Soundcore Life Q35 Noise Cancelling Headphones

I've been shopping around for some decent LDAC enabled headphones to pair with my Fiio M6 audio device. I previously bought the Edifier W820NB and they sounded quite decent for a lower-mid priced pair of headphones. I had only heard of Edifier because I own a pair of their speakers, which I'm pretty happy with. These were almost a keeper, but I decided to spend a bit more on something with more separation and crispness.I don't consider myself an audiophile by any means, but I'm all for spending a bit more for a clearer, more defined sound in my audio devices. I have a friend who has a degree in audio engineering that always asks me why I spend more than I need to on my audio choices and I always ask him why he's so cheap with his. I just always thought it was weird, considering his previously chosen profession.Anyway, I obviously had heard about the WF-1000XM4 and XM3 Sonys, but I wasn't sure I needed to drop that much money on headphones that I would only occasionally use. Don't get me wrong, I love music, but generally, I'm listening to it on my turntable or in my car. I just haven't found a pair of headphones that I'm comfortable wearing for hours at a time, these included.I read some other reviews about the comfort factor on these, and on that note, I was slightly disappointed, but not that surprised. Maybe I have Elven ears and they just aren't made to house headphones for too long, I don't know. Having said that, they're comfortable enough. I didn't find myself fidgeting with the cups as much as I have others in the past.The box was well packaged and actually looked pretty fancy with a little sticker seal over some wax type looking paper to cover everything. It comes with a USB-C charging cable, an airplane airline headphone adapter and a 3.5mm audio cable with volume control. The 3.5mm cable seemed to be a little bit on the cheap side if I had to nitpick, but otherwise, it was fine. I'd mostly be using it for the Bluetooth capabilities. The case was pretty decent as well, although the plastic insert was kind of odd. It looked like it was meant to stay in with the case, but it was so thin and cheaply made, that I have to think it was meant to be tossed. It basically shows you how the headphone sits in the case and the reason why I think it was meant to be tossed is because under it, there's an etched drawing of how the headphones should sit in the case. I'm getting the feeling people have tried to cram these headphones into their case in weird ways and end up complaining that they snap. :)Primarily, I listen to metal and all sub-genres of metal. I almost bought some headphones called "Heavys" that were supposedly designed specifically for metal, but it was on a Kickstarter and I'm hesitant to go that route. I'd rather wait to read reviews of it later after release and pay a little more if it's something I can't live without. In the meantime, I wanted to try these as my brother bought me some Anker Liberty Neo earbuds a while back and I liked the quality of sound I was getting from them. I'm not typically a fan of earbuds, though, so I use them sparingly.After charging the headphones to a full charge, I promptly booted them up, holding the power for 5 seconds to pair them with my Fiio. It paired quickly with no issues and sounded an audible "boop." I started playing a song. I didn't have as much of an issue with the default preset sound as much as some others did, but I can also see how it wasn't everyone's cup of tea.After unsuccessfully trying to sideload the Soundcore app by copying the APK file to my Fiio (didn't seem to do anything when I tried to run it from the file manager), I decided to test out the multi-pair capabilities by pairing it with my phone to tweak the default preset. While my test song was still playing, I double-tapped the power and successfully paired to my phone. Unfortunately, as I was fiddling around, I bumped my hand on the headphones and it stopped the music. I already knew that I would more than likely find the whole "pause your music detection" feature annoying. I fidget and adjust the cups too much for this to be practical. After the music stopped, I wasn't able to resume it and hear it playing for some reason. It was paired to both my phone and the Fiio, it showed as playing, but no sound came out.I was fairly annoyed for the first few minutes of owning this thing, but I calmed myself, switched off the bluetooth on my devices, switched off the headphones and started over. Then it worked fine. I was able to load the "rock" preset and it stayed loaded after I unpaired with my phone.Even though my preferred genre of music is metal, I also listen to others, so I ran it through a battery of FLAC files ranging from Halsey/Clairo/Eilish/Adele/Juice WRLD/Led Zeppelin/Rush/As I Lay Dying/Heaven Shall Burn/Behemoth, etc. Everything sounded excellent. There was enough instrument separation, crispness and clarity for all of the different genres for me to consider this an acceptable pair of headphones for my every day use. Will I eventually "upgrade" to the XM4's? Maybe some day, but these were plenty suitable for my mildly discerning ears for now.Except for the weird little glitch where I didn't hear anything the first few minutes I messed with it, it's been perfect. Honestly, it may not have been a good idea to still have a song playing while pairing another device and then accidentally activating the "headset off detection" feature. About that... I read a few reviews stating that the same feature on the XM4's was a little sensitive as well. Maybe this feature is not ready for prime-time just yet. Not until we have a better way to adjust it? I was thinking that if you can have the app adjust it, maybe you put on the headphones and tap something that shows it's firmly on your head. Then, if there were a way that it would measure the distance between the cups and enable the pause when a certain measurement goes beyond that distance, MAYBE that would work. Not just when it shifts on your head, but when it detects both cups being pulled away from the ears.I'm more annoyed having my music be constantly interrupted than I am with having to press the pause button from time to time. I mean, I'm as lazy as the next person, but c'mon.. do we really need this weird feature?

I am a giant Anker fan. I have owned their cords and cables for years as they have always been high quality items at reasonable prices. A few years back, Anker branded their speakers and headphones under the Soundcore label. Soundcore follows in the footsteps of their parent company in making really high quality stuff at a great price point. These Q35's, while not as inexpensive as their prior models, are simply amazing. These are the first Soundcore headphones to offer the LDAC Sony codec which makes them capable of HiFi less compressed sound. You will be able to take advantage of listening to Spotify on the very high quality setting or, better yet, really hear Tidal Masters the way they are meant to be heard. I am not a giant over ear guy. I have a ton of ear buds. My wife has the world class Sony WH-1000XM3's which I have traveled with a great deal. I owned the Soundcore Q30s for a few days, loved them, and gave them to my oldest who was whining that he needed a pair. I currently own the Microsoft Surface 2s that I got primarily for working from home. Love them but the sound is just average for music. So, enter the new Q35's. I have had these about a week. Here is the breakdown:-Sound / App: It is amazing. One of the reviews complained about sounding muddy. I am no audiophile but I just don't hear that here. These are crisp and vibrant sounding. Yes, Soundcore does tune these to emphasize the low end a bit. They come preset to the "Soundcore Signature" profile. However, Souncore gives you a very robust app to work with. Just get in there and tune these to your liking. You can use one of their many presets or make your own custom sound. When you get these going with a high quality stream, at the risk of sounding overly dramatic, it is breathtaking. Listening to The National, The Eagles, and Metallica on Tidal all just sound incredible. Great lows, full mids, crisp highs, all of which are nicely separated and balanced. Beautiful to listen to. Also, when watching video there is zero discernible latency. Voices match what you are watching. Well done.-Battery life / Connectivity: Really as good as it gets. 40 hours or so with ANC on and 60 hours without. Just about best in class. Bluetooth 5.0 is here so easy pairing and rock solid range and stable connection.-Active Noise Cancellation: If there is an area to ding these, it is here. The ANC is good. Soundcore has been steadily improving in this arena for some time. It is not Sony / Bose good. However, for most, I believe this ANC will be more than fine. It should handle planes and traveling. The only things that really get through are sudden high frequency sounds. Again, overall good, but just not as spectacular as everything else Soundcore offers here.-Form Factor / Controls: The Q35's build is outstanding. They feel great in your hands. Not like $129 headphones should feel. I feel no discernible difference in quality from the Sony headphones. The controls are handled via physical buttons on the right can. The left can has power and the ANC toggle. One nice feature that Soundcore borrowed from Sony is that you can enter transparency by simply resting your hand over the right can. It's great! Something new I love is autopause. All my buds have this but I have never seen over ears use this. Simply slide a cup off of either ear and whatever you are listening to pauses. It is really helpful. My son walked up to me and began speaking. I didnt miss anything he said and didn't need to worry about pausing my content. Great addition! Soundcore also gives your a 3.5mm audio cable if you want to go wired. I haven't tried it here yet but it worked great on the Q30's.-Call Quality: The Q30's were nothing special with how they handled calls. The Q35's still aren't special but seem to be vastly improved. They have added an AI algorithm to the beam forming mics that seems to be more effective at isolating your voice especially in loud environments. I still get too much wind noise when outside but calls are solid and very capable here overall.I will update as I go here. For $129, Soundcore is offering you a tremendous value proposition. HiFi sound, good ANC, great battery, and tremendous build quality. If High Fidelity sound isn't your bag, get the Q30's. Same build, same ANC, and same great app, for about half the price. However, if you want to really hear music buy these, find some uncompressed (or less compressed) music, and enjoy. It really is something you need to hear.*Update* I have really been pounding these and didn't really say anything about comfort. They are lightweight and very comfortable for long term wear. I am a hot guy (sweaty not physically) by nature and these are warm but overly hot like so many over ears I have worn. I have had them on now for about two hours tonight. All good. I am warm in there but not too much so. Solid.***Update for later model Samsung users***So one really important note I just figured out thanks to testing the new B&W PI7's is that you really want to make sure you have HD Audio (in this case, LDAC) enabled on your device. Samsung actually deactivates it by default. If you go in to developer options, you can turn it on. Go to "about phone", go to "software options", and find your Android build number. Tap on that 7 times. Back out and go to "developer options." Connect your Q35's to your phone (or any LDAC capable headset) and then scroll down in developer options and you should see an HD Audio button. Slide that over to activate it and it should automatically connect to your highest possible streaming option that headphone offers. Don't worry, you will not hurt anything here. Get your Tidal account going or move your Spotify quality to "very high" and you will be off to the races. Game changer for me and my S21 Ultra!