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forum thread Posted by sr71 • Jan 10, 2025
forum thread Posted by sr71 • Jan 10, 2025

Soundcore by Anker Q20i Hybrid Active Noise Cancelling Headphones $40

$40

$70

42% off
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9 Comments

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Jan 10, 2025
1,159 Posts
Joined Dec 2006
Jan 10, 2025
bassett
Jan 10, 2025
1,159 Posts
Last edited by BoopSnoot January 10, 2025 at 11:32 AM.
Jan 10, 2025
14,108 Posts
Joined Nov 2019
Jan 10, 2025
Lilyly
Jan 10, 2025
14,108 Posts
Quote from bassett :
Also at Amazon.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0C3HCD34R
then whats the deal here if everyones selling for the same price.
Last edited by BoopSnoot January 10, 2025 at 11:33 AM.
2
Jan 10, 2025
44 Posts
Joined Dec 2017
Jan 10, 2025
too_many_headphones
Jan 10, 2025
44 Posts
I found these to have unacceptably bad SQ for music. I gave them to a family member who didn't have any ANC headphones for a very long flight, but I couldn't keep them in my stable.

SQ details: I normally listen first with ANC off. In this case, the sound signature with NC off is excessively bassy. I thought that the bass boost feature was turned on already. These headphones are unacceptable without equalization. I did some work via parametric equalization and was able to get them to the point where I do not mind the sound, but I'm too lazy to maintain EQ settings.
EDIT: Just to be clear, by excessively bassy, I mean there's so much low end boom that it muddies the entire mid-range. Vocals sounds drowned out, muffled, unclear. This actually improves somewhat with ANC on.
1
Jan 11, 2025
3,780 Posts
Joined Jul 2019
Jan 11, 2025
Gb1908
Jan 11, 2025
3,780 Posts
Quote from too_many_headphones :
I found these to have unacceptably bad SQ for music. I gave them to a family member who didn't have any ANC headphones for a very long flight, but I couldn't keep them in my stable.

SQ details: I normally listen first with ANC off. In this case, the sound signature with NC off is excessively bassy. I thought that the bass boost feature was turned on already. These headphones are unacceptable without equalization. I did some work via parametric equalization and was able to get them to the point where I do not mind the sound, but I'm too lazy to maintain EQ settings.
EDIT: Just to be clear, by excessively bassy, I mean there's so much low end boom that it muddies the entire mid-range. Vocals sounds drowned out, muffled, unclear. This actually improves somewhat with ANC on.

Sometimes this is a matter of the app's use of amplification and/or sound processing or source quality, for a fair test, play a flac audio file...
Jan 11, 2025
2,880 Posts
Joined Nov 2006
Jan 11, 2025
gl21133
Jan 11, 2025
2,880 Posts
Quote from too_many_headphones :
I found these to have unacceptably bad SQ for music. I gave them to a family member who didn't have any ANC headphones for a very long flight, but I couldn't keep them in my stable.

SQ details: I normally listen first with ANC off. In this case, the sound signature with NC off is excessively bassy. I thought that the bass boost feature was turned on already. These headphones are unacceptable without equalization. I did some work via parametric equalization and was able to get them to the point where I do not mind the sound, but I'm too lazy to maintain EQ settings.
EDIT: Just to be clear, by excessively bassy, I mean there's so much low end boom that it muddies the entire mid-range. Vocals sounds drowned out, muffled, unclear. This actually improves somewhat with ANC on.

I've had the opposite experience, I love mine. Solid ANC and good for audiobooks or music. It may speak to the mediocrity of my regular speakers at home but I love music on these.
1
1
Jan 11, 2025
44 Posts
Joined Dec 2017
Jan 11, 2025
too_many_headphones
Jan 11, 2025
44 Posts
Quote from gl21133 :
I've had the opposite experience, I love mine. Solid ANC and good for audiobooks or music. It may speak to the mediocrity of my regular speakers at home but I love music on these.
I'm curious, do you mostly keep ANC on or off, because it was the ANC off experience that particularly disappointed me.
Jan 11, 2025
44 Posts
Joined Dec 2017
Jan 11, 2025
too_many_headphones
Jan 11, 2025
44 Posts
Quote from Gb1908 :
Sometimes this is a matter of the app's use of amplification and/or sound processing or source quality, for a fair test, play a flac audio file...
I agree that quality source matters! 👍
In this case, I tested 3 pairs of headphones. I always test headphones against a consistent set of test tracks that are selected specifically to reveal some of the flaws I mentioned above. For those who maybe don't have a library full of flac files, one way to work around source limitations is to do comparisons against a pair you already own.
- Contenders: Q20i, Space Q45 (both new to me at the time), and the old stand-by MDR-7506.
- Sources: Both on my mobile device with Spotify and my PC with flac sources from Foobar2k.
- Note that I was able to make them sound acceptable with decent EQ, but there were huge lumps in the signature response curve. For more details on how to EQ headphones, see https://www.head-fi.org/threads/h...al.413900/ . In fact, if these were headphones that I intended to primarily use at my PC, I might have kept them after EQ because they sounded fine, if not great. But keeping a parametric EQ on Android is something of a pain and I didn't want to do that for these.
On the other hand, for a BT headset, I want the test conditions to match how I will actually listen to them on the go. For me that's going to be Spotify from a mobile phone.

Finally, everyone has different ears, different sound signature preferences, and different tastes in music. Different genres of music reveal very different aspects of a speaker system. Follow your own taste and choose the ones you like. I prefer a very flat response curve (like the MDR-7506) because that's almost always the best performance across a wide range of genres and probably also because I've trained my own preferences. Follow what you like and happy listening. 🎶🎧🥰

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Jan 11, 2025
3,780 Posts
Joined Jul 2019
Jan 11, 2025
Gb1908
Jan 11, 2025
3,780 Posts
Quote from too_many_headphones :
I agree that quality source matters! 👍
In this case, I tested 3 pairs of headphones. I always test headphones against a consistent set of test tracks that are selected specifically to reveal some of the flaws I mentioned above. For those who maybe don't have a library full of flac files, one way to work around source limitations is to do comparisons against a pair you already own.
- Contenders: Q20i, Space Q45 (both new to me at the time), and the old stand-by MDR-7506.
- Sources: Both on my mobile device with Spotify and my PC with flac sources from Foobar2k.
- Note that I was able to make them sound acceptable with decent EQ, but there were huge lumps in the signature response curve. For more details on how to EQ headphones, see https://www.head-fi.org/threads/h...al.413900/ . In fact, if these were headphones that I intended to primarily use at my PC, I might have kept them after EQ because they sounded fine, if not great. But keeping a parametric EQ on Android is something of a pain and I didn't want to do that for these.
On the other hand, for a BT headset, I want the test conditions to match how I will actually listen to them on the go. For me that's going to be Spotify from a mobile phone.

Finally, everyone has different ears, different sound signature preferences, and different tastes in music. Different genres of music reveal very different aspects of a speaker system. Follow your own taste and choose the ones you like. I prefer a very flat response curve (like the MDR-7506) because that's almost always the best performance across a wide range of genres and probably also because I've trained my own preferences. Follow what you like and happy listening. 🎶🎧🥰

I agree q20s are bass heavy buy in my exp not muddy... my q45 make a middling attempt at stage presence.. if you want hd gaming / dts/ dolby positional audio type of stage presencce then you are in the $200+ category
Jan 11, 2025
2,880 Posts
Joined Nov 2006
Jan 11, 2025
gl21133
Jan 11, 2025
2,880 Posts
Quote from too_many_headphones :
I'm curious, do you mostly keep ANC on or off, because it was the ANC off experience that particularly disappointed me.
Primarily on.