Sony h.ear MDR100-ABN
COLOURFUL CANS WITH CLEVER TECH.
TIRED OF YOUR gear being either black, grey or white? Sony has designed a range of bold ‘phones that are dazzling to look at and sonically lush. Incidentally, they’re the only set here that also play high-resolution audio files (with the wired plugged in) and clever Bluetooth processing called LDAC pushes out as close to high-res audio as it can when you are fully wireless. This is Sony’s proprietary tech, and you’ll need a compatible smartphone or media player to take advantage of it. Unfortunately, our test with a Sony Xperia XZ phone found it a bit wobbly at times (due to a low battery and the phone also talking to other devices), but an option on the XZ allowed us to prefer quality or connection. On ‘best effort’ the loss in sound quality was negligible, and producing a punchy, warm sound. After a very slight tweak on the upper end of our equaliser, these were fighting the brilliant QC35s as our headphones of choice thanks to their comfy earcups. Expect close to 20 hours between charges.