Anker Soundcore Life Q35

Anker Soundcore Life Q35

Anker Soundcore Life Q35 sound good for the money, with reasonable detail and separation of tones, handling complex pieces. Particularly when used with the highest-quality LDAC format and some hi-res audio files.

By default, they have an energised, bass-heavy sound, which will suit pop and electronic music but can override detail in more subtle tracks. There are lots of presets and a full equaliser in the Soundcore app for tweaking the sound to your liking.

The headphones have a very long battery life lasting just shy of 40 hours between charges with noise-cancelling active, which is 10 more than even the Sony WH-1000XM4. Turn off noise-cancelling and they will last up to 60 hours.

Bass

Out of the box, the bass is on the boomy side. It’s less so than the Q30, but it still muddies the midrange and lacks control for genres like metal or punk. Drums sound big but mushed together.

Lowering the bass for -6dB helps the sound breathe and tightens up the drum kick. Instruments like bass guitars also come to life and start sounding more transparent.

You can’t make it sound neutral, though. The bass quantity is still above ideal, but at least it’s much better than before.

Midrange

The mids are relatively balanced but with a few peaks and dips, the most significant at 3.2kHz (as you can see from the graph below).

While you can tweak the midrange to sound somewhat neutral, the graphic EQ isn’t precise enough, so it also boosts other unwanted frequencies.

Consequently, there’s some harshness present when listening to specific songs. I’ve noticed it throughout the song “Emotion Detector” from Rush.

The same song on the Life Q30 sounded smoother and more bearable in comparison.

Treble

The high-end rendition is good and reasonably detailed. Lowering the treble by -1dB helps avoid harshness when listening at higher volumes.

Cymbal crashes are nice and clean and have a good texture. There’s a decent sense of air, although not as much as with the Q30 or even Anker Soundcore Liberty 3 Pro.