(electronic music)
- You are looking at Dolby's first consumer product.
The new $599 Dolby Dimension headphones.
Now these are high end wireless headphones
but they're a little different than the wireless headphones
you're probably familiar with.
See, instead of being designed to be worn on the go,
when you're commuting, or maybe on a plane,
these wireless headphones are meant to be used in your home.
They're kinda like those old headphones your grandparents
might have had plugged into their TV so they could listen
to their shows as loud as they want without disturbing
everyone in the house, but these are new, modern headphones
so they have a bunch of new tricks that make them
a bit more interesting than those old headphones.
Now for starters, the Dimension use Bluetooth to connect
to your devices, and you could save
up to eight pairings at a time.
You can also program three devices to the buttons
on the side of the right ear cup
to quickly switch between them.
I've got this one programmed to my phone,
this one to by tablet, and this one to my computer here,
and since these are a Dolby product, the Dimensions have
lots of audio processing and enhancement features.
The company says if you listen to content that's been
created and mixed for Atmos, you'll get the best sound
for it you can over Bluetooth
when you're wearing these headphones.
(alternative music)
And they sound really good, they have a wide presence
and a broad sound stage, and really crisp details.
Now Dolby won't say that they are tuned for
any specific activity, but it's clear from my testing
that these are really meant to be worn when you're
watching a movie with lots of sound effects
and things going on.
They don't necessarily sound bad for music, it's just
a little less impressive then when you're using them
as a home theater.
And then they also have a new feature that's meant
to make them easier to use when you're wearing them
in a home with other people.
Now, many over ear wireless headphones have
active noise cancellation features, which use microphones
on the outside of the ear cup to cancel out noises
and cocoon you in silence, and that's why everyone loves
to wear them on airplanes, but the Dimensions
do the opposite.
They use microphones on the ear cup to mix in the sounds
of your environment with what ever audio you're playing
in the headphones.
That means you can still hear if someone talks to you
or a baby cries or the doorbell rings
when you're wearing these.
It's almost like an inverted noise cancellation feature.
Now the company calls this LIFEMIX and you can adjust
the levels of the mix with the mobile app.
If you wanna completely block out all external sound
and then use them as noise canceling headphones,
you can do that, or you can crank up the outside audio
so you hear more of that than whatever you're listening to.
So to test this, we're using these binaural microphones.
I'm gonna put the headphones on them here,
then we'll play music through the headphones,
and I'm gonna play something on my laptop
and I'll use the app here to adjust the mix
and see how it sounds different.
Let's fire up something to the headphones.
♪ Asphalt burning in the atmosphere ♪
- [Female Voice] So all of you have told me.
♪ Can't see the sun but you know it's there ♪
- [Female Voice] Yeah it's true.
♪ Buffaloes kicking up the dust again and oh ♪
(indistinct female chatter)
♪ People getting cool I'm taken by the tide ♪
- [Female Voice] As a professional travel player for Apex.
♪ They make you feel like it was suicide ♪
♪ They made you feel like it was do or die ♪
♪ But no, oh no ♪
♪ The way you push then pull me ♪
- [Female Voice] And you give yourself the option
♪ It's made your journey longer ♪
♪ It's still to sacrifice your life oh ♪
(pop music)
- Now the idea here is that if you're at home
and your partner wants to watch something on TV
and you wanna watch something different on your tablet,
you can both be in the same room together,
enjoying each others own content, yet still be able
to have a conversation without having to raise your voice
or take your headphones off.
Or maybe it's late a night and you're watching a movie
on your big flat panel TV and you don't wanna wake the kids.
The Dimensions let you watch the movie without having
to use Closed Captions and still be able to hear
if someone gets out of bed when they're not supposed to.
There's some other neat things too.
Like a head tracking feature that'll automatically position
the sound source right in front of you and keep it there
whenever you turn your head.
Just like if you were listening to a real speaker.
So to test the head tracking feature,
I've got them back on these binaural microphones.
I'm gonna play some music and then I'm just gonna
turn the microphones to see if they can hear any difference.
♪ Ever thought that you could be ♪
♪ Caught up like a bullet in the breeze ♪
As for headphone features, these hare high end.
They've got metal frames, buttery soft faux leather covers,
and these really plush ear cups
and a padded head band for comfort.
For my head, they're really comfortable to wear
even if I'm binging an entire Netflix show
for 10 hours straight.
Dolby says that they will last up to 10 hours
with all of the head tracking and sound enhancement features
enabled, or up to 16 hours if you turn those features off.
They come with this neat little magnetic dock that charges
them up so they're ready to go whenever you pick them up,
or you can use a standard micro USB cable
if you don't have that handy.
The Dimensions also have most other
wireless headphone things, they've got swipe controls
for volume and play back on the ear cup,
support for calls when they're connected
to your phone, and the ability to launch Siri
or Google Assistant with a long press.
But what you'll notice is they don't fold up conveniently
and they don't have a 3.5 millimeter headphone cable
so you can't use them with in flight entertainment,
and they really aren't great for travel or on the go.
They're really designed to be worn and used in your home.
And for me, that's a little strange.
I wear headphones all the time on my commute
or at the office, but when I'm at home,
I almost never wear them because it's more comfortable
to listen to things on my Sonos or from my TV sound bar.
Plus, when I have headphones on, I am isolated from
the rest of my family, which feels a bit rude.
The Dimensions do alleviate this somewhat,
instead of being completely isolated, I can still hear
if my kids ask me something or my spouse talks to me,
but they're still headphones and there are social norms
in place that say when I have headphones on,
I'm probably not listening to you.
The Dimensions don't quite overcome that,
even if I can hear everything my wife
is saying when I wear them.
Now I do think that they are useful for parents
of young children that don't wanna watch TV or movies
through closed captions, but still wanna be able
to hear if the baby is crying or someone gets up.
If that's you, then you'll probably love these things
but I'm more interested in where Dolby takes this next.
Maybe in a more portable pair that can travel
with me easier and go the places
that I actually do wear headphones all the time.
Maybe then I'll be interested in spending 600 bucks.
Thanks for watching.
These are kind of like a new different thing
and I'm curious, is this something that you would buy?
Would you buy headphones that you really can't use
outside of the house?
Let us know in the comments below
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