Soundcore Spirit Pro review

The Soundcore Spirit Pro is supposed to be an upgrade of the Soundcore Spirit, but Bluetooth version was downgraded from 5.0 (Spirit) to 4.2 (Spirit Pro). Bluetooth 5.0 offers longer range and less power consumption, so I don’t know why Anker would do that. Along with those two advantages, 5.0 offers Beacon services, so potentially, you could have an App that will help you locate your earbuds should you misplace them within 100 meters. You would need a Bluetooth 5.0 device to work with your Bluetooth 5.0 earphones, but this shouldn’t be an issue for iPhone 8 owners, for example. Remember, the Pro uses 4.2.

Fit: The default eartips form a pretty tight seal, making my ears feel like they are being compressed a bit (like pushing the palms slowly against my ears), but not in a bad way. The first few times of running with them resulted in the right earphone coming loose. I had to adjust the earwigs a bit and made sure they slide securely between the folds of my earlobe. Part of the reason why they came out is due to the weight of the earphones (metal) and the controller. With a bit of fiddling, they finally stayed on for a slow paced jog. These earphones are probably better suited for stationary exercises, or ones with minimal head movement.

Soundwise, these are very good with plenty of bass, even without the bass booster. Vocals are clear in both bass boosted and regular mode. This brings up the dual eq mode: it works and the bass boost is noticeable, but not at low volume.

The pouch is really nifty. There are probably two metal pieces that remember its shape. If you squeeze the sides together, the pouch pops open and pops back into shape when you let go. The popping sound is quite satisfying!

Controls: The controller works on both my iPhone 6+ and Note 8. I can skip tracks, adjust volume and pause music. Great! Change the EQ is a matter of pushing the multifunction button and the volume up button until you hear a beep.

Observations:

  • When charging, cannot use. Bluetooth is turned off automatically.
  • Rubber seal is a bit delicate. Don’t use fingernails for long presses (multi-function button).
  • Strong magnets
  • Eartips and earwings are both removable. Switch in the ones that fit best in your ears.
  • Anker is confident that their waterproofing implementation is so good that you don’t need to worry about the exposed micro USB port. If dust/lint gets in there, simply rinse and let dry.

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Excellent review. Love the pics. :slight_smile:

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Good review & observations @iroast , thanks for sharing :ok_hand:

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Do you also own spirit too?:imp:

Question to every owner of Anker headphones. Do we really need a pouch to put the headphones in?

For me personal it is unnecessary to have a pouch. But that is just me

Personally I’ve never used the pouches for storing the earbuds, much prefer to put them in pocket, backpack pouch or around the neck…I do still have the x3 pouches from them that are storing the left over tips, hooks & micro USB charge cables in a drawer somewhere though…can make decent spare change bags :grin:

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Not a fan of the soft pouches. I like the hard one that comes with some of them (I have it from the Soundbuds Curve) 100% helps not misplacing them around.
I guess others may find it bulky but uhm…

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I typically use a hard case for my earbuds when I pack them for travel so they don’t crushed.

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The pouch is great for accessories, not necessary to bring with you, but keep things organized :slight_smile:

No, I don’t and that’s why I didn’t mention the fit of the Spirit. Got the specs from the Amazon product pages :smiley:

Great review. Looks like perfect pair for my needs.
I’m getting it now :thumbsup:

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One Question:

I bought the Spirit Pro because it seems to be the one with the best sound in the spirit series.
Now i read that the iPhone is not compatible with aptX but just with AAC.

All Spirits are compatible with AAC, but not with aptX. The Spirit pro is compatible with aptX.

Not the one and only question: Ist the Spirit pro compatible with aptX AND AAC oder just with aptX?

Thanks ina dvance for your help.

I don’t have an iPhone 8, or a MacBook, so I cannot confirm that the Spirit cannot be used with them. No issues with my iPhone 6+. For MacBooks, you could try an App called “Additional Tools for Xcode 9” and force AptX?

It works with iPhone 7, no question about it.

It’s just my question if the Spirit Pro supports AAC or just aptX.

When it’s just aptX (not supported by iPhone), then the quality would be only SBC and that is very low.

AptX only from what I know, but jkenmar wrote:

Have you considered the additional delay may be due to the audio codec in use? I have confirmed that, in addition to Aptx, and fallback SBC, the Spirit Pro is also compatible with AAC— which I believe Apple devices use by default. This codec is also notorious for high latency with Bluetooth audio. Your tests should be repeated with SBC for Apple devices, which presumably the cheaper headsets are using. Ideally though, the comparison tests should be run with something Aptx compatible, IE. Android or other Qualcomm based device. That is, after all, one of the big feature bumps!!

I emailed customer support at Soundcore and received a quick response. These do support AAC. (They should mention that on the Amazon page. It’s mentioned on the non-pro versions’ pages.)

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Thanx for reviewing this.

They really should make note of the Bluetooth version difference on the Amazon page for the Pros. The regular Spirits and most of Anker’s other earbuds clearly advertise the Bluetooth version, but the Spirit Pro page makes no mention of the version outside of a question a customer asked about it.

Strange that the Pros (supposedly being top-of-the-line) would use an older version of Bluetooth than the lower-end & older models (Soundcore Spirit and Spirit X) would.:confused: