IO-12

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

Imo the dali io-12 has better bass than the bathys. But it's also more expensive

Personally felt the Dali was too neutral though

Dali io 12. Best in class. B&O is good too but dali better

I basically use my DALI IO-12s for this use case. I wonder how they compare.

"Are they the best closed ANC over the ears today? Yeah, probably." My Dali IO-12s would like a word.

I recently bought a meze 105 aor with a Fiio btr15 and really enjoy them for music and gaming. For comfort this is one of the top headphones. I also have a Dali io-12 and it is said to say but the meze is wat better.

I don't know what they did with the IO-12, but bass mode is muddy and crap. You can EQ on the source and get a lot better bass and plenty. However, the real bass kick and general audio quality of the IO-12 comes out if you drive it via 3.5mm cable and a good DAC/Amp (2Watt=<). ANC is rather subpar, though.