business days of me getting that last email and a postage paid USPS label to return the old ones for investigation. I now rate Soundcore Warranty support at 10/10 .. UPDATE III: SINGLE BUD USE: 7/10 While I do not typically use one earbud, if you do you'll find the functionality becomes minimal. The app limits itself to just the left or right bud control customization and that's it. No ANC or Transparency modes. It sounds like the bud does go into Mono mode. The remaining customizations are to choose for the single, double, triple and tap / hold controls either Play/pause, Next, Previous Vol +/- and Voice assistant. I would have liked for ANC to be available in the remaining bud, but I understand Soundcore's logic ... UPDATE IV: I found the frequency response for the L3P online and it's clear why these are so bright at the top end and need taming. Fortunately the treble reproduction is so good that you can use the response to get the excellent clarity without being too harsh. After several weeks of listening to these and comparing to other BT buds and wired IEM's I altered my EQ setting to get the best clarity and bass for all genres. I've uploaded that in place of my original. These are still the best value with the best sound, even compared with Sennheiser MTW2 and the Sony XM3 IMHO. ... ... ORIGINAL REVIEW: TLDR warning! I’m an ‘audiophile’, but only in the sense that I ‘love’ to listen to all genres of ‘high-quality music/sound’ files with Bluetooth earbuds in a quiet, dark room and enjoy the musical arrangements as the producer intended. I also listen to music when working hard in the garden or the house! I have earbuds in my ears for hours every day. I’ve tried many TWS earbuds over the last few months and they all have their strengths and weaknesses, but none hit all the bars, whether it be fit, comfort, sound quality, app customization, retention, ANC modes, price, value for money, warranty support, etc. You always have to choose what’s most important to you and go with the buds that meet those criteria. Trouble is, everyone is different and what suits your ears and hearing may be completely the opposite for someone else. So, this review is for my ears and may be the same for you, but maybe not. I’ve had these L3P’s for over two weeks, having bought them the day they launched and having watched the overblown YT video hype released the morning of that launch. I specifically bought Prime ‘Free Return’ buds as the reviews sounded too good to be true and it was interesting that Soundcore sent out so much free product to all the reviewers. There was a clear marketing strategy in play! As it turns out, the hype was 75% true IMHO. CASE 7/10 : The sliding lid and overall case shape is a unique design but doesn’t suit my dry hands. It’s easily dropped. I also struggle with knowing which direction to slide the lid as the Soundcore logo is not intuitive to me. There is a ledge at the front of the lid, but easily missed. The earbuds also fit in an odd orientation and it takes a while to learn how best to drop them in quickly. The magnets are strong enough and I can use my fingertip on the wing to get the buds out of the case, whereas my SoundPEATS Air 3 are almost impossible to get out of their case! To me though it’s just a case. I don’t care as long as it fits in a pocket. FIT 9/10 : I’ve not used earbuds with wings before. My ear canals point upwards into my head, so stem style buds don’t work for me, unless the stems are pointed up at 11 and 1 o’clock, as I discovered with the Edifier Neobuds Pro. My button style buds, like the SoundPEATS H1, typically fit nice and deep in my ear canals with smaller tips and only touch my ears via the tips. I struggle if the design doesn’t allow for the deep insertion to lock the buds in place. The L3P is not a deep insertion design. So, the tip must seal and lock into the outer ear for me. The largest of the L3P wings aren’t actually big enough for my ears. They don’t reach the cartilage when the bud is in the attitude that Soundcore suggests. After much experience of loosening with many combos, I finally found the right combination. Actually, my ears require different combos of wing and tip left and right, but I found a smaller wing and bigger tip worked best, with the buds angled almost horizontally in my ear. Now I have a pair that is comfortable for more than 5 hours, or when the battery runs out (see below about that!). Consequently, these are probably the most comfortable buds I’ve used. TOUCH CONTROLS 9/10 : I MUST, MUST, MUST have volume control on any ear buds, but I also look for total control as a secondary requirement. These have it all, similar to the SoundPEATS products. 1 tap, 2 taps, 3 taps, tap and hold. Each earbud can be set up with whatever function you want. Also, you can disable each individually if you wish. I found adjusting the buds a lot in the early days kept changing the single tap volume I’d set up. I disabled 1-tap functionality and solved that problem! My configuration is… 1-Tap: disabled 2-Tap: Left Volume down, Right Volume up Tap and Hold: Left ANC/Transparency/Normal mode, Right Pause/Play 3-Tap: Left Previous track/Restart track, Right Next Track The touch controls do need some work. Once you get used to the speed of taps for multiples, the controls work almost flawlessly. I have dry hands and sometimes, the touch doesn’t register. Only 1 in 10 times maybe though. The real problem is the feedback timing… touch, volume changes, beeps sound. I’d much rather have… touch, beeps, volume change. Also, the three ANC modes are each indicated by a different tone. While you learn which is which over time, when any music is playing, it can be difficult to hear and know which tone sounded and hence which mode you selected. A voice prompt would solve that issue in a heartbeat BATTERY LIFE 6/10 : Battery life is not really an issue for me but could be for those who use their buds at work during the whole day. I haven’t checked the ANC off, LDAC off maximum battery life. I have run to almost dead with ANC/Transparency mode on, LDAC off and I got just under 6 hours. With ANC mode on and LDAC on I got under 4 hours! Considering the size of the buds, you’d think they could fit a larger capacity battery in there. APP FUNCTIONALITY/CUSTOMIZATION 10/10 : This is one of the main attractions for the L3P. You won’t get a more featured app than Sony’s, but this pretty much beats all in this price range and above. The Sennheiser Momentum TW 2 app is pretty good but doesn’t have the HearID technology or the number of EQ sliders/presets. I had BT connection issues with the MTW2 and the app. The L3P is flawless. It connects every time I open the app. Firmware updates are pretty fast (just a handful of minutes) compared with the 50 mins for the MTW2! The EQ customization capability is what saves the L3P (see below for that). What I would like to see is an option to pause music when selecting Transparency. Very often, I only need Transparency when I need to talk with someone and I have to make two ‘Tap and Hold’ actions to get there. ANC 9/10, TRANSPARENCY 6/10 (See Update above) : To my ears, the ANC is very good. Of course, the seal in your ears is absolutely critical and that gives a lot of passive noise cancellation also. Sometimes, I have to insert the buds a couple times to get the seal to work correctly. I don’t really have an issue with cabin pressure. So, the adaptive ANC isn’t needed and I like a STRONG manual ANC setting. I would say the ANC is on par with the Edifier Neobuds Pro, which claims a > 40dB reduction. Certainly, better than the SoundPEATS T2, but not as good as the Sony XM4. The sounds you hear are in the upper frequency range with few mids left. I have used these with my garden rototiller and only needed to bump up the volume by one click. For mowing though, I add my ANC Q30 over the ear headphones over the top of the L3P with ANC, so I don’t need to bump up the volume at all. I also use ANC when eating as it reduces the conducted sounds in your head! There’s no significant ANC hiss with the L3P. MY MTW2’s hissed all the time in any mode! Normal mode has a deep bass rumble, which is from inside my head. ANC eliminates that, which is why I often use it even in quiet places. I did find I got a better ANC performance using a NY street sound at full volume on my computer speakers during the HearID ANC testing. Using airplane cabin noise, brown noise or my rototiller, the resulting ANC didn’t seem as good. Transparency mode works but is still reducing the background noise. You don’t have super hearing, or even normal hearing. I tried it in my truck and Transparency muted the noise level a lot over no earbuds . It works OK for a conversation and you can hear your own voice, but just a little, but it could be better. My MTW2 sounded like I had no buds in at all. The Vocal Mode and Wind Noise Reduction options don’t seem to do much. CALL QUALITY TBD : I have yet to use these on any calls. I will update the review when I have. SOUND QUALITY - out of the box 1/10, with EQ customization 8.5/10 : Here’s where the reviewers went wrong IMHO. To be fair, some actually mentioned the highs were a little too sibilant and very subtly mentioned that app EQ customization will counter that, but most said these buds sounded awesome as-is. NO, THEY DO NOT! Out of the box, I found the sound quality was incredibly thin, sibilant in the extreme and harsh on the ears. These reminded me of the Edifier NB2 and Neobuds Pro sound profiles, but much worse. The former had no app support to adjust the sound and immediately got returned. The Neobuds could be tamed nicely, but I couldn’t get the stem style to seal reliably. I spent several days going through my 70-plus Earbud Test Tracks playlist on Amazon Music, trying to find one EQ that would work for all. Eventually I found it. It’s funny that when I went back though the Soundcore presets, I found the DEEP preset was closest to my custom EQ, though I’d bumped up the highs just a little, reduced the lows and bumped up the mids a lot. Actually, using the HearID test (which, for me, doesn’t do anything but boost the sibilant highs even more) and then adding that on top of the DEEP preset was actually close to my liking, but still too sparkly and thin. I can see it would work if you have hearing issues at particular frequencies. I’m just topped out at 14kHz and above and fine with all the others. For my ears, my custom EQ now produces a crisp, clear full sound with punchy bass. It’s a joy to listen to music with these. Vocals are still a little thinner than I’d like, but I’ve found my ears can adapt to the sound profiles of buds over several hours and I get used them. Some tracks are also ‘thin’ by design, like with many ABBA songs, so you have to choose songs accordingly when adjusting the EQ. The 6.4 kHz slider is the one that really makes the highs sound harsh. Interestingly, my Soundcore Q30 over the ear headphones also have a similar bright and thin signature sound without any EQ adjustment. Must be a Soundcore thing. Out of the box, I really like my SoundPEATS H1 as it has deep bass and great clarity. The highs could be a little more forward, but I’m waiting on an app from SoundPEATS to address that with a custom EQ. I now actually prefer the L3P, though still use my H1 for Heavy Metal, when I desire a dose of overly thumpy sub-woofer Kick Drum beat. The L3P has good bass, but the H1 has more. Volume-wise the L3P are loud enough for anyone, but perhaps not as loud as the H1. I disable Absolute volume in Developer Options to get finer control over the volume. Some songs sound better if the volume is reduced or increased by a click or two. LDAC support was added with the first firmware update. To be honest, I don’t use it. My ears can’t hear above 14kHZ anyway and I’ve tried some online tests to compare Hi Res tracks to others and like most people, I can’t distinguish the Hi Res files, other than by pure chance. The L3P still sound great without. There’s much hype relating to Hi Res and audio quality, as well as LDAC versus aptX. Go Google it. aptX is actually more beneficial to me for some strange reason. Not using LDAC does mean though that I don’t suffer the debilitating battery consumption that others might, which is a plus. WARRANTY SUPPORT 1/10 - Caveat Emptor! : (see Update above) My left earbud has a sound when in ANC/Transparency mode only, like an electrostatic clicking. It occurs when I am walking, clicking in time with my steps, or if I touch the edges of the bud then I get multiple clicks. I’ve seen others online have had the same issue. I emailed Soundcore almost two weeks ago and since with no response. I also sent a FEEDBACK message via the app – nada! Soundcore on FB said just send us an email! I’ve had Tribit and Taotronics issues and received new buds in less than a week total! There will always be issues and if the company doesn’t support you, that is going to cost you. CONCLUSION : Initially, I thought I’d be returning these as the sound and fit were intolerable out of the box. However, working with them over many days and hours, I found they can be made to sound and fit great. Yes, there’s a lot of marketing hype associated with the L3P, but fundamentally, they are excellent value for money at $170. You will not, as of right now, find a better value for features, app support and sound quality. Warranty support is debatable as of right now for me, but Amazon will come to my rescue until Jan 31, 2022, if not Soundcore! Soundcore has indeed shaken up the $150-$300 market for earbuds with the Liberty 3 Pro. I hope this LONG review helps you with your purchase decisions. Check out my Earbud test tracks playlist on Amazon Music: https://music.amazon.com/user-playlists/6c1a03929ed947ab82cc33db24d7c001sune?ref=dm_sh_I4ZRJmh4tIHTtEUHGvvCYkvPi