Soundcare Liberty Air 2 Pro First Impressions

[Steve976]

Pros:
For the positives, I truly think these sound great! Very nice sound-stage/separation, excellent bass, mids, and highs. I love all the EQ options, but I ended up setting my own Custom EQ. Soundcore’s app is great as always, a definite plus. Very happy with the overall sound quality. Great selection of tips (9 different sizes are included). They feel secure in my ears. Overall I’m really a happy camper. I almost forgot to mention, they have plenty of volume and aren’t distorting at high levels. In the few hours I’ve worn them, they are comfortable and secure in my ears. I made a couple of calls and I could hear who I was talking to perfectly and they said I also sounded clear. Overall a very positive first impression.
Edit: I forgot to mention, I really like the auto pause feature when you take an Earbud out of your ear and the resume when you put it back in. Also even without ANC selected they do a good job with passive noise cancellation because of the massive assortment of tips, they make a good seal.

Cons:
For me Transparency mode is pretty quiet for outside sounds. If the music is off or paused I can hear things around me, but not if the music is medium to loud. I’m somewhat underwhelmed by Transparency mode. I haven’t really tested out ANC a lot yet. However when I switched to ANC I’m getting an EQ shift. The bass is more pronounced in ANC. Other than the EQ shift in ANC, I’m really not noticing a big difference when cycling through modes.

Summary:
Full Disclosure - I won these in a contest. Thanks Utechpia (Amazon Live) and Adam from Soundcore for making this possible. Even though it might seem like I’m complaining or being harsh, I’m really not. These are my first Earbuds/Headphones with ANC and Transparency mode, so I really wasn’t sure what to expect. The overall sound quality, fit, and finish are great (which is what really matters most). The bells and whistles (ANC and Transparency mode) are a little underwhelming to me so far IMHO.

Edit: OK, I’ve had a chance to do some more testing. Originally I thought there wasn’t much difference between modes, that all changed today. I have an older gas powered Golf Cart that is on the loud side. Today I took it out and was cycling between modes while driving it. There is definitely a pretty big difference:

1. On Normal Mode, it cuts out a lot of the engine noise because of the snug fit with the variety of included tips.
2. I then switched to Noise Cancellation - Transport - that almost completely blocked out the engine noise. I was impressed
3. I then switched to Transparency Mode and I could clearly hear the engine noise.

Summary: I was off base with my first impression. In my defense, I only used them for a couple of hours indoors when I originally wrote the first post. I’m more impressed with these Buds by the day!

Thanks,
Steve

[VertigoXX]

Nice review and photos

[Duane_Lester]

Nice reviewcand thanks for the share

[ktkundy]

Nice first impressions again congrats on the win was so happy for you to have won!

[sodojka]

@Steve976
Interesting review- after receiving you wrote the prize quickly.
A week ago you wouldn’t even have guessed that you would win something and would be writing a review😀.
The life is full of surprises.
I was also thinking about buying these headphones 3 months ago. Ultimately, however, I chose Liberty 2 Pro.
Make your Liberty Air 2 Pro as good as old Sony professional headphones!

[Shivam_Shah]

Nice first impressions and photos. Also congrats on winning these!

[Steve976]

A quick update. In our community we are allowed to drive golf carts. I have a Yamaha gas powered golf cart. It’s older and is on the loud side. I usually take one of my Motion Booms with me. I have to turn it up pretty loud in order to hear the music over the engine.

Today I took the Liberty Air 2 Pros instead. I couldn’t believe how much of the engine noise they blocked out. The music sounded great as always. When I got home I checked to see what ANC mode I was in and the kicker was they were on normal (No ANC). They make a great seal and block out a lot of noise even without ANC on. Excellent passive noise cancellation IMHO. I’m very impressed.

[Steve976]

@Shivam_Shah Thanks for the kind words and the congrats, I appreciate them both!

[sodojka]

@Steve976 It’s great that ANC works so well in the Liberty Air 2 Pro .
Do you play golf or do you use such carts for other purposes?

[Steve976]

I’m not much of a golfer. I live in a private community that allows you to use them to drive around inside the community. We have 3 lakes, 3 indoor pools, etc. You can’t take them outside of the community, but they are handy to use inside to get around.

[sodojka]

@Steve976 If it’s not a secret, could you please write what kind of closed little community you belong to? Is it about a religious denomination, a religious group?
I am asking out of curiosity, because this is the first time I meet something like this: with a community that lives in its own private area …

[Steve976]

It’s nothing like a religious group or anything like that. I live in a rural area on NE Pennsylvania. I believe at one time this whole community was owned by 1 person /family. They decided to split it into lots. We have our own security (really not much crime to speak of though), our own water system, etc. There are a few other communities in our areas like ours as well. A lot of the residents it’s their 2nd home /vacation home (they are from New Your City and New Jersey mainly). I live here full time. It’s sort of set up like a vacation community. I’m in the Pocono Mountains. I hope I’m explaining it in a way that makes sense.

We all pay a HOA fee (Home Owners Association). We have a board (President, VP, Treasurer, etc). You can go to meetings where you vote on things you want done. The money also goes to upkeep of the pools, water system, security, etc. Before you ask, No I’m Not Rich (far from it). The reason a lot of people own vacation homes here is because houses coat a lot less than they do in New Your City (very expensive there). It’s also a nice change of pace from living in the city. Lots of trees, lakes, stuff like that.

[TheSnarkyOne]

Yes NYC has very pricy houses. Ten years back a reasonable house was going north of seven figures on Long Island… and a nasty commute to boot…

Pretty good explanation on the community… my buddy at work does custom carts and dropped a v8 in his fav… little to say he doesn’t get much trackage on the courses…

[sodojka]

Thanks @Steve976 for the extensive explanation. Great idea👏.
It is unbelievable that something like this originated in the USA.
It would be impossible to do something like that in Poland. There would be constant quarrels about money, about someone having something better, a better place, more privileges … I suppose that even the closest family members would not be able to communicate in this way to create such a community.
And you can swim in these lakes, or are they only for fishing?

[Steve976]

You can both swim and fish in the lakes. Although we’re in the Northern part of the USA so swimming is basically from the end of May to the beginning of September unless you’re a Polar Bear.

[sodojka]

You wake up in the morning from sleep, you go outside the house and you can enter the clear lake and take a bath whenever you want?

Steve, you’ve already hit paradise !!!

Are these lakes far from your home?

[Steve976]

The one that I took the picture of the Motion Boom at is only a couple of blocks away (about a 1/4 mile). The others are pretty close as well (about 3./4 of a mile and maybe 1-1 1/2 miles away). If you click on my profile, the cover picture is the lake closest to me.

[sodojka]

You have found a beautiful place to continue your life. I ask so much because I like lakes very much and I really like swimming in them. There are no such places near me.
How many people live there? Is it a large area (can you see it in Google maps)?

[Steve976]

According to the [United States Census Bureau] the community has a total area of 2.02 square miles (5.2 km2), 1.73 square miles (4.5 km2) of which is land and 0.39 square miles (1.0 km2) (19.31%) of which is water. As of the census of 2010, there were 1,279 people and 405 families residing in the community.Keep in mind a lot of people are part timers (vacation homes) so it’s pretty quiet here other than Holiday weekends, etc.

[TheSnarkyOne]

Muskies, crappy and bass Iii the lakes?

I can’t wait for fishing season and some weekends to try and catch a couple walleye and northern pike