TECHNICS EAH-F70N HEADPHONES

WIRELESS ANC HEADPHONES

They certainly look the part, and they bear the famous Technics brand-name, but can these new wireless noise-cancelling cans topple the two market leaders?

The EAH-F70Ns certainly look the part with the black, silver, and copper colour options all offering a refined, clean aesthetic that exudes class.

The Technics brand, along with the brands Panasonic and National, were all originally sub-brands of the giant Japanese company Matsushita Electric Industrial, founded in 1918 by Konosuke Matsushita. In 2008, one hundred years after it was founded, the company changed its name to Panasonic Corporation in recognition of the fact that Panasonic was the name most recognised by consumers, and the one it used in most countries around the world to identify its distributors.

While the Panasonic brand was used on most of its consumer products, the company always reserved its “Technics” brand name for its higher-quality audio products, which is why it has been used on these new EAH-F70N headphones, as well as on its recently released range of high-end “Grand Class” series of direct-drive turntables, which includes the SL-1200G, SL-1200GR/ SL-1210GR and SL-1500C.

Looking at the design and feature set of the Technics EAH-F70Ns, it would appear to this reviewer that Panasonic has the likes of Sony’s WH-1000XM3 and Bose’s QC 35 II in its sights, so I was interested to discover whether these relative newcomers can compete with these established veterans.

THE EQUIPMENT

Overall, I found the construction of these Technics cans to be on the light side. Predominantly made from plastic, they sit comfortably on the head but it’s hard to say how long they’d withstand the wear and tear of everyday use. I found myself being especially wary of the hinges, with both the swivelling joints that connect the band to the cans and the 3D ball joint mechanisms that allow the cups themselves to freely swivel offering potential weak points. These same hinges were responsible for some unfortunate squeaking and creaking noises when I was walking or even when I simply turned my head, although this is obviously less evident when cranking the tunes.

The reason for the flexibility of the joints is to allow headphones to collapse in order to fit in their small case, and they do get rather compact when they’re folded. However if you drop them down around your neck, as you would if you had to take them off but had nowhere handy to put them down, the fact that the earcups swivel outwards rather than inwards means they don’t rest comfortably flush on your chest, as some other swivelling headphone designs do.

When you’re wearing them on your head, the pleasant cushioning in both the headband and ear cups combined with the relatively light weight of 292 grams makes them amongst the more comfortable cans on the market. The shape of the earcups may feel a little snug for some, but their passive noise-isolating abilities are top-notch as a result and the relatively light pressure the headband exerts sideways to keep the cups in position over your ears means there’s never any sensation of your skull being crushed.

AESTHETICS

The EAH-F70Ns certainly look the part, with the black, silver, and copper colour options all offering a refined, clean aesthetic that exudes class. Tidy lines and minimal metallic trimming on a smooth plastic make for quite a striking headphone design – stylish and premium while avoiding anything more garish. The Technics branding is laser-engraved and coloured in on the metal exterior plate.

It’s certainly a safe look overall and doesn’t seem as ‘designer’ as the Bose Noise Cancelling Headphones 700, for instance, but it won’t clash or date as easily either. The same is true of the EAH-F70N’s faux-leather soft-shell case, which offers two neat internal pouches for any extra cabling and adapters that you may want to use, such as for connecting to an in-flight audio system.

To match the sleek aesthetic, the F70Ns have a minimal control scheme as well. This does wonders for their appearance but means the controls can be rather finicky to locate and use while you’re wearing the headphones. There’s a volume rocker that you can slide up or down to adjust levels, and this same control is clicked in to play, pause, skip, or rewind tracks. While I appreciate the focus here, the lever itself is a little on the loose side – dedicated transport controls would’ve gone a long way.

The EAH-F70Ns support a wide variety of audio codecs including aptX and aptX HD, LDAC, and AAC, amongst others, which is great news for those connecting over the headphones’ Bluetooth 4.2 connection. In my experience testing these Technics, I never once experienced a drop-out, stutter or other interruption to the Bluetooth signal – even at a go-to busy intersection where many other Bluetooth devices have faltered, so I think you can be very confident of the stability of the F70N’s wireless connection.

As for other connectivity, there’s a 3.5mm port if you’d prefer to hook up with any of your cabled audio kit or if the F70Ns’ battery is out of juice. The battery takes 20 hours to deplete with noise-cancelling enabled, which is fair but not as impressive as Sony’s 30 hours on the WH-1000XM3. To charge the F70N, you’ll need to plug in via micro-USB, which is disappointing to see in a pair of cans that are supposed to be in the more premium end of the market. Compared with USB-C, this format isn’t as sturdy in its physical connection, lacks the fast-charging capabilities, and is less future-proof as more devices move towards USB-C as a standard.

SOUND QUALITY

Naturally, the audio quality of a pair of headphones is going to make or break them when it comes to a value proposition, and if it’s exceptionally good it can help forgive other design flaws, so I’m pleased to be able to report that the Technics EAH-F70Ns sounded great overall, offering a well-balanced sound that doesn’t lean too far towards any extreme to raise concern.

The bass isn’t quite as prominent as the warmer signature of most Sony competition and certainly won’t satisfy those seeking head-shakers, but it’s clear, clean and separated well in the mix. Similarly, the sub-bass never feels too overbearing and doesn’t distort or muddy the mix. The low-mid frequencies are a little recessed and the upper mids are comparatively boosted, while the top-end is missing some of its airy quality, giving it a similarly compressed feeling to a pair of Beats by Dr Dre.

This combination makes these headphones great for listening to tightly produced, modern electronic pop music, with tracks such as Stardew by Purity Ring offering plenty of power when switching from delicate and spatially separated moments to the lush and driving choruses.

Tracks with a more classic hiphop bent really shine as well, with Four Tet’s remix of Great Day by Madvillain offering clearly present vocal verses and delivering real impact during the punchy sampled drum breaks.

The overall clarity and sense of space offered by the Technics EAH-F70Ns is impressive and definitely holds up against Sony and Bose competitors. While I prefer the sonic profile afforded by Sony’s WH1000XM3s overall, the F70Ns offer some middle-ground between the somewhat treble-skewed sound of Bose’s latest cans and the punchy, squashed signature of Beats.

For those seeking some quietude from the outside world, I’m pleased to say that these headphones offer excellent active noise cancelling.

While it isn’t quite as powerful as the adaptive variant found on Sony’s WH1000XM3, it’s as close as I’ve found on the market today. With that said, it’s worth noting that they seem significantly more susceptible to wind noise when in an environment with anything beyond a gentle breeze, likely due to the positioning of the external microphones.

The ANC is available in three different intensity levels, so if you’re not such a fan of the vacuum-like extreme setting, you can dial it back a notch or two.

Technics’ EAH-F70Ns are great headphones, sporting excellent punchy sound, lightweight comfort, tidy portability, and a premium aesthetic.

Functioning much the same way as the rival Sonys, the Technics have an Ambient Sound Enhancer that’s activated when you cover the right ear cup with your hand. This allows you to hear an amplified signal of the sound detected by the external microphones so you can pay more attention to your environment. This works remarkably well and should be a standard feature on all ANC headphones.

Another feature that is increasingly showing up on wireless headphones is a playback sensor that pauses or plays your music when it detects that you’ve removed them from your head. In almost all cases I’ve tested this feature, the results weren’t reliable enough to deem it genuinely helpful and so I eventually disabled it – unfortunately this is true of the Technics as well, although I couldn’t find a way to turn it off. Presumably as a side-effect of this circuit accidentally triggering I found music sometimes arbitrarily paused when the F70Ns were still on my head, and occasionally continued to play after I’d taken them off and placed them on my desk. This is one of those features that requires total trust in order to become a natural part of using the device, and it isn’t quite there yet.

CONCLUSION

There’s a lot going for these Technics cans, but they’ve joined a market that has a very clear leader—the Sony WH-1000XM3. Nothing that’s come out in its price bracket over the last 20 months has shaken it from its dominant position, and unfortunately that’s true of these new Technics EAH-F70Ns as well. Design choices such as the micro-USB port and creaking plastic hinges definitely diminish its otherwise premium sheen. Other misses, such as the flaky playback sensor and the susceptibility to wind noise are much easier to forgive but might tip the scales for some buyers. That said, the Technics EAHF70Ns are great headphones in their own right, sporting excellent punchy sound, lightweight comfort, tidy portability, and a premium aesthetic, so if you find them discounted and are chasing a lower-cost alternative to either of the pricier market-leaders, they’re definitely worth checking out. H.D.