Soundcore Space Q45 review: love is blind, not deaf

Dating and tech aren’t all that different; both search for connection, you’ll end up talking about Betas at some stage, and with both you’re looking to highlight the best features. As such, it's confusing that the Soundcore Q45 headphones don’t put their best foot forward out of the box. They turned up to the date with unbalanced tuning, stains on their shirt, and they’d left their wallet at home, but the tiniest of tweaks turned them into an eligible suitor.

The Soundcore Space Q45 retail for $219.99 but you can find it cheaper at Amazon. In fact, this Black Friday, the Soundcore Space Q45 have been discounted to $164.99. Check out the deal by following the link below.

Straight out of the box the sound balance on the Soundcore Space Q45 over-ear headphones felt off. There was just no spark. Or more accurately, there was no bass.

Running through our testing playlist, the first couple of songs test out how headphones handle the lower register. In ‘I Didn’t Just Come Here to Dance’ there was a layer of bass missing, and the deep resonance you’ll normally hear in Childish Gambino’s ‘3005’ was muted and distant. These same characteristics also come through on the microphone, making the voice sound flat and muffled.

On the listening side of things, the lacklustre bass is a telltale sign of poor audio balance on the lower end of the spectrum. This did end up being salvageable using a Soundcore signature effect in the accompanying app called ‘Bass Up.’ Toggling this on made an immediate, and drastic improvement.

With ‘Bass Up’ the tuning became more balanced across the board. Unsurprisingly the aforementioned bass-heavy songs sounded better, and the clarity improved in more complex tracks. This toggle isn’t a magical cure-all, however. Toggled on the bass was overpowering in ‘My Guitar Gently Weeps’ and ‘Swerve City’, but without the low notes got lost. You can fiddle around with the customisable EQ to find a balance that works for you on this, but finding a custom balance that suited the spectrum of our testing was tedious and unsuccessful.

Considering how much of a difference this preloaded soundscape made, it begs the question of why Soundcore decided on the default balance. Everyone has a type, and tastes are bound to differ, but when you can offer something that ticks all the boxes why wouldn’t you do that from the onset? First impressions last - they need to count.

If you're anything like me, you and your headphones’ relationship is codependent and wholly monogamous. You’ll be looking for a set that is in it for the long haul.

Equipped with 50 hours of battery life with noise cancelling on, the Soundcore Q45s are in the upper echelon for battery life. When powering up, the cans give a handy battery warning either saying high, medium, or low battery which coupled with fast charging could just save you from needing to interact with the outside world. 

The set has relatively reliable auto-pairing with the previously connected device, but there are times when it has failed and left me blasting Taylor Swift to a street full of people. A boon for them, but less so for me. Updating the firmware all but fixed this issue, and took a couple of minutes through the accompanying app.

Multi-point supports two devices simultaneously, and makes the Q45s easy to justify as a work and life device. Rather than having a headset wired into my laptop, I've found multi-point makes jumping between work and day-to-day activities easier. No need to switch up headphones for a lunchtime walk, I can just swap Spotify playing from my laptop to my phone and carry on. The switch can be a touch delayed, but it is otherwise a dependable feature.

In any magical relationship it can feel like you’re the only people in the world, all that external noise cancelled out. These headphones give you that same sensation with excellent noise cancelling, and an equally strong transparency mode. Adaptive noise cancelling automatically adjusts to suit your environment, but Soundcore offers five levels of custom noise cancelling as well. 

With the strongest noise cancelling on you won’t even be able to hear someone talking directly to you less than a metre away. Transparency Mode will let in more chatter, and ambient noise, and with ANC off entirely you’ll be very aware of what is happening around you.

Switching between the modes can be done through the app and the on-ear controls. These are lightly customisable - you can change what one and two presses of the NC button does - and intuitive. Turning noise cancelling on and off you’ll get a spoken alert through the headphones, but if the volume on your audio is too high you might not hear it as the volume of the alert is set. The buttons protrude slightly from the side of the muffs making them easy to find and navigate.

As far as over-ear headphones go, the Soundcore Space Q45s don’t have a distinctive design. The cans do have an additional disc protruding from the muffs to them which holds the controls and makes for a vaguely retro look. They are, however, another pair of black headphones.

Of course, looks aren’t everything, what really matters is how they make you feel. They sit comfortably for extended listening, but are quite loose for me. I’ve found them difficult at the gym in particular, they tend to slide off during any exercise that isn’t entirely vertical. For people with larger heads, or who don’t plan on being horizontal all that often it won’t be a problem.

Soundcore Space Q45 headphones offer an excellent balance between features, cost, and performance. They’re reasonably priced, easy to use, and have excellent battery life, but they don’t quite sound right out of the box.

Fortunately, the in-built ‘Bass Up’ function evens out the audio balance, making a richer and more enjoyable listening experience. While it is disappointing that the Soundcore didn’t put their best foot forward from the get-go, they’ve charmed me nonetheless.