TaoTronics SoundLiberty 94 Truly Wireless Headphones Review

The TaoTronics SoundLiberty 94 are conventional-looking truly wireless headphones. They have a compact body made of matte-finish plastic, with no obvious branding or flashy detailing, unlike the gold plastic accents used on the TaoTronics SoundLiberty 79 Truly Wireless.

These headphones are decently comfortable. They feel very lightweight and don't protrude from your ears. While they don't exert too much pressure on the inside of your ear canal, their deep in-ear fit may not suit all listeners. Take a look at the similarly designed Mpow X5 Truly Wireless if you're looking for truly wireless headphones with a less intrusive in-ear fit.

The TaoTronics SoundLiberty 94 have a good touch-sensitive control scheme. It relies heavily on multi-touch inputs, but is still decently easy to use overall, with small indents on the buds' faces to help you locate the controls. The right bud lets you increase volume, pause and play media, and skip tracks via a single, double, or triple tap, respectively. You can also tap and hold it to activate your phone's voice assistant. The left bud operates similarly, allowing you to decrease volume, toggle ambient mode on and off, and skip to the previous tracks via multi-tap inputs. Taping and holding this bud turns on the headphones' ANC function. The controls are responsive and offer audio feedback for most inputs, except for pausing and playing media and skipping tracks.

Like most truly wireless headphones, the TaoTronics SoundLiberty 94 are exceptionally portable. They're small enough to be put in your pocket without difficulty. Their charging case shouldn't take up much room in a bag, either.

These headphones have a decent case. It's made of hard plastic and has four LED lights that roughly indicate its remaining battery life. It's noticeably taller than the TaoTronics SoundLiberty 79 Truly Wireless' case, but it does have magnets in its cradles to help hold the buds securely in place.

The TaoTronics SoundLiberty 94 are well-built. They're made of sturdy, solid plastic and feel like they can survive a couple of drops and bumps. They're also rated IPX5 for water resistance, though we don't currently test for this. Unfortunately, their ear tips feel a little flimsy and could tear.

The TaoTronics SoundLiberty 94 have a stable fit. While they don't have stability fins, their lightweight design and deep in-ear fit help them do a good job of staying in place. Once you achieve a good seal with the provided tips, they shouldn't fall out even during moderately intense workouts.

• TaoTronics SoundLiberty 94 headphones
• Charging case
• 3x tip options
• USB-C charging cable
• User guide

The TaoTronics SoundLiberty 94 have a somewhat bass-heavy, dark sound profile. Their boomy bass range is well-suited to genres like EDM or hip-hop, but it can clutter and muddy vocals and lead instruments. Its uneven, underemphasized treble range can give some higher-pitched harmonics, like cymbals or sibilants, a dull and lispy quality. The lack of a companion app or built-in presets also means you can't adjust their sound profile to your liking.

These headphones have superb frequency response consistency. You shouldn't experience too many deviations in audio delivery once you achieve a proper fit.

The TaoTronics SoundLiberty 94 have okay bass accuracy. Their slightly underemphasized low-bass response can result in a small loss of thump and rumble in genres like EDM or hip-hop. Their overemphasized mid and high-bass range delivers plenty of extra punch and boominess but can give a slightly muddy quality to some mixes.

The mid accuracy is very good. While the overemphasized low-mid range can give a muddy, cluttered quality to vocals and lead instruments, the neutral mid and high-mids should ensure that they're present and detailed in the mix.

These in-ears have poor treble accuracy. The dip from the low to mid-treble range can slightly veil vocals and lead instruments and gives higher-pitched harmonics, like sibilants and cymbals, a dull, lispy quality.

The peaks and dips performance is satisfactory. The extended bump across the bass range gives mixes a boomy, muddy character, and clutters vocals and lead instruments. A dip in the mid-mids nudges vocals and lead instruments toward the back of the mix. The alternating peak and steep drop in the low to mid-treble range make some higher notes sound harsh and dulls sibilants and cymbals.

The TaoTronics SoundLiberty 94's stereo imaging performance is excellent. Their weighted group delay falls entirely beneath the audibility threshold, resulting in tight bass and transparent treble. The L/R drivers are also well-matched in regards to phase, frequency, and amplitude response, meaning that objects like voices and footsteps are accurately placed within the stereo image. That said, these results are only valid for our test unit, and your own experience may vary.

Like most closed-back in-ears, these headphones have a terrible passive soundstage. Interaction with the outer ear is crucial in creating an open, and spacious listening experience. Since they bypass any sort of interaction with the outer ear, sound is likely to be perceived as coming from inside your head rather than speakers placed around you.

TheTaoTronics SoundLiberty 94 don't have any virtual soundstage features.

The weighted harmonic distortion performance is good. There's a bit of distortion in the treble range at normal listening volumes, but the rest of the frequency range falls within good limits, ensuring mostly clean and pure audio reproduction.

These are the settings used to test the TaoTronics SoundLiberty 94. Our results are only valid in this configuration.

The noise isolation performance is excellent. Their ANC system is most effective in the bass range, where it helps the headphones do an outstanding job of filtering out sounds like the rumble of bus or plane engines. While their ANC system does little to improve their passive noise isolation capabilities in the mid and treble range, they still do an amazing job of blocking out background chatter or the high-pitched hum of an AC unit.

The TaoTronics SoundLiberty 94 have superb audio leakage performance. You should be able to listen to audio at high volumes without bothering people nearby, even in fairly quiet environments.

These in-ears have an integrated microphone.

The integrated mic's recording quality is decent. Recorded speech should sound natural and be mostly free of distortion, though it may sound a little thin and muffled.

The integrated mic's noise handling performance is middling. People on the other end of the line may have trouble understanding you, even in only moderately loud or crowded environments.

These headphones have okay battery performance. With their noise cancelling feature turned on, they provide just under four hours of continuous playback time, which falls short of the advertised claim of five hours. According to the manufacturer, turning off their ANC system increases their battery life to eight hours, though we don't test for this. Their case should supply enough extra power for roughly three full charges, so they should have no trouble lasting you throughout a workday if you leave them in their case to charge every now and then. You can listen to content from only one bud while its counterpart charges, though this does mean that you lose access to some on-board controls. Unlike the Mpow X6 Truly Wireless, they're also equipped with an auto-off timer to help conserve battery life when not in use.

The TaoTronics SoundLiberty 94 don't have a companion app.

The TaoTronics SoundLiberty 94 offer decent Bluetooth connectivity. They support Bluetooth 5.1, but not NFC or multi-device pairing, which isn't too surprising for near budget-friendly headphones. While they have fairly high latency on PCs, their latency on Android and iOS mobile devices is quite low, which is good if you want to watch a movie or stream videos from your phone. That said, apps and devices compensate differently for audio latency, so your real-world experience may vary.

The TaoTronics SoundLiberty 94 are Bluetooth-only.

The TaoTronics SoundLiberty 94 don't support any wired connections. They come with a USB-C cable for charging their case.

These headphones are Bluetooth-only and can't connect to Xbox One consoles.

The TaoTronics SoundLiberty 94 have a charging case that supplies roughly three additional full charges. It charges via USB-C but doesn't support wireless charging.