So a few months ago we checked out the $800 Bang And Olufsen H95 ANC headphones… now I
wouldn’t recommend that you run out and get those headphones cause their price is absurd.
But the H95’s are a just a whole experience but themselves cause of their exquisite build quality
and aluminum carrying case. But today we’re going to check out the new Bang and Olufsen HX… which
are still a little pricey but they are more sensible than the H95’s.
So first there’s price… the HX’s retail for $500 which I feel is a little pricey for a pair of ANC
headphones. Obviously the HX’s blow past the Sony 1000XM4’s $350 price tag and it also blows past
both the Bose NC 700 and Sennheiser Momentum 3’s $400 price tag. But the HX are still a little shy
of the AirPods Max’s $550 price tag. Now overall the HX are a decent pair of ANC
headphones that I really like a lot… but these aren’t my new go to daily drivers.
Nonetheless is you want to pick the HX’s up they’ll be linked down below.
Now first let talk about the included carrying case… for a while Bang and Olufsen has just been
trying to get away with including carrying pouches with their premium headphones. Which
unfortunately just isn’t going to cut it these days. Just ask the AirPods Max. But
thankfully the HX’s come included with a decent hardshell carrying case that is going to keep
your headphones well protected even if you cram them into a cramped back pack… and there’s even
a hidden compartment where you can store your cables. However I do gotta point out that this
case is a little large cause it does have a large foot print and it is a little on the thicker side.
Now the HX’s case is still a little smaller than Surface headphones case which is good… but it is a
little larger than your main staples like the Sony 1000XM4 or Bose NC 700’s. Now this is no aluminum
carrying case that you would get with the H95’s… but none the less I am still very happy with this
case and id rather have this than some carrying pouch… or what ever the AirPods Max has going on.
But now let's talk about build quality. Just as you’d expect the HX’s are exquisitely built and
bang and Olufsen has a pretty standard formula when it comes to their headphones. We’ve got
very smooth swiveling ear cups, this aluminum headband glides in and out very smoothly as well
which pars great for the longevity of these headphones, up top we’ve got cow hide leather,
underneath we’ve got a fabric padded headband, and once we make our way back down to the ear
pads we’ve got lamb skin leather. Now out of the box this lamb skin can feel a little
synthetic… but once you get your oils soaked into it these lamb skin ear pads they do smoothen up.
So like I said the HX’s are exquisitely built. However there are 2 key things that
I want to point out about these headphones. First, the HX’s can only be laid down flat.
They aren’t fully collapsable like most other headphones on the market or even the H95’s.
And personally I do think thats a shame. I thought since the H95’s were fully collapsible
so would the HX’s. But then theres also their removable ear pads. Now its awesome that you
can remove these ear pads period… but you gotta screw these ear pads on and off. And I nit pick
here cause most new headphones who’s ear pads are removable are now using magnetic ear pads. Its not
a big deal but I’d thought id point it out. But over all the HX’s are very well built and they’re
using very premium improvements. But they still have room for improvements cause I
would like to see a collapsable design which could open the door to a smaller carrying
case which would be beneficial for constant commuters and magnetically attached ear pads.
But now lets talk about comfort… over all the HX’s fit well but my main complaint
here is going to be their round ear pads. In general I don’t like round ear pads period.
The problem with these round ear pads is that since their diameter is so small
they pull down on your cartilage and rest on your earlobes. Where as with oval ear pads
since they’re taller your ear cartilage and ear lobes don’t get pressed down on. I mean round ear
pads look great… but comfort comfort wise oval is that way to go. And again this is something that
I would have like to have seen make its way from the H95’s to the HX’s. Cause the H95’s are using
oval ear pads so its not like Bang and Olufsen is completely opposed to the idea of oval ear pads.
But if round ear pads aren’t an issue for you… everything else about the HX’s comfort wise is
actually pretty good. For starters since these ear pads have very little surface area that come
in contact with your skin and since they do have minimal padding these ear pads don’t heat up all
that much similar to the Bose NC 700’s. And when it comes to clamping force… these headphones are
big head approved cause they have a natural fit to them similar to the Sony 1000XM4’s
or Bose NC 700’s. But the HX’s don’t fit as loose as let's say the Bose QC 35’s. And when
it comes to their weight, the HX’s weigh in at 285 grams which is a little more than let say
the Bose NC 700 which weigh in at 264 grams and the Sony 1000XM4’s which weigh in at 254 grams…
but nonetheless with the HX’s these are a pair of headphones that you do forget that you’re
wearing after while and you’re not going to notice them too much shifting around when you’re walking
around with them on. Unlike both the Momentum 3’s and AirPods Max which are both a little heftier.
But now let's talk about tech specs, the HX charge via a USB C port as they should. And
when it comes to battery life this has got to be one of my favorite things about the HX’s.
The HX’s have an advertised battery life of 35 hours with the ANC turned on
and an advertised battery life of 40 hours with the ANC turned off.
And since I've been using these headphones for the last 2 weeks and
putting their battery life up to the test… they really are having not problem keeping
up. For sure I haven’t had to charge these headphones as much as either the Bose NC 700’s,
AirPods Max or Momentum 3’s which all have an advertised battery life of 20 hours or less.
Regarding connectivity, the HX are using bluetooth 5.1 but more importantly
they can be connected to 2 devices at the same time which is great for power users cause you
can easily hot swap from one device to another. And when it comes to
performance the HX have zero latency across the board when watching movies or videos
on your phone whether your using an iPhone or an android device. And when it comes to audio
codecs the HX have SBC and AAC which is pretty standard but they also have APTX Adaptive.
But if you want to you can always use a wired connection with these headphones. You can either
use their USB C port as a wired connection which is still a little rare for headphones these days
or you can always just use their easy to reach 3.5 millimeter audio jack.
And would you look at that they even come included with an Audio cable.
But now lets talk about listening to music with these headphones. Simply put if you want to get
the best sound out of these headphones you’ve got to use them with their ANC turned off. Cause with
their ANC turned on these headphones do get narrowed up quite a bit and their bass won’t
resonate as deep or hit as hard. Now this is a stark contrast to the H95’s cause even though
the H95’s also get narrowed up and their bass don’t hit as hard with their ANC turned on…
its not as noticeable as on the HX’s. The HX’s do sound like two completely different pairs of
headphones if you have their ANC turned on or off. They still sound good, but they sound better with
their ANC turned off. Now with all that being said 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 HX’s 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.
However the HX’s bass does resonate more than the Bose NC 700’s bass giving them a lot more
physicality to them, making them more fun. But they don’t have as much bass as the Momentum 3’s.
Now these headphones do have an adjustable EQ so you can tune them to your liking… but 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 cause they end up pushing the mids
down, or if you want to bring the vocals out on these headphones they can end up sounding
nasally and flat cause 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.
Regarding the media controls on the HX’s… they’re using a touch pad on the right ear cup. You can
play our pause by simply tapping, you can also raise or lower the volume by doing a clock wise
or counter clockwise circle on the touch pad and you can skip through your music by swiping front
or back. And over all this touch pad is very accurate. The only thing I have to point out
is that you do have press a little harder than you normally would on other touch pads
or your phone. Personally I am indifferent about it, but I think having to apply
a little more than normal pressure on your touch pad might be good for avoiding false positives
like on other touch pads. Cause when I first started using these headphones I thought their
touch pad was very inaccurate cause I was pressing too gently. But after realizing this touch pads
requires a little more pressure… im actually starting to like it.
But now lets talk about the active noise cancelation on these headphones.
From a performance standpoint the ANC on these headphones has very little cabin pressure
which is good for comfort. But like I mentioned earlier this ANC
does affect how your music sounds by a lot. And since the microphone array is fairly exposed,
these headphones do like to pick up the occasional wind noise when walking out doors.
And when it comes to the amount of noise these headphones block out… its not industry leading
to say the least. 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 HX does out perform the WH-CH710N’s which are a pair of
entry level 2020 ANC headphones. But the HX does straggle behind a little bit when compared to the
Surface Headphones 2 which are a pair of mid tier ANC headphones. The HX’s do okay when blocking
out constant lower frequency sounds which is to be expected… but they really struggle when it
comes to random or even constant higher frequency sounds. And again this is in stark contrast to the
H95’s which not only block out way more noise than both the WH-CH710N’s and Surface Headphones 2….
But they also managed to block out a hair more noise than the Bose NC 700’s and Sony 1000XM4’s
when subjected to this same ANC test. So over all, the ANC on the HX is usable… But if ANC
is a top priority for you then I would look at something else. Like either the Bose or Sony.
Now even though the ANC on the HX’s isn’t super impressive what is though is their ambient mode.
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 you’re 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 its 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 modes on the Sony 1000XM4’s, Surface Headphones or AirPods Max.
But finally here’s the mic test. Over all the microphone on the HX is
decent and you can take a quick phone call with them… but I wish this microphone
put a little more emphasis on my voice cause it can sound a little shallow.
However if you do plan on taking phone calls with this microphone you really wanna do it
in a quite room cause this microphone picks up a lot
of ambient noise and you voice can sound very jumbled up.
So with all that being said, I like the Bang And Olufsen HX’s and they’re a decent pair of ANC
headphones. If you’re someone thats looking for something with premium build quality then the HX
have you covered cause of their cow hide wrapped aluminum headband, and lamb skin ear pads. The
HX’s also have a great neutral sound to them with a very wide sound stage, great instrument
separation and deep resonating bass. The ambient mode on these headphones is really good as well,
they have an awesome long battery life and not to mentioned they’re fairly comfortable.
However I feel that if these headphones used oval ear pads instead of the round ones they have now
their fit would be perfect. But then there’s there ANC. Even though their
ANC is usable… if ANC is a very big deal to you then I would look at something else.