SOUL Sync ANC review - headphones with comfortable controls and a pleasing design

Active noise cancellation is one of the most popular additional features in modern headphones. Thanks to her, listening to music and podcasts, watching videos and playing is much more comfortable. It is especially appreciated by those who have to spend time in transport or a noisy office. And although the pandemic has made its own adjustments to the way of life of many people, the world is gradually returning to its usual course - along with a variety of sounds that you want to drown out.

Therefore, active noise cancellation, which used to be the prerogative of top models, is now found in the budget segment. SOUL Sync ANC headphones belong to it - the first model of the brand with this chip.

Specifications
Appearance and equipment
Control
Connection
Sound and conversation
Autonomy
Outcomes

Specifications

Type of emitters	Dynamic, 12 mm
Earphone weight	4.6 g
Connection	Bluetooth 5.1
Supported codecs	SBC, AAC
Battery case	480 mAh

Appearance and equipment

SOUL Sync ANC headphones are available not only in the classic black color, familiar to many, but also in non-trivial shades. We had one of these versions on the test - pastel green. And this is what makes the model different from most competitors. There are listeners who seek to color their lives with accessories. For such people, cheerful colors are provided. In addition to black and light green, there is also dark blue.

The form factor is familiar: a large, rounded body with a leg, but the proportions themselves are a bit unusual. The elongated part is short, comparable in size to the main one, and as a result, the headphones turned out to be quite compact. They practically do not protrude from the ears and weigh a little. LEDs are hidden on the legs next to the logo. The indicators glow softly white when the headphones are charging in the case, and blue when they are looking for something to connect to.

There are three small round holes on the headphone case - outside, on the end of the leg and near the sound guide. Another, oval, is on the side. They contain noise canceling microphones and conversational microphones.

The sound guide of a classic round shape, not very long, is covered with the same grill-mesh as in SOUL Sync Pro. The accessory comes with three pairs of silicone tips of different sizes. But you can pick up ear pads from other manufacturers if the complete ones do not suit you.

The case is also small and rounded, somewhat reminiscent of a pill or candy. It is made of nice, slightly rough matte plastic. But due to the light color it gets dirty quite easily, and dust loves to collect in the engraved logo. On the right side there is a small fabric loop for attaching a complete aluminum carabiner.

The earbuds in the case magnetize with a pleasant click. They are recharged via small, spring-loaded contacts. There is a USB-C connector on the back of the case, and next to it is a status LED. It flashes white when charging.

Unlike SOUL Sync Pro, this model doesn't sit as deep in your ears. And therefore, you can spend a lot of time in it without feeling discomfort. The fact that the headphones themselves are slightly smaller in size also adds convenience.

Control

For control, there are touch pads on the flat part of the accessory body. They recognize touches and long presses, and the right and left headphones are responsible for different functions.

On the right one touch pauses and restarts playback. Double includes the next track, triple - to the previous one.

On the left one touch increases the volume double reduces it, triple launches voice assistant (Siri and Google Assistant are supported).

Long press on both headphones toggles between active noise canceling modes. There are three available: transparency (or noise transmission), standard (when the microphones of this system are simply turned off) and noise reduction.

The touchpads recognize even light taps, so you can accidentally stop the music just by straightening your hair. But there is also a plus: you do not need to press the headphones into the eardrums in order to switch the track.

Double and triple touches of the earbuds work well, even fast ones. But the reaction to pressing is not instantaneous: it takes about a second.

Connection

SOUL Sync ANC sources are connected via Bluetooth 5.1 and support SBC and AAC codecs. In the settings of smartphones on Android, the first option is set by default, but you can manually switch to the second.

The earbuds enter pairing mode automatically as soon as you take them out of the case. If there is a gadget nearby that they previously connected to, they will immediately connect to it and report it. The assistant's voice in Sync ANC, by the way, is friendlier than in Sync Pro.

During the test, the connection stuttered a couple of times, but this behavior cannot be called systemic. In general, the accessory communicated normally with the smartphone through two thick walls and did not lose the signal.

There is no headphone control app.

Sound and conversation

SOUL Sync ANC has fairly large speakers - 12 mm. And they bass in accordance with their dimensions - in a good way, loudly, voluminously. It's really nice to listen to something like Infected Mushroom's Animatronica or Hypnogaja's bass intro on They Don’t Care with this presentation. It is the iridescence, the smoothness of the transition of one low-frequency beat to another, one touch of the string to the next, the headphones show best.

Due to this, any instrumental synth-pop with retrowave sounded as it should - to the right extent, gently and three-dimensionally. Samples are not well separated from each other. With this device, it will be impossible to disassemble the melody into elements - only perceive it as an integral, fluid work. Because of this, for example, tracks that need detail and clarity, such as aggressive metal or harsh techno, can turn into an unintelligible mess.

Despite the elastic and tangible bass, the sound seems quite light - the rise in high frequencies affects. In some melodies, an unpleasant creak may even appear, but this can be easily treated with an equalizer.

Due to the slightly more emphasis on bass, male vocals sound more interesting than female vocals. So here it is better to give preference to Rammstein than Flyleaf. But in general, the voices play quite lively, only sometimes they get lost behind a noisy rhythm.

For these headphones, the sound quality and noise cancellation are highly dependent on the fit, so it's worth experimenting with the ear pads. With properly selected overlays, noise reduction starts to work very well: it is quite effective at jamming the subway and the construction site outside the window. If you do not turn on music, but simply insert the accessory into your ears, you can drown out the world around you with sufficient quality. There will be no rain and no cars passing by.

With the office background - conversations, periodic clinking of cups, chirping of printers and clatter of keys - Sync ANC does not cope very well, but they still muffle such sounds a little. Here it is better to start music with a plus to active noise cancellation, even at low volume.

The quality of voice transmission is not bad: the interlocutors do not complain, the words are heard clearly even in windy weather.

Autonomy

On a single charge, headphones with noise cancellation turned on are ready to work up to 5 hours - we did it a little less. Without this function, the time will literally increase by 30 minutes. Using the included case, the headphones can be charged from zero to 100% approximately 3.5 times, which will provide them with up to 22 hours of work.

Now such parameters of autonomy are considered average in the industry. It's nice that even such a compact model can live on a single charge for a long time.

Outcomes

Nice and neat headphones with a pleasant sound and good noise cancellation - that's how SOUL Sync ANC turned out. Unlike the same Sync Pro, they do not fit so firmly in the ears with the whole body, so it is more comfortable to wear them. But they sound a little simpler - primarily due to the lack of support for higher quality Bluetooth codecs.

The headphones are lightweight, incredibly easy to use and available in custom colors, which may be their most important feature for some. The main thing is to choose the right ear pads: they can be used to change the impression of SOUL Sync ANC beyond recognition.

Yes, at a cost of 8,990 rubles, these are not the most affordable active noise canceling headphones on the market. But among the advantages, one can note a good battery, which corresponds to the characteristics declared by the manufacturer, and high-quality voice transmission during a conversation, and the ability to adjust the volume from the headphones themselves.