Soundcore Space One Pro review

Soundcore Space One Pro Review: Design and Fit

Soundcore’s flagship headphones have a fairly modest design that’s far from flashy or flashy. You’re looking at a matte plastic casing with a minimal company logo on the outside of the earcups, thick foam earcups, and a generously padded leather-coated headband. I don’t mind a modest body as long as it is well built. The Space One Pros don’t feel flimsy; they are quite sturdy and robust and do justice to their mid-range price. They are also completely foldable, making them easy to store in my small carrying bag.

The Space One Pros have a fit that is so flexible that they cross loosely. I used these as headphones for a few days, which meant I had to wear them on the way to and from work. As I walked briskly through the chaotic streets of Manhattan, the headphones would often start to slide back until they were almost on the back of my head, waiting to slide off. I had to manually adjust the fit by bringing them forward, which is not only annoying but also ruins my hair.

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The adjustment strap on the headphones is also looser than I would like. It doesn’t have markers or a tactile interface that lets you see the steps you’re adjusting. Simply folding or unfolding the headphones would often change the position of the headband. This didn’t affect me much as I would always use them on the smallest setting, but it would be quite annoying for someone who likes to keep their headphones at a very specific setting.

The only positive side is that the loose, easy fit makes it easy to wear these for long periods of time, though. If I could ignore them sliding off my head every ten minutes, that would be great.

Soundcore Space One Pro review: Controls

It took me a while to learn the function of each button on these headphones, but once I did, it was pretty easy to navigate everything from playback and calling to volume using the built-in controls. I was very happy to see that the right earcup had a volume rocker. On over-ear headphones like these with plenty of room to work with, I’m usually fine with swiping up and down for volume control (the Sony Ult Wear takes care of that perfectly). Yet the reliability and tactility of physical buttons are unparalleled. The same earcup also offers a play button that handles accepting, rejecting and rejecting calls, apart from playing and pausing your content, of course. The left ear cup is responsible for turning the headphones on and off and switching between noise cancellation and ambient mode.

That’s a lot of buttons, and it would have been a lot more confusing if Soundcore hadn’t differentiated them with a different feel and size. The volume rocker is elongated and you can easily distinguish it from the play button by just rubbing it with your finger. On the other earcup, the power button has been given a slightly stiffer size, and it has a bumped-out power icon so your fingers can distinguish it from the smoother ANC button on the same earcup.

When you press the buttons, no voice prompts are given, but special tones are played for each action performed. It took me about two days to get used to the tones.

Soundcore Space One Pro review: Sound and ANC

The stock sound on the Space One Pros sounded a little chunky for my taste, but it was nothing that playing around with the companion app, Soundcore, couldn’t fix. I opted for the Treble Boost preset, which added more clarity and airiness to the orchestra. Although the headphones are already quite heavy in the low end, you can press the ANC button twice to boost the bass. It’s exactly the same as the bass boost button on the Sony Ult Wear, except it only boosts it once. Pressing it again will return you to your default sound. But really, this button just added an unnecessary thump to my music, which after a while gave me a headache. It wasn’t done well enough to maintain clarity and detail, leaving most tracks sounding muddy and overly thick. I imagine the mode works if you’re at the gym, and all you care about is making sure your rock playlist sounds as powerful as possible without worrying too much about audio quality.

While there is a long list of presets on the Space One Pros, most of them aren’t gimmicky. The podcast preset emphasized the midrange in the song I was listening to, and the Treble Reducer immediately took over some of the balance I managed to achieve by adjusting the presets. This is a very subjective area, so my preference may not be yours, but Classic was the preset I enjoyed the most. I felt this did the song the most justice by staying true to the intended sound.

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The Space One Pros have a unique four-stage noise cancellation system. Stage 1 detects noise, Stage 2 provides a noise filter, Stage 3 eliminates noise in real time and Stage 4 enhances noise reduction. While the noise cancellation wasn’t bad, it didn’t live up to the company’s extraordinary claims. It was decent but not excellent. The sound of the Subway as I walked over the vents, which I found to be one of the most difficult sounds to suppress, was only reduced, not canceled. I could hear my caller just a little better, but I wasn’t in a vacuum far away from the sounds of the city. With noise not as loud as the Subway, such as passersby on the street, my colleagues in the office and my roommate cooking in the kitchen while I sat in the next room, they were all reasonably cancelled.

Soundcore Space One Pro: Battery and other functions

As for the battery, you’re looking at 40 hours with noise cancellation on and 60 hours without. These are higher than the standard numbers on most over-ear headphones. Typically, headphones of this size offer around 30 to 40 hours. Fast charging on the Space One Pros gives you eight hours of playback on a five-minute charge.

The Space One Pros can connect to two devices at the same time, which is always an appreciated feature as it saves you the time and hassle of manually switching between your laptop and phone. An Easy Chat option automatically lowers the volume of your content when it detects you’re talking to someone. Apple calls this feature Conversation Awareness, and we recently saw it on the latest version AirPods 4. However, make sure the Easy Chat toggle is enabled in the companion app; it is not enabled by default. It was a pleasant surprise to see a sidetone mode on these headphones. When enabled in the app, this mode allows you to hear your own audio during a call. You might want to turn it on to make sure your voice comes through during an important meeting or at the start of an intense gaming session.

Soundcore Space One Pro review: Pronunciation

The ANC worked harder to reduce the noise than to eliminate it. I had trouble listening to my calls even with the mode turned on. As for fit, the faux leather on the headband continually tried to slide off my head to the point where I had to manually readjust it repeatedly.

I was a fan of the Space One Pros’ bright and airy sound, even if that came after a small tweak to the companion app. The default sound was a bit thick for me, but it may be how someone likes their music. Actually, I wouldn’t mind that at the gym either. Simple, intuitive controls are essential to the headphone experience, and the Space One Pros deliver. You get a dedicated physical button for each action, and they’re all distinguished by size, feel, or shape. Some bells and whistles like sidetone mode and easy chat are also present on these headphones. The Space One Pros definitely have more positive aspects than flaws, but some shortcomings are too crucial to ignore. I don’t see myself using these as my daily headphones because I want to completely silence the loud, chaotic sounds of New York Citynot alone reduced.

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