Soundcore Space One Review

Soundcore, known for delivering affordable audio gear, continues its tradition with the Space One.

Sound Quality

We were unimpressed with the Soundcore Space One's sound profile. The bass boom tends to overpower every track, whether it has a lot of bass or not. They are quieter than expected, and we had to turn them up to get the most out of them. While the overall sound isn't downright awful, it is disappointing compared to other contenders, regardless of gain level. On the upside, we didn't notice much distortion, even at higher volumes, but the overpowering bass is droning and exhausting.

While the low-end (0hz to 500hz) is undeniably powerful, it can often feel excessive. This enhanced bass can sound fun and exciting in some tracks, but in most, it dominates your attention. Songs like “Check the Rhime” by A Tribe Called Quest showcase deep, booming bass in a fun way. Our audio expert said, “The drums really get emphasized at the 1:56 mark, and these headphones are here for it, providing a ton of punch and power and making it near impossible not to move your body along as you listen.” This is where the elevated bass presence works in the headphones' favor. More often than not, that's not the case. If you're into genres like hip-hop and EDM, this might suit your taste, but listeners of more balanced genres will likely find the bass too dominant, reducing the clarity and impact of other frequencies.

The midrange (500hz to 2kHz) frequencies leave much to be desired. Tracks like “None of Your Concern” by Jhene Aiko feel hollow, lacking the depth and texture that well-produced mids can provide. Dull is a good way to describe them; human voices, which are mid-heavy, feel blunted and colorless. Furthermore, the subpar mids often feel overshadowed by the bloated bass, giving an unbalanced feel. This is a letdown for listeners who appreciate strong vocals and instruments in this frequency range.

Treble (2kHz+) performance on these headphones is pretty abysmal. Low-end treble (2kHz to 2500kHz) blurily melts into the already muddy upper mids (1kHz to 2kHz). Vocals feel awkwardly pushed around by these headphones' inability to handle them accurately. Songs like “Mushaboom” by Feist lose their brightness and clarity, as the high-end feels disappointingly muted. While the treble never becomes shrill or harsh, it lacks the detail and sparkle that brings music to life, especially in genres with high-pitched instruments or vocals. What's worse is that these headphones elevate this poor treble performance nearly as high as the booming bass, leading to a nauseating push and pull of the listener's attention toward poor-quality audio on both ends of the spectrum.

Ultimately, these headphones are heavily focused on bloated bass, making them unsuitable for anyone seeking a more balanced, detailed listening experience. The lack of clarity in the mids and treble further emphasizes this imbalance.

The Space One's frequency response showed that they follow our GearLab House Curve somewhat in the bass and midrange, but the treble is higher than we prefer. Our curve analysis shows they produce noise at the frequencies we'd expect compared to our real-world impressions.

The takeaway is that the bass is heavily emphasized. At the same time, the dull mids are muted, and overpowering highs struggle to match the clarity and balance we seek. If these suit anyone (which we don't think they would), they'd be listeners who prioritize boomy bass over balance and clarity across the frequency range.

Soundstage

Soundstage creates a sense of space and depth, making it feel as if you're surrounded by instruments.

The Space One provides a moderate sense of space, though it doesn't deliver the depth and width we'd expect. Songs like “Nightwind” by Lonas showcase some degree of instrument separation, but the sound mostly feels like it's coming from within the headphones, without much room for the music to breathe. They don't provide an expansive or immersive experience.

Comfort and Fit

These are comfortable enough for most users to wear for about 8 hours. They have a lightweight (263 gram) design, a low clamping force, and spacious (60mm by 48mm) ear cups. Our smaller-headed testers almost found these too spacious. Listeners with glasses may notice some pressure points due to the larger ear cups, which may take some getting used to.

They also boast decent stability, enabling use during light activities like stretching, walking, and yoga; though, we wouldn't recommend them for heavier activities like the gym or a run.

Noise Cancellation

The Space One performed decently for noise cancellation (ANC). While not top-of-the-line, it performed adequately, especially considering the price point.

We tested their ANC and passive noise cancellation playing controlled environmental sounds, recording and measuring any noise that seeped past the earcups.

These do an okay job of passively blocking background noise (with ANC off). Treble (2kHz+) and mids (500Hz to 2kHz) are subdued, and high-pitched clattering, like keyboards and far-away conversations, are diminished. However, bass frequencies (0hz to 500hz) get readily past the headphones, making them vulnerable to thumps and low-pitched rumbles.

With ANC turned on, bass frequency abatement significantly increases, with treble and mids also seeing improved reduction. These improvements are less noticeable in the real world, with nearby conversations and various office noises occasionally bleeding through. While usable in noisy environments, they won't create a bubble of silence found in premium competitors.

Ease of Use

The saving grace of the Space One, is that the overall user interface is decent.

They have tactile button controls that are easy to memorize, and their EQ is readily customizable.

Customization

While these have an adjustable EQ, they are almost overwhelmingly customizable, and none of the available presets improve the sound quality.

The Soundcore app offers some premium features, like HearId, which tests your hearing and creates a custom sound profile. You can also set a safe volume limit and activate wind noise reduction.

Connectivity

While these have multipoint connectivity (pairing two Bluetooth devices simultaneously), the setup process feels clunky, making you disconnect and reconnect to the first device. Like most things outside of the Apple ecosystem, these are also much easier to set up on Android.

Battery

Soundcore claims the Space One has up to 40 hours of battery life with ANC on. However, we never saw performance over 26 hours, so this is disappointing.

Because they offer better comfort, it would have been nice to see better battery life compared to other contenders for fewer weekly charges.

Call Quality

The Space One had some of the worst call quality. Whether in a silent room or on the subway, you will have trouble on a call.

All of the voices have a strange echo effect, even at baseline. When you add some background noise, it becomes noticeable that computational muting is happening, making voices sound strange and reverberant.

During our subway noise stress test, this effect was even more disorienting, with low-pitched voices cutting in and out and high-pitched voices sounding like their every word is being squeezed.

If call quality is your priority, we don't recommend these. It would be more effective to talk on the phone.

Should You Buy the Soundcore Space One?

The Space One is hard to recommend. It falls short on sound quality, battery life, and call quality. Its only redeeming qualities are that it's comfortable, fairly easy to use, and blocks noise well. Even so, there are better options for similar prices.

What Other Headphones Should You Consider?