I was given the opportunity to review Soundcore’s new noise cancellation earphones, the Life A2 NC+!
In the box, you get the buds, charging case, USB-C cord for charging, and WAY too many fit options, but in the end, it was necessary as I ended up needing the XS ear foam with the L loop. After messing with the fitment for 20 minutes or so, I am really happy with how they fit.
Once I had the ear buds in, it was time to turn them on. I turned to the very useful, “songs to test your earphones to” playlist and was stoked with what I was hearing. After starting up music, I headed to the Soundcore app. If you have a Soundcore product and have yet to download the app, I recommend doing so right away. It not only lets you switch from NC mode to transparency/normal modes, but there is an extremely diverse set of preset equalizer settings. I opted for the bass first, as I’m an 80s baby and Sony Mega Boost was my jam. A song that I would have never thought to listen to, I.G.Y. by Donald Fagen, came up next, and it was over the top impressive. The crystal clear highs and mids were well balanced with the BOOMING bass that you get from their 11mm driver!
Next stop, was work. I work at a desk, and I’m regularly on conference calls, so I was hoping these would work as well as my go-to over ears, the Q30. These earbuds not only sound great, but the people on the other line say that my voice through clear. Did I mention these have 6 microphones?! Now that’s covering all angles. I prefer these over my Q30 headphones, because when over ear headphones are worn for long periods of time, they tend to heat up and my ears get uncomfortably hot. So the Life A2 NC+ is go-to office necessity from here on out.
After work, I headed over to the skate park. Did I mention you get 55 hours of playback time with the included charging case? These have 11 hours playback, and the case carries 5 charges. You can even pop these in the case for only 10 minutes for a 4 hour playback quick charge. Once to the park, after warming up my old bones, I was able to skate around, jump, and grind without any movement from the ear buds. It was a steamy 80 degrees, so the water resistant rating came in handy. Even with my sweaty man body, the earbuds never slipped out, they never even budged. I ended up keeping the ear buds on normal mode because the wind was being picked up by the noise cancellation and transparency modes.
That brings me to my next point, Noise Cancellation. I know that some people will probably look at these as an affordable option for a noise cancellation ear bud, and they’d be looking in the right direction! I run the soundboard during the worship band’s practice at my church, and was curious if the A2NC+ would be able to cancel out the instruments and vocals. After getting everyone mixed, I popped in my earbuds, pulled out my Soundcore app, and was blown away when I hit the Noise cancellation button! It’s an impressive transition from a loud sanctuary, to a carpeted lead room. It was so quiet, it made me feel paranoid because I have never been that alone with my inner dialog. They did a fantastic job on this.
That just about wraps up the different scenarios I was able to test the Life A2 NC+ earbuds by Soundcore. As with anything, there are some good and some bad. For the good, the sound, fit, comfort, and noise cancellation are wonderfully done. On the flip side, the case lid feels a little fragile, the size of the charging case is also a bit big but it’s what is expected with such a large charging capacity. There is one thing I HATE about this product, and it’s the ridiculous charging port flap. I have sausage fingers, and it’s a pain to open and get closed again. There are far less nit-picky negatives than the overwhelming positives for these ear buds.
