The everyday life in home office or traveling can be loud and exhausting. MeinMMO author Benedikt Schlotmann has now bought a pair of in-ear headphones that help him save his nerves.
In everyday life, there are various things that can drive someone crazy:
- Kitchen appliances or other household devices that make noise.
- Construction workers who have to open the street early in the morning.
- The girlfriend watching her favorite series in the background.
However, in the home office, I hardly have a chance to escape the noise. Somehow, the noise follows me. Noise-canceling promises relief from disturbing sounds.
By now, I’ve had nearly a dozen of these headphones on my desk for personal and professional use. The headphones from Soundcore were advertised by the manufacturer with active noise cancellation. I wanted to try that at least once and gave the headphones a chance.
Officially, the device costs 79.99 euros, but I have never seen the Soundcore Life A2 NC for more than 50 euros. Even at the current time (September 22), you can get another 30 euros off.
| Preview | Product | Rating | Price | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
|
soundcore Life A2 NC Multi-Modus Geräuschunterdrückung Wireless Earbuds, Kabellose ANC Bluetooth... | Zu Amazon |
*Affiliate-Links. Wir erhalten bei einem Kauf eine kleine Provision von Amazon. Vielen Dank für Eure Unterstützung!
A chance has turned into a daily companion, as I use the in-ear headphones almost daily when the noise of everyday life drives me crazy again.
I can work in peace and play in (almost) absolute silence
For a price of around 50 euros, I was especially positively surprised by the noise-canceling feature. At first, I was quite skeptical, as this feature has rarely convinced me before.
The headphones offer several settings for noise cancellation through the app:
- The “Traffic” mode filters out low frequencies. This is especially pleasant when I am traveling by tram or train.
- In “Indoor” mode, voices and mid frequencies are supposed to be filtered out. This works better sometimes than others. Some voices are still audibly unclear.
- “Outdoor” relies on a mix of frequencies. The idea is fundamentally good, but I find “Traffic” to be significantly better for the city.
Additionally, the software offers a transparency mode, where you can either hear all noises or thanks to the “Voice Mode,” voices are particularly emphasized. The “Voice Mode” also works surprisingly well.
How good is the noise cancellation? The noise cancellation works really well and is the highlight of the headphones for me. When I travel by tram or need to take a bus, I enjoy being able to almost completely block out the loud humming and either listen to music or simply enjoy the silence.
I also notice the advantage in everyday life. When my girlfriend watches her latest hospital series in the background, the hospital dramas eventually get on my nerves terribly. Thanks to noise cancellation, I can block out discussions about high blood pressure, kidney failure, or drug use. Only the loudly screaming patients remind me from time to time that there is a hospital series playing in the background.
What else do I like? Besides the noise cancellation, I also like the ergonomics: I can wear the devices comfortably for 4 or 5 hours in a row without them driving me crazy. I have only encountered a similarly good fit with the EPOS GTW 270 Hybrid, which MeinMMO tested. The interchangeable ear tips also keep the in-ear headphones securely in my ears.
Sonically, the in-ear headphones can also convince me. I can either use various equalizer settings or mix the sound myself. Games like Genshin Impact or the recently released Pokémon Unite for Android are a lot of fun with the headphones.
The mono mode is also nice: You can play the sound through a single headphone and turn off the other – a feature that I missed with the EPOS GTW 270 Hybrid.
The headphones are made of plastic and use interchangeable ear tips. By the way, the device also fits ear tips from my now immeasurable collection of various in-ear devices such as Sony or Samsung. The IPX5 certification (water resistance) is also a good thing; however, I have not been in heavy rain or at the swimming pool with the headphones yet.
These are the disadvantages: For the audio profiles and noise cancellation, you need the free Soundcore app. However, the app only works on Android and iOS.
In principle, you can also use the headphones via an external Bluetooth dongle on your PC, but you would have to forgo the strong features of the device. You also cannot use the headphones on the console, as the headphones do not have their own dongle.
The hinge of the charger box of the headphones seems fragile to me. In the 3 months that I have currently been using the headphones, nothing has happened, but this very thin plastic connection seems fragile to me.
Whom can I recommend the headphones to? Are you looking for headphones that sound good and are also interested in being able to block out annoying noises or noise? Then I can recommend the Soundcore Life A2 NC with a clear conscience.
| Preview | Product | Rating | Price | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
|
|
soundcore Life A2 NC Multi-Modus Geräuschunterdrückung Wireless Earbuds, Kabellose ANC Bluetooth... | Zu Amazon |
*Affiliate-Links. Wir erhalten bei einem Kauf eine kleine Provision von Amazon. Vielen Dank für Eure Unterstützung!
However, you have to live with the limitation that you can only use the functions on the phone, as there is no support on the PC. Here I would rather suggest you take a look at our buying guide for headphones and gaming headsets:
