Soundcore Space Two – Excellent value Over ear headphones

Soundcore is a brand under Chinese Anker. Their Space One headphones claimed to be compact over-ear headphones. These are two properties that are difficult to combine, if the ear cushions cover the ears, they will also be large. For Space Two, therefore, the format is not emphasized as much. They can absolutely be rolled and folded, and the covers themselves are also thinner than their predecessors. Folded up and stuffed into the included pouch, they’re about as compact as a pair of over-ear headphones gets, but it’s not like there’s any noticeable difference to competing options.

In contrast, the Soundcore Space Two is very much a headset for the money. They cost SEK 1,790, but definitely feel more expensive. The plastic and metal materials are quite typical and the construction feels robust. The ear cups are comfortable over time, perhaps in part because they are unusually light for their type.

Confusing buttons

Buttons are on both ear cups. There are a total of four pieces, Off/on, adjustment of the noise reduction, play/pause and volume. The buttons are somewhat programmable so you can choose what happens when you long press and double press some of them. I find the buttons surprisingly difficult to learn. If I’m just going to put on the headphones, turn them on, and continue playing where I was, I have to first long press the bottom button on the left cover, then quickly press the identical button on the right cover. In the end, it’s pretty much in the muscle memory, but there’s really no reason for on/off and play/pause to be different buttons, or for the buttons to have such a different design that you immediately know which is which.

Over-ear headphones are usually a bit more expensive, so a price of SEK 1,800 can almost be considered budget, but it’s not noticeable in the sound either. The music sound is clear and spacious, especially if I turn on hi-res LDAC audio on an android mobile, and all registers come through well. it’s possibly the bass that can feel a bit amplified and a bit unruly, but not so that it becomes tasteless. The LDAC audio requires more bandwidth, and it happens that the headset doesn’t quite keep up so that the audio cuts out, but this is relatively rare.

If you have a hearing loss or are getting a little older, you can get a custom equalizer setting that adjusts for your hearing in Soundcore’s app. First you do a kind of hearing test where you indicate at what volume you hear different notes, then you get to choose between a number of A and B options on a piece of music which you think sounds best, after which you get your saved equalizer setting that you can easily switch between.

Noise suppression at lower frequencies

The active noise reduction in the headphones does a good job of removing mainly duller noise, such as engine noise on the bus, while brighter hiss, such as tires against asphalt, remains. It’s far from the best noise reduction I’ve heard, but it definitely makes a difference.

The call sound is surprisingly good. In a quiet environment, you can hardly even hear that it is a headset that I am talking in. If you add background noise, it is filtered out so effectively that it is not heard at all at the other end, but it affects the speech quality so that I become muffled and it is now clearly heard that I am talking in a headset. When I try with car traffic and wind noise, it becomes difficult to hear what I say.

The battery life is one of the headset’s selling points. They promise 50 hours of battery life with the noise reduction on, and 70 hours without. 5 minutes of charging should give four hours of playing time. This is consistent with my experience, and it is not often that I charge the headphones during the test period.

As a whole, I think the Soundcore Space Two is surprisingly good for SEK 1,800. In terms of comfort, quality feel or sound, it has no real weaknesses and could just as easily have cost a thousand more.