True wireless headphones are on the rise. While the likes of the Apple AirPods and Bragi Dash Pro headphones tend to get all the praise, there are dozens of other options out there — like, for example, the Soul X-Shock headphones.
The headphones clearly have a lot to offer — offering the dream of true wireless at a relatively reasonable price for true wireless headphones. But should you save your money and go for something else? We put the Soul X-Shock true wireless headphones to the test to find out.
Design
The Soul X-Shock headphones have a very interesting design in many ways, and a totally normal one in many others. For starters, the shape of the headphones is pretty much what you would expect from a pair of true wireless headphones. The headphones are available in a few different colors — black, and white. We’re reviewing the white pair.
Perhaps the biggest difference between the black and white headphones is that the white option is partly clear — allowing you to see inside the headphones. It’s an interesting touch, and slightly reminiscent of the original iMac.
On each earbud, the Soul logo doubles as a button, allowing you to control different aspects of the headphones depending on which button you press and for how long you press them.
Of course, when it comes to true wireless headphones, you’re not just looking at the earbuds themselves — you’re also looking at the charging case. We quite like the Soul X-Shock charging case, for a few reasons. For starters, it’s built from nice, premium materials. It’s also easy to start charging the headphones — simply place them in the vicinity of where they need to be and they should click into place magnetically.
On top of that, it offers more functionality than simply charging your earbuds — it can also be used to charge your mobile devices through its built-in USB port. That’s a very nice touch, and while it does mean you’ll have to balance how long you want the headphones to last versus how much battery life is being supplied to your phone or other device, it’s still nice to have that option.
Apart from the headphones and the charging case, in the box you’ll get a MicroUSB charging cable, a carry pouch, a carabineer, and one pair of ear tips. It was a little strange to find only two pairs of ear tips in general — most in-ear headphones come with at least three or four pairs.
Comfort
The headphones are certainly pretty well-designed, but how comfortable are they? Thankfully, they do pretty well. The headphones only come with two ear tip options, which is a little disappointing, but the ones that are pre-installed should do the trick for most people. With those ear tips on, we found that we were able to wear the headphones for a few hours without any issues.
Perhaps the biggest problem with these headphones is that they can sometimes fall out — so you might find yourself needing to push them back in every now and then. That’s especially true if you plan on using these for running or working out — though we recommend looking for something else if that’s you.
Sound
The sound quality on wireless headphones hasn’t always been the best, but thankfully it has gotten a whole lot better over the past few years. The Soul X-Shock headphones seem to prove that — they don’t just look good, but they sound pretty good too.
For starters, the bass response is nice and heavy, offering plenty of punch for kick drums, and a very smooth tone for bass guitars and synths. It’s clear that there is a slight boost in bass response, so those looking for a totally natural tone may want to look elsewhere — but we like what Soul has done here.
The mid range is also very well tuned. It seems to be a little low-heavy, but not necessarily in a bad way. The low mids are warm and thick, and while they can sometimes step into being a little muddy, in general we found that not to be the case. The high mids seem to be slightly cut, which helps give the headphones that consumer-freindly sound, but can also result in slightly laid-back vocals and guitars.
The high end on these headphones isn’t the best, but it’s not terrible either. While a little more detail is always nice, we found that these headphones were able to deliver decently sizzling cymbals and a reasonable amount of sibilance in things like vocals. Again, more high-end response would definitely have been nice — but there are definitely worse headphones than these in the high end department.
Performance
Soul has given a pretty precise figure of how long it expects the Soul X-Shock headphones to last — 3.4 hours on a charge. That’s not bad. 3 hours isn’t pretty lackluster, but 4 is pretty good in the true wireless world.
What’s really impressive is that that the company says the battery case will give the headphones a whopping 16 extra recharges — which is incredible. What that means is that you can get up to a whopping 54 hours of listening time, if you’re fine with charging the headphones whenever they run out of batteries.
The Soul X-Shock headphones connect to your listening device through Bluetooth 5.0, making these among the first headphones to adopt the new standard. We found that they seemed to connect very well — while we didn’t test with a Bluetooth 5.0-compatible device, they still didn’t really jump or skip at all except at unreasonable distances.
Conclusions
True wireless headphones are only getting better. While Soul may not be the first company you think of when you think of headphones, the company proves that it has a lot to offer in the true wireless headphones department. The Soul X-Shock headphones are relatively well-designed, comfortable, and they sound pretty good too.
But are there better options? Well, that depends on what you’re looking for. If you’re looking for a pair of sports headphones, then these probably aren’t the ones to go for. Instead, we recommend the JLab Audio Epic Air headphones — which are built for sports and are much better at staying in your ears.
Still, considering their excellent value for money, these are a great buy — and because of that we’re awarding them the Headphone Review Silver Medal.
| Store | Price |
|---|---|
 |
$149.99 |
| Soul | $149.99 |
| Frequency response | 20Hz – 20kHz | Active noise cancellation |
Unknown |
| Driver size | 5.8mm | Noise attenuation | Unknown |
| Driver type |
Dynamic | On-ear controls | Yes |
| Design |
Closed | Microphone | Yes |
| Sensitivity | 92dB | Earpad material | Gel |
| Rated impedance |
32Ω | Magnet material | Unknown |
| Total harmonic distortion |
Unknown | Water resistance | IPX5 |
| Rated input power |
Unknown | Battery life | 3.4 hours ( |
| Maximum input power |
5mW | Wireless distance | Unknown |
| Wireless connection |
Bluetooth 5.0 | Cable length | Unknown |
| Wired connection |
No | Case type | Charging case |
| Detachable cable |
N/A | In-the-box |
|
| Weight | 145g (5.1oz) | Colors | Black, white |