Active noise cancelling technology works wonders in high-noise environments like planes and trains
headphones. Here are explanations of some of the most common terms:
Dynamic driver: Most headphones on the market today use dynamic drivers, which are similar to the round cones or tweeters you see in loudspeakers.
Balanced armature: You’ll find balanced armature designs in in-ear monitors. First developed for hearing aids, a balanced-armature architecture relies on an electrical signal to vibrate a small reed or paddle thousands of times per second.
The reed is ’balanced’ between two magnets, hence the name ‘balanced armature’. Some headphones have
multiple armatures, each functioning within a certain frequency range for better performance. Balanced armature drivers don’t reproduce bass frequencies well. You’ll typically see balanced armature designs using a dynamic driver for the bass frequencies.
Planar magnetic drivers:
A planar magnetic design uses an extremely thin and light diaphragm to reproduce sound. A magnetic system drives the entire surface of the diaphragm evenly in a pull-push manner. Planar magnetic designs are typically found in over-the-ear headphones and have the reputation
for being able to resolve fine musical details and creating a sense of space and depth in the music. The drawback to some planar magnetic models is that they present high impedance to the source device and are thus too difficult for some mobile devices to drive. Check the capabilities of your source device before you buy this type of headphone. You can also use them with a headphone amplifier.
Electrostatic drivers:
Electrostatic drivers consist of a thin electrically charged diaphragm. The diaphragm is normally suspended between two perforated plates, and an electrical signal is then passed through the plates to move the diaphragm in a push-pull manner towards one of them. Like planar magnetic designs, some electrostatic headphones present high impedance levels to the source and are therefore hard to drive. Here again, check the capabilities of your source device before you buy this type of headphone or use a headphone amplifier.
Noise-cancelling technologies explained
If you travel or find yourself in noisy environments frequently, you might be interested in a headphone that offers noise cancellation. Here are explanations of the primary means by which this is accomplished:
Passive noise cancellation:
This isn’t a technology per se. Rather, it refers to how much ambient noise a headphone will block out. In-ear headphones with memory-foam tips and closed-back over-the-ear headphones offer the best passive noise cancellation.
They’re also the least likely to colour the music you’re listening to.
Active noise cancellation:
A sound wave is similar to the ripples in a pond. Toss a pebble in the pond and then introduce inverse ripples and you’ll effectively smooth out the pond’s surface. Active noise cancellation (ANC) works in a similar manner. Microphones mounted on the headphones analyse ambient sound waves and then produce inverse sound waves that will cancel them out.
As you might expect, the ANC technologies from some are incredibly effective; others, less so. We’ve tested models from AKG, Bose, JBL, Libratone, and Sony and found them to be very good. Some individuals find that ANC-enabled headphones exert pressure on their ears, creating a similar sensation to
being under water. If you find ANC headphones to be uncomfortable, you’ll prefer a model with good passive noise cancellation.
Adaptive noise cancellation:
You might think of this as a smarter form of active noise cancellation. It operates on the same principles, but adapts to your surroundings to apply more or less of the effect and to even bring in sounds from the outside world.
Some adaptive noise-cancelling solutions even take into account how fast you’re moving, the air pressure around you, and whether you’re likely in a plane, taking a walk, or holding a conversation. Many operate in conjunction with a mobile app on your smartphone.
Best over-the-ear headphones Beyerdynamic Amiron Home Price: £433 from fave.co/2Oh1Hte
It seems Beyerdynamic didn’t get the memo that analogue jacks are out and wireless streaming and Lightning ports are in. The company’s £433 Amiron home headphones tether you to your choice of musical source and practically insist that you stay put and take your music seriously.
And thank goodness for that. Instead of producing a mediocre pair of headphones following the latest trend, Beyerdynamic has delivered an astoundingly great-sounding headphone that’s sure to please anyone who cares about playing their music with the energy and dynamics of the original performance.
Steeped in tradition
In 1924 in Germany, Beyerdynamic’s founder Eugene Beyer started making loudspeakers for movie palaces (aka cinemas) during the transition from silent to talking films. In 1937, the company began production of the first dynamic headphones, the DT 48 (which remained in production until 2012) and hasn’t looked back since. The Amiron home follows in that tradition and is the successor to the company’s model T90.
The Amiron home are an openback, circumaural design with an impedance of 250 ohms, making them easy to drive with today’s mobile devices. The claimed frequency response for these dynamic driver headphones is an astounding 5Hz to 40kHz. Those aren’t just some numbers on a spec sheet, these headphones delivered some of the best and authoritatively clean bass I’ve heard out of a headphone priced less than £1,000.
Don’t look for Bluetooth. These are strictly wired headphones. And what a
wire it is. The included 3m, rubber-coated cable is perfect for plugging into a home headphone amp or computer and reclining in your favourite chair. But its thickness and length render it awkward to walk with or to bring with you on the road. I had to curl it around my neck like a shawl if I wanted to walk around the house with the headphones. You can order a shorter, 1.4m cable directly from Beyerdynamic.
The Amiron home are headphone amp friendly too. The included cable has a threaded collar that will accommodate the included 1/4in adaptor, which has a threaded female receptacle so that you get a good, tight fit.
The headband and ear cups are plush even though there’s no leather. They are made of soft Alcantara microfiber and microvelour. I cringed a bit when I saw this. Many velour-style earpads make my ears hot and sweaty.
Beyerdynamic says that the earpad materials have temperature-balancing and moisture-regulating effects. Whatever tech Beyerdynamic used worked surprisingly well throughout my review period. Even after hours of listening, my ears weren’t sweating a bit; and since the cans weigh in at just 340g and apply minimal compression, I hardly noticed I was wearing headphones at all.
The Amiron home are unapologetically audiophile headphones. The ear cups are so large that dance along the borders of your cheeks. That cavernous expanse pays off in spades with a deep and spacious soundstage that more closely resembles the sensation of free-standing speakers.
Just be aware that those big ear cups don’t fold, so the carrying case is huge. If you want to take these cans outside your house, assume you’ll be slipping them into a backpack or suitcase.
The Tesla tech driving the Amiron home’s sound
Beyerdyanmic’s Tesla technology lies at the heart of the Amiron home. Named after the famous engineer and physicist, Nikola Tesla, Beyerdynamic says the eponymous tech brings a powerful magnetic drive,
clean reproduction, and low total harmonic distortion that enhance the performance of the headphones.
Previously, neodymium magnets lay at the heart of the company’s dynamic headphone system. Now the magnet is mounted as a ring that encircles the coil. Beyerdynamic says this allows the headphone to provide more energy to the membrane. The sonic benefit? Rich detail and greater dynamics. I don’t know how Beyerdynamic has done it, but after many weeks of listening I wholeheartedly agree.
A revelatory listening experience
I used the Amiron home headphones for more than a month with a variety of source devices, including Astell&Kern’s AK070 and Pioneer’s XDP-100R hi-res music players; an iPhone 11 and a MacBook Pro; and an Anthem AVM 60 using the pre-processor’s headphone amplifier. I played mostly high-res FLAC, ALAC, and DSD files as well as some lossy AAC files downloaded from iTunes or from Apple Music.
Make no mistake, these are incredibly musical headphones in just about every sense of the word. I was smitten from the first notes that emanated through the Amiron home, and I think you will be too.
The Amiron home have a few distinct sonic characteristics. First, these have a bit of a relaxed presentation, while other headphones tend to be more intimate and forward. If you don’t like a relaxed presentation, then the Amiron home’s sonic signature might not appeal to you.
Second, the soundstage explodes deep and wide as soon as you put them on. The 24-bit/96kHz
FLAC version the Chesky recording of Tchaikovsky’s Waltz of the Flowers from the Nutcracker is a good example. The harp is beautifully recessed with the varied horns and strings layered into the soundstage. The 24-bit/176.4kHz version of Spanish Harlem, by Rebecca Pidgeon, was magnificently layered with Rebecca’s vocals forward and the piano and other accompanying instruments situated farther in the background.
Third, the ability for the Beyerdynamic to bring out details and resolve complex musical layers was a marvel. You don’t typically get this kind of detail in a dynamic headphone at this price-point. While listening to Adele’s Rolling in the Deep I could clearly and distinctly make out every backup vocalist and hear exactly what they were saying – down to the last syllable – every time. All the while, Adele’s vocals were placed at front with pitch-perfect clarity. Slow it down to the 24-bit FLAC version of The Beatles Abbey Road and you’ll be amazed by the Beyerdynamic’s ability to bring the legendary album to life. The Amiron home played Here Comes the Sun with timbral accuracy, airy highs, and an open midrange.
Fourth, the bass is beautiful and its extension and control are just downright uncanny from an openback design. At times – if not every time – it was like the bass was coming from a high-end sub. You’ll hear and feel new-found sounds you never knew existed in tracks you’ve listened to dozens of times. The heartbeat on the opening of Pink Floyd’s Speak to Me from Dark Side of the Moon pulsated with clarity and dynamism with the attack of each beat starting and
stopping on a dime. The deep, synthesizer bass lines on Sarah McLachlan’s Perfect Girl from Afterglow Live, Bonnie McKee’s Trouble, and Lorde’s Royals were remarkable test tracks.
The Amiron home’s one-two-punch of deep bass and lightning-fast transient response made percussion instruments pop and snap with the kind of realism you get from live music instead of those polite thuds that are all too common. In fact, the Amiron home rendered Sade’s Soldier of Love with the best musical energy and clarity I’ve ever heard from a pair of headphones.
Beyerdynamic wanted a headphone that can bring audiophile sound to today’s mobile devices, and they succeeded. The Amiron home sounded superb with every source I used – including the iPhone 11 and MacBook Pro. But, if you really want to see these headphones shine to their full potential, plug
them into a dedicated headphone amp and then sit back, relax, and enjoy the music. There was an odd anomaly when I paired the Amiron home with the Anthem AVM 60, however; bass energy became too intense to the point where it produced resonances within the ear cup. I never experienced this with any other device – only the Anthem.
Verdict
Beyerdynamic’s Amiron home dynamic headphones don’t have Bluetooth, active noise cancellation, a gesture pad, or even an inline microphone. And you know what? I couldn’t care less. What the Amiron home lacks in high tech it makes up with stunningly beautiful and dynamic music reproduction from the deepest bass notes to airy highs without ever becoming fatiguing. If you care about getting lost in the music again and again, night after night, you need to check out these cans. Highly recommended.
Best on-ear headphones
AKG Y500 Wireless Price: £99 from fave.co/2XIV0n3
If you’re looking for an ultra-compact, sleek, and great-sounding on-ear headphone then look no further than AKG’s Y500 Wireless. While AKG might not be a household name to some, this Harman International subsidiary (and sister company to Harman Kardon, JBL, Mark Levinson and Revel) is well known in audiophile and recording circles. AKG also has a rich legacy in the recording studio world.
I’ve reviewed several AKG headphones over the years, including the AKG N60 NC Wireless and N700 NC Wireless, and have always had a great experience. The AKG Y500 Wireless is no exception.
Design
The AKG Y500 Wireless come beautifully packaged. The headphones themselves were awarded an iF Design Award in 2018. The headphone box proudly displays the iF Design Award logo on its cover.
The Y500 come in your choice of blue, green, pink, and black finishes with chrome accents. My review pair came in black.
The Y500 are a road warrior’s best friend. With a 900mAh polymer lithium-ion battery, you’ll get up to 33 hours of battery life for talk and music playback on
a single charge. The fast-charging feature gives you an hour’s worth of play time with a just five-minute charge. A full charge takes about two and a half hours.
Thanks to multipoint connectivity, you can connect two Bluetooth sources at the same time. It’s perfect for those who travel with both a mobile device and a laptop, or who listen to music from a high-res DAP and need to take a call on their smartphone.
The Y500 supports Bluetooth 4.2 and the AAC codec. You won’t find aptX, aptX HD or LDAC codec support here, and when using the headphones wirelessly, I did notice higher than average hiss.
Under the hood, the Y500 features 40mm drivers with a rated frequency response of 16Hz to 22kHz. The headphones are very easy to drive with just about
any device. Their impedance is 32 ohms and sensitivity measures 117dBSPL/V@1kHz.
When I first unpacked the AKG Y500, the headband reminded me of a child’s headphone. The arms are located closer to the top of the headband, as you can see in the photo opposite. This makes the headphone seem smaller than it really is, and the arms initially felt awkward to extend.
I was initially concerned that my hair would get pinched in the headband, but that never happened during the review period, and I grew accustomed to the shortened headband quickly. The earpads are well padded with memory foam. They sat comfortably on my ears – even after long listening sessions. The earpads also did a surprisingly good job of passively isolating me from the outside world – that’s a feature you typically don’t associate with on-ear cans.
Let me commend AKG on their industrial design. I absolutely loved the Y500’s simple and functional ergonomics. The right ear cup has power and ambient aware, while the left ear cup has volume and play/ pause. Just like the AKG N60, the buttons are perfectly placed and contour to your natural hand placement on the ear cup. While placing my hand on the right ear cup my thumb fell perfectly – almost every time – on the ambient aware button. The same was true of the play/pause toggle button on the left. Discerning buttons by touch was a piece of cake.
Snug, customizable fit
The headband’s arms are metal and plastic. At this modest price, headbands are often just plastic. AKG
deserves a nod for making that solid design choice. The metal part of the headband has click-markers from 1 to 10 if you want to make sure that both arms are evenly extended.
For on-ear headphones to stay on well, they need a snug fit. The Y500 are no exception. The ear cups pivot forward, backward, up, and down, allowing you to fine-tune their fit. I think that depending on your head size, you might find the Y500 a bit too snug at first – especially during long listening sessions.
There’s a trick I noticed while wearing these headphones that I thought I’d pass on for those who find that the Y500 are too snug (or too loose): Pivoting the ear cups up relieved pressure on the top of my head. Pivoting the ear cups down made the fit firmer
but also increased the pressure on the top of my head. As with any headphone, be sure to try them out and see how they fit you.
Hear your surroundings with ambient aware
I liked the fact that AKG included an ambient-aware feature with the Y500. Ambient aware attenuates your music volume so you can year your surroundings. On over-the-ear-headphones, this feature will play sounds from the outside through the headphones. The Y500 simply lowers the sound with a simple press of the button on the right ear cup.
The louder your playback volume, the more ambient aware attenuates. I performed some nonscientific measurement using pink noise and an
SPL (sound pressure level) meter. Ambient aware reduced the headphone’s output by -18dB when I was measuring 71dB on the SPL meter. Ambient aware, however, only attenuated the volume by -8dB if I had the music playing at 59dB. Ambient aware seems to lower the music down to around 52dB or 53dB.
What bothered me about ambient aware is that when you activate/deactivate the feature, the headphones emit a piercing arcade sound. There’s no need for the sound to be so loud. Even worse, there’s no way to reduce the volume. I’d like to see AKG address this with a firmware update and at the very least, lower the piercing sound on new models coming off the factory line.
Music pauses automatically
AKG touts the Y500’s play and pause automation. This feature automatically pauses the music if you take the headphone off, and resumes your tunes when you put it back on. This is a great feature that saves battery life and ensures you don’t miss a beat. Many premium headphones, such as the Bang & Olufsen H9i and the Bowers and Wilkins PX, have this feature. Play/pause automation worked as advertised – at least most of the time. I found it to be finicky, as I’ll explain below.
First off, there’s a one- to two-second delay before the headphones start and stop playback. The AKG Y500 seems to have a longer delay than the B&W PX or the B&O H9i.
Secondly, and perhaps more bothersome, was that the auto play/pause feature didn’t always work. If I opened the headphones wide and let them spring
back on my head, the feature worked fine. But if I was gentle putting the headphones on, they wouldn’t start back up. I’d have to take them off and let them spring back on my ears. The B&W PX have a companion mobile app to fine-tune this feature’s sensitivity, while the AKG Y500 doesn’t. You simply need to be aware of this quirk.
If you don’t want this feature, you can disable/ enable it by pressing the voice-assistant and ambientaware buttons on either ear cup for about five seconds. The user manual says auto play/pause is enabled every time you power up the headphones.
I tested disabling the feature (which was easy enough), but then couldn’t re-enable it after several
tries. Powering the headphones down didn’t work either. What made matters more perplexing was that there was no sound or visual indicator to let me know if the feature was turned on or off.
After several tries and powering the headphones on and off, I finally got the feature re-enabled (don’t ask me how). Those minor quirks aside, it was time to take the headphones for some extended listening sessions, and this is where they really sparkled.
Great performances, especially when wired
I tested the AKG Y500 in both wireless and wired modes with an iPhone XS with the Periodic Audio Nickel headphone amp and an Astell&Kern SR15
hi-res digital audio player (review forthcoming). I used Tidal as my streaming-music source for both units, and a mix of high-res tracks and ripped CDs on the Astell&Kern.
Bluetooth performance is solid, but the Y500 really shines as a wired headphone. Moreover, while the Y500 will play just fine on a mobile device or a computer, you’d do well to pair this seemingly modest priced headphone with outstanding electronics. Played on the Astell&Kern, the Y500 were transformed into an other-worldly experience. I noted that the headphones came alive more with the Astell&Kern DAP, delivering greater dynamics and a sense of musical involvement. The moral of the story is that I noticed a pretty drastic change in the headphone’s performance based on the source that was feeding it.
The AKG Y500 Wireless deliver a superb, detailed, and clean musical presentation. For an on-ear headphone, it was uncanny how the Y500 created such a deep, layered sound stage. Whether it was Eric Clapton, Led Zeppelin, Ariana Grande, Adele, Daft Punk, or Diana Krall, the Y500’s musical reproduction was exhilarating.
The only area that jumped out at me as a slight shortcoming was the vocal range. Depending on the track being played, I sometimes longed for a tad bit more warmth.
Nevertheless, the Y500 headphones were at home with jazz, R&B, rock, and classical. Generally speaking, the Y500’s tonal balance was excellent.
On some tracks, a bump in the upper bass tended to overpower artists’ vocals. A good example was on
Dido’s Hell After This from her new album, Still on my Mind, and on Sarah Barielles Saint Honestly.
But at this price point, the AKG Y500 headphones are stellar performers and significant overachievers. I’d have no qualms pitting them up against headphones costing twice the price.
Verdict
AKG has another winner with the Y500 Wireless For the price, these cans are sure to be a sweetsounding, no-frills, audiophile favourite. The folding, compact footprint makes it an ideal travel companion. The ambient-aware and play/pause automation are good features, though the latter can be quirky. If
you’re looking for a compact, on-ear headphone for less than £100, you urgently need to give the AKG Y500 a listen.
Best in-ear headphones
Periodic Audio Be Price: £265 from fave.co/2OHDNGn
Periodic Audio’s Be in-ear-monitor headphones hit all the right notes for demanding music lovers and audiophiles who want high-performance audio on the go. If you haven’t heard of Periodic Audio, you’re not alone. The California-based company was founded in 2016, and it didn’t ship its first product until February 2017. The company’s current product lineup consists of three in-ear-monitor (IEM) headphones. Periodic Audio’s founders, Dan Wiggins, Ben Webster, Mike Kim, and Zeke Burgess have decades of combined experience in the audio and consumer-electronics markets.
The founders are reportedly chemistry buffs. Periodic Audio is a nod to the Periodic Table of Elements, and the diaphragms in the company’s headphones are manufactured from one elemental metal or another: the Mg from magnesium, the Ti from titanium, and the topof-the-line Be reviewed here from beryllium. The properties of these materials have a major impact on each headphone’s sonic performance.
Look and feel
The Be offers frequency response rated at 12Hz to 45kHz, well beyond the upper and lower limits of human hearing. Impedance is 32 ohms, which means you can drive these with even a modestly powered portable smart device.
Apart from the diaphragms and the colours of the end caps – the Be is gold, the Ti, grey, and the Mg silver – the three models share the same design. Periodic says the end cap serves a vital purpose. It’s the same weight as the transducer, so the overall mass of the headphone is centred. This counterbalance, according to the company, reduces pressure on
your ear’s tragus and antitragus features, which is where you feel pain after extended use of some IEM headphones. Periodic says Dan Wiggins learned the importance of this balance while developing hearing aids for Siemens.
Whatever the reason may be, the Periodic Audio Be rank among the more comfortable pair of IEMs I’ve tried. The included tips provided exceptional grip, creating the solid seal that’s essential to perceiving good bass response.
Moreover, the Be stayed in my ears and I never had to worry about them falling out. As excellent as they are in this regard, however, they don’t quite rise to the level the B&W C5, which remain the gold-standard in my book. Even after extended listening sessions, the Periodic Audio Be never caused pain to my ears and always felt comfortable – the sole exception being the memory foam tips, as I note below.
Though I never had any problems with it during my review period, the 3.5mm plug gave me some concern. It reminded me of a similarly designed, unprotected 3.5mm plug that I accidentally snapped while sitting down with a hi-res player in my back pocket. Periodic Audio might want to consider adding a hard-plastic protector, like the B&W C5 has.
Included accessories
The Periodic Audio Be comes in a round, goldcoloured metal carrying case with a screw-top lid that easily fits into any pocket or purse. A generous collection of different-sized ear tips, a 1/4in adaptor, and a two-prong airline adaptor are packed inside.
Sound-isolating memory foam ear tips are also included. The ear tips are superior for blocking out your surroundings. Memory foam ear tips, however, increased bass response in a way that muddied the headphone’s sound (this is a common problem with these types of tips). I also found that the memory foam ear tips became slightly uncomfortable during long listening sessions. That wasn’t the case with the regular tips.
No high tech, just plain old headphones
While there might be a lot of technology that’s gone into the Be’s design and materials, these are good-ol’ audiophile headphones. They’re made for listening to music, not for making phone calls. There’s no inline microphone, no volume control, and no play/pause
control. The Periodic Audio Be are for consumers who value pristine sonics above all else.
At first glance, you might even think Periodic Audio didn’t include designations for the left and right channels. Some headphone makers have taken to putting ridiculous, microscopic labels on the barrel or the cable. Your search will be in vain on the Be. There are no markings whatsoever on the headphone’s barrel or cable.
Instead, Periodic Audio put the left/right designations on the grilles. The right earpiece is red and the left, black. While admittedly awkward at first, it became very easy to tell which was right or left at a glance. In the end, I loved it.
Updates in the current model
My review pair of Be IEMs represent an updated version of the previous generation. The Be IEMs have a new cable and Y splitter. The 1.5m cable is very thin, highly flexible, and has a bit of spring to it, resisting permanent bends and kinks. The Be are feather-light and easy to pocket. As an audiophile, I originally raised an eyebrow at the thin cable, but I didn’t notice any sonic downside. After using the headphones for a few days, I appreciated the design choice.
Like all rubber-coated cables, this one tangles easily. If I didn’t exercise caution each time I put the headphones in my pocket, I’d need to spend a few seconds detangling them before every use. Perhaps in their next product update, Periodic Audio would to consider using a nylon braid or applying an additional coating to reduce the tangle factor.
The metal Y splitter has been replaced by a rubber one. The metal Y splitter apparently had the potential to scratch smart phones or hi-res digital-audio players when you had the them together in the same pocket.
While most IEM product warranties are limited to one year, Periodic Audio offers a five-year warranty on their headphones – far above the industry norm. The Periodic Audio team says poorly made products are one of its pet peeves, and that they’re building the kind of product they themselves would want to buy.
The beryllium advantage
On the inside, the primary difference between the three Periodic Audio models is the metal used for the headphone’s diaphragm. That’s where beryllium reigns supreme. Speakers with beryllium-based drivers – from such high-end manufacturers as Focal, Revel, TAD, and Paradigm – make music sound natural and realistic. Why is that? Of all the metals, Beryllium has the best combination of lightness and rigidity. Sound also travels through the metal efficiently.
Sweet sound
I paired the Periodic Audio Be with Astell&Kern AK70MKII, Astell&Kern Kann, and Fiio X7 Mark II hi-res digital-audio players. I played a wide selection of hi-res FLAC, DSD, and ALAC source files, and I streamed music via Tidal. The Periodic Audio Be’s sound was intoxicatingly good and brought out the best in each device.
In a nutshell, the Periodic Audio Be are sweet, refined, detailed, and clean, with a delicate top end
that was free of any obvious distortion or haze. The purity across the audio band is the first thing that you’ll notice. Yo-Yo Ma’s recording of Bach’s Cello suites was divine, with each note cleanly struck. On the 24-bit/96kHz FLAC version of Heartbreaker, on Led Zeppelin II, it was easy to make out the fine details inherent in Jimmy Page’s guitar riffs. John Bonham’s drums snapped, and cymbals had lifelike crispness.
Vocals were spot-on. It was so easy to fall in love with Adele, Alexis Cole, Alison Krauss, Lady Gaga, Rebecca Pidgeon, and Patricia Barber during any listening session.
The Periodic Audio Be delivered outstanding, audiophile-grade bass. Whether your musical flavour is R&B, rock, jazz, or rap, you’ll be pleased. Bass lines on
Adele’s Send My Love (To Your New Lover), Rebecca Pidgeon’s Spanish Harlem, and Daft Punk’s Lose Yourself to Dance featuring Pharrell Willams, were deep, dynamic, and controlled. There was no artificial, boomy, or uncontrolled bass here. The player you choose to pair with the Periodic Audio Be will effect the bass response. I noted differences between each of the three hi-res players I used.
The Be produced consistently effortless sound. Sax lines on the 24-bit/96kHz version of Steely Dan’s Gaucho were silky smooth. Hi-res orchestral tracks from the London Symphony Orchestra’s recordings of works by Verdi, Tchaikovsky, and Bach came across with beautiful majesty. That’s not always an easy feat for IEMs to accomplish.
Verdict
Periodic Audio’s Be in-ear-monitor headphones deliver pure sonic bliss. Pair them with the best sources and hi-res music player you can afford to appreciate what these headphones are capable of. Their lightweight design, solid fit, and comfort during long listening sessions are perfect for reference music listening on the go. They don’t offer the utility of wireless connectivity, an inline remote, or a microphone for pairing with a smartphone, but they excel where it counts most: reproducing music. In fact, they sound so good, they rank among my favourite IEM headphones at this price point.
Best noise-cancelling headphones
Sony WH-1000XM3 Price: £272 from fave.co/2Oib9MX
We said last year that Sony had put Bose “on notice” when it comes to active noise-cancelling headphones Our review of Sony’s WH-1000XM2 reported that Sony not only delivered incredible audio quality, but that the company offered some high-tech features Bose couldn’t match.
This year, Sony fully eclipses Bose with its third-generation noise-cancelling cans: The WH-1000XM3. These headphones are superior to the Bose QuietComfort 35 II in almost every way. Sony retained all the features that we liked in the previous iteration, including adaptive sound control, gesture recognition, and great audio reproduction (at least when powered), and made significant improvements
to its active noise-cancellation technology. Sony’s new headphones are also more comfortable to wear for long listening sessions.
The great features Sony retained
First up is the gesture control pad located on the right-hand cup. After a brief learning curve, I grew accustomed to controlling my music and podcasts with simple swipes.
Swiping up and down with your fingertip raises and lowers volume, while back-to-front and frontto-back strokes move up and down your playlist respectively. Holding your finger down for a few seconds activates Google Assistant on Android devices, or Siri for iOS hardware. This worked flawlessly, though I do wish the virtual assistant
appeared more quickly after being summoned. Perhaps Sony can add a preference setting to its app.
Sony’s Adaptive Sound Control is something special. When this mode is selected, the headphones monitor your level of activity and automatically choose the appropriate noise-cancelling profile. You can also customize these profiles using Sony’s excellent Headphone Connect app.
If I’ve been sitting still for a bit, for example, the Staying profile will kick in with a short notification chime. This one uses the headphone’s on-board microphones to monitor ambient sound, so those noises can be cancelled out, while allowing the sound of human voices to come through. You get a personalized mix of your music and the sound of the
outside world, with 20 levels of noise cancellation available. The Bose QC35 II offer just three stages of cancellation, so there’s no way to fine-tune the mix of music and ambient sound.
When I listen to music while walking home after work, I want to hear the environment around me, so I don’t get run over by a cranky London taxi driver. I quickly learned that I couldn’t do that with Bose QC35 II. No matter which settings I applied, I couldn’t hear enough of what was going on. Sony’s headphones not only delivered a great listening experience – even at low volume – but I was always able to maintain situational awareness.
In conditions where it’s inconvenient to launch Sony’s app, you can control the headphones’ active noise cancellation using the NC/Ambient button on the left-hand ear cup. This limits you, however, to three values: Fully engaged (the strongest level of active noise cancellation), fully open (the least amount of active noise cancellation, with the mics piping ambient noise into the ear cups), or active noise cancellation turned off (in which case, the headphones behave as conventional Bluetooth headphones).
Audio performance hasn’t changed much compared to last year’s model, but that’s not necessarily a bad thing. In a head-to-head comparison with the Bose QC35 II, I found Sony’s WH-1000XM3 to be slightly more musical. Sony’s headphones maintain a more accurate frequency response across the full spectrum, where Bose seems to favour a scooped EQ that emphasizes bass and high frequencies at the expense of the mid-range. Sony’s cans never muddied the mid-range even while playing bass-heavy tracks at high volume levels, although I did notice some very minor distortion in the upper frequency range when I really cranked the volume.
Major strides in wearability
Sony’s WH-1000XM3 are much more comfortable than its previous generation headphones. I noted this during my briefing; it’s one of the biggest improvements over last year’s model.
Sony added extra padding to the bottom of the headband to distribute the weight on the top of your head more evenly. The ear cups are also wider and
deeper, which reduces the pressure placed on the sides of your head and allows you to wear them for longer listening sessions without feeling fatigued. As such, wearability is another clear win against Bose’s product. Sony knocked it out of the park on this count.
Sony also made improvements under the hood, including the addition of a new custom integrated circuit called the HD Noise Cancelling Processor QN1. This new processor separates the headphones’ DAC (digital-to-analogue converter) from its digital amplifier to present a cleaner signal path. There’s also a new USB-C quick-charge feature that promises
five hours of wireless playback after a just 10-minute charge – a claim I need to test further. I can tell you that I’ve been able to use these headphones for weeks at a time without needing to charge them.
The last improvement to note about the WH-1000XM3 is the design. While it’s not a major improvement over the WH-1000XM2, it has been further refined. The plastic shell is now smooth, especially compared to last years rough finish. Sony has also added gold accents to the small microphone openings on each side and to the logos on the band, which is a nice touch.
Verdict
As it stands, I recommend the WH-1000XM3’s to anyone looking for premium noise-cancelling
headphones. These are not only an improvement over last year’s already great cans, they’re better than the previous gold standard: the Bose QuietComfort 35 II. The 1000XM3 are more comfortable, with deeper and wider earpads, they offer a more robust collection of noise-cancelling options, and they sound – and feel – more refined in almost every way.