Soundcore Anker Life Q20 Hybrid Active Noise Cancelling Headphones, Wireless Over Ear Bluetooth Headphones, 40H Playtime, Hi-Res

Let me start off by explaining my use-case for these headphones.I was in the market looking for something to be a good accompaniment to my brand new Oculus Quest 2. I planned on sharing the play experience with some friends, so earbuds were out of the question for sanitary reasons. I wasn’t looking for stupidly-expensive headphones to have to play some VR games, but wanted something decent so Beat Saber would sound better haha. Previously, I had bought these $15 Panasonic headphones that had banger reviews, but once they arrived, I put them on, turned on some music, and instantly boxed it back up. Trash. So back to Amazon I went to look for something that’s more bang-for-your-buck. I stumbled upon a bunch of non-mainstream headphones and then eventually to these. I have some Anker chargers and stuff but I never knew Anker made audio hardware, so I thought I’d read some reviews and try them out since they were on sale for $45 vs. their $60 MSRP. I knew now that if I wanted even the slightest decency in quality, I’d have to spend more than $15 haha.Next, let me explain my experience in audio hardware.I wouldn’t consider myself a professional audiophile, but I know good sound when I hear it. My most expensive pair of headphones are my Sennheiser HD 650 for when I dabble in music production or want listen to music at the highest quality pair with my FiiO portable amp interface, my pair of Sony MDR-V6 (my favorite pair of headphones/ studio monitors and ol’ faithful), Sennheiser CX 5.00i (hands-down best-sounding and most-balanced earbuds), 2 pairs of Sennheiser CX 300 (best-sounding alternative to the 5.00i), Beats Studio (trash), Beats Solo HD (even more trash), airpods 1st gen, and various pairs of earpods lying around. Hopefully that gives you a small glimpse of how much high-quality audio means to me…or how stupid I am for owning a couple pairs of Beats…NOW FOR THE BREAKDOWN ——Sound Quality —- 8/10These are actually quite above decent! The price is just a bonus. I’d say the quality as normal headphones for listening to music and gaming, they’re perfect. Crisp highs and good lows (with a bit of a default bass-enhancement). The mids could use a bit of work but to be honest, for $45 this is prob some of the best sound you can get at this price-point. Pretty much what a lot of these reviews say. Heck, these may be better than/ as good as most name-brand $100-200. I’ve used various Bose Quiet Comfort series headphones ($300 ) and haven’t been impressed with their sound quality. I would say these sound just as good, if not better, than Bose QC headphones, as controversial as that may be to say haha. Another comparison is against my airpods, which I consider pretty good-sounding. I would say these are about the same as airpods, but with added bass and optional added bass on top of that. Beats muddle everything else with their added bass, while these don’t IMO. Overall, sound quality on these is solid and for under $60, I would say is a steal.DO NOT USE FOR MUSIC PRODUCTION OR AS STUDIO MONITORSI only say this because there are reasons that these are just meant for listening. There are drivers in these that may not sit well with production hardware, such as an amplified audio interface, preamps, or other equipment. When I plugged this into my FiiO via the provided aux cable, the sound became unbalanced. It’s probably because it wasn’t meant to take in more power than it was built with, so better to leave these headphones vanilla than add anything else to them. Use them for listening or gaming and you should experience optimal sound quality. Oh and also, DON’T EVER BUY BEATS. These headphones sound eons better than any of the Beats products that I’ve owned/ tried, including the discontinued $400 Beats Pro.Comfort —- 10/10These are also quite comfortable. I’ve worn it as long as 3-hour time period so far and the sides of my head/ ears weren’t sore like after long wears of my Sennheiser HD 650s. Just like my Sony MDR-V6s they are foldable, so that may have something to do with the flexibility of its entirety. My Sennheiser HD 650s are non-foldable, and that’s a big drawback for those :'(. The memory foam pads covered with faux leather allows the headphones to comfortably conform to your head shape. The only thing I can really compare the comfort to is the Beats Studio, which surprisingly, despite their build quality, are pretty comfortable. Overall, I feel like these would fit most heads and provide almost universal comfort.Features —- meh, not much to talk aboutReally the only added features are the optional bass-boost and active noise canceling (ANC). The optional bass-boost isn’t bad, it just doesn’t do much for me because bass is already enhanced right outta the box. So if you’re into bass-boosted and bass-heavy music, these will be quite pleasant for sure! The ANC also doesn’t really do much for me since I listen to my music loud enough to drown out pretty much everything anyway. But, when I turn it on without music playing, it does do something. It’s not quite as effective as the Bose QC headphones, but I think it works pretty well in most loud situations. I just haven’t used it on a plane yet haha. The volume control buttons have an annoying beep every time you press or – , but whatever. This actually sucks- you can’t use the headphones while they’re charging, even wired. Ridiculous, I know. But hey, can’t have everything, right? Big oof on Anker’s end on that.Aesthetics —- 6/10Not gonna lie, these are pretty generic looking headphones. They don’t have some revolutionary design to it, but they look like your average good-looking generic headphones. They aren’t flashy like Beats or Airpods (or probably the upcoming Airpods Studio) but they don’t look bad at all. They’re just…normal. But, I did only get the black pair, so maybe the gray one looks better in different settings. Don’t let this be a deal-breaker, though.Connectivity —- 6/10Wired, these things are perfect. The provided cable could be longer, but that’s nothing against the headphones themselves. Just buy an extender or a longer cable online for like $10 or less. THE ONLY REASON I’M KNOCKING OFF A STAR is because of what a lot of people are complaining about: the choppiness and clicking of the Bluetooth connectivity. Every now and then the headphones will click or have that split-second static noise while I’m listening via bluetooth. It’s not often, but happens enough to dock a start off. Now, I could just return these and try to get another pair, but I’m too lazy and don’t really care too much about the clipping every now and then, so that’s on me. But, it’s a problem a lot of other reviewers are complaining about so it’s a legitimate issue. The range is fine so far. I’ve been able to walk 30 ft. away without any clipping issues. I’ve also used these for video calls and they work just fine with no clipping.Conclusion —- Overall grade: 9/10You may or may not find headphones this great-sounding at this price-point or even a step up in price-point, but then again I haven’t tried every single pair of headphones on the market. But I can say with confidence that these stack up pretty well against my studio headphones that I own and I would recommend these to anyone looking for decent-sounding headphones, because with these, you’ll get way more than what you’re looking for. These will definitely be a pleasure to play VR games with and even moreso just listening to music while at home or traveling!Now if you’re looking for decent earbuds, I recommend the Sennheiser CX 5.00i! (If you haven’t noticed, i’m definitely biased towards Sennheiser, but they’re industry-standard and the have the best sounding audio products I’ve ever experience, hands-down)