Anker Soundcore Life Q30

I don't usually do reviews as I lack the patience, the time of even the ability to express myself in English as well as I do in my native language. But having been using the Q30 for some time, I really felt compelled to give you my honest opinion.

These are good. No! These must be the best ANC headphones in a logic of price to performance.

I have tried the TOTL ANC offers from Sony, Bose, Sennheiser before. I could never justify spending some 300+ Euros for that kind of muffled sound, that absence of soundstage, that weirdness of the noise cancelling kind of pressure in the ears. Consequentially, I never got to buy ANC headphones from top brands. I just got a pair of cheap Bluedios for that ocasional flight or train ride - good times when we used to do it often...
Well, the Bluedios were kind of good looking and didn't sound bad at all, albeit they changed their signature immensely - and for the worse - when ANC was activated. But my wife got hold of them and started using them on a daily basis.
So she got me the Q30s to compensate.

First impressions were astonishing. These cost 79 Euro but feel much more expensive. There is a mix of black plastic and metal that gives the impression of robustness. They fold neatly into an excellent semirigid case and come with UCB-c charging cable and an auxiliary cable with 3.5 jacks in each end.

Comfort is among the best I've ever tried on closed back headphones. The pads are filled with memory foam and adjust perfectly to the ears and around the glasses. The headband cushion is not made from memory foam but it rests on the top of the head with little pressure.

Passive sound isolation is also very good. Once they are around one's ears, most of the outside noise is cut down instantly.

They are better used and enjoyed with the Soundcore app. The first time I connected, it automatically installed the most recent firmware, which is great! The app comes with ANC toggling (off, transparency mode and 3 ANC profiles), equaliser (preset or user, with the capability of saving user presets) and a great relaxation function, with sleeper and relaxation sounds. It also has a widget that allows controlling ANC from the home screen.

Sound is great. I found the Soundcore EQ default to be too bassy for my taste, but there are many options to EQ to your liking. The Piano, Flat and Jazz presets are nicely tuned to take advantage of what sounds like good quality drivers. Imaging is not very precise buy the soundstage is rather wide, with good channel separation.
The Q30s don't just sound better to me than the Sony XM3 I've tried several times. They sound better than my ATH-M50. They are not so "in your face", they have a great texture at lower end, a nice smoothness in the mids, an enjoyable signature for all kinds of music. They can play jazz and folk as competently as they play pop.

The ANC works great. It is not as good as Sony XM3's, from what I can remember, but blocks outside noises at the frequencies it should block. The 3 profiles of ANC are slightly different in the frequencies and the amplitude of what they block, with "Interior" working very well with voices.

They also have a neat "transparency" function that activates by placing the palm on the right cup. It amplifies the outside noise and takes advantage of the stereo outside microphones to give spatial clues regarding the source of the sound, which if a nice safety feature.

Resuming, these are a no-brainer for the price. If you need ANC headphones, look no further. Save your money for other headphones. These are not only good enough. These are better than many costing much more.

The Soundcore Life Q30 packs a greater punch for its price. Anker's newest ANC headphone has a very strong feature set competing with the big guns.

LAST UPDATED 5/02/2021 after firmware update 2.1.
DISCLAIMER: Newer units ship with firmware 2.3, which unfortunately no longer allows for wired usage with active noise cancelling. It is possible there is a hardware difference as Anker has claimed nothing can be done to revert firmware version and that the chipset manufacturer disabled the function. Older units never received this update.

Design 7/10
The aesthetics of the Life Q30 is somewhat of a mixed bag. It looks to me like a clash between retro and modern. While not terrible, it does feel somewhat uninspired, especially when some lesser-known brands have styles I prefer.

Build Quality - 6/10
The pads and headband are quite well built but it remains to be seen how well they last over time. The headband adjustment hinge and swivels feel a tad cheap and are prone to making clunking sounds while you move your head around. This is one of my pet peeves with over-ear headphones, worse than any microphonic cable or background disruptions so I'll have to dock some points for this.

Comfort 7.5/10
These have good comfort, but the cost of the hinges creaking. If I want to minimize this issue, I have to push down the headband against my head or fully retract the adjustment, neither of which are particularly comfortable.

Sound Quality - 8.6/10
With their default settings and ANC on, these have a very respectable sound that is slightly above its price point. The bass is strong, with a deep sub-to-midbass thump. The lower mids are recessed, while there is some upper-mid emphasis such that vocals have a shimmer without sounding sibilant. Although the treble isn’t veiled or muffled, I do wish it had better extension - the EQ in the Soundcore app is versatile but doesn't bring up enough upper treble energy. Aside from the standard Soundcore Signature preset, I also find the Piano EQ preset great at bringing out some upper-mid and lower-treble energy, though it does also bring up some bass so I recommend adjusting presets accordingly.

Turning off the ANC or using Transparency Mode changes the sonic characteristics considerably. The volume is increased and there is a stronger bass emphasis. While nice for “fun” listening, ANC-On sounds more balanced.

With a cable and no power, these sound rather mediocre, though this is to be expected from most headphones with active electronics. The midbass is overly emphasized and bleeds into the mids. Using an external amp (I only have the Dragonfly Black 1.5 at the moment), the bass is a little tighter but the mid-bass bleed is still present. With the internal amplifier turned on, these sound similar to their respective settings with Bluetooth. One odd quirk is that I am able to power on the headphones but not power them off when I have a cable plugged in. Unplugging the cable will power them off automatically.

UPDATE: I have tried multiple cables with the Life Q30 and the sounds seems to vary quite a bit. The TRRS cable (single button only) from my Sony MDR-1AM2 works very well with the Q30, but the sound seems distorted at higher volumes, especially with the headphones powered onn. Unfortunately, the three-button in-line remote of the1MORE MK802 does not work with the Q30. With the latter cable, the audio quality is also altered considerably - there's a higher perception of reverb and midrange sounds like drums become even more muddled.

The Q30 supports SBC and AAC codecs. The lack of AptX is not a huge issue for me, as both codecs sound very good, with SBC being just a slightly behind AAC in treble extension/detail. On Windows 10, which only uses SBC with these, they are still very good for music listening. They have an SBC bitpool of 52. The default for Windows 10 is 53, so while it means a slightly lower bitrate than default, it should still sound pretty good and comparable to AAC.

Connectivity 9/10
I have experienced next to zero dropouts with this headphone on both my phone and laptop, which support Bluetooth 5.0. Latency is decent but still noticeable for gaming.

These feature multipoint connectivity, but there’s a catch. It only remembers the most recently connected device, so you must initiate multipoint manually each time you turn them on. Another quirk is that they connect to the second device with a medium volume, but adjusting it will cause it to initially spike up to 100%.

These also have app integration which enables you to adjust the equalizer, ANC and update your firmware. One neat feature is that EQ adjustments on the mobile app works across two devices - you can adjust the EQ on your phone while listening to music on your laptop!

UPDATE 5/02/2021 - Firmware 2.1 has somewhat fixed the issue of volume spiking up on PC when connected to two devices. Unfortunately, you still need to pair to the second device manually. Also, after prolonged usage it seems that it will sometimes connect to my PC at 100% volume. I have also noticed the multipoint connection fail for my phone when I am opening/using the SoundCore app on my phone.

Active Noise Cancelling - 7/10
NOTICE: It has occurred to me there is an issue with the default ANC setting not being remembered, and this issue has not been addressed as of the latest firmware update. I believe this may affect the mixed reactions about the ANC.

The ANC on these is usable but not its strongest suit. The reduction is mainly in the lower and mid frequencies, leaving out the higher registers. Sound with ANC turned on is a tad quieter than ANC off, with less emphasis on the bass. They struggle to cut out the sound of my rotating space heater. Using the Indoor setting on the Soundcore app improves this a bit. However, as of firmware 2.1, the headphones don't remember your ANC settings properly. When powering them on, they always default to an intermediate ANC mode, which is slightly better than Outdoor but not as good as Indoor or Transport, so you must always manually re-select the ANC mode in the app. I wish Soundcore can address this in a future firmware update.


Other features
These have an ambient hearthrough or transparency mode, which sounds very good. You can turn this on and off quickly by placing your hand on the right earcup though unlike Sony's implementation, this is not a quick hearthrough so you must repeat the gesture to turn it on again. The tuning changes to the same as that with ANC off with a stronger bass, so you might need to turn down the volume as well.

Call quality had been a concern among early reviewers, but it appears the problem lies with aggressive noise suppression rather than a poor microphone. The latest firmware update (1.8) improves call quality greatly, albeit at the cost of less noise suppression. Note that not all units have received this update yet. In my experience, calls start out with a bassy "puff" or fuzz in the first second or so, after which the audio clears up.

Conclusion 8.5/10
These are a great package overall with respectable audio quality, decent active noise cancelling and solid connection as well as battery life. For a budget alternative to some of the bigger names the Q30s are a compelling option, but keep an eye out for other emerging options at this price point.

Comparisons
vs. Dyplay Urban Traveler 2
The Dyplay Urban Traveler 2 was my daily driver ANC for the past year or so, and offers good value for its features at the time. They remain at a higher price than the Q30 and at this point I have a hard time recommending the Dyplays over the Q30. The Dyplays remain a step ahead in build quality and styling, with a durable soft-touch plastic and almost no creaking on the hinges. Where they really excel is in active noise cancelling, which is considerably stronger than the Q30s in the low and mid frequencies. They do, however, have a louder ANC hiss/noise floor than the Q30s, and also let in more higher frequencies, amplifying my PC fan noise for example. With ANC on, their sonic characteristics are the polar opposite of the Q30, with a very strong upper-mid and treble emphasis. Although this brings clarity to vocals and treble, it may be too fatiguing in some situations. Personally, I think the Q30s are overall superior in sound quality.

The Dyplays have a more seamless multipoint connection that will pair to both devices almost simultaneously. They do support AptX and AptX LL, unlike the Q30s, but the AptX implemenation introduces crackling or distortion artifacts in certain types of music (not sure what's causing this, but it also occurs with my 1More MK802). Battery life is also poor, at only 12 hours with ANC. Another irritating quirk is that the Dyplays will power off after a minute of inactivity, but as the ANC switch is independent you must turn them off manually to spare the battery. Lastly, the Dyplays lack an ambient hearthrough mode.