Probably new hardware which will make it hard for people to know which one they are buying
Liberty Air 2 Pro - LDAC?
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Only to those buying.
If you retrospectively update existing sold units, you give less reason to buy new.
If you can at low/no cost add a feature to new units, you increase sales.
This makes it more profitable to be a new version.
But how would a consumer know without a different product code or name.
“Liberty Air 2 Pro+” ?
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I meant a selling point, as in to get new perspective purchasers to pull the trigger and buy them. Also to let people know we are still supporting these with updates.
As I mentioned in another thread, my phone doesn’t have LDAC, so it really doesn’t affect me one way or the other at this point in time. As you mentioned with the smaller size/antenna, I wonder how effective it will be?
I would think adding LDAC to speakers would probably work out best. Personally I wonder if aptX Adaptive wouldn’t be the best way to go (my phone doesn’t support that either - I really need a new phone lol)?
https://www.aptx.com/aptx-adaptive
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I don’t own enough diversity of items to know authoritatively, so I’m speaking purely theoretically just from electronics, so I’m seeking hands-on experience to know if I’m thinking BS.
Everything is harder to do well in-ear as it’s a very physically constrained space to solution, much easier to do well over-ear as more space.
The in-ear if you make it too big it falls out, if you make it too heavy, it falls out, so you’re boxed in to a just-big-enough battery. Higher bitrates burn battery more in radio signal and operating electronics.
The electromagnetic wavelength for bluetooth is 2.4Ghz which is the resonant frequency for O-H chemical bonds, such as water, fat, so the human body absorbs it. So in-ear has more of a challenge receiving the signal.
The optimal antenna length for 2.4Ghz is 6cm. That is easy to find space for over-ear, but much more challenging in-ear (easier in stick form e.g. LA2P, harder in shorter e.g. L2P).
So all I’m saying is I’m skeptical on battery life and how well holds a signal for the higher bitrates, for in-ear products.
I can see little / no issues with 990 LDAC over-ear, bigger battery, antenna further off body, longer / better antenna.
I’d like to see a review from someone not bias (so not an unboxing video!). I may be over-thinking over a small effect, but it’s simply on my radar. I’d like to see for each codec/bitrate the battery benchmarks and how far til signal begins to drop out.
My phone says it supports LDAC 990, the only LDAC audio product I have is my Sony headphones. Of course Soundcore can give me more experience sending me units 
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Ldac for me is a non starter… iOS and all… and besides I doubt I’d notice the diff anyhooos…
Can’t see myself switching it up for Android…
Would be novel if the capability already exists though…
@The_Professor @TheSnarkyOne @Steve976, I was able to reproduce the firmware upgrade on my old (definitely 1st Version) LA2P.
I newly installed the soundcore app (on my old test phone to make sure no virus/spyware is in the linked package to harm my personal data) and set region to china.
Then when connecting the earphones I have the following option in soundmodus with the chinese hint on the LDAC update:
Then performing the update:
And after successful upgrade I can connect the headphones and activate LDAC in Android.
In developer options I have now set them to 990 fix.
I will test today evening and let everybody know.
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Well that is a surprise, I guessed totally wrong.
When this came up I thought it an error, then thought it was a new hardware version and youve proved that wrong.
If this was Soundcore intention all along but they goofed the rollout then that’s understandable as there’s a lot happening.
But if it’s not intended for outside China then we may get a nullifies warranty or they disable remotely in the app.
So this does beckon Soundcore to reply here with an official statement.
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Thanks for testing this, I appreciate it. I’m really quite surprised. I was pretty sure it was a new hardware version, especially the way the firmware number jumped.
I really wish someone from Soundcore would comment on this. Hopefully we will find out something official soon.
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I have a question for you @scelestus. With the new Firmware is the EQ shift any better?
In ANC I have my bass dialed down (I’m think 3 left sliders around +2db). In Normal and Transparency I have the 3 sliders on the left pegged at +6db and the bass is still a little less than ANC mode. On my LA2P’s the EQ shift is pretty extreme.
Edit I just tried a different size tip and I have to say while there is still an EQ shift it’s not as pronounced as it was. I actually dialed the bass down some and adjusted the mids and highs and I’m getting good sound from the Normal and Transparency Mode. I still have two different Custom EQ’s but I’m much more pleased after switching from the Medium to the Medium Long tips (I’m assuming that’s what they are, they’re actually labeled Medium +). I’m surprised it made that noticeable of a difference.
1+2+3+4 appears answered by
But it’s basically an unofficial hack method outside China, so the question is if it’s going to be official release outside China.
Implies with the Chinese characters in the line that this is not a version ready for non-China deployment.
Agreed, the question now is “Will this be available to the rest of us outside of China?” I should probably edit the first post.
Edit: I edited the first post to reflect the information that we have learned from @scelestus
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Thanks for the testing and it is an interesting thread that we have some pretty good Sherlock homes here…
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In the end, you are the first to eat the crab:grinning:
It appears that the LDAC is related to the latest soundcore app released for China, the region has nothing to do with LDAC
At first, I installed 2.7.1 from google play store, no firmware for LDAC available
I downloaded the soundcore app from an app store here in China and installed over the one from google play store, still, no new firmware showed up.
I tried uninstalling the one from google store and installing the latter again, it worked.
Unlike APPs from Tencent, Baidu or Ali, soundcore from Anker for China turned out to be safe.
I checked with Xprivacy and Appops no suspicious behaviour found.
@Steve976, I tested the EQ shift. So far it is still there, hence it is not so huge. With the new FW the ANC and Transparency Mode are pretty similar, the normal mode differs a little (it has a little less deep bass and some midth are also lost… - this is a strange behaviour since usually ANC eats midth and some bass, so it seems like Anker has changed something here, at least to the first FW versions i used to test with)
Thanks fot the edit as well, this is also surprising for me that the mid+ eartip makes such a difference. Will also try that out.
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@Duane_Lester, @the_professor, @Steve976, @TheSnarkyOne thanks
I have some updates for you.
I as well tested it with the stock playstore 2.7.1 Soundcore app, changed region to china, then as well the update and the options in soundcore app were there to activate and deactivate LDAC. (sorry screenshot in german…)
As you can see in attached image there is now the possibility to activate and deactivate LDAC, which means, they have now built in a toggle to switch the different codecs. This means, when in need to increase battery runtime, deactivating LDAC in the app will help to improve runtime. You can also do that in the bluetooth menu of the device, but I think they really deactivate parts of th wireless chip in the earphone to deactivate this function to save energy.
That leads me to the question, was the LDAC capable modem already there and was simply deactivated (as a technology company usually I save every penny when producing technology products, hence from my point of view Anker has had a long term strategy for the earbuds, going into the market without LDAC, then bringing Q35 with LDAC and then add this via FW update to LA2P to have a differentiation criteria to the upcoming P3s.
–> this would lead me to the assumption that LDAC will be available soon for all regions.
Regarding the question about connection quality with 990 LDAC, I´m pretty satisfied, it works very well inside a room in around 5 to 6 meters of distance. as soon as leaving the room to another one it still works but then stops at about 10 meters in the other room. So far not too bad.
Battery drain wise I was not able to do a complete test yet, but already can say that it does not last as long as without LDAC.
Soundquality wise I started testing with FLAC and deezer Hi-Fi to have comparable lossless content. I already can hear a difference to the normal AAC codec as the complete sound stage is a lot broader (yes this was to be expected). But I´m still testing here.
Warranty - since now also available in the official available app on playstore - changing region to china and installing the new FW will from my point of view not affect warranty.
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You used the China-only non-official app to update, then used the official app. So there’s still some wriggle room to say you nullified warranty.
I don’t own this product, so I’m easily wrong.
I think we need someone to wait for app update and show these feature to then be a sign of global official support.
But even more important is Soundcore to reply here and not have the community guessing across with each other. Every guess is scope for error.
This is why I speculate why not officially released earlier. Most folks can’t tell the difference in audio quality, but easily notice battery life, so it was not an option initially. The P3 at lower cost pushed forwards a reason to put LDAC enabled in the higher cost LA2P.
It would be stupendous if Soundcore shared with us directly as all speculation is just scope for being wrong.
I have an update about that:
With activated ANC and 990 LDAC I was able to play Music for 3h45minutes until battery completely empty.
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Hey there, I regret to say that LDAC is only available in CN version at present, for other countries, we are still evaluating and as of yet we don’t have a specific timeline for release. For any further updates, please keep an eye on the firmware update in your respective country or region.
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Appreciate the info @Yi.mi_Liu.