A Few Weeks With the SoundCore Spirit X

A few weeks ago Anker sent my a pair of the Soundcore Spirit X as part of their testing contest. I decided to sumarize this review and the complete review with more pictures can be found on my Personal Site. Check it out and let me know your thoughts on the review.

Soundcore Spirit Verses Soundcore Spirit X

The Spirit X is very similar to the Spirits. They have the same environmental proofing and 5.0 Bluetooth. But that is about all they have in common. The Spirits only have an 8 hour battery life where as the Spirit X have a 12 hour battery life.

The speakers on the Spirits are only 6mm drivers and the Spirit X have 10mm drivers. Those 4 mm makes a difference! The sound quality is a lot better than the Spirits. And finally the Spirit X uses an over the hook system to keep the earbuds in your ear where as the Spirits us an in-ear hook to keep the earbuds in your ear.

The Review

On first impression these feel like they are built well. The controls, earbuds, and wires all feel good in my hands look like they will last a long time. The buttons on the controls show no signs of leaking and the cover of the USB port is a tight fit. It should not come loose if submerged in water for long periods of time. The wire that goes from earbud to earbud is long enough that it won’t get hung up on a sweaty neck and the Spirit X wire management system can shorten the cable if you like yours on the shorter side.

I did a test fit on the ear pads that came installed on the Spirit X and they fit correctly. They are comfortable and block normal levels of external sound. It won’t block out extreme noise but they do cancel out enough outside noise to keep you from being distracted.

As to the comfort level, I can wear these for hours and forget I’m wearing them. In the past I have warn over-the-ear hook style earbuds and hated them. So when I got the opportunity to test these I was hesitant. I had nothing to worry about. These feel great and with the right earpad you shouldn’t have an issue with them.

The sound from these earphones are impressive. I tried a variety of music including rock, rap, country, pop, electronic, and metal. Everything sounded good.

Using the earphones to talk to someone is ok. The person on the other side sounds good and they can understand me. If you have a beard the microphone may sit on the hairline and brush against it as you talk. I was told they could hear distortion when I was talking and the microphone rubs against my beard.

Testing

Instead of doing all the measurements and dunking the earphones in a salt water bath for hours I decided to do some serious real world usage tests on my set of Soundcore Spirit X Wireless Bluetooth Earphones. Since my old LG G4 audio Bluetooth no longer works with any Bluetooth audio, I used my old iPhone 4, iPhone 6 Plus, and a windows PC for the tests.

For most of the tests I used the iPhone 4. Even on a handset this old, the Spirit X connects with ease. The sound quality is awesome.

When I first connected my earphones, I found them to be fully charged and ready to go. It took over an to run them down. I generally listen at 60 to 80% volume and hit the 12 hour mark on them. To charge them, on a standard slow charger and generic cable it took about 2 hours to charge. Using Anker fast charge hubs and cables they charged in about an hour and half.

Testing the SweatGuard

To test how well the SweatGuard works I worked out at the gym several times during the week for about an hour. My gym usually keeps the place on the warm side with fans pushing air around. After a heavy workout my headphones are covered with my sweat.

During these tests the headphones never stopped working. To ramp up the test I sat in the Sauna for 30 minutes after each gym session. The headphones had no problem with heat and the amount of sweat. After the work out I took the headphones off and saw how wet they were. None of the sweat got into the controls or into the earbuds.

Testing Durability and Dust Protection

To test durability and dust proofing I wore the headphones while working around the property. During the test period our daily temps ranged from 90 to 100+ degrees and no rain for days. During the tests I operated tractors, brush cutters, and push mowers. While cutting grass and weeds, the dust in the air was high. At the end of the day I was covered in grass and dirt. During some of those days I got wet with sprinklers and the water hose. None of these tests caused failures. The headphones worked perfectly.

Testing Waterproofing

To test waterproofing I wore them in the shower for about 20 minutes where I washed my beard and hair with shampoo. I wouldn’t recommend doing this daily, but the earbuds operated and did not fail. Sound quality never wavered.

Testing Physical Range of the Bluetooth Earphones 5.0 Connection

On previous version of earbuds from Anker and other manufactures I could only go about 20 to 30 feet in a house and about 50 feet outdoors with and a open line of sight. But on the new Soundcore lines, Anker added Bluetooth 5.0 and stated that the new earphones have an operating range of about 30 to 40 feet. I decided I wanted to test the physical range of the earbuds to see what the true distance is.

For the inside test I used my old iPhone 4 running Bluetooth 2.1. Using the earphones inside I could leave the phone sitting at one of the house and still have a connection on the other side of the house. That distance is roughly 60 feet and passing through 3 walls. But for best results I found 30 to 40 feet was ideal.

For the outdoor test I used the same phone and set the phone about 3 feet off the ground at the edge of the driveway walked in a straight line. I made it to the edge the property about a 125+ feet from the drive and still had a great connection. I continued to walk in my neighbor’s pasture field for another 50+ feet before I started having connection issues.

Final Thoughts on the Soundcore Spirit X Wireless Bluetooth Earphones

Overall the Soundcore Spirit X Wireless Bluetooth Earphones are impressive. They sound good, built to last, comfortable during gym workouts, and designed to work with most types of ears. If the current set of ear pads do not fit or let to much sound from the outside world in, try a different set of ear pads. If you have the right fit everything sounds good.

What I don’t like is that each earbud is somewhat bulky. In the ear you don’t notice it but, if they are hanging around your neck you feel it. Every time it bounces off your chest, you lean forward and the earbuds hang off your neck.

These do not have magnets on the back of the earbuds to help hold them together. But you can use the ear hooks to hook them together.

I find these headphones are great to wear during workouts and outdoor active activities. During causal days or trying to wear them all day around your neck isn’t ideal. I think they are to heavy hang around your neck. If you were to keep them in the case when not in use will help. But for me I don’t carry a bag with me and I don’t want to put the hard case in my pocket.

For causal days I will continue to wear my Sourdcore Spirits or my Anker Soundcore Slims+.

Although these earphones have excellent sound and the quality of product and sound produced amazing for the price. Do not try and compare them to the 100+ category of earphones. The sound will be similar but the higher earphones are designed to produce better sound but I have read many of these brands are more fragile.

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Well done! Thanks for sharing. :thumbsup:

I have three different Anker earbuds: Soundbuds Slim+, Soundcore Spirit Pro and the Soundcore Spirit X with the Spirit X being my favorite of the three…the biggest advantage to me is the negligible Bluetooth audio delay. I use these with my iPad mini 4 for playing digital pinball where synced audio is pretty important. I’ve found that these perform the best in that regard…plus they sound great and are comfortable as well.

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Great review, and nice pics!
well done!!

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Great review and great pictures.

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Excellent review & pictures as always @Element321 :thumbsup:

Put a few bets on this weeks power draw for these to give them a test :slight_smile:

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Nice review and nice pics

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Great review and pictures. I have to agree about its bulkiness but compared to the Arks these are not that bad. I have a slew of anker headphones and these are by far my favorite, the Ark is second and the Surge is now third on my list. But the surge did produce more bass right off the bat, but as the spirit x got used and the driver loosened up it has more bass now.

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Thanks for sharing this great and thorough review! Nice job! :blush:

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Great review and photos, @Element321! It sounds like they definitely passed the sweat test!

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