Soundcore Q45 Noise Cancelling Headphones – 50H Playtime, LDAC Hi-Res Audio, Bluetooth 5.3, Comfortable Fit

I’ll do this review as a pro/con. For reference, my previous travel headphones were the very old-school Bose QC15, which were the only game in town for true noise cancelling headphones in the day but didn’t have Bluetooth (without a 3rd-party thingy with a funky charger that went into the headphone port), and they finally gave up the ghost after a long, hard travel run.PROS:1. Sound quality. I’m not an audiophile, but these sound great to my ears, especially after tuning using their HearID function. (#2 below).2. The app is really helpful. I especially like the HearID (auto EQ), which provides tones of varying volume and pitch and adjusts the EQ for your hearing after making you realize you’re getting old and just how many high tones you can no longer hear. It is surprising how much better music sounds after doing this, and I hate manually adjusting EQs. I use Android, and there is even a widget that allows control of the noise cancelling right from the main screen.3. Battery life. Still had battery level “medium” after an 11-hour international plane trip (used them for probably 7-8 hours of this).4. Noise cancelling, which works quite well on airplanes. Turn them on, and silence… sometimes I just do that without music for some peace and quiet during air travel.5. The carrying case is hard-shelled and has withstood travel well so far. Initially it can be a little tricky folding them right to fit.CONS (quibbles, really):1. They are a little bulky on the ears. They are not heavy (quite light actually), and unnoticeable when sitting upright. But using them while laying down can be a little uncomfortable.2. The pads that go around your ears are overall quite comfortable, but they don’t breathe particularly well so your ears tend to get a little hot and sweaty after several hours. I think this is just the nature of around-the-ear headphones, as my Bose set had this problem but not quite as bad.3. The buttons are tiny, with black shiny icons on a matte black button. When you’re getting older, the inability to hear high tones comes with the need for reading glasses to read darn near anything, so those tiny icons can be difficult to see for me. Once you’re used to where buttons are, it becomes less of an issue, but they are small and take some “muscle memory” when they are on your ears to remember where the power button is and where the volume up/down is.Overall, even with the minor quibbles, I am really happy with them. Sound-wise, they are comparable if not a little better than my old Bose set. Functionality-wise, they are way better, especially when combined with the app and the HearID function. I think Anker has done a great job with their Soundcore line, providing a quality product for a reasonable price.

Nowadays, I wouldn’t buy a pair of bluetooth headphones blindly (or deafly?) online unless it comes with an app that allows you to tweak the sound/EQ. There’s no point in spending money on a pair of headphones, only to not like the sound when they arrive. There are 3rd-party EQ phone apps, but those are sometimes dubious, plus they only work with the phone/tablet device being used at the time. It’s best to have the native headphone’s app do it within the headphones themselves, in which the custom EQ settings travel with the headphones to whatever device/system is being used — even those without the possibility of EQ apps. So with built-in EQ, you don’t have to worry as much about whether the headphones match your preferred sound profile — at least, to a point, since some things like soundstage and the “feel” of open vs. closed headphones can’t be customized, although the “Transparency” app settings sort of emulate the latter a bit, albeit via noise cancellation.These headphones come with a really good app for configuring most things (with one feature request down below*), including the EQ, noise cancelation, volume limiter, firmware updates, etc. You can also configure the headphones to auto-power-off if not in-use after 30/60/90/120 minutes or “never” (default is 60 minutes). The 8-band EQ has a 21 presets (or 22 if you count the “BassUP” on/off toggle on their “sound core Signature” preset), along with allowing to create/save multiple custom EQ profiles. The app finds and connects to the headphones immediately with both my Pixel 7 and Pixel 3 (which I now use as just a tiny tablet, since it only has WiFi). I only have Android phones, so I can’t speak for the iPhone app, but I’d guess that it is the same, other than the LDAC stuff (which Apple devices don’t support, and will default to AAC). Note that these headphones don’t support any aptX protocols, so your options are LDAC/AAC/SBC for Android devices and AAC/SBC for Apple devices (both phones and computers). My computer is an Apple MacBook Air M1, so I can vouch for the AAC connection on that, although when sitting at my computer, I prefer using my wired headphones (Beyerdynamic 880’s). But overall, I am liking these Q45’s more than my Sennheiser HD 350BT bluetooth headphones.I don’t really use noise cancelation, so I can’t speak to that in subjective terms, and so keep in mind that my rating does not take into account noise cancellation. But in terms of features, it has a lot of customization, with both traditional NC modes (with five custom levels plus adaptive/automated) as well as separate transparency modes (with five custom levels plus “talk” mode). But even with the NC turned off (“Normal” setting), the headphones actually block-out quite a bit of noise naturally, since they seem to form an almost air-tight suction.The battery seems to last long too. I’m a person that re-charges any device before it goes below 60%, so I can’t say how long a full battery drain lasts, but I go quite awhile between charges nonetheless, even using LDAC (which uses more battery). In AAC/SBS mode (not LDAC), probably slightly better than my Sennheiser HD 350BT’s, while in LDAC mode, probably a bit worse (but only a bit).For comfort, I find these very comfortable with prolonged use.I just bought a new Pixel 7 phone (w/Android 13), and the bluetooth w/LDAC works extremely well with this phone/headphone combo, with no connectivity issues under reasonable use, even when LDAC is forced to 990kbps. The headphones also connect to the phones fairly quickly. In terms of holding the connection w/LDAC, I live in a two-bedroom apt with each bedroom on opposite ends of the apt, separated by ~20 feet. I put the phone in the furthest corner of one bedroom, shut the door, and walked around the apt:–LDAC @990kbps: It worked fine without any skips up to ~30 feet away and through one wall (including door closed). I didn’t start to have skips until going into the other bedroom with its door also closed — so not until over 30 feet away and through two walls.–LDAC @660kbps: I couldn’t break it within my apt. No skips, even in the second bedroom with both bedroom doors closed — so it still worked at ~35 feet away and through two walls (including both doors closed).–I didn’t bother checking 330kbps, since 660kbps worked so well in all my scenarios.–LDAC Best Effort (Adaptive): Same behavior as @660kbps (never breaks/skips), which tells me that Android isn’t actually operating at @990kbps (either part of the time or never), even though the Android ADB logs always say @990kbps at initial connection with no subsequent changes. So at least partially, it is operating @660kbps or @330kpbs. But the vagueness of Adaptive LDAC mode isn’t the fault of these (or any) headphones — this is an Android issue. However, the choice to use Adaptive LDAC mode in the first place is controllable, which brings me to my one gripe below…*My one complaint/request for the app is that it could force-customize the LDAC settings. All it allows you to do is enable LDAC (Preferred auto quality) or disable LDAC (Combine audio and connection, which then defaults to AAC). In the Android Developer settings, it always defaults to “Best Effort/Adaptive”, which doesn’t tell you what it’s doing, even in the ADB logs, which only logs 990kbps at first connection, but never logs subsequent adaptive changes.There’s a Sony Music Center app that works for some people in forcing the LDAC bit rate mode, but when I tried it, it only worked around 50% of the time on both my Pixel 7 w/Android 13 and Pixel 3 w/Android 12, so I ended-up removing the app. But it apparently works for others, and if Sony can apparently force the LDAC settings within their app, why shouldn’t the SoundCore app be able to do it too? I’m sure I’m not the only one who would like the SoundCore app to force-customize the LDAC settings. Ideally, I’d like it to control the actual bit rate mode (ie, explicitly set it to 990kbps or 660kbps), as well as set the sample rate and bit size, since I don’t listen to music beyond 44.1kHz/16-bit anyway, and so I also like to down-tune the sample rate/bit size to 44.1kHz/16-bit, to save a bit of phone battery. But at the very least, the app should be able to force-set the main LDAC bit rate setting (990/660/330/adaptive), so we don’t have to go into the Android Developer settings every time the headphones re-connect. It’s a minor nuisance, but considering that LDAC is a major selling point of the headphones — you’d think they’d want to allow people to ensure ideal LDAC settings? Regardless, I’d still give these headphones five stars for the price range.

I have had these for a few months now and would like to share a few thoughts on my experience with them. I was using and enjoying the Soundcore Q30s and had read some positive and mixed reviews on the Q45s so I was curious and wanted to find out what an upgrade from the same company would sound like. Spoiler alert …Yes I do recommend with a couple of caveats.The Q30s kinda blew me away when i first heard them and i expected a lot from the Q45s. I was at first not impressed. Like.. Where’s the bass? EQing did not seem to help the bass much and like some reviewers, i felt the highs could be too sharp and bitey. I considered immediately returning them yet got too busy with other things and that window passed. I did continue to use them and compare with the Q30s and did notice they were very clear and I could hear mids and highs i could not with the Q30s. Now I am glad I kept them. So what changed? Well, I feel the bass has gotten better after a couple 3 months. A lot better. I now know why many reviews on these were so ho hum. According to Soundcore, their drivers are made of a different material. Apparently, they, IMO, require burn in time. I think most reviewers dont have the required time to take with them for the drivers to open up or even EQ them. Which is why you must always take product reviews with a grain of salt. Anyway the bass and subbass have greatly improved, being much tighter and less muddy than the Q30s ,yet they do not overpower the mids and highs. The highs have seemed to have become less bitey as well. They are also more comfortable than the Q30s with better cushioning. So are they the best sounding headphones I have tried? No, but i think they get fairly close. More on that later. They are also not vey attractive IMO and are kinda huge looking with the can on can thing going on. I bought the blue because it was different and now i think I would go with the black so as to look a little smaller and less nerdy. They are not super light either so i would not recommend for the gym or running,. However, if you do not mind the burn in time required for the bass to improve and dont mind spending a few minutes EQing them to tune them , I do highly recommend!……Update….Something had been bothering me about these headphones. In particular, I would read the occasional review where they would talk about enabling LDAC. I finally realized I had never been prompted or even seen any LDAC option. LDAC is supposedly a big selling point on these headphones. Not one for allways reading directions, I had assumed it was an automatic default kinda thing. Well,after going back into the Soundcore app. I finally found out why I had never seen it. It is like hidden almost under the settings cogwheel icon and, even though I was shown as having been up to date, it requires its own seperate download to even enable the button. Man, to think I have been listening to these for months without even knowing I was going without it. Turns out I have been really missing out. Don’t let anyone or any AI-written article tell you it is hardly noticable or whatever. Those people,if they even are people, either do not pay for premium quality streaming music or don’t have decent equipment to listen on. It makes a difference! It makes the music sound a bit more live. It allows you to hear the breathiness and a lot of other details in the music. Without adding volume or distortion. It really puts these on a whole different level than without the LDAC enabled. I really am embarrassed I just found this out. How many people have bought these and returned them without ever knowing they can sound better? Now they sound, to my ears, as good as or better than the newer Beats premium cans ( which are excellent IMO). More on those later… You will also want to make sure your’e music streaming is set to highest quality and ignore any warnings about data limitations or whatnot in the app.! I pay for Spotify Premium and I had to go through the menu tools and change them. So now I’ll give a quick word on how the Q45s compare to a couple other cans I have owned or tried. —- Beats Studio Pro– I purchased the Beats thinking they had an app. I could configure. They, of course do not have one. I was planning on returning them when I realized this. After listening to them a couple days I realized I really liked their sound signature. They sound sooo bright. Way more bright than I thought I would care for. Their sound engineers worked some magic on them. I am very sensitive to 8K fingernail on chalkboard distortion that usually comes with overly bright treble and these got none of that. I allways considered myself somewhat of a basehead before but not anymore! The lack of an app. also makes them great for non-technical people who don’t want to have to spend time configuring them. They sound great right out of the gate. Some reviewers may complain about the lack of bass but i feel they have plenty. You just have to turn the up a little past medium for it to really kick in. To be sonically perfect I think they do need a bass-up button for lower volumes. It is in the comfort area that they fall short in my, and many others apparently, opinion. Think…vice grips for the head. I can only wear for about an hour at a time. That said, I think one would get used to them if they were you’re only pair. The Q45s are way more comfortable while ,now with the LDAC, are close to being on par with them in sound quality. IMO. …Update… O.k. After doing a lot of a-b listening of the studio pro with the Q45s I gotta admit the Beats are on a bit of a different level. They are just so ultra lively and clear. Like you are the 1st or second row away from the stage whereas the Soundcore are just a few more rows away. They do this all while using the inferior SBC codec which makes me think Spotify, even at its highest streaming level, is still not good enough quality to take advantage of LDAC. Still the Soundcore are close and I think get just a hair closer when I use the wired connection. And ,of course, they are half the cost.

I have had and owned so many great ear buds and headphones over the years from Sony, Bose, M&D, Sennheiser, and everyone in between. Anker has always been my go to budget brand for peripherals and occasionally buds and cans. I owned the Q35’s and loved them. My last Sony cans were appropriated on a divorce. Long story, but for another day. I had a recent business trip to Hawaii and was bringing a date so I gave her my Q35’s and bought these, thinking that 9 hours of use would be better served with cans instead of in ear buds. I was so right. Like the 35’s, these are not nearly as good as their big name competitors, but they are still really good and are a five star value overallIn terms of sound, these are really good. You can stream LDAC with the right device, but even without, these are very good. Lots of bass with good separation from the mids and highs. Not world class but you will like listening to these. The noise cancelling these do is really good. They wipe out plane noise and all but the most sudden noises. The battery life is awesome. You can expect over 45 hours no matter how loud you go. They are comfortable for long periods as well. Plus, big bonus over the 35’s, call quality is as good or better than anything I have ever used including Sony and Bose. These just generally do everything above average or better.If you have the money to drop on the latest Sony or Bose cans, do it. They are better and worth the upgrade. However, most folks will love these and never miss the better options for the money. Anker Sound core is a great company that makes great things for a fair price. The Q35’s are no exception. Buy with complete confidence.

I love everything about these , except they are too big for my head . I don’t have a particularly small head . Female 24” measuring under the chin all the way over ears to top of head . I have them pushed as small as I can but they are too big. If I push them back where the top of the band is at a slant toward the back of the top of my head , They fit perfectly , but I’m not sure they are very secure there. For around the house or something your not bending over alot that’s fine . The sound and the canceling of outside sound is great . For books , I have not tested for music . They easy to use and connect quickly . I have had my phone in the house and worked in the back yard or garage and keep connected . I have never lost my connection .