A very important bit by John Darko on the new HX here, beginning at 7:05.

Curly wrote:

A very important bit by John Darko on the new HX here, beginning at 7:05.

link

Correct but... Bluetooth 5.1 had 2Mb bandwith.

Curly wrote:

A very important bit by John Darko on the new HX here, beginning at 7:05.

link

No!

Darko mixes up things!

B&O never claimed, that these headphones are ‘highres related’ - there is no ‘wrinkle for highres enthusiasts’ about these headphones.

B&O writes about these headphones, that they are ‘Comfortable ANC headphones’ that ‘offers a powerful and authentic sound experience with Adaptive Active Noise Cancellation, a comfortable, lightweight build , impressive call quality and up to 35 hours of play time’.

You find no ‘Highres’ logo there - B&O is adressing different costumers.......not the ones, that Darko is making his videos for.

I am fine with Darko telling his stories (and from time to time pointing at some important things for those who care for audio quality) - however he picked the wrong company for this video.

That he did not do much research and definitely did not listen to the HX is very clear.

In the typical B&O way, B&O claims to make a headphone, that has ‘well-balanced bass and treble performance combined with a clear midrange (which) means that with Beoplay HX, you can enjoy music the way the artist intended’. 

And they do this for those who need a wireless headphone with noice cancelling features and outstanding call qualities - not for the highres nerds.

And I am pretty sure that these people will go looking for some other headphones, if they need any.

MM

Millemissen wrote:

Curly wrote:

A very important bit by John Darko on the new HX here, beginning at 7:05.

link

No!

Darko mixes up things!

B&O never claimed, that these headphones are ‘highres related’ - there is no ‘wrinkle for highres enthusiasts’ about these headphones.

B&O writes about these headphones, that they are ‘Comfortable ANC headphones’ that ‘offers a powerful and authentic sound experience with Adaptive Active Noise Cancellation, a comfortable, lightweight build , impressive call quality and up to 35 hours of play time’.

You find no ‘Highres’ logo there - B&O is adressing different costumers.......not the ones, that Darko is making his videos for.

I am fine with Darko telling his stories (and from time to time pointing at some important things for those who care for audio quality) - however he picked the wrong company for this video.

That he did not do much research and definitely did not listen to the HX is very clear.

 

In the typical B&O way, B&O claims to make a headphone, that has ‘well-balanced bass and treble performance combined with a clear midrange (which) means that with Beoplay HX, you can enjoy music the way the artist intended’. 

And they do this for those who need a wireless headphone with noice cancelling features and outstanding call qualities - not for the highres nerds.

And I am pretty sure that these people will go looking for some other headphones, if they need any.

MM

I was about to say the same.

"also comes with an hi-res audio related wrinkle"

All due respect to Drako, but he didn't do the research I'd have expected him to do before talking about a product.

Beoplay HX are not Hi-Res Audio certified, neither Hi-Res Audio Wireless certified, neither do they support any of the two Bluetooth codecs that are capable of technically Hi-Res Audio streaming (LDAC by Sony and LHDC by Huawei).

They support aptX Adaptive that - despite its lower bitrate compared to aptX HD - is supposed to offer (in ideal conditions, as aptX Adaptive is a scalable codec just like LDAC, unlike the other aptX versions) the exact same audio quality as aptx HD which despite the name doesn't claim to be able to stream what's commonly referred to as "HD audio". Instead, aptX HD and aptX Adaptive are (by Qualcomm, which quotes some "university studies") claimed to be indistinguishible by humans from HD audio (24bit/96kHz). Which, to be clear, doesn't mean they're (those codecs) able to stream HD audio (with this I'm not judging whether HD audio and higher bitrates are an audio freak thing or are something perceptible by human ears, I'm just posting facts without my opinion).

B&O products, and especially the Beoplay headphones, are not for audio nerds - and B&O don't claim to manufacture "audiophile-oriented" products indeed.

Just purchased, they were on Amazon UK on offer at £347 (vs RRP £449).

They should arrive on Thursday. Comparison with H9 3rd Gen coming soon :)

I find it very strange that there are no reviews out there that position the HX, H95 and the Portal against each other (and maybe throw in a H9 too). I'd be very interested in that!

crossbytje wrote:

I find it very strange that there are no reviews out there that position the HX, H95 and the Portal against each other (and maybe throw in a H9 too). I'd be very interested in that!

Not strange at all, the HX have been launched by B&O with minimal effort, they're a product from legacy management that had development started before internal changes, all the resources have been then moved on the new connected speakers and Portal.

HX are likely to be the last normal headphones model.

Yesterday I've been to a B&O store and spent about one hour comparing the H95 and HX (also, over the weekend I've purchased the HX that were on Amazon at the discounted price of £347, more than £100 off RRP, they'll be in my hands tomorrow).

I felt some improvement in comfort with the HX compared to H9 3rd Gen, but nothing major. The H95 are on another league.

---- H95 ----

The sound quality of the H95 is much higher, same as the ANC which is much more effective compared to the one of the HX (which is actually a bit disappointing, even though kind of understandable given the price difference).

I found the dials of the H95 to be too "loose" and with not enough friction to be able to give a premium tactile feedback. For instance, the BackBeat Pro and the Surface Headphones have much firmer dials, with "weight" to them, which gives them a better feeling compared to the H95 ones.
The metallic switch instead felt rock solid to me (vs the plastic flimsy one of the H7/9 series).

Indeed the magnet strength that keep the ear cushions attached to the frame is less strong than the one - let's say - of the B&W PX and PX7, however I didn't find it to be too weak (I've read of people who didn't like it, as they were afraid the ear cushions could accidentally detach, but personally I found it to be perfectly fine - it could have been stronger but it's not weak enough to raise a concern IMHO).

The "beep" that the headphones give when you rotate the L dial (adjusting ANC/transparency) are not loud enough and don't get louder as you increase the volume of the music. As a result of this, with a music volume that's anywhere above 30/40% I couldn't hear them anymore, and it became frustrating to know what the dial was set as.

Still it's nice that the ANC/transparency setting doesn't reset itself as you switch the headphones on/off (like it does with the H9/i/3rd Gen), despite the dial being fully digital and without limit switch (i.e. you could keep turning them endlessly, they don't have a range and stop rotating once they reach the limit of the setting you're adjusting, sorry but I don't know how to explain that in proper English 😂).

Comfort is absolutely excellent, I've never had issues with the H9 3rd Gen headband however I never found the round earcups to be the best option for me. Here the H95 definitely wins, and the additional weight they carry (something like 330g vs 290g if memory serves me) is not felt at all by my head/neck.

Initial conclusions: excellent sound, hardware build quality that's high but that for the asking price I would have expected to be higher and especially higher than some (much cheaper) competitors, in all aspects (dials, compared to those of Plantronics BackBeat Pro and Microsoft Surface Headphones). Software/firmware/"UI" that for £700 really needs some usability improvements, and after months that they're out has not got any significant update, this is something I don't like at all.

---- HX ----

Again, comfort-wise they're slightly better than H9 3rd Gen (more for the *very very slightly* roomy ear cushions than for the redesigned headband, as I said above I never had headband issues with any headphones I've owned, and I also have the Sennheiser Momentum 2 Wireless which are among the worst in this field, so YMMV).

Design-wise, I like the bits and pieces that have been redesigned compared to the H9 3rd Gen, making it look more modern/contemporary, however I don't like at all the *hair-thin* leather that wraps around the outer side of the headband (same as H95) and that's *glued* to it, compared to the thick 2-2.5mm leather band that's *stitched* on top of the H9v3 metallic headband frame.
Also, you can see from about 2.5cm from both ends of the headband, that under the thin leather there's the actual metallic headband frame that's slightly protruding and creating some sort of visual effect that I really dislike on the headband leather covering.
Another thing: the metallic headband frame and the two "pivoting arms" that are attached to the earcups have a different finish, despite being of the same colour. One is brushed, one has a satin finish.
And I don't like the "dark grey" colour of the parts in leather. It's not black, it's a dark grey (way lighter than the black it looks in the official renders) that I don't think is dark enough to prevent wear signs to appear (i.e. the H95 leather is actually black, not dark grey, and not only it looks better in my opinion but it's also much more less prone to show wear marks, which is a huge "problem" I'm having with the Argilla Bright H9 3rd Gen).

Usability: a very huge step back compared to H9 3rd Gen IMHO.

Let's start with the touchpad: it's less sensible than the H9v3 one, and hence requires much force to be applied with the finger to have the gestures detected. Not a big issue, but still it's not like the H9v3 was overly sensible so they had to make adjustments. Well, whatever.

ANC/transparency controls: it's good that in the app you have the option to customise the level of ANC or transparency mode, however that level you set in the app is lost and is overwritten as soon as you press the ANC/transparency button on the L earcup. This makes that slider in the app completely useless.

Regardless of what you have set in the app, the ANC/transp button will cycle between ANC max, transparency max, neutral (which is ANC off and transparency off).
What they should have done, is it cycles between them but keeping them at the level set in the app (which would have required the app to have two separate sliders, one for ANC and one for transparency, but that shouldn't have been an actual issue as the Jabra headphones do it).

ALSO, unlike the H95, these don't keep the ANC/transparency/neutral mode saved when you switch them off/on. That again is a major complaint I had with the H9 3rd Gen (which I've reported to B&O since getting them just a couple of weeks after launch, and following up with them every other month, and they've never done anything about it).
With the HX if you set the mode to "neutral" and reboot them, they'll be in max transparency mode when they're back on. Absolutely ridiculous.

A thing about transparency mode: I personally don't care about listening to music while hearing my surroundings. When I have music, or a video, playing, I want either ANC on or ANC off. Transparency? Never.
So on this the H9v3 were great, as with a swipe up on the touchpad I could directly enable transparency mode AND at the same time that would also pause the media content that was playing.
Which is exactly what I want, and that's perfect for when you're at home or in the office doing whatever you're doing, and you see someone's talking at you. Swipe up, the song/video gets paused, I can listen to and talk to the person, then swipe up again and they go back to neutral/ANC and the media starts playing again.
HEAVEN.

Now, with the HX there isn't any quick "transparency max and pause media" shortcut/command, you can only use the ANC/transparency/neutral button to cycle between the modes, but the media doesn't get paused when you enter transparency mode. This is something I totally hate, as they haven't kept the touchpad swipe-up command that the H9v3 had, and also they don't have a "quick chat" mode like most of other competitors headphones (such as the Sony and Bose).

Unlike the H9v3, they don't have Google Assistant "built-in" (they have a button to summon the voice assistant app of the phone, like the H95, but that's not the same thing).

I don't like the fact that they don't work passively, like the H95 (but without having the same exact electronic as the H95, as the ANC is clearly inferior) and unlike the H9v3 (of which they inherited most of the cons, with just a couple of the pros taken from the H95).

Still, luckily, despite the above annoyances, there are some improvements in UX. Two of them, especially.

The first.
They have a freaking MUTE BUTTON. I can't stress how much I've missed it from the BackBeat Pro.
Almost none of the competitor high-end headphones have it.
I use it a lot as I use the headphones also to make calls for work meetings, and it's a life changing experience to have the mute button directly on the headphones.

The second one.
Finally the wear-detection (automatic play/pause when headphones are on/off the head) is back (H9i had it, H9v3 and H95 didn't). I've missed this a lot from the Plantronics BackBeat Pro (they're actually my favourite headphones ever, they literally had EVERYTHING and that was in 2014 at a price that's a third of what's asked now for current Bluetooth headphones).
I love having it, and it works fairly well, but it doesn't work *flawlessly* all the times (which on the old BackBeat Pro it did, so it's in a way kind of disappointing).

Soundwise, they sound more balanced than the H9v3. Highs are similar, lows are more recessed and, in a way, controlled. But I liked the sound of the H9v3 too, those small emphasis on the lows was very subtle and pleasant, not boomy at all (unlike it is on the Sony and some Sennheiser headphones).
Unfortunately, on the sound I will be able to provide more comparison only from tomorrow when I get them in my hands at home.

One thing that I can confirm though is that the HX indeed were affected by the issue pointed out in this review on Amazon IT, please use Google Translate to turn it to English: https://www.amazon.it/gp/customer-reviews/R39X1HJF5T43H1/

Summarising, if you keep the headphones volume above ~60% and use the Beosonic feature in the app to boost the lows (to some degree, more on this from tomorrow), you'll start get A LOT of cracking sounds. The headphones will actually sound broken like the drivers really had blown up. Which is concerning, especially given the default sound signature of the HX (which may bring users to use Beosonic to raise the lows a bit).

I really hope B&O are gonna fix this, one way or another, or otherwise it will not end well.

More in the next days.

Still happy with the HX? I am torn between the HX and the H95......

Baard Hansen wrote:

Still happy with the HX? I am torn between the HX and the H95......

While an interesting assessment of both the HX and H95 from matteventu, and I have no experience with the HX (I’ve owned many pairs in the H8-H9 series over the years), I am not sure I agree with everything regarding the H95, or do not think the «issues» pointed out are that annoying. I have, in fact, bought two pairs of H95s (black and silver) that I am completely in love with. In my opinion the H95 has got a beautiful fresh design that all iterations in the H9/HX lineup were starting to lack over the years, and while the HX seem more up-to-date indeed, the H95 is just so much more elegant and minimalistic. Both the build quality and the sound are superb, I personally love the comfort too, and the H95 is down to the smallest bits well-thought-through. I could go on but I can never look back after having had the H95. For music!! I hear, people might want the Portal over the HX for other use cases than music. What things are you looking for in headphones from B&O? Hilsen fra Oslo ;)