Music

B&O H9s bring the noise cancellation to wireless, over-ear headphones

B&O H9s bring the noise cancellation to wireless, over-ear headphones
The H9s come in two colors
The H9s come in two colors
View 7 Images
The H9s come with a recommended retail price of US$499
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The H9s come with a recommended retail price of US$499
The H9s come in two colors
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The H9s come in two colors
Wireless listening with the H9s is offered through Bluetooth 4.2 with support for aptX and AAC codecs
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 Wireless listening with the H9s is offered through Bluetooth 4.2 with support for aptX and AAC codecs
The Beoplay H9 over-ear headphones
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The Beoplay H9 over-ear headphones
The H9s are powered by a 770 mAh swappable battery
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The H9s are powered by a  770 mAh swappable battery
The ear cushions consist of memory foam wrapped in lambskin
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The ear cushions consist of memory foam wrapped in lambskin
The H9s come in two colors
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The H9s come in two colors
View gallery - 7 images

Wireless listening, noise cancellation, cushions that wrap snugly around your ears ... there are a few balls to juggle when building flagship headphones these days, and Bang & Olufsen has just revealed its first attempt at squeezing these three into the one set of premium cans, the Beoplay H9 over-ear headphones.

If you feel like you've seen these headphones somewhere before, then in a way, you're not mistaken. The H9s appear pretty much identical to the H7s released last year, at least on the outside, with ear cushions consisting of the same memory foam wrapped in the same lambskin coating, built onto the same lightweight aluminum frame.

Like their predecessors, they also feature 40-mm electro-dynamic drivers delivering sound over a 20 Hz to 20 kHz frequency range. Wireless listening is offered through Bluetooth 4.2 with support for aptX and AAC codecs, powered by the same 770-mAh swappable battery, and there's an audio cable included for when you run out of juice.

The H9s come in two colors
The H9s come in two colors

Where the H7s offered 20 hours of wireless listening and no noise cancellation, the H9s will run up to 16 hours, or 14 hours with active noise cancellation switched on. This can be activated through a vertical swipe of the touch interface on the outside of the right ear cup, and uses microphones to collect ambient noise and drown it out with opposing signals.

The touch interface, a feature also seen on the H7s, also allows calls to be taken and music to be paused with a single tap, and functions as a virtual volume wheel when you run a finger around its circumference. This is said to even work with gloves.

The H9s come in two colors, black and a creamy "Argilla Grey," and with a recommended retail price of US$499. They are available now through Bang & Olufsen's site below.

Source: Bang & Olufsen

View gallery - 7 images
3 comments
3 comments
StevenR01
OK, here's my idea. I have several sets of highish end headphones which have coiled cords. I hate coiled cords. I also have bluetooth receiver modules that headphones plug into. Why not put a jack on the headphones so you can swap cords - ie. put a straight cord on instead of the stupid coiled one - or replace the cord with a bluetooth receiver. Then these high end headphone manufacturers could concentrate on the drivers and ergonomics and not worry about the signal transmission. I guess the old paid of 7509's will get some mods...
Milton
@StevenR01: You are right, and perhaps most importantly it would prevent pre-mature failure of their product. The point at which the headphone cable enters the headphone is the #1 failure point of all headphones. If it were simply a jack, then the wire itself would be the failure point and not the whole darn headset!
Bruce Crosby
It's mostly Duane Allman playing the riff on Layla.