TaoTronics SoundLiberty 79 Truly Wireless  Headphones Review

The TaoTronics SoundLiberty 79 are fairly standard looking all-black truly wireless earbuds. Their touch-sensitive surface is covered in a matte black finish that looks somewhat premium. While the tips of each earbuds are advertised as being silver, our units' looks much more gold. Unfortunately, the glossy gold plastic makes the headphones look fairly cheap.

The TaoTronics SoundLiberty 79 are decently comfortable for in-ear headphones. The earbuds themselves are small and lightweight, reducing the amount of pressure they put on the inside of the ear. They also don't enter the ear canal as deep as some other options. For a more comfortable option, check out the Mpow M30 Truly Wireless.

The control scheme on the TaoTronics SoundLiberty 79 is mediocre. Their touch-sensitive controls aren't very intuitive, and it takes a while to get used to the various commands. While the headphones give you an audible beeping sound when you activate a command, there isn't a voice prompt, so it can be difficult to know what commands you enter. They offer volume control on the earbuds, which is nice, but you have to press individually for each volume increment, which is bothersome.

Like most truly wireless earbuds, the TaoTronics SoundLiberty 79 are very portable. The earbuds themselves stick together with a fairly strong magnet, so you can toss them into a pocket and not worry about accidentally losing one.

The case for these headphones is decent. It's not too bulky and has four indicator lights to tell you the battery level and when the earbuds are charging. Unfortunately, when the optional stability fins are installed on the earbuds, it can be difficult to ensure a proper connection with the charging pins on the case, resulting in your earbuds not charging though it appears they're fully charged.

The build quality of these headphones is good. Both the case and the earbuds themselves are made of dense, good quality plastic, and feel fairly durable. The headphones are rated IPX7 for water and sweat resistance, though this isn't something we test for.

These headphones are very stable. Unlike the Tranya T10 Truly Wireless and Skullcandy Dime True Wireless, they come with optional stability fins, which helps them stay in place even during more strenuous workouts. Unfortunately, they only come with one size of stability fin, unlike some other headphones like the Samsung Galaxy Buds+ Truly Wireless, which come with three size options.

• TaoTronics SoundLiberty 79 headphones
• Charging case
• 3x tip options
• 1x stability fin
• 1x sleeve
• USB-C charging cable
• Manuals

The sound profile of the TaoTronics SoundLiberty 79 is quite well-balanced and they're suitable for a wide range of genres and content. They have a bit of extra bass, which adds some extra thump and punch to bass-heavy music like EDM or hip-hop but isn't too overpowering for rock or country.

The frequency response consistency of these headphones is outstanding. Provided you achieve a proper fit using the included tips, the treble and bass response should be the same every time you use the headphones.

The bass accuracy of the TaoTronics SoundLiberty 79 is very good. The entire range is fairly well-balanced and flat, with low-bass being the most overemphasized, providing a fair amount of rumble and thump that's felt rather than heard. The mid-range is also overemphasized, though not as much, providing a bit of extra body and punch. Overall, the bass adds extra thump without being too overpowering or boomy.

The mid accuracy of these headphones is excellent. Almost the entire range is well-balanced and flat, ensuring that present leads and vocals aren't muddy or harsh.

The treble accuracy of these headphones is great. While some parts of the range are unevenly emphasized, all ranges fall within good limits, and sibilants (S and T sounds) don't sound harsh or piercing. Some frequencies may sound slightly dull or lifeless, though it's likely most people won't notice this.

The peaks and dips performance of these headphones is excellent. There's a slight dip in mid-treble followed by a large peak which may make some frequencies appear to be dull, while others are slightly piercing. Overall, it likely won't be too noticeable to most people.

The imaging of these headphones is superb. The GD graph shows that the entire group delay response is below the audibility threshold, resulting in a tight bass and a transparent treble reproduction. Additionally, the L/R drivers of our test unit are exceptionally matched, which is important for the accurate placement and localization of objects and instruments (like voices and footsteps) in the stereo image. However, these results are only valid for our unit and yours may perform differently.

Like most in-ears, the soundstage of these headphones is poor. This is because in-ears bypass the pinna (outer ear), and don't interact with it. Activating the resonances of the pinna is one of the key factors in creating a speaker-like and out-of-head soundstage. Also, because of their closed-back design, their soundstage tends to be less open than that of open-back headphones.

These headphones don't have any virtual soundstage features.

The weighted harmonic distortion performance of these headphones is very good. They distort a bit more in the higher frequencies, but this likely won't be noticeable to most people.

These are the settings used to test these headphones. Our results are only valid when listening using these settings.

The noise isolation performance of these headphones is okay. Provided you achieve a proper fit with the included tips, they do a good job at blocking out background chatter and high-frequency sounds like fans or AC units. Unfortunately, they don't help much as blocking the low rumble of bus or plane engines, but they do a better job isolating noise than the TaoTronics SoundLiberty 92 Truly Wireless.

The leakage performance of the TaoTronics SoundLiberty 79 is excellent. The leaked audio is below to noise floor of an average office, so you should be able to listen to your music fairly loudly without bothering coworkers around you.

The TaoTronics SoundLiberty 79 have an integrated microphone in the earbuds.

The recording quality of the microphone is decent and performs better than most Bluetooth microphones that we've tested such as the FIIL T1X True Wireless. When on a call, your voice sounds fairly natural and understandable but lacks a bit of detail.

The noise handling of the microphone on the TaoTronics SoundLiberty 79 is inadequate. Like with most Bluetooth headphones with an integrated mic, your voice gets lost even in moderately noisy environments.

The battery performance of these headphones is mediocre. They last 5.7 hours off a single charge, which isn't bad for a pair of truly wireless headphones but falls short of their advertised 8-hour battery life. They also take nearly two hours to charge, which is fairly long, and they don't have any power-saving features like an auto-off timer, unlike the TaoTronics SoundLiberty 94 Truly Wireless. Their case should provide around four additional full charges.

The TaoTronics SoundLiberty 79 don't have a dedicated companion app, so you can't make any changes to their settings or sound profile.

Update 12/16/2021: These headphones were updated to Test Bench 1.5 and their latency values have changed. Our new test bench uses an average of three measurements instead of one. As a result, we have updated our text to better reflect test bench 1.5 measurements.

The TaoTronics SoundLiberty 79 are Bluetooth 5.0 earbuds. Unfortunately, they don't support NFC or multi-device pairing for easy connections to your devices. While their latency is fairly high on PC, we measured low latency while watching YouTube videos on Android and iOS devices. It's worth noting that apps seem to compensate for latency, so your mileage may vary in real-life usage.

The TaoTronics SoundLiberty 79 are Bluetooth-only headphones.

The TaoTronics SoundLiberty 79 are Bluetooth-only headphones that can't be used wired. They come with a very short USB-C cable to charge their case.

The TaoTronics SoundLiberty 79 are Bluetooth-only and therefore aren't compatible with the Xbox One.

The charging case for these headphones should give you around four additional charges, though we don't test for this directly. It's charged via USB-C but doesn't have any additional inputs or features, like wireless charging.