The Soundcore Space Q45 has reached the current first-tier level in terms of comprehensive noise cancellation performance. The sound performance is further optimized based on the outstanding strength of previous products. The overall experience has also improved, and it can be recommended to consumers who do not want to compromise on both sound and noise cancellation.

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Appearance Design

The appearance of the Anker Soundcore Space Q45 is in the same line as the Soundcore Life Q35, but a lot of polishing and optimization have been done in the details. The Soundcore Space Q45 in my hand is somewhere between black and dark blue, which looks much darker than the Soundcore Life Q35’s blue, but it’s not completely black.

The material of the headphone is very thick to the touch, and most of the surfaces are treated with a skin-like process. There is a circle of highlight treatment on the surface of the headphone cavity panel. The firmness of the metal shaft is also significantly improved. From a structural point of view, the entire frame design is relatively redundant, and there will be a certain thickness from the side.

The inclined angle is designed between the cavity and the bracket. Although it looks like a small angle from the outside, it actually has a good fit and is more ergonomic.

Compared with the Soundcore Life Q35, the details of workmanship will be better, and the quality of seams and joints will be significantly higher. The joint rotation damping is between the Sony WH-1000XM4 and the Bose QuietComfort 45, and there is no noise when rotating. The paragraph feels solid when the headphone frame is pulled to adjust the head beam.

After wearing it, the earmuffs of the Soundcore Space Q45 have a larger area and a thicker earmuffs. This provides a fairly good wrap when turning the head, with no sound leakage affecting the functionality of the headphone. There is a lot of space inside the earmuffs. Unless the pinna is particularly large or protruding, the ear cup space of the Soundcore Space Q45 is absolutely sufficient. The head beam pad with better elasticity and rigidity is used, but the pressure on the head is not strong after actually wearing it. The pressure near the auricle is not too large, and it is dispersed by the wide ear cups. On the basis of ensuring basic wrapping, there is no excessive increase in transverse and longitudinal pressure.

The playback control buttons are still located on the right earphone, and the ANC button and power button are located on the left earphone. All buttons feel the same, and the feedback is solid when pressed.

Soundcore APP

The Soundcore Space Q45, like the entire range of Soundcore products, continues to use the Soundcore App as its own console program. In the APP, you can control preset EQ and independent equalizer adjustment, noise cancellation mode and ambient sound mode adjustment, and operation logic setting.

There is a separate hearing protection feature that recognizes real-time playback volume and also allows for a settable high volume limit. This should be the first mainstream wireless earphone manufacturer to have such a high-priority hearing protection function, mature enough functions, and enough intuitive data. During this period of use, some versions of firmware have been pushed one after another. The firmware upgrade time is claimed to take about 5 minutes, but it only takes about 3 and a half minutes, which is quite fast among mainstream brands.

Voice feedback is short and clear, with multilingual support. The scene where the voice prompt appears can be adjusted in the secondary menu of the APP settings. By double-clicking the noise cancellation button, you can turn on the Bass UP function. After the Bass UP function is turned on, the sound of the Soundcore Space Q45 will be slightly warmer, increasing the low-frequency quantity sense and thickness. The built-in sound effects do not conflict with all noise cancellation modes, sound effects modes, equalizers, etc., and belong to a higher-level adjustment.

Active Noise Cancellation (ANC) & Calls

The noise cancellation depth of the headphone is good, basically second only to those top-level products such as Apple AirPods Max, Sony WH-1000XM4, and Sony WH-1000XM5. The gap is only felt in the 50-60Hz band. In addition, the depth of the mid-low frequency is sufficient to meet the requirements. At the same time, the Soundcore Space Q45 should be the first time in China’s over-earnoise cancellation headphones to have this level of noise cancellation bandwidth coverage. And the ear pressure is not too high. Compared to the Soundcore Life Q35, that’s a significant improvement.

The transparency mode of the Soundcore Space Q45 has five-speed adjustment, and the naturalness of the sound is good when turned on. Generally speaking, it is turned on to the maximum during use. At this time, there is no obvious timbre change compared with the actual ambient sound. But extremely high-frequency will be a little less, and the mid-frequency will sound a little dry.

Ambient sound usability is good, and there are no issues that particularly affect dialogue in everyday use. In the process of receiving sound information from the external environment, both stability and sound clarity are acceptable. The Transparency mode of the Soundcore Space Q45 also has a function that sounds similar to Sony covering the real-time communication of the right earphone. In fact, this is not the case, but a manual switch, the function of which is actually to reduce the volume in the headphone to highlight the external vocals. It would be a better solution if this function could be called in real time on the headphones.

Regarding wind noise performance, in the five-level noise cancellation mode, the wind noise resistance of the headphone is between the Sony WH-1000XM4 and the Bose QuietComfort 45. In addition, the Soundcore Space Q45 has a separate wind noise mode switch in the secondary menu of settings, which can be turned on based on any noise cancellation gear. Just like the Bass up introduced above, it has a very high degree of freedom and is loaded based on the existing mode, without affecting the existing noise cancellation depth.

The Soundcore Space Q45 has an adaptive noise cancellation function. In actual performance, the adjustment perception is not very obvious (usually jumps between the fourth and fifth gears), and the recognition sensitivity is good when switching between different environments.

Headphone’s call clarity is better than most products in the same price range. After the background noise is weakened in a noisy environment, the texture of the human voice is not too thin. The stability of the call is also sufficient for normal use in most environments.

Finally, after turning off ANC mode, the Soundcore Space Q45 also showed a good seal. Although there is still a certain degree of openness in terms of physical structure, the sound insulation effect in closed over-ear headphones is still relatively good.

Connectivity & Latency & Battery Life

The Soundcore Space Q45 uses a Bluetooth 5.3 chip that supports SBC/AAC/LDAC audio codec. Both AAC and LDAC (sound quality priority 990kbps) have good signal connection quality, and there is no signal loss problem in indoor partition wall scenarios. In subway stations, coffee shops and other places with complex 2.4GHz signals, the AAC connection will not have problems such as packet loss and lag. On the other hand, because the transmission signal occupies a lot of bandwidth, the LDAC will occasionally appear lag. After the multi-point connection is turned on, the process of switching devices is relatively stable, but the sensitivity can continue to be improved.

While there’s no separate low-latency mode, the latency performance isn’t bad. Using LDAC to connect the standard test device Samsung Galaxy S20 to browse online streaming video, the delay is about half a word.

The built-in battery capacity of the headphone is 750mAh, and the battery life can be up to 50 hours when the ANC mode is turned on, and 65 hours when the ANC mode is turned off. That is to say, short trips basically do not require charging. The battery life of the Soundcore Space Q45 is strong in both over-ear wireless headphones under $200 and over $200.

Acoustic Configuration – Sound Quality Review

In terms of unit configuration, the Soundcore Space Q45 uses a 40mm dynamic driver, and the diaphragm is a silk composite + double-layer metal ceramic. In wired mode, this unit can reflect a good quality. Subjective evaluation is still based on the commonly used LDAC protocol, the equalizer is the most basic Soundcore classic, no sound effects are turned on, and Bass up is turned off.

The low-frequency quantity sense of the Soundcore Space Q45 is moderate and slightly more, and the extension is excellent. The thickness is not too prominent, and the plumpness is moderate.

In terms of mid-frequency, the thickness of the vocals remains in a relatively normal state. The sense of distance is moderate, there is a certain distance from the ear, but it does not hide behind the instrument. The style bias between male and female voices is not obvious, and it belongs to the type suitable for all kinds of voices. During this period of experience, I personally prefer to use the Soundcore Space Q45 to listen to female-based pop music. Thickness, texture, and sense of line are all well balanced. The degree of staining is very small, and there are only slight staining marks when the high frequency is large.

The high frequency brightness is moderate, and the extension performance is good. The whole high frequency is generally relatively smooth, and the vocal dental has traces of polishing.

The sound field has a certain distance horizontally and vertically, and the “sense of height” is not bad. The separation between vocals and instruments is good, and the separation between instruments is relatively less prominent. The analytical ability is excellent, but the “analytical sense” also has a certain outstanding. It can be said that the amount of information of the Anker Soundcore Space Q45 is not at the same level as the vast majority of over-ear noise cancellation headphones within $200, and it is more than one level higher. Both dynamic and transient performance are excellent.

In terms of instruments, stringed instruments will slightly accentuate some lines. Violin, guitar, viola, harp, etc. are all prominent in texture, detail information of plucking strings, etc. The body sense of the cello is good, but there will be a little less reverberation, and the tone is a bit hard. The metal wind instruments have a good sense of momentum, and the overtones are relatively abundant. The thickness of the lines of the woodwind instruments is basically in line with the normal state, and the naturalness of the fundamental and overtones belongs to the first echelon among the dynamic over-ear headphones I have heard, which is basically second only to the Aonic 50. The percussion instruments have a certain sense of excitement, and the cymbals also have some problems with hard sound.

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