Up next in 10
Soundcore Liberty 4 PRO ANC Earbuds Review: Premium Buds, Mid-Tier Price
154 views
Feb 13, 2025
Soundcore's Liberty 4 Pro earbuds solve almost all the problems with the Liberty 3 Pro earbuds and deliver a great value. Are they the buds to buy? Find out in Dustin's review. | Check out the text review: https://tinyurl.com/Liberty4DA | Purchase the Soundcore Liberty Pro 4 @ Soundcore https://shrsl.com/4u7su | Amazon https://youtu.be/pN0bf5KceIw | Amazon Canadahttps://amzn.to/40VXAXG | Amazon UK https://amzn.to/4gD1f2r | Amazon Germany https://amzn.to/4gJa8rc Check out the DA Merch here: https://bit.ly/TWIMerch | Become a Patron: https://www.patreon.com/dustinabbott | On the Web: http://dustinabbott.net/ | Sign up for my Newsletter: http://bit.ly/1RHvUNp | Instagram: http://bit.ly/DLAinsta | Facebook: http://on.fb.me/1nuUUeH | Flickr: http://bit.ly/1UcnC0B | 500px: http://bit.ly/1Sy2Ngu Follow Craig @ https://www.instagram.com/craigstoffersen/ Want to support this channel? Use these affiliate links to shop at: B&H Photo: http://bhpho.to/1TA0Xge Adorama: https://howl.link/nt4zdz1goa7ql Camera Canada: http://bit.ly/DLACameraCan Sony Canada: https://www.thesonyshop.ca/?ref=abbott Amazon: https://amzn.to/3HrY64d Amazon Canada: https://amzn.to/3qG1p18 Ebay: http://bit.ly/DustineBay Into the AM Clothing: https://bit.ly/intotheAMda and use code DUSTIN10 for 10% off Fioboc Cloting: https://tinyurl.com/FiobocDA20 and us code DUSTIN20 for 20% off Make a donation via Paypal: https://www.paypal.com/paypalme/dustinTWI ============================= Table of Contents: ============================= 0:00 - Concept
View Video Transcript
0:00
[Music]
0:10
I am Dustin Abbott and I'm here to give
0:12
you my review of the soundcore Liberty 4
0:15
Pro uh active noise cancelling Bluetooth
0:18
earbuds last year I reviewed the sound
0:20
core Liberty 3 earbuds and I gave them a
0:23
bit of a mixed review on the plus side I
0:26
love the sound quality I love the very
0:28
effective A and C in them I thought the
0:30
packaging was great and the integration
0:32
of software features through the app uh
0:36
I thought all of that was well
0:37
integrated at the same time however on
0:39
the negative side I had three primary
0:41
disappointments first of all I found
0:43
that I really wasn't able to get what I
0:46
considered to be a great fit with them
0:49
and and so you know I worked with all
0:51
the different variations and it was just
0:53
never all that fantastic I also found
0:55
that similarly I didn't get a great fit
0:57
in putting them back into the case and
1:00
that whole process was a little bit
1:02
clunky longterm which didn't make it
1:04
into my review but I found longterm that
1:07
when using a andc where I really kind of
1:10
needed it I found that I was a little
1:12
bit disappointed with the overall uh
1:15
battery life and that if I was working
1:16
say an outdoor project and putting in a
1:18
day that if I needed to use active noise
1:21
cancellation because of my work
1:22
environment that there wasn't enough
1:24
battery life to get me through
1:26
everything that I needed so definitely
1:28
some pros and some cons so when I saw
1:31
that they had a new version of the
1:33
Liberties coming I at first was a little
1:37
bit reluctant when I saw that they had
1:38
moved to more of an airpod style uh
1:42
earbud with a stem on it but it does
1:45
seem to have solved a lot of the
1:46
problems that I found with the Liberty
1:48
3s the Liberty 4 Pros they last longer
1:52
they sound even better they charge
1:54
faster and they definitely fit better in
1:56
my ear and again at $130 or less they
1:59
rep present a really amazing value for
2:01
what is a truly premium earbud and
2:04
because I have access to um like airpod
2:08
2 Pros that I can say that I would
2:11
actually prefer these in sound quality
2:14
and performance and even in fit so
2:16
definitely some steps in the right
2:18
direction so let's talk about the
2:20
features for a moment as with the
2:22
Liberty 3s you do have a lot of
2:24
different configuration options but
2:26
because of a different kind of design
2:28
here there isn't what they call the ear
2:30
Wings kind of a secondary feature that
2:32
helps to stabilize them in place but
2:34
rather what they do give you is a huge
2:35
variety of different tips that will
2:37
allow you to go from very small to
2:39
fairly large to be able to get a better
2:41
fit I think that for myself the reason
2:44
why I get such a better fit with the
2:46
Liberty 4S has a lot to do with the size
2:49
of the housing while I don't love having
2:52
the stem I think that the stem does
2:53
solve a lot of the problems what
2:55
happened with the Liberty 3s is that the
2:59
because the housings had to be so large
3:02
to um you know give room so you can get
3:04
all of the various sensors that need to
3:06
be on there needed to have room on there
3:08
for you know adequate battery life all
3:10
of those different factors the byproduct
3:12
was is that I actually found that the
3:14
housing itself was just a little too big
3:16
to fit into my ear cavity and and so as
3:20
a byproduct I never really could get an
3:22
amazing fit out of them whereas pretty
3:24
much right out of the box I found that
3:26
the Liberty 4 Pros fit just fine I did
3:29
experiment and found that moving one
3:31
siiz tip actually helped me to get a
3:34
little bit better in result but uh
3:36
definitely a there's a lot of
3:38
configuration options that are there
3:40
also the battery life has improved so
3:42
now we have a battery life rating of up
3:45
to 10 hours or 40 hours when you look at
3:48
the the amount of time you can get off
3:50
of the charge case itself and so that's
3:53
10 hours not using na or ANC it's 7 and
3:57
1/2 hours when using ANC which means
4:00
that we have got anywhere between 1 and
4:02
1 half to 2 hours of additional battery
4:04
life while using active noise
4:06
cancellation so that that is long enough
4:09
to uh to be able to get in pretty much a
4:11
full day if you're working on projects
4:13
furthermore thec has been improved this
4:15
is ANC 3.0 it's now powered by a total
4:18
of seven different sensors and that
4:20
includes a barometric sensor if you're
4:22
on a plane it actually is detecting
4:24
altitude and so it can compensate even
4:26
for that as a part of the noise
4:28
cancellation pretty cool it also
4:31
features what they say up to two times
4:34
faster charging and that may not mean a
4:36
lot to you but this probably will only a
4:39
five minute charge gives you up to four
4:41
hours of additional playback time which
4:43
is pretty fantastic even if you get to a
4:45
place where you're uh you're running out
4:47
of battery life potentially on a really
4:49
long day pop them back into the case for
4:52
a very short amount of times I mean
4:53
frankly your ears could probably use a
4:55
break anyway and you can get up to four
4:57
additional hours of playback even after
4:59
just just 5 minutes so that is fantastic
5:02
also the earbuds do have an
5:04
ipx5 rating and if you're not familiar
5:07
with the IP ratings an ipx5 rating means
5:10
that they are weather resistant sweat
5:12
proof rainproof or Flash proof and so
5:15
what that means is that it can handle
5:17
any kind of water being thrown at them
5:19
but what they don't have is any kind of
5:21
long-term submersion rating and so don't
5:23
drop them into the toilet or into the
5:26
bathtub someplace where they're going to
5:27
be submersed for a long period of time
5:29
they probably could handle a brief dip
5:31
but I wouldn't leave them in for any uh
5:33
length of time so a lot of great
5:35
features there that are part of the
5:37
design now so how did I use them well
5:40
first of all I use them in the way you
5:41
actually use earbuds I think that's
5:43
probably the most important so that's
5:44
listening to music playback audiobooks
5:47
and podcast things like that uh for
5:49
video movie type playback I use them
5:52
while working I use them on telephone
5:54
calls I use them while using my very
5:57
loud power toothbrush I've got a great
5:59
Brun power toothbrush but when you have
6:02
that thing inside of your head it sounds
6:03
like a jackhammer is going off and most
6:06
of my earbuds in the past that I've put
6:08
in I just turn off particularly if I'm
6:09
listening like to a podcast while I'm
6:11
brushing my teeth because there it's
6:13
just so much noise inside my head that
6:16
essentially I can't hear what I'm
6:17
listening to these are the first of the
6:19
noise cancell cancilla earbuds that I've
6:22
used that I could actually hear a
6:24
podcast while brushing my teeth so I'm
6:26
inan kudos to them on that I use them
6:28
them while working environments that had
6:30
a lot of background noise um I used them
6:33
uh this is an important one for me I
6:34
used them while taking a nap while other
6:37
people were talking and doing other
6:39
things and for me to be able to kind of
6:41
block out all the environmental sound
6:42
and maybe just have something either
6:44
quietly playing sometimes even I'll
6:45
listen to a a podcast and if I've
6:48
listened to your podcast and fallen
6:50
asleep during it it's it's in a good
6:51
cause I promise you I've used them for
6:53
Zoom meetings I've even used them for
6:56
watching say a basketball game in my
6:58
jacuzzi tub and being able to block out
7:01
the sounds of jets so I could actually
7:02
hear the audio so a lot of different
7:04
varieties of situations that I've tested
7:06
so in the course of doing that here's
7:08
what I've liked along the way audio
7:10
quality is outstanding for both music
7:13
and video it is probably the best audio
7:16
quality that I have had in earbud to
7:18
this point what I find is that there is
7:21
really really a really nice blend so
7:23
there's a lot of lowend and so you get
7:25
really great Basse response but it's not
7:27
like the cheap earbuds where you just
7:29
feel like that's just been artificially
7:31
boosted at the cost of overall good
7:34
sound quality there's just a really nice
7:36
Nuance across the you know the kind of
7:39
the whole audio range but while still
7:42
having really solid low end and so the
7:44
audio quality is great it means that if
7:46
you're watching a movie for example the
7:48
soundtrack is going to be very Dynamic
7:51
but you're still going to have very nice
7:52
voice placement and uh sound effect
7:54
placement so all of that is really
7:56
really fantastic both generations of
7:59
these sound core buds I found that the
8:01
overall Bluetooth range is really
8:03
excellent I'm able to you know kind of
8:06
roam farther away from my phone or
8:08
tablet or whatever without losing
8:10
connection and that's sometimes going
8:12
from with the device inside the house to
8:14
moving outside the house to be able to
8:16
do that without losing the Bluetooth
8:18
connection is
8:20
fantastic like most of the modern you
8:23
know decent quality Bluetooth buds it
8:26
does have dual connection mode so that
8:27
means that you can connect to multiple
8:29
devices simultaneously that is usually
8:32
mostly good because you don't have to
8:34
you know manually disconnect from one to
8:37
connect to another but it also means
8:38
that sometimes for example if I am
8:40
working outside and I have my phone with
8:42
me but if I get close enough it's
8:44
starting to connect to my iPad that can
8:46
be a little bit of annoying you can hear
8:47
the connect and disconnect sound it's
8:50
not a big deal but it just kind of pulls
8:52
you out of the immersiveness of the
8:53
moment I really really think it's
8:56
fantastic how much control you have over
8:59
the quantity of active noise
9:00
cancellation that you've got here either
9:02
going towards the transparency end or
9:05
where you're completely trying to
9:06
isolate on the other end and so you have
9:10
basically what amounts to about 11 steps
9:13
with a a number five position so
9:16
basically five degrees in each Direction
9:18
so towards transparency or towards you
9:20
know com complete isolation with your
9:23
normal mode with no active noise
9:24
cancellation falling right between those
9:26
and you also have a unique way of
9:28
accessing that from the actual case
9:31
itself obviously you can do it from
9:32
within the app you can switch to the
9:34
basic modes just by clicking on the
9:36
earbud itself but you also have this
9:39
touch pad on the front of the charge
9:41
case and then also an uh LCD screen that
9:44
will pop up on the charge case itself
9:46
that will allow you to use that to kind
9:48
of slide in either direction for just so
9:51
it's it's one more way of of uh
9:53
controlling the active noise
9:55
cancellation also the active noise
9:57
cancellation here is probably the best
9:58
that I have ever had you can actually
10:00
hear if you're kind of working on the
10:02
charge case you can actually hear the
10:04
silence build if you're working towards
10:06
isolation for example or you can
10:08
actually hear the boosting of sounds an
10:11
environmental sound if you're going
10:12
towards transparency mode in both
10:14
directions you can see that these
10:16
sensors are working really really
10:18
effectively and what I find is that
10:19
they're more effective if it's you know
10:22
for example I I sometimes we use these
10:24
while I'm using power tools and kind of
10:26
use them even to protect my ears and one
10:28
of the things things that I found is
10:30
that some earbuds they just don't handle
10:32
some of the noises that come off power
10:34
tools very well these are actually
10:36
because they're they're sampling so
10:37
quickly and so often they actually do a
10:40
pretty effective job of dealing with
10:41
that and so that's really really great I
10:43
actually find it very very cool to go
10:45
through their hear ID um modes where
10:48
it's actually testing your hearing so
10:50
either it's you can do that in an
10:51
environment where you're wanting to
10:52
really have a dedicated profile where
10:54
you're blocking out sounds and to be
10:56
able to be in that environment and block
10:58
out the sound is very very cool I also
11:01
found it very cool that in a silent
11:02
environment to take their hearing test
11:04
and so it's actually determining what
11:06
frequencies you hear and can't hear and
11:08
it actually gives you feedback on you
11:11
know what your hearing is at you know as
11:12
a middle-aged man it's kind of a cool
11:14
thing to have access to and it seemed to
11:16
work quite effectively another thing is
11:19
very cool is that you can build custom
11:22
uh Equalization settings that are
11:24
calibrated to your actual hearing and so
11:26
again all of these things kind of work
11:28
together to give you a really really
11:30
great sound experience in a wide variety
11:33
of sound environments and so I think
11:35
that that is really really cool um
11:38
having an effective transparency mode is
11:40
great in mitigating conflicts with my
11:42
wife who does not love if she speaks and
11:45
I don't hear and so if there is any
11:47
chance of that being able to put that
11:49
into a transparency mode is good for my
11:51
marriage it also allowed me to
11:53
effectively block out the sounds of the
11:55
Jets and the jacuzzi and watch video
11:57
content I also like the fact that you
12:00
have really really precise I mean we're
12:03
talking not just percentage points but
12:05
actually a percentage of a percentage
12:07
Point um to see how what your charge
12:10
level is I found that transparency mode
12:13
works well during Zoom meetings I don't
12:15
know about you but I really hate if I'm
12:17
in like a zoom meeting or you know
12:19
Google me or something like that if I'm
12:21
so isolated to where I feel like
12:23
everything is in my head I I that to me
12:25
it's a really disconcerting feeling and
12:27
so I like actually being able to use a
12:28
trans transparency mode to get a little
12:30
bit of environmental sound so I don't
12:32
feel so kind of disconnected and so I
12:34
like that I also really appreciate that
12:37
they have solved what was one of my main
12:39
concerns with the previous generation in
12:41
that the there is a very definite
12:44
magnetic seating and charging that takes
12:46
place you don't feel like you have to
12:48
kind of Fiddle in there to make sure
12:49
that the the points are align but they
12:51
really just kind of snap into place and
12:53
and so that's great and as mentioned
12:55
already the fact that I can actually
12:56
hear while I'm brushing my teeth um you
12:59
know that's a step on the right
13:00
direction were the things that I didn't
13:03
like well for me and I recognize this
13:05
this your mileage may vary if you're
13:07
coming from more of an airpod background
13:10
this is the first of their buds that I
13:12
have used where rather than using a tap
13:14
on it I'm going to the squeeze or pinch
13:17
type mode more like an airpod use to me
13:21
it felt a little less precise and I I
13:24
recognize that you know they're saying
13:25
they move to that method uh you know in
13:28
part because they have the stem and you
13:29
can do that but also that it creates
13:32
less kind of false positives in terms of
13:34
you know accidental bumps or whatever uh
13:37
and that may be true I just find that
13:39
more likely when someone's trying to
13:41
talk to me and maybe if I've not been in
13:43
a transfer and I need to stop the
13:45
content I'm finding that I'm squeezing
13:47
and not always being able to do that as
13:49
responsibly as what I would like I also
13:53
while the touch bar all these kind of
13:55
things they're they're cool in a sense
13:57
as far as the actual precision I would
13:59
say that probably buttons would actually
14:03
work more precisely than the touch bar I
14:05
remember when Canon did this you kind of
14:07
introduced this on the first EOS R
14:09
camera and they had this touch bar in
14:11
there and and frankly most people most
14:13
of us just kind of hated it so anyway um
14:16
you know it's it's not a big deal here
14:17
but I think that just a button in either
14:19
direction would probably have been a a
14:22
simpler solution and maybe even a more
14:24
precise solution so my conclusion is
14:27
this at a price point of $29 if you're
14:30
paying full pop obviously a lot of times
14:32
there might be discounts or sales that
14:33
will get you even cheaper than that but
14:35
even at the full MSRP I feel like these
14:37
represent a really strong value at that
14:39
price these are better earbuds than a
14:43
lot of the premium Brands out there
14:45
they're better earbuds in terms of the
14:47
battery life better earbuds in terms of
14:48
the sound quality uh better earbuds in
14:51
terms of the fit and even better earbuds
14:53
in terms of the quality of the active
14:55
noise cancellation sound core really
14:58
really delivers a lot of bang for the
15:00
buck and I've really come to respect
15:02
what they're able to accomplish with the
15:04
brand the Liberty 3s I didn't love in
15:07
every way the Liberty 4S I have to say
15:10
that these are probably going to be my
15:11
daily drivers I've got a lot of earbud
15:13
options to choose from I'm really really
15:15
liking these and until someone dethrones
15:17
them it's probably going to be what's
15:18
sticking in my ear for a while and so if
15:20
you're looking for a great sounding
15:23
active noise cancellation earbud that
15:25
you know isn't necessarily like budget
15:27
budget price but kind of maybe a
15:29
mid-tier price but giving you a premium
15:31
quality look no further than the Liberty
15:33
4 Pros they really are fantastic you
15:36
want more information you can look in
15:38
the description down below will'll be
15:39
some buying links place you can go and
15:41
just kind of gather more information if
15:43
you want to see that link to an article
15:45
I put together with my review notes and
15:47
as always thanks for watching have a
15:49
great day and let the light in
15:52
[Music]
#Audio Equipment