In a busy household, with everybody doing different things from watching television, playing the Xbox, beavering away on the laptops for work, school and play, there is a lot of noise being created and that can be quite annoying trying to listen to a cacophony of different sounds. Luckily, we have ways to deal with that in the form of a good set of headphones.
Edifier are experts when it comes to audio equipment and you might have read reviews of some of their products right here on Our Family Reviews, we love their products as we think that they sound great, look stylish, are easy to operate and are available at very reasonable prices without compromising on quality. For this review we are trying out the Edifier Hi-Res W820NB Active Noise Cancelling Bluetooth Stereo Headphones.
The Edifier W820NB Active Noise Cancellation Bluetooth Headphones are a wireless set of Hi-Res Audio standard headphones (using Bluetooth v5.0) with active noise cancellation technology. With a battery life of up to 49 hours they are perfect for everyday use at home or out and about.
Main Features:
- Hi-Res Audio standard for a rich listening experience
- Active noise cancellation technology isolates unwanted noise
- Ambient sound mode allows you to hear environmental sounds such as traffic or flight announcements
- Built-in microphone with DNN (deep neural network) noise cancellation for clear phone calls
- Large driver with titanium diaphragm delivers crystal-clear sound
- Low latency for game mode gives players an immersive gaming experience
- Up to 49 hours continuous playback
- Lightweight headset assures comfortable fit
Specifications:
| Sensitivity | 98dB |
| Bluetooth Version | 5.0 |
| Audio Codecs | AAC, SBC |
| Driver Unit | 40mm Dynamic Driver |
| Playback Time with ANC on | Approx. 29 Hours |
| Playback Time with ANC off | Approx. 49 Hours |
| Charging Time | 1.5 Hours |
| Battery Capacity | 400mAh |
| Frequency Response | 20Hz-40kHz |
| Sound Pressure Level | 91±3dB SPL (A) |
| Impedance | 32Ω |
| Charging Port | USB Type-C |
We received the W820NB headphones in white, but they are also available in black or grey. We really like them in white, they seem much more stylish.
On opening the box, the first thing that we did was to put them on charge. Charging is via a USB-C cable, which is supplied but a charging block isn’t, but we have lots of spares (as I would imagine most people do) from various phones and tablets etc. This only took about an hour as they already had some charge in them but a full charge from flat takes approx. 1.5 hours – we think this is quite impressive, especially with impatient children, as a full charge gives up to 49 hours of playback time depending on if you have the active noise cancellation (ANC) turned on or not.
Whilst they were charging, we decided to familiarise ourselves with the user manual. The only way to really read the manual is to take a photo on your phone and enlarge it as it really is very small. Alternatively, if your download the Edifier Connect app to your phone you can view the manual on that (as well as being able to control the settings on the headphones).
After charging and having familiarised ourselves with the user manual and how the headphones work (what buttons to press) we put them into pairing mode and easily connected to a phone in seconds.
Now for the information that you have actually come to read, do they fit well? Are they comfortable to wear? And is the sound quality any good? In short, they simple and quick answers are YES, YES and DEFINITELY YES!
Fitting wise, they fit the heads of us adults very well and have an adjustable headband to make them a larger fit if needed and the padding on the headband kept them snug on our heads. They are a bit loose on the children’s heads, but they are 9 and 12 so that was to be expected.
Comfort wise, due to being very lightweight with a padded headband and padded earcups they are extremely comfortable to wear. For the most part, you really do forget that you are wearing them. Once on, but before being switched on, they already do a very good job of deadening any surrounding sounds.
Sound wise, the quality of the sound and microphone is absolutely superb. The sound quality is crystal clear with deep rich sound.
When using them you will need to decide whether to turn on the active noise cancellation function or not. With it OFF you will get 49 hours of continuous playback time from a fully charged battery and still be able to make out some background noises (although the well-fitting padded earcups do an excellent job of reducing a lot of noise on their own). With it ON you will get 29 hours of continuous playback from a fully charged battery as it uses microphones and speakers to filter out low frequency noises. We found that indoors having the ANC on worked very well, whilst having in off when outdoors was a better option just so that we could still hear some surrounding noises when out walking. Whatever setting is used the battery life is very impressive and we used a mixture of both options.
With the ANC on it can reach up to 38dB, effectively cancelling out surrounding noise by using a Deep Neural Network technology that removes unwanted sounds and preserves clear voices during phone calls and it really works! With this on, you really only can hear your music, the video you are watching or the game that you are playing without interruption.
As we were using the headphones on a phone, we still wanted to be able to make and receive calls when needed and the Edifier W820NB headphones have a built-in microphone equipped with CVC / Call Noise reduction technology. This allows you to still make and receive clear calls as the noise reduction technology ensures Edifier’s signature crystal clear communication is maintained during even the most storm-like conditions (we haven’t tried going out in storm-like conditions to make a call to test this, but the audio is very clear when we have used them in normal everyday situations, including over traffic noise whilst walking down the street and the other party could very clearly hear our voices without any difficulty).
If you like to play games and your device supports Bluetooth, the Edifer W820NB also have a game mode, easily accessible with the push of a button on the earcup. The gives you a low latency when in game mode (as low as 80ms) ensuring that there is perfect synchronization between sound and images, making game play much more fun when there is no lag between what you are seeing on the screen and the sound in your ears.
And for those of you that just love apps there is the Edifier Connect app for your phone or tablet that allows you to control all of the settings on the headphones if you prefer not to use the buttons on the earcup. From the app you can customise EQ levels, change modes, check battery status, disable/enable ANC and view the user manual.
Overall, the Edifier W820NB Active Noise Cancellation Bluetooth Headphones are just perfect. Their understated look is superb, and they feel like very good quality, the battery life is excellent in whatever mode you choose, and the crystal clear sound quality is sublime. Changing tracks, increasing/decreasing the volume or answering/rejecting phone calls is very simple by using the buttons on the earcup (or through the phone app).
We think that the Edifier W820NB Active Noise Cancelling Bluetooth Headphones are a very comfortable and enjoyable set of lightweight headphones. They give a perfect listening experience, and the active noise cancellation is superb (just a pity that they don’t completely block the nonsense arguments that children can get into). At under £80, they are an excellent quality set of headphones that are well worth the price tag.
Rating: 5/5
RRP: £79.99
For more information, visit www.edifier.com. Available to buy from Amazon here.
