Get Them Here
Soundcore Space One: https://amzn.to/48Jcgw7
Soundcore Space Q45: https://amzn.to/47MCAUP
So this is the Soundcore Space one, and these are an amazing pair of entry level ANC headphones which are packed with features that you’ll normally find on more premium ANC headphones. But today, we’re going to see how the Space one compare to the Soundcore Space Q45’s which are also a really good pair of budget friendly headphones, especially for flyers.
Regarding pricing, the Space One has a retail price of $100… where as the Space Q45’s have a retail price of $150… which is still very budget friendly. Nonetheless if you want to pick either of these two headphones up they’ll be linked down below.
Now first lets talk about their included carrying cases. The Space One’s come included with a carrying pouch… so if you do plan on traveling with your headphones, I do recommend that you invest in a hardshell case cause this pouch isn’t going to protect your headphones all that much… but given these headphone’s price… a carrying pouch here is fine. Where as with the Space Q45’s these come included with a hard shell case… so this case is going to do a much better job of protecting your headphones… and in general, it is fairly rare for a pair of headphones of this price point to come included with such a good hardshell case.
But now lets talk about the headphones themselves. Now both of these headphones have a fully collapsable design and they are both mostly made out of plastic. And when it comes to their fit, they both fit very similar to one another. They both have a neutral amount of clamping force to them, as in they dont fit super tight but they’re also not lose… but more importantly, they are both big head approved. They both have a good amount of padding underneath their headband, so hot spots aren’t an issue. And when it comes to their Earpads, they are both very spacious, so they will both have no problem accommodating average sized and even if you have very large ears or ears that stick out a lot, they will both have you covered. But the main fit difference between these two headphones is going to be their weight. The Q45’s weigh in at 298 grams… which is a little above average for ANC headphones… where as the Space One weigh in at 264 grams… and this 34 gram difference is very noticeable, especially when its on your head. So with the Space One, these are a little more comfortable and these are a little less noticeable when they’re on your head and you feel their weight shifting around less when you’re walking around with them on. So overall, both of these headphones are fairly comfortable, but the Space One’s are a little more comfortable than the Q45’s cause they’re a little lighter. The only thing that I want to point out about both of these headphones, design wise is that they are a little bulky looking.
Now when it comes to battery life, both of Soundcore’s headphones are very impressive and they are both above average. The Space One have an advertised battery life of 40 hours with their active noise cancellation turned on, and with their active noise cancellation turned off, they can go for as long as 55 hours.
But then there are the Q45’s and these have an advertised battery life of 50 hours with their active noise cancellation turned on, and they can go for as long as 65 hours with their active noise cancelation turned off. Overall, both of these headphones have very impressive active battery life on them, making them both good options to travel with. And when it comes to charging these headphones, they both charge via a USB C port as they should.
And when it comes to their bluetooth connectivity, both of these headphones can be simultaneously connected to any two Bluetooth devices at them same time, making them both a great option for any power used out there cause you can easily hot swap from one device to another regardless of eco system.
And when it comes to their over all performance, both of these headphones have zero latency across the board when watching movies or videos on your phone whether you’re using an iPhone or an android device and when it comes to audio codecs, both of these headphones have support for SBC, AAC and LDAC which is Sony’s own high res audio codec. Just keep in mind that if you want to use LDAC you do have to use an Android device cause iPhone’s top out at AAC, if you do use LDAC then your headphones can only be connected to one device at a time, and LDAC does take an additional toll on the battery life.
But if you want to, you can always just use a wired connection with either of these two headphones cause they both still have an audio jack, and they both come included with an audio cable. Now I know this sounds very basic but I do have to point it out cause some companies have started to remove the headphones jack on their headphones… especially on budget options like these.
But now lets talk about actually lisnteing to music with these headphones. Now overall I am going to have to say that both of these headphones sound relatively the same. They’re both using 40 millimeter drivers, they both have a lot of premade EQ’s to choose from in their app and you can go in and make your EQ if you want. And if you want to get the best sound quality out of these headphones, you want to use them with their ANC turned off cause with their ANC turned on they dont sound as open. But overall, I would say that these headphones sound good enough to get the job done. They dont sound super open, espiaclly if you use them with their ANC turned on… but also, they dont have a lot of physicality in their bass. Their bass is mostly on the audible side… but it does resonate a good amount. Overall like I said, both of these headphones sound good enough to get the job done, but dont expect the best instuemnet separation out of them and their bass isn’t going to rattle your head all that much.
And when it comes to controlling your media, both of these headphones are using phsyciall buttons. And these buttons are both of the righter cup, they’re both easy to find and they have good tactile feedback.
But the really interesting thing there here, the Space One’s have wear sensors so they will automatically pause your music when you take them off and they’ll start playing your music again when you put them on. Now personally I dont really care for wear sensors on my headphones… but they’re there if you want them and this is something the Q45’s dont have.
But now lets talk about the active noise cancelation on these headphones. And overall, both of these headphones have really impressive active noise cancellation for their respective prices. But technically, yes, the Q45’s do block out more noise than the Space One’s but so that you can see for yourself, we’re going to jump into an ANC test.
So first off, the Sony 1000XM5’s are currently the king of active noise cancelation… however both the Soundcore Space one and Soundcore Q45’s aren’t far behind. But technically the Q45’s do block out a little more road noise and they block out a little more chatter. But nonetheless, the ANC on both of these headphones is defeitnly useful if you plan on traveling a lot or flying with your headphones. But with both of these headphones, you can either have their ANC set to adaptive… or you can choose how much noise they block out. But obviously for this test, the ANC on both of these headphones was set to max.
But then there’s the ambient mode on these headphones. Now both of these headphones have an ambient mode and they both sound good enough to get the job done. And with both of them, you can adjust how much noise that let in. However, the ambient mode on the Space One has an extra feature called easy chat. And what easy chat is, it allows you to quickly talk to someone without having to fully remove the headphones. And I love this kind of feature on headphones cause it very useful escpially if you’re flying. And with easy chat, you can either manually active it by coving the left ear cup like this.
And then when you let go, the headphones will go back to normal again… of you can also active easy chat with just your voice, like this.
But personally, I do prefer to manually activate easy chat by covering the left ear cup… cause the second that you start talking, easy chat will get activated. Nonetheless, I love that the Space Ones have easy chat cause its great especially if you’re flying with your headphones and its cool at soundcore gives you both options.
But finally here’s the microphone test, now I feel that both of these headphones have decent sounding microphones on them to take phones calls with while in a quite room.
But with the Space Q45’s these do do a slightly better job of focusing on my voice.
But also, I do feel that the microphone on the Q45’s do a slightly better job of dealing with noise pollution. Cause with the Q45’s these are doing a decent job of blocking out this road noise, although there is some interifrnce with my voice.
Where as with the Space One, these do an okay job of blocking out this road noise… but they dont do as good of a job as the Q45’s.
But when it comes to blocking out chatter, these do a slightly better job here.
But with the Space Q45’s these are doing a better job of dealing with this chatter. So overall, both of these headphones have decent sounding microphones on them to take phones calls with while in a quiet room, but with the Q45’s this microphone sounds a little better and it does a better job of dealing with noise pollution.
But with all of that being said, both of soundcore’s headphones are very impressive, especially for their price points. Now the Q45’s are the better preforming headphones here, the Q45’s block out more noise, they have a longer lasting battery life, they have a better sounding microphone and they come included with a hard shell case. But with the newer Space One’s these are a little more comfortable cause they’re a little lighter. And they also have slightly more features cause they have wear sensors and they also have easy chat which is super useful if you plan on flying with your headphones.