Technics EAH-AZ70W
Given Technics’ commitment to the headphone market since its resurrection in 2014, the brand’s entrance into the popular true wireless earbuds world was inevitable. Its debut buds have arrived in the form of the Technics EAH-AZ70W, which are aimed at the more discerning end of the market.
They also feature noise-cancelling functionality, built-in Alexa voice control and a decent battery life; but do they have what it takes to beat the best-inclass Sennheiser Momentum True Wireless 2 and Sony WF-1000XM3?
Reliably tasteful looks
The EAH-AZ70W don’t look too much different to the competition, with a curvaceous, elongated shape. They are about 2cm deep, so should nestle into your ear canal without protruding much. We find their fit light, comfortable and secure. They have the reliably tasteful look of a Technics product, thanks to their smart brushed-aluminium look. An IPX4 rating means they shouldn’t be spoiled by a splash of rain or sweat either.
The Technics branded circular plates provide a decently sized area to control playback. Tapping either earbud once pauses or plays a track and answers phone calls, but each bud has its own specific set of controls too. Touching and holding the left earbud launches your phone’s voice assistant, while the right earbud cycles between noise-cancelling on, off and ambient sound.
Quickly tapping the left earbud twice or three times decreases or increases volume respectively, while the same gestures on the right earbud skip forward or backwards a track. We can’t fault the accuracy, though you do have to be fairly precise in your taps to avoid confusion.
You can do away with touch controls altogether thanks to built-in Amazon Alexa support. Pair the Technics to your Amazon account within the Alexa app and you can control playback and get hands-free answers to your questions.
Battery life is around 18 hours from a single charge (six from the buds, 12 from the USB-C charging case), which is adequate in practical terms, though less than the 24 and 28 hours’ playback time of the Sony WF-1000XM3 and Sennheiser Momentum True Wireless 2 earbuds respectively. If you are after a quick fix, a 15-minute fast charge provides 70 minutes of playback.
Technics has created its own noisecancelling technology, called Dual Hybrid Noise-cancelling Technology, which adds digital processing to the traditional analogue feedback method. It is handled by three microphones in each earbud, blocking unwanted noise both inside and outside the headphones. It significantly reduces, but doesn’t silence, background chatter and road noise.
The Technics Audio Connect companion app offers the means to adjust noise-cancellation – helpful if you’re after a diluted effect – and is also where you can activate Ambient Mode, which amplifies external noise so you can hear traffic noise or train announcements. The app also lets you select sound modes, view battery status, and help find your misplaced buds by revealing their last known location.
To improve the connection stability, Technics has chosen to keep the left and right earbuds independent. Each receives a signal from the music source, rather than one bud passing the signal to the other channel in the more common master and slave configuration.
The buds use newly developed 10mm dynamic drivers with graphene-coated diaphragms that increase their strength and high and midrange frequency performance. An acoustic chamber inside each earbud has been designed to optimise the airflow generated from the driver, with the aim of delivering a spacious sound with deeper bass.
What strikes us about the EAHAZ70WS’ sonic character is their openness and how deep in the bass they go. With Mac Miller’s What’s The Use?, the defining bassline is not only deep-rooted but also deft and defined, the Technics capturing its playfulness and the way it drives the track forward.
It’s not too overpowering either, the midrange is solid and punchy and has a good level of detail. His vocal delivery sounds soulful and buoyant in the chorus and full of his distinctive quips during the rapped verses, while the accompanying beat is suitably snappy.
Insightful character
The EAH-AZ70W’S space, solidity and insight are worthy of their price, but they don’t quite manage to outpoint the Sennheiser Momentum True Wireless 2, which have a greater articulacy and dynamic expression. Listen to a live recording of Fink’s Trouble’s What You’re In, and while the Technics compel with their incisive and insightful character, the Sennheisers draw you into the track more by revealing greater nuances – the subtle discrepancies in finger-plucking and variations in vocal inflections.
The Technics aren’t the best-value noise-cancelling true wireless earbuds out there, but they are still entertaining to listen to, comfortable to wear and pleasant to use. For that reason, they should be on your shortlist.