THE BOTTOM LINE

 Anker's true wireless Soundcore Liberty 2 Pro Upgraded Version earphones are capable of delivering impressive audio, but they require some EQ adjustments on your end in order to sound their best.

The $129.99 Anker Soundcore Liberty 2 Pro Upgraded Version—not to be confused with the standard Liberty 2 Pro or the Liberty Air 2 Pro—are somewhat perplexing true wireless earphones, and not just when it comes to their name. Unlike many of Anker's similarly priced models, they don't offer active noise cancellation, and while they're capable of driving excellent audio, their default sound signature scoops out the mids to a significant degree. You can make adjustments via the companion app’s EQ to dial in commendable sound quality, but that shouldn’t be a requirement. For that reason we recommend the $150 JBL Live 300TWS or OnePlus Buds Pro instead, despite their slightly higher price.

Bulky Design, Wirelessly Charging Case 

The Liberty 2 Pro Upgraded earpieces are chunky, but that's because each one houses dual drivers—a Knowles balanced armature for highs and an 11mm dynamic driver for lows, which is an impressive setup for this price range. We also like the array of eartip and earfin options you get, including seven pairs of tips and three pairs of earfin sleeves all in different sizes. The earfins and the oblong shape of the earpieces help ensure one of the more secure fits we’ve felt in a while.  

A button on the top outer panel of each earpiece handles controls. A single press on either ear takes care of playback and call management, while a double press is for track navigation (the left ear skips backward and the right ear skips forward). Holding the button down on the left ear summons your mobile device’s voice assistant. You can adjust these controls in the app.

Given how securely the earpieces fit, their IPX4 water-resistance rating is disappointing. It means that the earbuds can withstand light splashes from any direction, so neither sweat nor light rain should pose a problem. However, you can't dunk or submerge the earpieces or rinse them off under a faucet. And the charging case isn't water resistant, so you need to fully dry the earpieces before docking them.

The large charging case has a slide-back lid, for a design looks cool and feels good. The exterior has a grip-friendly coating, while a snap-shut cover on the rear panel protects the USB-C port (a USB-C-to-USB-A charging cable comes in the box). A manual Bluetooth pairing button sits next to this connection. The case can charge wirelessly via Qi-enabled pads.

Anker estimates that the earbuds can last roughly 7 hours on battery, with an extra 19 hours in the charging case. Your results will vary based on your volume levels.

The earphones are compatible with Bluetooth 5.0 and support the AAC and SBC codecs, as well as the high-fidelity LDAC codec via the Soundcore app (on Android devices only).

Soundcore App Settings 

The Soundcore app (available for Android and iOS) is a one-size-fits-all app from Anker that serves its many audio products. For the Soundcore Liberty 2 Pro Upgraded Version, the app enables LDAC playback for Android devices as mentioned above, and also has an onscreen button for switching in and out of transparency mode, a section for customizing the on-ear controls, and a user-customizable EQ with eight adjustable bands. You can also create a sound profile if you wish—tweaks you can make to the audio performance that are independent of the EQ. As we note in the next section, you need to dive into the app's settings to get the best sound out of these earbuds. Even so, the app is worth a download to get the latest firmware updates. 

EQ Makes a Difference 

In the default EQ mode, on tracks with intense sub-bass content, like The Knife’s “Silent Shout,” the earphones deliver a powerful low-frequency response. At top, unwise listening levels, the lows don’t distort, and at more moderate levels they're still robust. Bill Callahan’s “Drover,” a track with far less deep bass in the mix, gives us a better sense of the default sound signature. The drums on this track are downright thunderous through these drivers. The low-frequency thump is quite strong, and it carries over to Callahan’s baritone vocals, as well. The high-mids and highs are present, but the mids sound wildly scooped out. The result is a very bright, bass-heavy mix with not much in the middle to glue it together. You can use the EQ to address this problem, but by default, the earbuds behave as if nothing exists between 400Hz and 1kHz. Boosting the mids doesn’t diminish from the rich bass depth, but rather lends it more definition.

Back in default mode on Jay-Z and Kanye West’s “No Church in the Wild,” the kick drum loop receives less high-mid presence than it should. The sub-bass synth hits that punctuate the beat are absolutely thunderous—bass lovers will enjoy this subwoofer-like response. But again, you should increase the midrange response via the EQ for a better balance. Otherwise, the vocals sound sibilant and the mids get lost. Without the midrange, the lows also threaten to overshadow the mix.

Orchestral tracks, like the opening scene from John Adams’ The Gospel According to the Other Mary, have too much deep low-frequency boosting and the lower-register instrumentation sounds tubby. The higher-register brass, strings, and vocals have an ideal crispness here—they naturally have a strong high-mid presence to them. But the midrange still needs a boost.

The four-mic array offers solid intelligibility. We could understand every word we recorded using the Voice Memos app on an iPhone with little or no added Bluetooth audio artifacts. The mic signal felt a little weak, however.

Solid Earphones, But Not a Major Upgrade 

The Anker Soundcore Liberty 2 Pro Upgraded Version earphones are capable of great audio with some EQ adjustments, but their sculpted sound signature out of the box doesn’t impress. We like their support for LDAC on Android devices and the fact that the included case supports wireless charging, but we're less impressed with the middling water-resistance rating. In this price range, we ultimately recommend the $150 JBL Live 300TWS and the OnePlus Buds Pro, both of which sound much stronger by default. We also like Anker's own $130 Soundcore Liberty Air 2 Pro earphones, which offer good noise cancellation for the price.