In terms of appearance, pride of ownership, and on-paper specifications, these Technics EAH-A800 under headphones have everything. These have as much battery life as anyone can ever require. And they have some significant merits in terms of sound quality, not least in terms of the amount of information. They disclose their flawless top-to-bottom tone.
However, in terms of out-and-out noise-canceling, they can be bettered, and the price tag may be an issue.
Amazon now has the Technics EAH-A800 for $349. In the United Kingdom, they cost £299 at Technics retailers or £286 on Amazon, whereas, in Australia, they cost around AU$549.
There are lots of similarly stated options from equally reputable brands if you look long and hard enough. Sony’s excellent WH-1000XM4 is an obvious alternative. But why should we stop there? Bose and Bowers & Wilkins, as well as Sennheiser and Shure, all have competitive, well-made models vying for our attention.
The EAH-A800 is an on-ear headphone with a traditional style that is designed for performance and comfort. They come in black and silver and are fairly compact by today’s standards, fitting into such an egg-shaped semi-rigid bring that is also fairly compact. And that’s pretty much all in terms of visual ‘design.’ That’s exactly how we’d like it.
Technics has equipped the EAH-A800 with a set of 1.6-inch active free-edge drivers on the interior. Each one is complemented by an acoustical control box that regulates airflow and, as a result, enhances spatial expressiveness and low-frequency precision.
For the earcups and the interior of the headband, Technics has used faux leather-covered memory foam, which is both tactile and comfy. The clamping force is well-balanced, and the EAH-A800 weighs about 10.5 ounces. So you’ll be comfortable even for the longest listening periods — and the fact that the contact points don’t grow too hot from the wearer’s natural body heat helps with long-term comfort as well.
When it comes to active noise canceling, things are a little more complicated. To their credit, regardless of the level of ANC you’ve asked, the Technics don’t change their tonality, and they don’t add anything. However, they don’t cope with as much external sound even as best of their competitors do — and this isn’t just because Bose has always been superhumanly adept in this area. There are some more affordable alternatives to an EAH-A800 that will thoroughly immerse you in your surroundings.
The EAH-800’s physical and touch controls are all on the right-hand earcup, which is poor news for left-handed people. The great news is that they’re distinct and dependable in operation.
In regarding physical controls, a three-part button controls ‘play/pause,’ “skip forwards/backwards,” ‘volume up/down,’ and ‘answer/end/reject call.’ Another button controls ‘power on/off/Bluetooth pairing,’ and there’s a USB-C input as well as a 3.5mm analog connection next to it.
The touch surface just on right earcup is as responsive, but its functionality is rather limitless. You can tell it to engage or disengage noise canceling, turn on ambient sound, and handle phone calls. But that’s about it.
A Technics Audio Connect control app is where you tell the touch surface what you want. It’s also where you set the amount of noise-canceling or ambient noises you want, tamper with a 5 band EQ adjuster, choose your chosen voice assistant (Amazon Alexa or Siri), monitor for software updates, and other things like that. On the good side, the app is solid and logical; on the negative side, it lacks the functionality of, say, the Sony version and is also less appealing to the eye.
The list of the things the Technics placed above a white get right is much greater than the list of stuff they don’t, so it appears to be the ideal place to start.
In terms of tone, they have little to learn from every ostensible competitor. The EAH-A800 judge well from the bottom to the top of the frequency spectrum. They’re never less than authentic and believable, and they expose masses of detail in terms of instrument texture & timbre, making it easy to relate to your music. So whether you’re listening to The Beatles’ “Here Goes the Sun” or Four Tet’s manipulated, don’t ever “She Just Actually enjoys to Fight,”. The Technics seem to grasp the music’s requirements down to the microscopic level. The transition from the bottom of a frequency band (which is deep, controlled, and infinitely variable) to the peak (which is bright, shiny, and almost but never quite hard) is seamless and even.
The Technics EAH-A800, on the other hand, are with their most passionate and delightful towards the middle. They go all out with the details, bringing vocals to life. All of the character, effort, and intensity of a singer’s performance should highlight. As a result, vocalists are always interesting to listen to.
There’s a lot of dynamic power here, both in terms of the ‘quiet/LOUD’ changes and more subtle harmonics counterparts. The EAH-A800 produces a pretty spacious and well-organized soundstage, with plenty of room for each part of a recording to do its thing without interference. They also do a good job of serving beats and rhythm in a lifelike way.
The fact that the Technics EAH-A800 employ the power Bluetooth 5.2 for wireless networking accounts for some of their long battery life. It supports SBC, AAC, and LDAC codecs, which is wonderful in and of itself. But the lack of any of Qualcomm’s aptX codecs is indeed a minor letdown.
The EAH-earcups A800s have a total of eight microphones, which are responsible for noise cancellation, voice control, and call quality. When written down, the lengths to which Technics has gone. Wideband mics, a graze mic buried far off from external pressure, signal processing meant to silence all except your speech when you’re on the phone – look remarkable. The findings are also quite impressive – call quality is quite good in terms of clarity and reduction of external interference.
The term that comes to mind here is ‘ample’. The Technics EAH-A800 has a battery life of 30 hours on the low end (while listening to the hi-res LDAC codec and noise-canceling turned on) and 60 hours on the high end (when playing to the hi-res LDAC codec with noise-canceling turned on).
It barely wants to say that these are staggering figures, which bolster even more by the fact that Technics EAH-A800 can move from ‘flat’ to ‘full’ in just three hours. For 10 hours of playback, only a quarter of an hour on the charge requires (AAC, no ANC, etc). If you’re the type of person who’s always on the road and doesn’t always have access to a power outlet. The EAH-A800 is made even more appealing at this figure.
The Technics EAH-A800 should not permit simply because the market was not ready for them. They’re as full and convincing a sonic offering as any sub-$400 headphones of this design in certain ways. You’ll hard-press to find a pair that’s more expressive on the finer details in your favorite records. However, their noise-canceling abilities let them down a touch — because, as we all know, there’s plenty of competition.
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