SoundMagic P58BT Bluetooth Headphones – Hybrid ANC With Long Battery Life
SoundMagic P58BT is a $79 USD pair of Closed-Back Headphones with hybrid active noise cancellation, or ANC, with a 40mm dynamic driver and up to 60 hours of battery life. Today we will review and explore the P58BT and see if they are good for someone who’s into audio and fun.
Introduction
SoundMagic is a high quality but entry-level headphone designer that brought a lot of fun to audiophile ears that are on a budget. The headphones we review today are a downsized version of the SoundMagic P60BT, which we have reviewed in the past, and today we will explore just how the P58BT sounds and what they do best. As an Amazon Influencer, I earn from qualifying purchases, and using the purchase links in my reviews helps me maintain this website and Youtube Channel. Huge thanks to Soundmagic for providing the sample for this review, in exchange for my honest opinion.
PROs – One of the longest battery lives out there, with no vampiric drain while they are not in use, tight fit and strong seal, good build quality, V-Shaped signature with a bloomy, warm bass and a sharp, bright treble to complete the signature and give strong contrast, as well as a fairly good resolution. Overall, a magically balanced headphone for the money.
Cons – Only SBC protocol, the tight fit can be uncomfortable for my ears, silicone headband and earpads are sweat-prone.
Product Link
Amazon – https://amzn.to/4fK5rhq
Build Quality / Aesthetics
Soundmagic P58BT is an ANC model, and a fairly large part of today’s review will explore the ANC as at this entry-level price they can be a great airplane and silencing pair of headphones. The 800mAh battery inside of the P58BT powers them and extends the battery life up to 60 hours, with closer to 30 hours if you engage ANC, and if you listen really loud. We have a 40mm neodymium driver at the core, powering the P58BT for the best bass and CVC for taking phone calls, along with an ergonomic design.
The earpads are covered in silicone, and are both water resistant and sweat proof, also makeup proof, with a big part of the P58BT design seemingly being optimized for gym usage. Although there are two versions available on the market, black and silver, we ended up with the black version despite specifically wanting to see how the platinum silver variant looks like.
For P58BT, the total noise isolation can reach up to -28, but that’s between the passive noise isolation and the ANC or Active Noise Canceling, and the ANC is hybrid with dual feed microphones. SoundMagic does not include LDAC or aptX with the P58BT, so we have support only for SBC and AAC as far as the bluetooth codecs go.
There is a low latency mode advertised for the P58BT, but I could notice a fairly high actual latency, a few frames, or around 100ms, not fit for competitive games, but fairly good for real time content like watching videos, although lip sync between the video and the audio falls out of place slightly at times.
Fit / Comfort / Subjective Usage
SoundMagic P58 offers a rather tight wearing experience, the headphones being at the limit of being too tight on my head, and the earpads having just barely enough space for my ears inside. The battery life is actually very good, and so is the signal stability, and the tight and rather fitted fit can be excused by the fact that P58Bt does not fall off my head at the gym.
This being said, for a gym usage, the maximum volume is a bit limitative, and you can’t really pump enough volume to cover for the loud gym speakers. The silicone earpads and silicone headband have a high friction, they feel too tight and too fixed on my head, but they do offer a good long-term fit. I personally find the wearing of the P58BT a bit fussy, it is a bit too tight and uncomfortable for my ears, but they make great / excellent gym headphones thanks to their resilient fit. There is no vampiric drain effect on the battery, and after 4 weeks of non-usage, the battery is exactly where I left the P58Bt at, 90%.
The ANc effect, while a large highlight of the Soundmagic P58 BT headphones in the marketing materials and seeming reasons to purchase them, has a modest effect, and will introduce an audible hissing in the background. The effect is not equal between left and right channels, with the right channel being more isolated than the left channel. Ambient sound works beautifully, it feels like you’re not wearing headphones, and it amplifies the ambient sound without any kind of hissing or background noise audible from the DAC/AMP of the headphones. ANC Off generally feels the most normal, but P58BT is one of those really nice headphones where engaging ANC or Transparent mode will not affect the sonic performance in the least, so you can feel free to use those features to the maximum without fear of distortion or added weird effects / noises.
Sound Quality
Overall Signature – As P58BT ANC is a bluetooth headphone, I have mainly used it with my Samsung S23 Ultra smartphone. There is a difference between bluetooth sources, but a headphone at this price point will not have a significant improvement in sound from being paired with a high-end bluetooth source. Soundmagic P58BT has a warm, bloomy sound with a strong impact, especially in the sub bass, a sharp treble, and a slightly recessed midrange that gives it some space to breathe and create a natural soundstage. It is a very good all-rounder for the price point.
Bass – Starting with the bass, Soundmagic went for a more commercial tuning than they did with their previous headphones, and P58BT sounds fairly bloomy, with a thick, dark and boomy bass, which has a strong extension down to 40 Hz. There is not much extension below this, but this is still great for a bluetooth pair of headphones in the price range. Bass is one of the highlights when it comes to the tuning of the P58BT, and the speed is a slower one that creates a long decay giving music a bit of extra volume and presence.
Midrange – With a slightly recessed midrange, P 58 BT sounds fairly natural and smooth in the mids. There’s a good sense of space, as it renders a natural soundstage, without too much constraint, although you can’t expect the stage to expand far beyond the confines of your head. There’s a good separation between the foreground layer and the background layer, and the tuning emphasizes male voices with a deep and powerful presence, while it darkens, thickens and slightly dampens female voices, bringing them in the back. This can give female-led songs a gloomy and dark-ish feeling / sound.
Treble – The lower treble and treble in general is sharp, forward and renders a strong cymbal crash, strong impact and quite a bit of revealing factor for harshness. While P 58bt won’t make songs harsh if they weren’t recorded as such, it can quickly reveal if a song was harsh and aggressive. This brighter treble gives music a good sense of energy and sparkle, and brilliance is strong as there is no specific treble roll-off, P58 BT allowing each song to have its full width and height of top end extension.
Dynamics / PRaT / Textures – P58BT has a natural – slow sound in general, with the bass being the slowest, creating a bloomy, full and choky sound, with a strong sub-bass impact and presence, large volume for each instrument and a slowly moving sonic mass, although the treble gets quicker, sharper and thus reveals harshness more easily. The midrange is somewhere in between, sounding natural for the most part. As the V-Shaped signature usually does, sound is dynamic, punchy and highly engaging with a strong enjoyment factor for EDM, Pop, Rock and most commercial music.
Loudness Saturation Gradient – Control is better at lower volumes, but sound is duller, more linear and less engaging at lower volumes, with a significantly higher THD and distortion at louder volumes, but a far more pronounced V-Shaped signature that makes music engaging, punchy and dynamic. There is a good sense of physical vibration in the headphones once you go really loud, although I am not sure whether this can be written off as a positive or a negative.
Soundstage – With a natural soundstage and good instrument separation, P58BT works quite well for Pop, Rock, EDM and generally compressed, modern music. The instrument separation, rendering style and general resolution is not enough for classical or complex orchestral music, but the groovy, heavy bass makes artists like Miley Cyrus, Steel Panther or Skrillex really shine when played through P58Bt.
Value and Conclusion
SoundMagic is still creating entry-level headphones with a good comfort and a nice set of features, best of which is the long battery life, sweat resistance, and excellent price / performance ratio, it is a headphone that is truly worth the asking price, and a bit of extra.
While the ANC is not that strong, it won’t affect the sound at all if engaged, so for a few dB of extra sonic isolation, or a passive mode that doesn’t affect the sound, and for a V-Shaped, punchy, bloomy, but contrasty sound, SoundMagic P58BT is an excellent choice for any music lover who doesn’t want to break the bank but want to rock a bit at the gym, and especially recommended if you have a smaller head and smaller ears.
Product Link
Amazon – https://amzn.to/4fK5rhq
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Full Playlist used for this review
We listened to more songs than those named in this playlist, but those are excellent for identifying a sonic signature. I recommend trying most of the songs from this playlist, especially if you’re searching for new music! The playlists are different for Spotify, Tidal and Youtube, and based on the songs I enjoy and are available on each!
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL_cjBXGmwSHSdGcwuc_bKbBDGHL4QvYBu
https://open.spotify.com/playlist/5J3oloz8Riy9LxEGenOjQ0?si=979ba4f082414be7
https://tidal.com/browse/playlist/330fd544-8e5b-4839-bd35-676b2edbb3d5
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