$170 Anker Earbuds Make AirPods Pro 3 Calls Sound Muddy

A $170 Soundcore earbud just made Apple’s AirPods Pro 3 sound “muddy and more compressed” on calls in The Verge’s testing.

That is the real signal in Anker’s Liberty 5 Pro review: Soundcore is not just adding another feature-rich pair of earbuds to the midrange shelf. It is trying to turn microphone performance into a premium weapon, according to The Verge.

“I have never heard a pair of earbuds or headphones handle ambient noise on a call this well.”

For Anker, that matters because call quality is one of the few earbud features that still breaks through in real life. ANC, battery life, and sound tuning have become harder to separate without careful A/B testing. But if a caller cannot hear a yelling child, a wood chipper outside an open window, or traffic with emergency vehicles, that difference is immediate.

Soundcore Is Using Call Quality to Move Upmarket

Soundcore, Anker’s audio brand, has historically sat in the budget-to-midrange zone. The Liberty 5 Pro and Liberty 5 Pro Max push it closer to premium territory.

The old ceiling, excluding Soundcore’s sleep buds, was the Liberty 4 Pro at $150. The new lineup starts at $170 for the Liberty 5 Pro and rises to $230 for the Liberty 5 Pro Max. The Verge calls that “reaching into AirPods Pro 3 territory.”

MLXIO analysis: that $20 step-up from the prior Liberty 4 Pro matters less as a raw price increase than as a signal. Soundcore is asking buyers to pay not only for features, but for engineering credibility. That is a different sale.

This also reframes Anker’s value pitch. The company is still undercutting some premium rivals, but it is no longer competing only on “good enough for less.” It is trying to own a specific performance category: in-call noise suppression.

For more context on how this product has been positioned around voice performance, see MLXIO’s earlier coverage: Anker's $170 Earbuds Bet on AI to Crush Call Noise.

The Thus Chip Makes These Earbuds More Like Audio Computers

The technical hinge is Anker’s new Thus chip, which The Verge says has more processing power than earlier Soundcore earbuds. Anker is using that chip to compete with the silicon strategies behind Apple, Sony 1000X products, and Bose products.

That does not prove broad parity with those brands. The Verge review is strongest on call quality, ANC comparison, case features, and listening impressions. It does not establish that the Thus chip beats Apple, Sony, or Bose silicon across every workload.

Still, the direction is clear. Premium earbuds now depend on more than drivers and shell design. They are miniature audio computers built around:

• Microphone arrays: capturing speech and outside noise.
• Onboard processing: deciding what to suppress and what to preserve.
• Adaptive ANC: changing behavior based on the environment.
• Voice algorithms: keeping the speaker natural while removing chaos around them.

The Liberty 5 Pro’s most impressive result came from that stack working together. The reviewer described calls where loud ambient noise disappeared for the listener on the other end, while his own voice remained natural.

MLXIO analysis: if this performance holds across more independent tests, Soundcore’s claim to premium relevance will rest less on brand perception and more on a measurable use case. That is the right battlefield for a challenger.

The Price Split Is Really a Case Split

The Liberty 5 Pro and Liberty 5 Pro Max sound like two tiers of earbuds. They are not. The earbuds themselves are effectively the same, according to The Verge.

The standard Liberty 5 Pro case has an angled 0.96-inch TFT screen that controls ANC, sound profiles, speak-to-chat, and Dolby head tracking. Those same controls are also available in the Soundcore app.

The Pro Max case adds a 1.78-inch AMOLED screen, screen brightness controls, wallpaper changes, and the biggest difference: a built-in microphone with an AI note-taking app. It can record audio directly to the case, transfer it to a phone, then generate a transcription and summary in the Soundcore app. A Soundcore account is required.

Files can be exported as MP3 for audio, while transcripts and summaries can be exported as .txt, Markdown, .docx, or PDF. The Verge reviewer said the transcription differentiated speakers and was “very accurate” in testing.

MLXIO analysis: the Pro Max is not the better earbud. It is the same earbud with a smarter case. Unless a buyer regularly records classes or meetings, the standard Liberty 5 Pro appears to capture the performance story for $60 less.

Sound Needs Tuning, but ANC Is Already in Premium Range

The Verge review is not a clean sweep. The default sound profile is bass-heavy, with muddy vocals, dull snare hits, and missing high-end sparkle. That matters because Soundcore’s call-quality win does not automatically make it a reference-grade music product out of the box.

The fix appears accessible. The Liberty 5 Pro lets users pick a preferred tuning from seven sound examples, or use an 8-band EQ. After tuning, The Verge’s reviewer said the lower mids cleaned up, the high mids improved, and the overall sound opened.

The comparison with AirPods Pro 3 stayed nuanced. The Soundcore profile remained heavier on bass and did not match Apple’s high-end response, but the reviewer still enjoyed music listening “just as much.”

On noise cancellation, the Liberty 5 Pro performed strongly. The Verge said adaptive ANC was comparable to AirPods Pro 3 for $80 less, though the Soundcore buds let in slightly more midrange. They also handled low-end drones well enough for long flights.

That combination — strong ANC, adjustable sound, and unusually good call clarity — is what makes the pricing more credible. Soundcore is not asking buyers to ignore tradeoffs. It is betting that its best feature is the one many earbuds still mishandle.

Apple Users May Stay Put, but Call-Heavy Buyers Have a New Reason to Look

The Verge ends with a practical recommendation: if calls are the main use case, the Liberty 5 Pro series is “the best earbuds to get.”

That does not mean every premium buyer will defect. The review itself notes that buyers who want to stay inside Apple’s, Google’s, or Samsung’s systems may still prioritize those products. Ecosystem preference remains a real buying filter.

But for commuters, remote workers, and anyone who takes calls in loud spaces, the Liberty 5 Pro changes the comparison. A marginal difference in music tuning can be adjusted. A caller hearing a wood chipper cannot.

There is one unresolved privacy and usability tension. The Liberty 5 Pro includes a voice-control mode that responds quickly, but it does not require a wake word. Instead, it listens for 11 different possible phrases, including “Play Music,” “Volume Up,” “Reject Call,” and “Transparency Mode.” The Verge found it less consistent when another conversation was happening nearby.

That detail deserves scrutiny in future reviews. A call-focused earbud that listens for commands without a wake phrase may be convenient, but the implementation and user controls will matter.

For a wider look at how consumer audio brands are pushing premium features into earbuds, see MLXIO’s coverage of Xiaomi Sparks Luxury Earbuds Race with Apple Find My Tech.

Voice Isolation Is the Feature to Test Next

The Liberty 5 Pro’s success or failure will not be decided by the spec sheet. It will be decided in ugly environments: traffic, open offices, train platforms, kitchens, wind, and rooms where someone else is on Zoom.

That is where Soundcore’s claim becomes testable. Reviewers can switch between earbuds mid-call, record controlled samples, and compare how natural the speaker sounds after noise suppression kicks in. The Verge already did some of that against AirPods Pro 3, with Soundcore coming out ahead on call clarity in those tests.

MLXIO analysis: the most important next evidence is repeatability. If more reviewers hear the same call-quality advantage across different phones, environments, and voices, Anker will have a sharper premium argument than “cheaper AirPods alternative.” If results vary, the Liberty 5 Pro becomes an impressive but narrower win.

For buyers, the practical takeaway is simple: stop judging earbuds only by music, ANC, and battery life. If calls are central to the way you work, test microphone performance as aggressively as sound quality. The Liberty 5 Pro suggests that the next premium earbuds fight may happen on the other end of the call.

The Bottom Line

• Anker is using call quality to differentiate in a crowded earbuds market.
• The Liberty 5 Pro signals Soundcore’s move from value-focused audio into more premium territory.
• Better real-world microphone performance could matter more to buyers than incremental ANC or sound tuning upgrades.