So these are the limited edition bang and olufsen H95 ANC headphones… now besides
being a major flex, cause these headphones retail for an eye watering $800… The H95’s
actually preform very well. Now they do have some minor quirks that I am going to point
out but besides that I think these headphones do manage to justify their price. Now obviously
these headphones aren’t for everybody… but these headphones do ooze luxury.
Now first off we’re going to have to talk about the included accessories here cause
this is an area where most other manufacture’s are really trying to cut corners here. Now
these headphones come included with an aluminum carrying case and the inside is lined with
matching textile from the headphones themselves. Now just the experience of taking your headphones
out and putting them back in feels special. But even though this case is beautiful there
are some drawbacks to keep in mind. For commuting this case isn’t the best cause it is larger
and heavier than your typical case… and unfortunately since it is aluminum it is prone
to scratching. Personally I think B and O should have gone with either a leather wrapped
or textile wrapped exterior and had the exposed aluminum on the inside. This way you still
get that luxurious feel but you save yourself the heart break of scratching up your beautiful
case. But case aside the included cables are also super premium. The H95 come included
with a fabric USB C to USB A charging cable and a 3.5 millimeter audio cable. And they
even come with an airplane adapter.
But now lets talk about the headphones themselves. It goes without saying that these headphones
have amazing build quality. Now one of the things that is special about them from the
H9’s is that these headphones are fully collapsible. Now these headphones have a mostly
aluminum body… when you extend their headband it simply glides in and out… the top portion
of the headband has a hit of cowhide leather… underneath we’ve got a little bit of padded
fabric and when we make our way down to the ear pads themselves we’ve got lamb skin
leather. Now obviously when it comes to materials these headphones are pulling all the stops
here, but personally the leather on these ear pads is a little rough or stiff for my
taste. Now the leather on these ear pads feels like the leather that you would find on a
car seat, wallet, or leather jacket… its not as soft or as supple as the leather or
leatherette that you would find on other headphones out there like either the Sennheiser Momentum
3’s or Bose NC 700. Regardless these headphones are using super premium materials… but I
would have liked to have seen more supple feeling lambskin leather on these ear pads.
And when it comes to fit… even though these headphones fit well they do have some draw
backs to point out. Now first off these headphones do fit rather firm… I can wear them for
a long while and I will say that they are big head approved cause they don’t feel
like they’re actually squeezing your head but if you’re looking for something with
less clamping force you’ll might want to look elsewhere. Now since these headphones
are using super premium materials that also means they are on the heavier side. The H95’s
weigh in at 323 grams making them a pair of heavy boys. Cause on average your typical
pair of headphones weigh in between 270 to 290 grams. And for comparison sake the Bose
NC 700’s weigh in at 263 grams and the Sony 1000XM4’s weigh in at 254 grams. So this
extra weight on the H95’s means a few things… first off these headphones are super noticeable
when you’re walking around with them on cause you can really feel them shifting around
when they’re on your head and these aren’t a pair of headphones that you really forget
that you’re wearing even when you’re just sitting still. And since these headphones
are rather heavy they can develop a little bit of strain on the back of your neck after
you’ve been wearing these headphones for like an hour… Now these headphones don’t
cause anywhere near as much neck strain as the JBL Club One or JBL Club 950BT curse those
puppies weigh in at a staggering 378 grams… but the H95’s are entering neck strain territory.
And for comparison sake the H9’s weigh in at 285 grams. Which is average.
But when it comes to the ear pads themselves thankfully the H95’s are using oval ear
pads. Now these ear pads are fairly spacious and they should be able to accommodate most
ear types… But they aren’t super deep. Now the fabric on these ear pads does push
down a little bit giving you a little bit of extra room… but this also mean that you
feel like your ears are still getting pressed down. So I still recommend that if you have
larger ears or ears that stick out a lot then you’ll still want to go with either the
Bose NC 700’s or Sennheiser PXC 550-II cause their ear pads are still way more spacious.
Nonetheless these ear pads fit me just fine and these headphones do fit well but my major
critique here is going to be their weight. Since these headphones do weigh in at 323
grams they are super noticeable when you’re walking around with them on and they wouldn’t
be my first pick if I we’re looking for a pair of headphones to wear for hours and
hours on end cause you never forget that you have them on. But I guess thats a sacrifice
you’re going to have to make if you want something with this kind of build quality.
But now lets talk about tech specs, just as you’d expect these headphones charge via
a USB C port and these headphones have an advertised battery life of 38 hours with their
active noise cancelation turned on which is above average. And with their active noise
cancellation turned off they can go for as long as 50 hours. So over all battery life
on these headphones isn’t just great… it is above average.
Now when it comes to bluetooth connectivity these headphones are using bluetooth 5.1 but
more importantly they can be connected to 2 devices at the same time so you can easily
hot swap from your phone to your computer which is nice. And when it comes to watching
movies or video on your phone these headphones do have zero latency across the board whether
you're using an iPhone or an aneroid device.
And when it comes to audio codecs these headphones are using SBC, AAC and APTX adaptive… but
if you want you can always use the USB C port on these headphones as a wired connection
which is fairly rare these days. But like I mentioned earlier these headphones do come
included with a very premium 3.5 millimeter audio cable. But since you can use the USB
C port on these headphones as a wired connection this does make me wish that we also got premium
USB C to USB C cable.
But now lets talk about listening to music with these headphones. Now these headphones
do sound their best with their active noise cancellation turned off. With their ANC turned
on the bass on these headphones resonates slightly less and they sound slightly less
open. I think your average person might not notice or care but I do. But at the very least
I can say that the Active noise cancellation on these headphones doesn’t change their
sound nearly as much as the ANC on the Bowers And Wilkins PX7’s. Now from a performance
stand point these headphones have really good instrument separation, a decently wide sound
stage, and the bass on these headphones doesn’t bottom out… but these headphones are better
suited for people who like a neutral or vocals focused EQ. Even though these headphones do
have a decent amount of bass, these headphones are not going to physically rattle your head
like lets say the Sony 1000XM4’s. The bass on the H95’s is the resonating kind similar
to the Bose NC 700’s or Sennheiser Momentum 3’s. Now these headphones do have an adjustable
EQ and you can up the bass on them to rattle your head a little bit but they still aren’t
going to rattle your head nearly as much as the Sony’s. And personally I am not the
biggest fan of this kind of EQ adjustment… cause if you move this dial too deep into
warm or high bass they can end up sounding a little shallow cuase they end up pushing
the mids down, of if you want to bring the vocals out on these headphones they can end
up sounding nasally and flat cuase they end up lowering the bass and upping the treble.
So personally for me I’ll mostly just use these headphones while in their stock EQ cause
I like their balanced nature or ill might use them with their dial a little bit into
the High bass and energetic area… but over all these headphones are better suited for
people who like a neutral EQ and I did wish Bang and Olufsen would just give us full control
over the EQ settings on these headphones.
Now when it comes to media controls, these headphones have a physical dial that you can
use to adjust your volume and they also have a touch pad to skip through your music. Now
personally im a really big fan of having a physical dial to adjust your volume and the
touch pad on these headphones is super accurate. So controlling your music with these headphones
feels very intuitive. However I do gotta point out that Bang and Olufsen did copy this dial
system from the Surface Headphones… and even though I really do think the gnarling
on these dials is a very nice touch… I do gotta admit that the dials on the surface
headphones feels better than the dials on the H95’s. First off there’s placement…
having the dial on the outside like on the surface headphones feels more natural and
is easier to reach than having the dial on the inside like on the H95’s. And then there’s
also tactile feedback. The dial on the Surface headphones has a satisfying resistance to
it that makes it feel very intentional when you’re adjusting this dial where as the
dials on the H95’s a little too lose. And then there’s also the fact that the dial
on the H95’s does like to wiggle a little bit where as the dial on the Surface headphones
doesn’t wiggle at all. So over all what im getting at here is that im a big fan of
this dial set up and the controls on the H95’s feels very intuitive… But we do gotta give
credit where credit is due… Microsoft really did knock it out the park when it came to
designing these dials. Cause unfortunately the dials on the H95’s just don’t feel
as good.
But now lets talk about the active noise cancellation on these headphones. Like with the Surface
headphones you can adjust your ANC on the H95’s by using the dial on the left earcup.
And like I mentioned earlier the active noise cancelation on the H95’s does affect how
that sound. It slightly reduces the amount of bass these headphones have and it narrows
them up a little bit. But I think your average user isn’t even going to notice. But from
a performance standpoint I am pleasantly surprised. The active noise cancelation on the H95’s
has very little cabin pressure which is great for comfort and there’s zero hissing in
the background. And these headphones block out a lot of noise as well. But so that you
can see for yourself we’re going to jump into an ANC test.
So like you may have just seen the active noise cancelation on the H95’s is very good.
They block out way more noise than a pair of entry level ANC headphones like the Sony
WH-CH710N and they also block out noticeably more noise than the Surface Headphones 2 which
block out nearly as much noise a pair of premium ANC headphones. My only critique here is that
since the microphone array on these headphones is fairly exposed they do like to pick up
the occasional wind noise when walking out doors. But other than that the Active noise
cancellation on the H95’s is very impressive. And when it comes to the ambient mode on
these headphones… its very good as well. The ambient mode on these headphones sounds
very natural for the most part but can sound a little over amplified if you were to set
them to max… but other than that there’s zero hissing the background which is important
for when your watching movies with these headphones. And for the most part this microphone array
does a decent job of blocking out wind noise when walking out doors but again since this
microphone array is so exposed sometimes they will pick up wind noise… but it not problematic.
However I do gotta point out that this ambient mode lets in everything… its not the active
kind that will actively block out sudden spikes in loud noises like the ambient mode on the
Surface
Headphones does.
So with all that being said… I think paying $800 for any pair of ANC headphones is over
kill. But I aint mad at the H95’s, they actually deliver. Just from a pure build quality
perspective these headphones are using premium materials, they’re exquisitely built and
they come included with just as premium feeling cables and they’ve got that aluminum case.
From a performance standpoint these headphones sound great and they should be able to please
anyone who appreciates a neutral sound signature, they block out a lot of noise, and they have
a good ambient mode as well. They even tic off extra credit boxes like having an above
average battery life, being able to use their USB C port as a wired connection, and they
have some really intuitive controls to them. But granted Microsoft did manage to execute
on the feel of those dials better. Now my major critique here is going to come to comfort
cause these headphones are on the heavier side… but I guess that just comes with the
territory if youre aiming for this kind of build quality.