Anker Soundcore Space A40 Truly Wireless  Headphones Review

The Anker Space A40 look somewhat similar in design to the Anker Soundcore Life Dot 2 Truly Wireless. They have a stemless bud design with a glossy frame and a semi-matte touch-sensitive surface. The touch surface also has the manufacturer's logo, and these headphones come in three color variants: 'Black', 'White', and 'Blue'.

These headphones have a comfortable in-ear fit. They don't have as deep of a fit as other headphones from this manufacturer, like the Anker Soundcore Life Dot 2 Truly Wireless. They also feel lightweight, and using the controls doesn't push the buds deeper into your ear. However, they can cause a plunging feeling when you're putting them in for the first time.

The Anker Space A40 have good controls. There's a touch-sensitive surface on each bud, but they aren't the most intuitive to use since the layout splits controls on each bud. Luckily, you can use the companion app to remap the controls to your liking, and you can even add volume controls without losing other commands. There are also audible chimes while cycling between ANC on, normal mode, and transparency mode. There are tones available for tap feedback, too, but you'll have to activate this via the companion app.

On the left bud:

• Double tap: Skips to the next track.

On the right bud:

• Single tap: Plays and pauses audio.

On either bud:

• Double tap: Answers and ends calls.
• Tap and hold for two seconds: Switch between ANC on, transparency mode, which allows you to hear your surroundings without taking out your earbuds, and normal mode.

Like most in-ears, these headphones are very portable. They're small enough to fit into most pockets or bags without an issue.

The carrying case feels good and sturdy. It's mostly made of matte plastic on the outside and glossy plastic inside the case. There are three LED lights at the front of the case to indicate the battery charge and a reset/pairing button on the back of the base.

The build quality is good. They're mostly made of plastic, but the touch-sensitive surface feels a little cheaper than the rest of the body. The buds are certified IPX4 for resistance against water splashes, and they come with several different tip sizes to help you get the best fit.

These in-ears are decently stable but lack stability fins to ensure a truly stable fit. They'll stay in place if you're listening to audio at your desk or on the couch, but talking and chewing can break the ear tips' seal, causing the buds to wiggle around. They can fall out if you wear them during moderate to intense physical activity. If you're looking for earbuds with a more stable fit, try the Samsung Galaxy Buds FE Truly Wireless, which have stability wings to keep the buds in place while you're moving.

• Anker Soundcore Space A40
• Charging case
• 5x ear tips
• USB-A to USB-C charging cable
• Quick start guide

The Anker A40 have a warm sound profile with a bit of extra boom and punch. Bass guitars and kick drums come through as full-bodied, while mid-range instruments like keys and guitars are slightly emphasized in the low-mids, adding extra thickness to rhythm guitars. However, the high-mids are slightly pushed down which cuts down on the intensity of vocals. The low-treble sees a smooth de-emphasis that veils vocal articulation and clarity. Meanwhile, a sharp peak causes sibilants like cymbal harmonics to sound comparatively splashy but not full.

Luckily, if you prefer a different sound, their companion app offers a graphic EQ and presets that change the sound profile to help you customize their sound. We also found there are minor changes to the frequency response when you turn off the ANC compared to when it's on.

The frequency response consistency is outstanding. Once you achieve a good fit using the included ear tips, you'll experience consistent audio delivery each time you use them.

These earbuds have fantastic bass target compliance. They emphasize the punch and boom of bass guitars. The range is smooth and adheres well to our curve for ample rumble and weight without overwhelming other frequencies.

The Anker A40 have superb mid-range target compliance. The low-mids are slightly elevated with a touch more emphasis on chunky rhythm guitars with clear leads. The mid- to high-mid is a little bit rolled off, which weakens the intensity of vocals and instruments slightly.

Their treble profile's target compliance is poor. The response is almost entirely underemphasized, resulting in very veiled vocals and instruments and dull sibilants like cymbals, which can sound uneven. In songs like Rock Me Amadeus by Falco, hi-hats in the first verse sound a bit lispy, while the lead singer's voice lacks detail. If you prefer a very warm treble range, you might like this, but equally, the app's EQ can change the treble's response to make it brighter if you want.

The peaks and dips performance is okay, which indicates that these headphones control their sound profile well until the treble range. Most of the bass and mids are rendered smoothly, with very few minor bumps. A relatively small dip in the low-treble hurts the intelligibility of voices somewhat. The big peaks add piercing details to sibilants, like cymbal hits, followed by a steep dip that cuts out the full detail of those cymbal hits. In the higher registers, a big peak adds artificial brilliance and airiness, but hearing sensitivity can vary across people, so you might not be able to hear those highest frequencies.

The imaging performance is outstanding. Generally, most Anker headphones have well-matched drivers, indicating the brand's quality control and ergonomics. It's worth mentioning that earbuds and in-ears tend to be better matched than their over-ear counterparts. Our unit's L/R drivers are also well-matched regarding group delay, phase, amplitude, and frequency response, which is important for accurately placing objects like voices in the stereo image. While there are a couple of minor peaks in the phase response's low to mid-mid, it's hard to hear with real-life content. Imaging can vary between units, though.

As expected of in-ear headphones, their passive soundstage is bad. Activating the outer ear is a key component of creating an immersive soundstage experience, but these headphones don't do that by design. As a result, their soundstage sounds closed-off, unnatural, and small. Sound seems to come from inside your head rather than from speakers placed in the room around you.

The Anker A40's weighted harmonic distortion performance is good. There's a peak in the low-treble range, which is more noticeable in the right driver at moderate and high volumes. Still, this peak is hard to hear with real-life content. The rest of the response falls within good levels, resulting in mostly clear and pure audio reproduction.

These are the settings used to test these in-ears. Our results are only valid when using them with these settings. Note that when LDAC is enabled, the firmware shows version 4.19, and when LDAC is disabled, it displays version 3.19.

The noise isolation performance is amazing. Unlike other budget-friendly picks like the Nothing Ear (stick) Truly Wireless, these buds have an adaptive ANC system, which automatically adjusts to the noise in your environment. If you prefer, you can manually set the amount of ANC between 'Low,' 'Medium,' and 'High.' The adaptive ANC can block out the low rumble of bus engines. It also cuts down ambient chatter and the high-pitched hum of AC units.

The adaptive ANC can block out slightly more bass-range noise when it recognizes a 'High' noise environment than when the ANC is manually set to 'Strong.' You can see a comparison between these modes here.

These buds have an ANC system that performs amazingly well in common scenarios. They do a great job of attenuating against the rumble of airplane engines and block out a lot of street noise. However, they really excel in office environments, where they effectively block out the sound of chatty coworkers and scraping chairs.

Unlike other sounds, wind directly interacts with the ANC's microphones. Even though this sound doesn't reach your ears, the ANC system still tries to cancel it out, causing loud and unwanted noise. Fortunately, these buds feature a wind reduction feature in their companion app that can help mitigate this irritating sound while you're in windy environments.

Leakage is mostly concentrated in the treble range and sounds thin. You can rock out to your favorite tunes without disturbing those around you.

The integrated mic's recording quality is poor. Your voice sounds far away and sibilant. Our unit's right earbud also enters a feedback loop when using the mic, resulting in your own voice playing quietly by the right bud. When connected to a phone, the microphone sounds a bit more sibilant, which you can hear in the recorded speech file.

We've noticed reports of the mic ceasing to work, sometimes in the middle of a call. We've been unable to recreate the issue, but on re-testing, we did notice that the microphone's noise gate is very sensitive and will sometimes cut off the beginning and end of words. Some users have had success fixing this issue permanently by resetting the earbuds, which you can learn how to do at this link.

The mic's noise handling performance is decent. It's best to take calls from quieter environments like an office to ensure that the person on the other end of the line hears you clearly. In louder environments like busy streets, your voice gets drowned out.

The battery performance is good. The manufacturer advertises 10 hours of continuous playtime, and with the ANC on, we measured eight hours using the LDAC codec. When using the SBC codec, which is the default Bluetooth codec, and with ANC on, we measured over nine hours. Turning the ANC off but still using the SBC codec also results in over ten and a half hours of battery life. Keep in mind that battery life can also vary depending on usage. If you need a top-up, their carrying case supplies an additional four charges, which is handy in a pinch. They also have an auto-off timer, which helps conserve battery life when not in use, and you can use one bud while the other charges.

The Anker Soundcore app is great. You can see a video of how it works here. This app allows you to change your ANC settings, switch between manual and adaptive ANC, and customize the transparency mode. You can add a volume limiter, remap controls, and update the firmware. You can even customize their sound profile using their companion app's graphic EQ and presets, as well as switch to LDAC codec.

The included USB-A to USB-C cable lets you recharge the case.

The Anker Space A40 have great Bluetooth connectivity. They support multi-device pairing, so you can connect your headphones to two devices simultaneously and have a game mode to help lower latency. Using Game Mode, their latency via SBC falls out of good values, so you'll notice a slight lip sync mismatch. If you disable this mode, you'll get even higher latency values, which can be annoying if you're streaming video. It doesn't seem like this mode affects LDAC latency, though, which is Sony's proprietary hi-res codec. This codec has high latency, but it won't be an issue if you're only streaming audio. However, you need to use compatible audio to benefit from this codec, and you can only connect to one device at a time.

These headphones connect to Bluetooth-enabled PCs with full audio and mic compatibility. That said, you can't connect these headphones to your PC in any other way.

The Anker A40 come with a carrying case with a USB-C input for the charging cable. It supports Qi Wireless charging, too. However, the case has no other inputs.