Sound Liberty Pro P10 Review

An email arrived a few weeks ago asking me to write this Sound Liberty Pro P10 Review. I accepted the offer and waited for them to arrive. The service was fast and they arrived well packaged. They’re made by a company called Taotronics and they make all sorts of bluetooth headphones and speakers. The P10’s have ANC technology, which is good as I’ve recently finished a review of the Edifier TWS NB2 Pro which also feature ANC.

The two sets of headphones have similar features, so this would make a good comparison. Let’s see which pair of headphones comes out on top.

Ever since Apple revealed the AirPod’s there has been countless AirPod-style earbuds released from hundreds of different manufacturers. This influx of totally wireless earbuds means two things. The first is that there’s lots of review writing opportunities. But, it also means that when it comes to choosing a decent pair of headphones the options can be confusing. This is where my detailed reviews come in, so read on below and I’ll let you know if these are any good or not.

When I opened the shipping box I was greeted with an attractive looking product box. The white and orange colour scheme looks good as does the high quality product imagery on the front of the packaging. The earbuds have the typical AirPod style vertical design and studs that point downwards. It’s become the classic design that everyone associates with a decent earbud brand.

The Pro P10’s have ANC technology. If your not familiar with ANC, it’ll help block out most background noise such as white noise, pc fans, traffic noise etc. I’m really interested in how these will perform because as I mentioned above, I’d recently finished with the TWS NB2 Pro review and the ANC on those was outstanding. I’m hoping these will live up to TaoTronics reputation for decent audio equipment.

I’ve used some of their in-ear wired earbuds before, they only cost £20 and performed above their price bracket. Let’s take a closer look at the P10 wireless earbuds, and see if they live up to that well earned track-record.

Sound Quality

For the sound quality test I thought It’d be fun to spin up some classics. I loaded up Queen’s Greatest Hits playlist on Amazon Music and gave it a listen. The opening track was Bohemian Rhapsody and the bass sounded really powerful. It was punchy and really reverberated the inside of my eardrums. I don’t normally listen to music at loud volumes so I had to turn it down a bit as the low end punch is really quite hard hitting. The bass is great and I imagine if I’d selected a hip hop or hard hitting drum and bass album the bass the P10’s produce would suit those genres better.

Because the bass is so very obviously the focal point, it’s good that the midrange doesn’t sound too underpowered or washed out. Freddy Mercury’s vocals sound really really clear, even on a track that’s got a lot of instrumentation and subtle background elements. A track just like that is ‘Crazy Little Thing Called Love’. The vocals sound and remain high-quality throughout the track.

I’m really pleased with the bass and mid range but I wasn’t as thrilled with the high-end. Don’t get me wrong, they’re not terrible. It’s just that they don’t offer much in terms of how ‘rich’ they sound. I might be super picky because I quite like a loud high-end but I just felt as if there’s something missing. Perhaps a better way of explaining it is that they sound a bit hollow.

That hollow sounding, poorer high end isn’t all bad. It makes the P10’s a great choice for rap, hip-hop or D&B music. But maybe avoid them if your genre of choice is classical. If you want a more well-rounded and balanced audio profile you may need to look elsewhere. If you want something that’s fine for generic use for working out or pottering about the house, these are certainly worth a look.

Overall then, the sound quality is great for a pair of headphones at this price point. The soundstage, which provides separation between different frequencies and channels is far reaching. When listening to music, you get a true sense of spatial awareness, as if you’re listening live.

I’m a fan so far! But how does the Active Noise Cancelling perform?

Active Noise Cancelling

The ANC mode on the Pro P10 earbuds works exceptionally well in my office. According to the blurb it’ll help reduce background noise by up to 38dB. The ANC turns on automatically when you pop the earbuds into your ears and when I was sat at my desk doing my day to day tasks it created a very pleasant working environment. Keep in mind though, that if you do have a fan quite close to you then the ANC tech may struggle, it performs much better with consistent noise levels, such as a whirring fan that’s a few feet away. You’ll still hear people talk though and you’ll still hear emergency alarms,, well I did when I got my wife to press the ‘test’ button on the smoke alarm.

When I was testing these I went for a run. I normally run 5km every single day, my daily workout regime is the perfect exercise to help write my headphone reviews. And in particular it’s the perfect environment to test out the special wind ANC mode that TaoTronics has introduced. The’re website says:

‘In anti-wind mode, noise reduction is greatly enhanced to reduce the sounds of a rustling breeze when you are outside on windy days’

I’m always honest with my opinion on the blog. And today is no different, I didn’t really get on well with wind mode at all, I found it to be rather ineffective. The day I tested them was particularly windy but even still I found the ANC wind mode hardly reduced the wind noise at all. I’m not sure if I needed to use larger silicone ear tips or not. There are three sets of ear tips included in the box and the tips that we’re already fitted to the buds didn’t feel too large or too small. The tips gave a good firm seal, they certainly felt snug so I was a little disappointed at the inbound wind noise that broke through. They performed so well during internal setting but the ANC whilst outdoors was so so.

In addition to wind mode there’s also what TaoTronics calls ‘ambient mode.’ In this mode, the ANC system actually boosts background noise. This makes it easy to carry on a conversation without taking out your earbuds. However, I’m also not a fan of this as even though you can hear the other person speak, it just felt a little but impolite to keep wearing your earbuds whilst having a conversation.

Microphone For Calls

Taking or making a phone call is crystal clear. The microphone picked up my voice just fine and I could hear the person on the other end of the phone.

Overall I do think the sound quality matches the price point and I’d have no problems recommending these to my readers. Having said that, for just £10 / $10 you’d probably be able to find better. Let’s move on and take a look at the build quality.

The charging case isn't as compact as it's competitors. — The charging case isn’t as compact as it’s competitors.

Build Quality

The Sound Liberty Pro P10 feel quite strong. The all plastic construction leaves you feeling confident that you aren’t going to damage them with day to day use. I don’t think these are the most robust earbuds I’ve used and they don’t feel quite as solid as the Gen 1 AirPods.

My reviews often put devices through their paces and for the P10’s I really went to town. I dropped them on the concrete outside and aside from the earbuds coming flying out of the case, there wasn’t any damage. I also tried to bend the lid of the charging case all the way back to see how much punishment it could take, it did really well and I can see these lasting for ages. These are really well built but they do have a couple of things I dislike.

One area I do think is a bit of a let down is the matt black finish. It’s quite easy to leave marks on it and I’m forever cleaning grubby fingerprints from the case. I’d have preferred a gloss black or gloss white to really hide those slight imperfections. I also found that I was able to scratch the case quite easily with a sharp object. It didn’t damage the overall face of the plastic and didn’t leave any deeper scratches but I could certainly tell it was marred.

And finally, the holes that you slot the earbuds into when charging aren’t completely circular, which means I struggled to put them back in easily.

Overall these are well made but aren’t without a couple of flaws. The flaws are by no means deal breakers but something to consider when making a short list of which earbuds to buy next. Next let’s take a look at the feature set and design touches.

Features & Design

The Pro P10’s contain fairly large 9mm drivers, which make the overall body look a little larger than your average earbud. This in turn then makes the charging case quite a bit bigger than that of the AirPods or Edifier X3. But then again, the bass is quite a bit deeper than those two alternatives.

The bottom of the case features a USB-C connection for charging the case. A fully charged case and earbuds will give you up to 33 hours of music playback. Ofcourse, this will be reduced greatly if you enable the ANC. That’s still an impressive amount of playback before having to charge everything back up again. If you don’t have the charging case with you you’ll get nearly 7 hours of playback time out of the earbuds. So perfect if you forget to take the case with you.

You’ll get four pairs of tips to choose between which will help you to find the best match for your ear canal size. Choose one that’s as tight as possible but avoids any discomfort. A snug fit enables you to reduce background and wind noise but increase the amount of bass by trapping the reverberating air.

I don’t quite like the the USB-C cable. It’s a bit too short for me and shorter cables are becoming all too common. You might aswell exclude it, I’m sure most people have a USB-C cable lying around. If not, 3rd party cables are often far superior. Something like the Syncwire USB-C cable would be perfect for the job of charging these up. A longer cable ensures you don’t leave the case dangling from a port.

The P10’s drivers are quite a bit bigger than that of the original AirPods.

The Sound Liberty Pro P10 earbuds come with a water-resistance rating of IPX8. This means they can be submerged at a depth of more than one meter for more than 30 minutes. IPX8 headphones can go beyond a meter for far longer so we’d need to clarify with TaoTronics just how long these were tested for.

Latest Bluetooth Technology

The Pro P10 buds make use of the latest in Bluetooth technology. Bluetooth 5.2 comes with all the benefits of Bluetooth 5.0. But 5.2 makes use of the latest tech to help reduce latency by allowing individual earbud connectivity. With previous Bluetooth versions the setup was fairly simple. One earbud would pair with your phone and the other earbud would receive its audio from the master earbud. This is why if you’ve used TWS earbuds before, sometimes one will fail to play audio until you re-pair them. Pairing the P10’s with my phone was pretty much instant and there was no latency that I noticed at all.

It’s great when the latest tech works. Bluetooth 5.2 may not be supported by legacy devices, it’s really only available on the latest current gen smartphones from the second half of 2021.

Where To Buy

As usual, you can find these headphones on Amazon. Hit the link here. Using our affiliate link means we get a small kick back to pay for the maintenance and upkeep of the blog. You won’t be charged extra from this small commision we may receive. You can also find these direct from TaoTronics official store, hit the link here to buy them.

Sound Liberty Pro P10 Review Summary & Verdict

Score: 7.5/10

The low-latency is quite an attractive feature, it means you can use them for gaming if you wish. They’re tough enough to wear during a workout without during your day to day audio needs without getting damaged. The solid bass performance and lengthy battery life make them a contender.

The reason for the 7.5/10 is the issue with the case design preventing from slipping the earbuds in frustrated me. The matt black also left lots of fingerprints, I can’t justify anything higher than a 7.5. These are good headphones and I do recommend them but remember, there are better headphones out there for the same money.

If you want some totally wireless earbuds from a company that looks after it’s customers then go for it because TaoTronics have really great service. And, before I forget to compare them with the Edifier offering, I do think the Edifier’s are better but they’re a bit more expensive.