"Overall performance is high enough to make you wonder if it’s really worth spending any more": Soundcore Space 2 headphones review

What is it?

Just as with your clothes, it can feel like you’re making a statement when you put on your headphones in public, with others able to judge their style, size and – let’s face it – brand.

It shouldn’t really be this way, though. Now, as ever, the key factors to consider when buying a new set of cans are price, comfort, function, reliability and, most importantly, sound.

Which leads us to Soundcore, an offshoot of high-value tech company Anker, which offers headphones (and other audio/video products) that promise the same kind of performance you’d get from the premium brands, but at significantly lower cost.

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Its latest over-ear pair, the Space 2, isn’t the company’s cheapest, but at £130 it has similar specs to products that cost significantly more.

Like the well-received Space One headphones, four mics are used for Adaptive Noise Cancelling, but the processing has been upgraded here for enhanced performance. There’s wearing detection (taking your headphones off stops the music or video; putting them back on starts it again) and up to 70 hours of battery life on a single charge (up from 55 promised hours on the Space One). If you’re short on time and power, you can give yourself a 4-hour boost from just a 5-minute charge.

In terms of sound, the legwork is done by 40mm double-layer diaphragm drivers and, if you’re an Android user, you can make use of the high-quality LDAC Bluetooth audio codec, for improved performance. For Apple users, there’s AAC support.

As you’d expect, configuration of the Space 2’s buttons and settings is handled in an app, where you can also update the firmware as and when required.

Performance

We’ll get to the Space 2’s sound in a moment, but first let’s consider what’s arguably the headphones’ standout feature: comfort. We’ve tested quite a few pairs of cans that sound great but just aren’t conducive to being worn for long periods of time, but Soundcore has made sure that the Space 2 is in it for the long haul, flight or otherwise.

The company claims to have based the design on an ‘anthropometric database’ of more than 2,000 real head profiles, but for us, the high level of wearability comes down to two things: the light weight (just 264g) and the plush-but-not-too-cosy earpads and headband.

Build quality seems pretty solid – the metal hinge/swivel mechanism doesn’t feel like it’s going to break in a hurry – and the headphones fold in on themselves to keep them portable.

And yes, they sound pretty good, too. Even after taking the HearID test in the app, which generates an EQ curve based on your auditory abilities, it took a little bit of tinkering to come up with a profile we were happy with (you can also start with the factory-set ‘Soundcore Signature’ if you wish) but once we had, the Space 2’s sonic strengths became apparent. There’s a slight lack of detail and separation in comparison to some of its higher-priced competitors, but no lack of depth, punch and power.

If you want even better performance – and no latency if you’re making rather than listening to music – then you can opt for a wired connection over 3.5mm audio cable (also useful if you run out of battery power), though there’s no USB audio support. As such, an adapter is probably going to be required if you want to plug into your phone.

As with its predecessor, the Space 2 has impressive noise cancellation capabilities, though the transparency mode – which we’ll admit we rarely turned on during testing – doesn’t feel as useful. As you might expect, engaging noise cancelling reduces the battery life, but not drastically, and almost certainly not enough to justify turning it off. We suspect that most users will just leave it on all the time.

As always, you’ll need to spend a little while getting your head around which button and how many presses does what, but it soon becomes second nature. You might have to consult the manual a few times initially – next/previous track control comes from holding down the volume buttons, which caught us out for a moment – but everything is kept pretty simple.

In fact, simplicity and practicality are very much the Space 2’s calling cards. There are lots of handy features that you might not expect at this price – a dual Bluetooth connections option, which worked seamlessly for us, and even built-in white noise sounds for those times when you want to block the world out – and overall performance is high enough to make you wonder if it’s really worth spending any more on a pair of day-to-day headphones.

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Verdict

Combining decent sound and effective noise cancelling in a lightweight, comfortable package, the Space 2 ticks a lot of everyday headphone boxes, and significantly undercuts many of its competitors on price. That sounds like a recipe for success.

Alternatives

Soundcore Space One Pro: £180 at sennheiser.com

The Space 2's biggest competitor actually comes from Soundcore itself. The Space One Pro, ostensibly the flagship of the Space range, has similar specs, but also has a Dolby Audio feature, which is designed to enhance stereo and spatial effects. It doesn't have wearing detection, though.

Specifications