What Would You Ask a Liberty Series Product Manager?

I really like the liberty 2 pro, and the questions I would look to ask is this…

The co-axial architecture design of the L2Ps is something that I haven’t seen before, or even thought to be possible. It provides a great soundstage for the earbuds, with clean / crisp, unrivalled sound.

How did this idea / design evolve and come to be? What was the inspiration that led to its development? Apart from new codecs (LDAC) how can it be improved upon?

Thanks for the opportunity to ask some questions :slightly_smiling_face:

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I cannot pick which of the above mentioned buds I like because I do not own any, I own the q30 over ears though and love them. BUT, if I had to pick one of the above buds just based on looks and the provided descriptors it would be the Liberty 2 or Liberty 2 Pro. I am not going to lie, a LOT of that reasoning is superficial. I personally loathe the Apple alike stem design on any buds and that alone has greatly influenced my buying decisions. Which leads me to my first question:

  1. Design wise do you think the industry has already reached the pinnacle? For now I am just referring to stem/no stem designs and when designing buds is there a solid reason for having a protruding stem besides getting the mic marginally closer to a person’s mouth? When deciding to make an earbud is with stems how much of that decision is technical vs product awareness (everyone automatically thinks apple when they see stems, unless they look unique kind of like the Edifier Neobuds Pro or NB2 Pro).

  2. Do you believe multiple driver buds or single driver buds provide the best sound quality? A lot of people love how Samsung’s dual driver buds sound but when reaching toward the pinnacle in sound it is very often the single driver Sennheiser Momentum 2’s that are mentioned. How do reviews of other products like these and reviews for Soundcore products effect the design of future buds at Soundcore?

  3. There is obviously a huge profit margin on wireless earbuds or everyone wouldn’t be making them. What added value do you want Soundcore buds to have over the competition and what do you feel sets Soundcore buds apart from the ever growing competition? Do you feel innovation is key in this market or simply further refinement? What key things do you want consumers to immediately think when hearing the Soundcore name?

Thanks for taking the time to read!

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My favorite Buds at the moment are the Liberty Air 2 Pro. I recently updated then to LDAC. My compliments to making that available to us. :+1:

As for my question, here goes:

  1. When will the Liberty 3 Pro be released and will it have ANC to go along with Transparency Mode that was added the Liberty 2 Pro +?
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  1. What are you doing for those who can’t use TWS as they fall out too easily and would break fast?

  2. Do you see audio being successful in other product types, like sunglasses, clothing, or sport specific products - cycling glasses audio?

  3. How much do you think AI and high tech intelligence will make TWS easier? E.g. adaptive to keywords so if someone says your name the buds move from ANC to ambient, or boosts voice for specific keywords?

  4. Do you think bone conduction will ever be worthwhile doing or do you think will never be a good idea as it cannot transmit treple as good as through the ear canal?

  5. What are you doing to get more diverse beta testers so you spot more issues earlier than present? We still see some rapid firmware updates after product launches so bugs are not being captured, so do you think selecting newer different beta testers will improve the testing?

  6. Do you find consumers are getting confused by the many frequent product releases? Are you finding use of numbers or words are aiding or confusing consumer product selection?

  7. ANC is harder to do well the worse the seal with the ear canal. Hence there is an interesting idea to use HearID which detects leakage, to tune ANC, so tighter fitting can lead to better ANC and better ambient. Do you see HearID technology will lead to better ANC and ambient?

I suggested this 4 months ago:

  1. The lost bud sound feature helps. Do you think adding it the case would help too? Make the case flash lights and make a sound would help reduce the lost case.
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I’m starting to see other brands offering case replacements for those that have lost theirs, they stopped working, or were stolen. Will there be an option to purchase a replacement for Liberty 2 Pros or at least the option for future models?

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Hannah posted this about a week or two . I book marked it. It has the replacement cases for about 30 to 35 percent of the cost of the manufacturer cost. It also has a few other replacement items you can get.

@Duane_Lester I must of missed that line. That’s still kind of expensive depending on the model. Especially if you don’t know if its the case or the earbuds that failed. I’m guessing there isn’t away to test earbud to see if they still work if there isn’t case to charge them

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I find I can change myself faster than change others, i.e. it’s easier to change what you buy than ask for products to change.

The best way to not lose something is not have something to use. I solve that a few ways. Wired buds don’t have a case. They do have the tips, and wings often, which can be lost. I thus buy two sets of wired buds as I can then swap the best least worn parts of one with the other. Away from technology I do the same with “wireless” shoes, socks, etc, why buy one pair when buy two or three pair so you end up with a working pair for longer.

I do participate in forums to ask for changes but I assume I will be ignored (typically a good assumption) and make my decisions based on what exists now. That way I have maximum power and least frustration. Eventually what I want comes around.

Can you imagine the hell of buying one set each of all of Soundcore’s TWS to eventually end up with all of them useless as you lost one part of each?

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We’re each different, but in my case I’m more interested in the engineering.

ANC is harder for higher frequencies than lower frequencies as the slight physical delta of the offset of the microphone becomes relatively larger at smaller wavelengths.

ANC is also harder the worse the seal with the ear canal. Hence there is an interesting idea to use HearID which detects leakage, to tune ANC, so tighter fitting can lead to better ANC and better ambient.

So that’s my question - do you see HearID technology will lead to better ANC and ambient? I’ve edited my questions to add that to keep it together.

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yes I can. I keep all my extra earpads. The ones that are, to big, to small, or just hurt go into a jar for friends and family that may need a replacement. Most of them seem to fit other products so I give them out as needed. I keep the others in a bag in my desk next to my other earbuds.

My wife says I have a problem. I have way to many sets of TWS, Wired BT headsets, and headphones as it is. I’ve given away a few pairs over the years but still they sit in my desk until they stop working and I can recycle them.

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The problem you have is the one the Soundcore product manager wants. No such thing as too many.

The way to neutralise that is deep future product knowledge and vision. When the L2P+ was out, I was thinking about the L3P. So the wave of getting the next new thing washes over. The imagined L3P before it’s launched is already letting me down as I’m thinking about the L4P already. What about buds which sense your body temperature which affects HearID and auto re-tunes when you’re not listening? They haven’t thought of that yet.

So happy to use 2 year old wired buds.

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I agree. I found my favorite pair with the liberty air 2 pros and wasn’t planning to buy another pair until they failed or were lost. If I were to replace them I want advanced features such as the ones you mentioned. But now that I can’t use them I had to replace them.

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I am really “happy” that I can not use such earbuds.
Causes really pains in my old ears.
So there is no confusion, no problems with the bunch of different models offered. :grin:

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I personally do not care either way with the NC. I know some wanted it. I kinda like the concept of a series of earbuds not having NC and working on sound quality.

I think higher end earbuds will be about ldac, anc, and sound quality as their center piece. I think they can do a bunch of options now as technology increase.

I will say I like the lost earbud feature and as I was thinking about that this thought came in my head. How about earbuds that can charge without the case? The could have a QI in the flat parts of say the air 2 pro that allows charging without getting the case.

ANC only worsens sound quality when activated, but adds cost so if you don’t need it don’t buy it.

The issue specific to the L2P is it’s already a deep stack of hardware, the dual drivers. To add ANC to it forces tough decisions.

While Soundcore doesn’t share roadmaps, we have history from which to logically extrapolate.

The addition of ANC to the LA2 with the LA2P, the addition of ANC to the P2 with the P3, makes for an obvious ANC L2P.

But also, Soundcore rarely seems to retire any product, so it’s also logical to extrapolate the AptX L2P, the LDAC Ambient L2P+ to be still available after the (guessed) ANC L2P we codename “L3P”.

The lost earbuds feature I don’t see as needing hardware support, it’s just making a sound based on app trigger so I don’t see any reason for it not be in all products going forward. As I can’t use TWS as they fall out too easily, I don’t suffer the lost bud problem but I do use the Android find me feature from my watch to find my phone so have empathy with the TWS lost bud feature.

Wonder if they could add the find me feature to the case???

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There is help! :laughing:

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What is the most challenging part about designing any type of earbud or is one style more difficult then the other to make work well?

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My favorite of the liberty series is the liberty 2 pro

some questions I have:

  1. If science wasn’t a limitation what would your dream headphones/earbud be (no limitations here let your imagination go wild)
  2. When designing with grammy award winners like you did with two products in the liberty line up do you bring them in once you have the product or is it more of a cohesive they are there from day one working with the team to try to make the best product.
  3. How do you decide how far to innovate without risking reliability and compromising quality. For example, where is the line drawn to stop you from trying to pack in all the features you can.
  4. Has soundcore considered ear tips that would custom mold to each user’s ears. I saw this in one type of earbuds once where the earbud tips basically molded to the user’s ear to create a better seal and reduce noise leakage and provide better noise isolation.
  5. If you had to think of one word for what soundcore stands for what would it be? what about one word for what the liberty series stands for?
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I find myself not using the ANC feature on my earbuds that often. I think I mostly use it when pushing the lawn mower or using my smaller riding lawn mower when I can’t hear anything unless the ANC is on. Any other time I want to hear what’s going on around me. I had ANC on the other day while working in the yard and turn around to see my neighbor’s great pyrenes looking giving me the look that you don’t want to see in a working dog’s eye when you get to close to their heard. Fortunately, he was there to play not fight.

I think a good fitting pair of over the ear headphones should block out plenty of outside sounds. My Q35s do a good job and I almost never use ANC. I mostly use the Q35 when on my big riding mower and tractor when I need to block more noise but always need noise protection.

I do miss the Slim and the old Spirit X style of earbuds. If Soundcore were to spend the time to release a new set I’d love to see them work with the app and even have the find my earbud features. I miss placed a set of these in the past and found them a few weeks later by accident.

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Logically I see all new products having ANC, because a consumer when given choice of a product with ANC vs not having, if the cost difference is small then a “why not” conclusion is formed. Because Soundcore doesn’t retire products for years, you’d see a lower cost earlier non-ANC version.

ANC is a sibling of Ambient because Ambient sends the sound in-phase while ANC is out-of-phase.

Doing it well is expensive but you can cheaply filter out lower frequencies. If you imagine a triangle formed by the ear canal to the ear drum, a low frequency sound has the width of the ear canal becomes relatively smaller so the sound coming from front/back has a relatively small difference in phase, hence a small relative error regardless of sound direction. The error produces a “beat” which is the hiss of ANC. The more microphones the smaller the errors, less hiss. So I see future products having 3 or more mics each side to reduce the hiss.

So the argument drives the technology. You need a good seal to make the sound generated by the drivers to be the only sound, and stops leakage so others don’t suffer your choice of music. That then drives a market for ambient, which can pipe in-phase sound. Then its a little more challenging to then be ANC out-of-phase.

I then see an inevitable intelligence added to flip between normal, ambient, ANC based on user settings. For example you can teach it your name so it flips to Ambient when someone says your name, or if a sound is coming towards you then Ambient comes in. An approaching sound becomes relatively higher pitch and the delta between left/right grows, so an incoming sound can be inferred as it gets nearer. You’d then have Ambient enabled if a car was approaching.

Once that technology exists and becomes a “why not” cost difference, probably 5 years from now, then the buds not having this will become banned, illegal due to safety issues particularly where medical services are funded through taxation (e.g. Europe).

So what I have seen from Soundcore, and expect to see in the future, is to initially focus on sound quality, then add ambient, then add ANC, then add intelligent switching normal/Ambient/ANC. As the L2P was focused on sound, the L2P+ added ambient, logically there has to be a “L3P” which adds ANC and then a “L4P” 1-2 years later where the normal/Ambient/ANC switches intelligently.

My needs have been ignored so far, and it’s my fault if I don’t ask, and then Soundcore’s fault if they ignore me. So what I want is the Slim wired buds design, with ambient and ANC added. 2 weeks ago I was backpacking B&B, walking, bus, train. I’d like ANC for the B&B for neutralising the sound of the drunks coming in at 1am. I am backpack camping later and I’d like to block wind and nature sounds. No way would I use any TWS I’d easily lose something in the tent or walking, I’d only use the Slim wired buds and want an Ambient ANC future version to exist.

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