Soundcore Space 2 Review

Design

• Collapsible design
• Three colourways
• Physical buttons

The design is recognisable if you’ve ever owned a pair of Soundcore headphones, with the instantly recognisable Anker logo and the rounded earcups that have become a hallmark of the series. There’s a “you know what you’re getting” vibe from these headphones.

They are built to a better quality than the Space One, which were rather floppy, rattly and plasticky. The Space 2 feel better, a little more rugged or at least not as flimsy as the Space One. The Jet Black version I have (there’s Linen White and Seafoam Green options too) is more susceptible to marks and smudges but it’s nothing a wipe couldn’t get rid of.

They’re comfy to wear with plenty of space inside the earcups so your ears don’t feel boxed in. The clamping force offers a light touch, and the headband gently rests on top, making for a comfortable experience. There’s not as much padding as the Space One Pro, though, which I find comfier still and offers more noise isolation to block out external sounds.

There are no touch controls with the Space 2, relying on good old-fashioned buttons. That’s a good thing for a more budget-priced pair of headphones, as you get the certainty of presses rather than the uncertainty of not knowing if your press or swipe has registered.

The buttons should be recognisable to anyone who’s had a pair of Soundcore headphones. You’ve got playback and volume control on the right earcup, with power/Bluetooth and noise-cancelling on the left. You can customise the NC button to include the Normal mode, or with a double press, it can put the headphones into Bass mode.

With the multi-function button, a long press can be customised to access the voice assistant or the Anka voice assistant, AI translation or Nap mode (more on that later). Buttons for calls aren’t adjustable.

The headphones come with a carry pouch to keep them safe (surprisingly it’s bigger than the Space One Pro), with a 3.5mm cable for wired listening and a USB-C cable for charging only.

Battery Life

• Claimed 50 hours with ANC
• Fast-charging

Anker’s boasting some big battery specs with the Space 2, and as always, it’s worth taking them with a pinch of salt.

50 hours with ANC and 70 hours with it off are big numbers, but with the headphones I’ve tested, that’s not always been the case. On paper, the Space One Pro has less battery life at 40 hours, but in testing, the Space 2 comes out with similar numbers.

A three-hour drain with a Spotify playlist running at 50% volume, and the headphones lost 10% battery life at the three-hour mark, which suggests these are closer to 30 hours than 50.

This was in the headphones’ LDAC mode, which draws on more power than the Space 2’s AAC mode, so 50 hours might be possible. But again, take it with a pinch of salt. Still, it’s good numbers, and around what you’d expect from Sony and Bose.

Fast charging provides 4 hours of playback from a five-minute charge, so you’re unlikely to ever find these headphones running out of puff.

Features

• Soundcore app
• Bluetooth 6.1
• AI features

The brunt of the Space 2’s features come from the Soundcore app. There’s the customisation I mentioned in the design section with the controls, and there’s further customisation with the EQ or ‘Sound Effects’ as Soundcore likes to call them.

You’ve got the option of 3D sound (which disables LDAC), HearID (which tailors the sound to your hearing ability), there’s (confusingly) the ‘Default’ EQ which offers a range of different EQ modes from the Soundcore Signature, to Acoustic, Bass Booster, Classical and more (there’s a horde of EQ modes to choose from). I’ve always found the Soundcore Signature a safe bet for balanced sound.

Then there’s the Custom EQ option, which offers an eight-band solution to tweaking sound. This option does ask if you want to log in if you want to save your custom sound EQ to a Soundcore account, so if you switch phones (or devices), you’ll always be able to call on that EQ mode.

Bluetooth support is pretty much the latest in the 6.1 version, though you’ll need a source device with 6.1 to make the most of it. You do get Bluetooth multipoint for connecting to two devices at once, and there’s streaming support for SBC, AAC, LC3, and the higher-quality LDAC.

The Bluetooth connection isn’t one I found the strongest in the headphones’ LDAC mode. It did break up a fair bit travelling from Canary Wharf to Farringdon, but LDAC isn’t always the stickiest connection in this regard. If you find this an issue, you can disable LDAC in the app and settle for the mode that offers a stronger connection (AAC).

Anker’s got AI features ready and waiting, though whether you’ll use them is another matter. There’s real-time AI translation for over 100 languages, and the Space 2 supports the Hey Anka personal assistant. To use these features, the Soundcore app has to keep running in the background, so it might use up some of your device’s battery.

The Space 2 also incorporates features from its Sleep A30 with white noise streams, meditations, brainwave audio, and sleep stories to help you relax. To be honest, with these being full-sized over-ears, I can’t see them being much use for actual sleep, but if you fly a fair bit, I can see how these features would be useful.

Noise Cancellation

• Transparency mode
• Good call quality

Budget over-ears have always struggled to clear away noise, and the Soundcore Space 2 does as good a job as it can, but there’s still noise that gets through.

Travelling from Canary Wharf and Farringdon, as well as on the Jubilee line, there was still plenty of noise that got past the headphones’ microphones. It wasn’t so much the hive of people around me that caused the noise, but the ambient sounds of train stations that I picked up on the most.

With the volume set to 50%, I could still hear music, but it wasn’t a silent performance, and the volume had to be turned up to make it more audible. There’s also no Wind Noise Reduction mode on these headphones, unlike on the Pro.

The ANC is stronger than what I remember from the Sony WH-CH720N, and running a pink noise test, I found it’s better at suppressing noise than the original Space One, but not as strong as the Space One Pro. The Space 2 sits firmly in the middle of the Space family.

The transparency mode is pretty good. It presents the outside world with good levels of clarity and detail. The only issue is that it amplifies outside sounds, so there is a little noise the headphones create when the ambient mode is turned on.

I’d recommend these headphones for taking calls outside. They’re very good at reducing background noise, and although the person on the other end said they were doing something to my voice in terms of its tone, it was still audible. They’re not ones to use when it gets windy, as they can’t deal with wind noise in blustery conditions.

Sound Quality

• Clear, spacious sound
• Lacks a little energy

The Space One were fine for the price, but there were areas where it could improve (namely bass). The Space One Pro were better than I had any reason to imagine. The Space 2 are a step down from the Pro but still one of the best headphones I’ve heard around this price.

What Soundcore seems to have found is an extra dollop of clarity and detail that puts the Space 2 over less expensive headphones from the likes of Panasonic, EarFun, and Sony. These sound much more mature for the price than you’d think, the kind of sound quality you’d expect from a pair of headphones that cost in the region of £200 / $200. In that sense, they’re great value.

What they lack compared to the Space One Pro is the same level of clarity, detail, bass presence and energy. The Space One Pro signature is more forward, which draws voices and instruments closer to your ears within the soundstage. The Space 2 are just as wide, but don’t boast that same level of depth and energy.

With bass, there is a presence to Childish Gambino’s This is America, a weightiness to the lows and a warmth that’s a step up over the original Space One. It’s a balanced performance where the bass doesn’t intrude or step into the midrange, and the overall performance is cleaner and more precise than most at this end of the market.

Highs are clear, maybe not the brightest but smooth enough not to become an earache or fatiguing. Vocals don’t quite hit the same natural tone as the Space One Pro, and, with the soundstage further back, they sound a little distant as well, but the performance is clear and strikes a consistent, neutral tone. I could ask for a bit more dynamism and flourish in the vocals and the sound overall, but you can get that by opting for the Space One Pro.

The 3D audio feature is… better than I thought it’d be. It’s definitely thinner, and sounds less natural than music in stereo. But bass doesn’t lose too much of its impact, and there’s depth to the sound if you don’t mind the slightly artificial tone the headphones go for. It’s fine, but I prefer the detail and clarity of listening to tracks in native stereo.

Should you buy it?