My Soundcore Life Q20 Review

#21

That battery life tho :wink:

#22

NiceReviewI like it~ :smiley_cat:

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#23

Yes “breaking in” is very important.
The membranes have to get “free”.
This takes a while.

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#24

Great balanced review :clap:t2:

#25

I picked up a pair of these on Amazon and I have to say the ANC is very flawed. The problem is that when it is on, it messes with the volume. Best way to explain it is, whenever the music gets louder, such as a kick drum or bass, the headphones will turn the volume down in sync with the beat.

So it sounds like someone is quickly turning the volume and and down to the beat of the music. It’s not as noticeable when the music isn’t as heavy on the bass.

Also, when listening to a song, where the beat pauses and music keeps playing without drums or bass, the sound is turned up until the beat kicks back in, then it dramatically drops (I would say 4-5db easily).

I figured I had a bad pair and reached out to Anker who agree that this is not normal and they would be sending me a replacement set. In the meantime I have seen several other reviews on Amazon mention this same behaviour with the ANC. I am not very confident that the replacement headphones will be any better.

Right now, I use the headphones with ANC off but I need to use an EQ on my phone because when ANC is off, the bass is way too harsh and muddies out the rest of the sound.

I really hope I got a bad pair but I am not holding my breath that the replacement will be better.

I agree with most of what the OP said above. Bassup is completely useless because when it’s on, the rest of the music is washed out in a sea of ear bleeding levels of bass.

I will circle back once I get the replacement headphones to update on the ANC issue.

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#26

Surprised you didn’t like the sound. I’m enjoying the sounds out of my Q20.

#27

I appreciate your honesty in your reviews, Rob…good job!

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#28

See for me in a side by side comparison the life 2 sounded better. They essentially are along the line of being the same headphones with minor differences between them, but the Q20 just couldn’t match that level of sound. It just wasn’t good, and like I mentioned I could have just gotten a bad pair but for the sake of my review it was based on what I had used

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#29

I don’t think you got a bad pair…

#30

I am experiencing the same issue that @roncad outlines with the volume “swells” that seem to be triggered by the dynamics in the music. It’s almost like the internal ANC mic is being overloaded by what’s coming into the earcups :slight_smile:

I returned my first pair to Amazon thinking the replacements would be different - they weren’t, they do the exact same thing. I just opened a ticket with Anker support to see if they have any fix on the horizon.

#31

I bought these on Amazon with the $10 discount primarily for travel. Sound quality is acceptable based on price but they are not working out due to short battery life - only about 10 -12 hours. Plus they cannot be used while charging.

#32

The replacement pair I received exhibit the same problem. It’s subtle but enough to bother me enough that I have to turn of ANC - which defeats the purpose in paying for ANC headphones.

#33

Anker support suggested I unpair and repair all my devices and do a “reset” of the headphones by holding down certain buttons while charging. Needless to say, none of this worked. Still experiencing popping noises and volume swells.

Any input here, Anker team?

#34

@Tank, @roncad on what diveces do you use Q20 . Just apple devices?
I compare q20 with Jabra H85 side by side (windows and android) and they are very similar. The bass on q20 is more engaging and the highs are clearer on upper volumes on Jabra. I could not tell the difference (that the highs are not that clear on q20) until I ask a friend to try both. I let 3 persons to try them both and all of them like q20 more.

What was very wired is that I went on a shop in two location and tried two different Sony WH-1000XM3 with the same andorid phone (xiaomi mi9se) and I did not like the sound, for me sounded like there was no soundstage. The music wa clear but without being engaging. I notice that the codec was sbc and I could not change it to aptx. Maybe that is the reason. I played Clean Bandit - Rockabye, something form Ariana Grande, Doja Cat and some others that I don’t remember. Sony xm3 had a stand where you could listen some specific tracks for me even with this setup the sound of sony was very cheap, like a 20$ headphones. Bose 700 had a similar stand with different specific tracks and I really like that sound, it was completely different than anything I heard in my life, unfortunately I could not pair bose 700 with my phone to test the same tracks.

#35

I uses a few different devices such as my Samsung S10e, my windows computer, MacBook pro, and my Galaxy S9+. Regardless what device I used the sound was horrendous all around and just not worth it. Sure I may have had a faulty pair, but my review is based on what I experienced

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