Beoplay H95

For background: I am not an audiophile, but I am a bit of a sound snob, have a background in audio engineering and spend a lot of time listening to studio monitors. I prioritize neutrality and clarity over custom EQs and tunings -- I want to hear exactly how they recorded at the studio, even if it sucks. I have wired Shure 1540s and absolutely love them, but thought I'd give the convenience of this newfangled Bluetooth technology all the kids are talking about a try. After reading a few reviews, I bought the **AKG N9 Hybrid** (list $439.95 / paid $249.99) Nice wide soundstage. Huge, boomy bass, but not necessarily in a good way. It's sloppy and not particularly tight. Decent clarity and resolution otherwise, and pretty flat, though the vocal midrange is prominent and it's not too easy to resolve background details. They sound decent, but not amazing. Physically, they're tight, but light weight and comfortable. The vinyl earpads get sweaty pretty quick. I had some functional complaints as well: Pairing is finicky (you have to disconnect or turn off Bluetooth on one device before you can even put these in pairing mode to connect them to something else.) I couldn't get them to work with my steam deck at all. This is forgiven a bit by the included usb-c dongle, which does sound better and makes them more plug and play. They also pause the music automatically when you take them off, which is fine, but then make a loud chime and say "Bluetooth reconnected" every time you put them back on, which is slow and ridiculous. They also sound terrible plugged directly into an analogue headphone jack -- the dsp is doing a lot of heavy lifting with these. I lived with them for a few months, but ultimately they left me wanting more. So, underwhelmed, and on a quest for audio excellence, I splurged and bought what are widely considered to be the best sounding Bluetooth cans: **Dali io12** (list $1750 / paid $1,399) Probably the widest soundstage, in terms of instruments sounding like they're out beyond the boundary of your ears. Incredibly bright and treble heavy, kinda V-shaped, except the bass is underwhelming, doesn't seem like there's much sub-bass at all and what is there is pretty muddy. The "bass mode" is even worse, emphasizing mid/upper bass and muting everything else. Overall, there's a weird thin-ness and lack of detail. Despite the wide soundstage, I had trouble picking out individual instruments in the background or resolving tight details. Describing audio is hard, but I'd say they're quite laid back, and don't present with a lot of energy. They don't sound bad -- just not, I guess, as amazing as I imagined $1400 headphones would sound. They *are* the most comfortable by a longshot, they're light on the head and the leather earcups are super soft. The controls are large and easy to use, but also *way* too easy to press accidentally just by turning your head towards your shoulder or taking them off and hanging them around your neck. I listened to them for a few days, but kept having nagging doubts that they were $1000 better than the AKGs. Surely we can do better. So I bought the next most expensive pair: **Bang & Olufsen Beoplay H95** (list $1,250.00 / paid $704.31 open box) These have the narrowest soundstage of them all, the music really comes from the center of your head. Probably the most sub-bass extension of the lot as well, which is fun. However, the bass is a bit boomier than I like. Very V-shaped with overdone, sparkly treble at the very high end. They resolve details okay. There's a weird tinniness to them overall, they kind of sound like they're behind a heavy sheet or something. Might be the Bluetooth compression, they sound a bit digital perhaps. The analog dials are nice for volume, although I hate the left one for controlling the ANC. Build quality is great, they look cool. I had connection issues, when they reconnect to my phone, they stutter and drop out until I disable Bluetooth and reenable it. Not ideal. You also have to register for an account just to use the app, which is ridiculous. All in all, I think these sound the worst of the three so far, and I spent the least amount of time with them. **Bowers & Wilkins Px8** (list $699 / paid $449) What can I say, the hype is real. Soundstage isn't quite as wide as the io12s, but still really good, and individual instruments are actually more distinct and easier to pick out. The bass is definitely overemphasized, but in the most fun way, still incredibly tight and detailed, but you can feel it in your skull which I quite enjoy. Aside from the bass, I think they're actually the flattest response of the bunch. The treble is present but doesn't hurt my ears. The midrange is present, vocals are easy to understand but not as in your face as other models. And the detail -- these things resolve details I've never heard before. I can hear the transient click of the beater hitting the kick drum, the slight tap of the pianists foot pressing the pedal, individual voices in group harmonies. I'm actually blown away that these sound so good over Bluetooth, not sure what magic they're working there but, it works. I've read reviews about the build quality not holding up. They look and feel solid and well made, but time will tell. They're also not the most comfortable, maybe even the least comfortable, pretty tight and the headband needs more padding. I have to adjust the the headband around on my head periodically. The earpads are nice and soft and seem to breathe more than the AKGs. You do have to make an account to use the app. Yes, I updated the firmware to 3.1.0 and couldn't tell any difference in bass. They definitely have noticeably more bass in ANC mode than with it disabled, so maybe people are comparing apples to oranges. Not sure. I was genuinely surprised by these, especially at the price I paid. At the risk of sounding like an ad, I found myself getting lost in my test playlist and just letting it roll -- these are *fun* to listen to. Even though I really like the px8s, I had already ordered one more set: **Cambridge Audio Melomania P100 SE** (list $299 / paid $299) Pretty similar to the io12s, still on the bright side, but with much more bass. The bass goes deeper and is much tighter and more detailed. Soundstage is very good, and the detail and resolution is excellent. Starting to hear subtle background instruments and feet tapping the floor. These might sound better than the io12s to my ears. They're different, the io12s are a little more encompassing and put you more in the middle of the music, but the two are closer than you think. I do prefer the px8s, in a way I'm not sure how to describe... the P100s still sound like you're listening to headphones, and the px8s sound like you're standing in the middle of the recording studio. But for the price, they're damn good. They're fairly comfortable, the app has a full parametric EQ, and they have a user-replaceable battery (which scores huge points in my book). If I had ordered these first, I probably would have kept them. **In Summary** This is not a sponsored post, I don't work for any of these companies, I paid for them all out of pocket. I only listened to each model for an hour or less, so these are just initial impressions. I didn't compare ANC performance at all, they all make the A/C quiet when ANC is on and that's good enough for me. I A/Bed them all directly, connected over bluetooth to my pixel 9 pro, listening to Spotify at the highest bitrate. I would have also liked to hear the Nobel Fokus Apollos and Focal Bathys, but couldn't find them at stores with easy/free returns. **TL;DR: I'm keeping the px8s.** My ranking: 1. B&W px8 2. Melomania P100 SE 3. Dali io12 4. AKG N9 Hybrid 5. B&O h95

There are many premium wireless headphones they sound significantly better than XM6. Bathys is only one example.  You could also check out B&W PX8, PX7s2/3, B&O H95 and H100, Noble Audio Fokus Apollo, Mark Levinson no5909, etc etc.  All of the above prioritize sound over ANC though. 

Love my B&O H95s

>Thanks for that detailed overview! Learned a lot on aptX dongles…. Glad to be of help. >Since you mentioned you have the H95, could you comment on the sound vs the 630 or P8 s2? **B&O H95** My B&O H95 are close approaching 5 years old and back then, they retailed for $800 and now it's $1250 USD. In comparison to Px8 S2, H95's sound signature is also colored warm with elevated bass shelf. It has a small dip in the mid-mid that hurts the detail of voices and instruments. There's also a peak in the low treble that accentuates the upper harmonics of vocals, followed by some inconsistencies in the mid-treble that cause sibilants to alternate between shrill and dull, depending on their pitch. Soundstage sounds large, but it doesn't sound very open or natural and lacks the immersive quality of the Px8 S2. You can tune the H95 using "Beosonic," a circular coordinate UI where you tap and drag the tuning towards Bright, Energetic, Warm, Relaxed and anywhere in between in the B&O app. It's simple UI for user but not precise as an equalizer. Speaking of the app, it's OK but horribly buggy in Android. Otherwise, it's beautifully designed, but it's more on-ear, the ear pads are small with shallow ear cups, than over-ear headphones and are not comfortable for long listening sessions. With it's current price point, it's not a wireless ANC headphone I'd recommend. **Sennheiser HDB-630** These are Sennheiser's brand new audiophile tuned wireless ANC headphones. Opposite of Px8 S2's colored warm sound signature, the HDB-630 is faithfully neutral with linear extended sub bass and bass that's quick and controlled, clear mids and controlled treble that's detailed and airy w/o harshness. What's great about the HDB-630 is that it's neutral baseline, allowing you to truly tune the sound signature using Senn's Smart Control Plus app's parametric EQ versus B&W's standard graphic equalizer, which only lets you boost or cut within preset frequency bands — handy for quick adjustments, but not ideal if those bands aren’t exactly where you want them. With parametric EQ, you can set the exact frequency range you prefer, control the bandwidth to make that adjustment wide or narrow, and choose the filter type for even more precise shaping. This flexibility lets you tailor vocals to your preference, adjust brightness, or fine-tune bass — without affecting the rest of your music. One could try to replicate Px8 S2's sound signature but I do hear HDB-630's soundstage as average in comparison. At $500, HDB-630 is pretty good value since includes BTD-700 aptX USB-C BT dongle ($60) and competes to other wireless ANC headphones in the $400-500 price range. HDB-630 build is solid with quality PC-ABS plastics but it's not as luxurious as B&W Px8 / Px8 S2s. Hope this helps!

Not really the case with batteries. They will all die in about the same time and with things like wireless earbuds none are user replaceable. Like technically I can replace the batteries on my Sony xm4s, I have all the tools and batteries... Can't get them open though. Gave up. And those are meant to be one of the easy ones. Anyway I have owned tons of wireless earbuds and I have settled on the Technics AZ100 for now. Not quite the best ANC (go Sony XM6 for that) but they to my ear have the best sound. For headphones there are some limited options that might be bifl as you can replace things, checkout reviews for things like Fairbuds XL. Otherwise I think you can replace the batteries on the B&0 H100. I have the H95, B&W PX8, several Sony MX series and many others. The H95 is my fav. But it's obvious the Sony XM6 will outlast them all and has by far, by very far the best noise cancelling. I just usually choose the H95 for slightly better sound and I like their looks. Oh and don't bother with Apple if sound quality is of any concern. They are fine if going from cheaper headphones, but I am always shocked at how bad they are coming from my PX8 or H95. But seriously look at these: [https://shop.fairphone.com/fairbuds-xl](https://shop.fairphone.com/fairbuds-xl) I have not been able to hear them but reviews say they are mid. But the second they release something with top tier sound I will throw money at them.

It's too expensive but I'm really enjoying my beoplay h95. Sounds great, use them daily and for music prod too. 

Really really great headphones, but the noise canceling isn't the absolute best I think (but very good). The case is so nice too. Still very happy i got them, two years later 🙂 They made a really nice H100 model too. You can get one of those 0% cost loans for them! 

The H95s need power to run with aux, it's a design flaw (imo) with everything B&O has made recently. I went from a pair of H9 gen3 to the H95 and it was my second biggest disappointment about them (I do agree with your point though, I have the B&W Px8 now and they sound otherworldy with lossless files over USB-C audio, to the point I can't use them wirelessly indoors anymore because they sound comparatively shit. Also can't be used without power though which is frustrating)