Hi, I have been using my Liberty Air 2 headphones pretty consistently since I got them in March or April. They seem fine with my iPhone, but when using them with my Macbook (MacBook Air 2017, 10.15.7), it sounds like listening to the FM radio over the phone. It is terrible. The reason I bought these in the first place was because of distance learning. I’m teaching over zoom and being plugged in is really inconvenient. It’s not just zoom that sounds like I’m listening through a tin can either, it is itunes, spotify, youtube, any sound. I tested a few equalizers and found one that I like on the app, and that improved the sound on my iPhone, but not the Macbook. Is there anything I can do to improve the sound on the computer?
Terrible Sound Quality with Mac
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What is the output set to when you listening to music on Macbook? This is a windows screenshot but should similar on Macbook as well. If you are teaching on zoom, it will switch to Headset (Hands-Free AG thing) which does sound pretty horrible. And it does this because you have mic turned on. Even if you switch to Macbook mic, it still does switch for whatever reason. I use Bluejeans and MS Teams for my lecture and haven’t figured out why it switches my Spirit Dot 2. Haven’t had that issue with some other headphone and speaker though
Thank you for the reply. I don’t have many options on zoom, see below. The Liberty Airs are the only wireless headphones I’ve tried. Everything sounds fine when I use any of my other plugged in headphones. I try to avoid using the built in mic since my wife teaches from home in the next room and gets picked up by the stock mic. Headphones cut down on the unwanted noise dramatically, but these liberty airs have such poor sound and leave my ears ringing after a short while. I got a set for my wife too, but she won’t even use them.
Try looking for output on macbook instead. Using the volume icon I think. Zoom and other videocalling apps have different output settings. If you can see Stereo option on Macbook, try using that for Youtube to see if the sound is still that bad
For whatever reason, your mac isn’t using them in the high quality music mode. There are two different modes - one to be used as a headset (mic and speakers) with lower quality. And one to be used for higher quality music listening. On windows as @Shivam_Shah showed there are usually two options to choose from.
I don’t have a modern mac to test it against, but I’m sure the option is there somewhere.
This isn’t a specific problem to Anker / Soundcore, by the way - it is an issue with the bluetooth spec. I think it was a massive mistake to not include the mic in the high quality codec profile, and hope they fix it. But as of the latest Bluetooth 5.0 spec, it will continue to be an issue for every pair of bluetooth headphones.
@Stecher_Studios, I think from @jercox comment has stated that if all else fails, you may need a Bluetooth update if all else fails.
Thank you all for your input. I found more audio settings in the utilities. There are other options but for some reason I cannot select them. I’m not even sure what these settings mean TBH. I’m going to try updating to OS 11.0.1 hopefully that will help.
Moving from a recent version of Mac OS X to 11 shouldn’t make much difference; you can try it if you want to upgrade anyway though. Your Mac has full support for modern Bluetooth already.
Unpairing the device and repairing might help.
Zoom will always be an issue, because it uses the mic and will thus always use the lower quality sound codec. But for music playback it should use the higher quality sound system automatically.
If you are near one, you might stop by an apple store. They should be able to support you in properly connecting your Mac to any Bluetooth device.
Well, I updated to Big Sur and updated the firmware on my headphones. I also did the custom hearing test thing. I definitely have better sound now, but as soon as I open Zoom, it all goes to shit. Which is unfortunate, because using zoom is why I wanted wireless headphones in the first place. Not that I am going to spend the money on them, but would Earpods Pro have the same issue?
With Covid and the influx of working from home, there are a lot of people coming to the community for help with similar issue. A lot with zoom and other services with different soundcore audio devices. If you do find out what the issue is with zoom, please let us know as well. It may just be a tweak of the setting from say audio to mic (if you have those options).
If you are noticing it in a big way with these, the odds are that you will notice with other devices. Still a little weird to me that they work better with your phone - they should be using the same profiles and sound quality either way.
It is possible that Apple’s products will integrate with your computer better than these. They have a loose relationship with standards in general, and I remember that there was something not quite bluetooth standard they were doing with airpods at one point, but I don’t know if that is still true.
Woooohh!! I found how to fix it! All You need just to switch in sound menu out (microphone) from liberty 2 pro to built-in microphone, and macbook will use your liberty like a “headphones”, no microphone. Just enjoy great sound=)
Indeed correct, but for your saying that, there’s someone else saying their microphone quality sucks during a zoom meeting as the microphone is then far away and not by their head.
Everyone just move to Android which does it better 
I’m curious as to how switching to Android will make sound better on a Mac? This thread is about audio quality when paired to a Mac.
If you are listening on an iphone, the Mic works fine with high quality audio. And you don’t have to endure the dumster fire that is Android.
Or switch to Linux! 
It can be installed on Apple products with Intel architecture easily.
Old IMacs or Macbooks.
And then you can use pulseEffects.
The best audioprogram ever
Mac, Android or Iphone all have their good and bad… I will leave Linux out of it or @Chiquinho will get me.
Using Linux in combination with pulseEffects
will solve many problems with the sound.
But I am only a lone voice in the wilderness. 
I have been tempted to take an older pc and put linux on it but have never got to it. I did use it some in the earlier days but never kept with it.
If I remember right, PS and Xbox uses Linux in their software…
It’s complicated. On Mac and Windows you have an either/or of either using headphone mode with good sound quality but no microphone (so you use the PC’s mic further away picking up PC sounds) or use headset mode which uses local mic but lowers the sound bitrate for worse sound.
On Android it merges the mic from headset with the sound from headphone modes so works seamlessly. In Linux you can similarly with added software merge these.
So indirectly moving away from Mac to Android or Linux will improve the situation.
My most recent purchase is Chromebook, based on Linux, before that Android. I’ve not bought a Windows machine since 1995 and never bought anything Apple (why pay more for old technology?).
I will be so happy not being urged to use that old android samsung I was donated from the chair.
Back home with my Linux laptop,
The Samsung works, but that touch keyboard makes me crazy.
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Fantastic landscape though there is no snow.
But great pathes for walking.
Funny we met a couple from UK there in the nowhere.
People from UK and DE seems to be excellent walkers. 
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