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TaoTronics Soundliberty 79 AI Performance

TaoTronics Soundliberty 79
TaoTronics Soundliberty 79
While TaoTronics has numerous wireless earphones on offer, the Soundliberty 79 stands out from the other models. Here, the manufacturer uses AI-assisted technology in order to better filter out ambient noise for a crystal clear call quality. We performed a few tests on our sample unit to determine if and how well this works in practice.

We already looked at TaoTronics' in-ear headphones Soundliberty 53 (TT-BH053) a few months ago and recently also had the new Soundliberty 79 (TT-BH079) model, which was just released, delivered to us for testing purposes.

Similar to the Soundliberty 53, the Soundliberty 79 come in a small paper box, which also includes the magnetic charging box, a USB Type-C cable (instead of the predecessor's micro-USB cable) and a quick-start guide. From the outside, both the in-ear headphones themselves, which instead of the oblong design now look rounder, and the smaller charging dock, which displays the current battery charge on an indicator with four LEDs, look more compact. The in-ear headphones themselves have a blue status LED as well. While they fit fairly well, the new headphones feel larger for people with small ears than the Soundliberty 53. The package also includes a set of rubber mounts without hooks for users who cannot quite yet achieve a perfect fit with the default rubbers. As per usual, there are ear pads in three different sizes for the ear canal.

The charging dock comes with a 300-mAh battery, which is enough to fully charge the headphones up to three times. With a runtime of 8 hours, the battery of the in-ear headphones also promises to last 3 hours longer when listening to music than the Soundliberty 53. At 60% volume, we recorded just above 6 hours of listening to music in a realistic scenario. According to the manufacturer, the Bluetooth range has been improved from 10 to 30 meters thanks to a better antenna. Additionally, the headphones are certified to be waterproof according to the standard IPX7 that allows for them to withstand being temporarily submerged in water.

The connection to our Android smartphone, which supports Bluetooth standard 5.0, worked without any delays on the first try. The new model once again responds to numerous control commands. For example, various touch commands on the sensor surfaces of the in-ear headphones can be used to control the volume level, music playback and to accept calls. The headphones can be used together or separately for example to make calls, since both of them have their own integrated microphone.

However, the most interesting new feature of the Soundliberty 79 is its "Smart AI Noise Reduction Technology", which is a selective static suppression algorithm controlled by artificial intelligence. It is supposed to be able to filter out up to 96% of ambient noise and achieve a voice isolation of 95% during calls. Thus, interfering background noise should become a non-issue. While for the most part, this works well in most situations and improves the call quality for example when there is ambient traffic noise, the artificial intelligence fails to do its job properly in some cases. During our real-world test on an autobahn, noise caused by the wind was not canceled out sufficiently and still very noticeable despite the AI. However, there is a substantial and noticeable difference compared to the Soundliberty 53 and other in-ear headphones without noise canceling.

Aside from the call quality, we of course also tested the music playback quality, which is surprisingly rich in terms of the bass relative to the tiny form factor of the units. While the mids and treble are less present than the bass, the 6-mm PEEK and PU high fidelity drivers still complement the overall audio experience very well for a balanced sound stage. That being said, TaoTronics could have improved the maximum volume of the Soundliberty 79 slightly, since music playback more often than not requires high to maximum volume. Relative to size and price, the audio experience is surprisingly well balanced.

The TaoTronics Soundliberty 79 is available on Amazon for around US$60.

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> Expert Reviews and News on Laptops, Smartphones and Tech Innovations > Reviews > TaoTronics Soundliberty 79 AI Performance
Daniel Puschina, 2020-03- 9 (Update: 2020-03-10)