Soundcore Life 2 interference when other Bluetooth devices are connected to MacBook Pro

#1

I recently purchased Soundcore Life 2 (SCL2) NC headphones. They work fine with my iPhone 7 but when I connect to my MacBook Pro (MBP) running Mojave 10.14.6, the audio cuts in and out often and sometimes really bad. It took me some experimentation work to isolate the problem. I noticed that the interference goes away when my other Bluetooth (BT) devices are disconnected. I have both a BT keyboard and mouse connected to the MBP. I already disabled the iPhone’s connection to SCL2 to reduce unnecessary BT connections. Before discovering the interference issue, I tried several things, and none helped:

  1. Deleted the com.apple.Bluetooth.plist* file from /Library/Preferences folder. Also deleted com.apple.Bluetooth.xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx file from ~/Library/Preferences/ByHost then restarted the MBP. (Instructions from here: https://www.idownloadblog.com/2016/02/01/experiencing-bluetooth-problems-on-your-mac-try-this/). That did not help.
  2. Checked and found the SCL2 is using the SBC audio codec. Added the AAC codec as outlined here (https://www.macrumors.com/how-to/enable-aptx-aac-bluetooth-audio-codecs-macos/) and restarted the MBP. The audio cutouts with the SCL2 got even worse. Switched back to the SBC codec and restarted the MBP.

So the issue appears to be an interference issue with other BL devices. This could be either signal interfence issue or more likely a firmware issue. This is pretty bad if the SCL2 cannot coexist with things like BT keyboard and mouse.

Has anybody else experienced these issues? Are there any workarounds? I got these headphones for general music listening use as well as to improve my BT audio setup when doing videoconferencing on my MBP. I really was looking forward to seeing these work but right now they are pretty unusable and would have no choice to return them back to where I bought them (Costco) if I can’t get this problem resolved soon.

2 Likes
#2

Very interesting.
Simply said. “There is too much in the air”
Sometimes I get interference when connecting bt speaker while I listen to DAB+ radio.
(Though bt and DAB+ are using different wave lenght)
The radio looses the connection for a second.

1 Like
#3

This is not normal to be affected by a few other BT devices. I have another BT headset that does not behave this way under the same exact environment with other identical BT devices present, so there is something else going on with the SCL2. I am now under the belief that this is a SCL2 firmware issue.

#4

Reading the replies you don’t seem to be getting any useful help other than email support. So I’ll add more uselessness.

My experience is more across the whole BT spectrum, for reasons so complex it ends up feeling random, certain combinations of BT devices simply don’t get along.

My $21 Anker Slim BT buds work more reliably than my $250 Sony NC headphones with my Huawei tablet, but the opposite with my OnePlus phone. Almost nothing works reliably with my Lenovo Thinkpad.

#5

And why?
Nobody knows. :rofl:
We can guess, nothing more.

#6

We are sorry to hear your headphones are not working properly. According to the information you described, the issue you are experiencing is very unusual.

Don’t worry, please don’t hesitate to contact us at service@soundcore.com by detailing your order number and the problem you come across. We will reply you within 24 hours.

#7

I have the same problem with my new MacBook Pro using the Slim+. Work fine with my iPhone 8 but with my Mac, not at all if I have my Bluetooth Apple wireless keyboard and Magic Mouse active.