Bang & Olufsen H8 Wireless Headphone

As an overall product segment in mobile high-fidelity, I’m convinced that Bluetooth active-noise canceling stereo headphones are perhaps one of the most difficult products to get right for the customer: there are so many characteristics to need to work sufficiently, else if any of them are off, then the whole product is a non-starter. First off, headphones are really wearables when you come down to it, so it needs to both comfortable and ergonomic for each individual’s cranial anatomy (for example, if you really aren’t a fan of on-ear headphones, then you need to look elsewhere). And since you wear it, It needs to be fashionable and not look stupid (as a counter example, think Teletubbies the next time you see someone wearing a Plantronics BackBeat Pro). Also, as wearable, it needs to be reliable and take some measure of abuse (as opposed to some nice speakers sitting in the corner of your living room). And of course, and perhaps most subjectively, and most importantly to those partial to high-fidelity, it needs to sound pleasing to all ears and musical styles. Notice that I’ve said nothing so far regarding wireless technology. In other words, what I’ve said so far could have applied to headphones from the 1970’s. Now pile onto this all the dimensions related to wireless and mobility technology - Bluetooth stereophony, Bluetooth headset ability for phone calls, and active noise-cancelling (ANC) - all of which need to work well, and you can quickly see why categorically, these kinds of headphones have such a hard time being worthy enough to keep and use. And that’s what makes them even more difficult to universally qualify and review. So take this one review with a grain of salt. But in my case, I do weigh certain features and capabilities over others: What makes headphones such as these more rarified (and expensive) is really the Bluetooth + ANC combo feature. Without it, these headphones would simply fall either into the big sea with all the Bluetooth headphones or into the big lake of wired ANC headphones. Most headphones either have a hard time being good as a BT headphones and even less are good at having serviceable noice-cancelling capability. But BT+ANC headphones need to do both and do them well. Its no wonder that Bose, the ANC king after nearly decade, still does not have BT+ANC headphone to their name. So, for these reasons, I rate this capability most important. And on this front, the H8’s do very well from my perspective. The ANC with the H8 very effective and is what I would characterize as “high-gain” and “aggressive”. It really punches out low-to-mid-frequency and its so strong that for some ears, you may find the negative sound pressure uncomfortable. But then again, that’s what makes them effective at NC. As an aside, assessing ANC also needs to done in multiple dimensions: It needs to be strong enough to cancel out unwanted noise, but not distort or take away from sonic experience, or worse, introduce noise with a strong audible hissing or other shrill sound distortions. In other words lousy ANC is an automatic fail for me. And one more thing - as much as I love ANC, there are times when you need to turn it off. Despite the best of efforts of audio technologists to keep both ANC and high-fidelity sound working well together, not even the best ANC headphones will sound better than the best non-ANC headphones, when ANC is activated. For me, any headphone that doesn’t do this also a non-starter (not just Beats mind you). I’m currently auditioning the Sennheiser Momentum 2.0 wireless and its totally sad that you cannot use these headphone wireless with ANC deactivated. True, I could always connect the cable and listening to them critically with ANC off (they do sound superb in this mode), but then again, what’s the point to have a BT headphone when it only sounds really good when its wired. In other words, it untimely fails as a BT headphone as well, because I’m disinclined to listen to them wired, and to boot, the BT headset is disabled in this mode. Getting back to the H8 and ANC performance, its effective in the ways described above. I’ve put it up against the Bose QC25, and anecdotally and subjectively found noise suppression to be even stronger with the H8. However, the ANC quality of QC25 is slightly better. The H8 does have a very, very faint audible hiss, whereas the QC25 does not. The QC25 is less “aggressive” on the ears and is more transparent to sound quality. But the H8's seem to do a better job with "loud" sounds, and this is where the high-gain aspect of the H8's come in. You basically need enough strength in the ANC to punch out the loud sounds, where the H8's do this well - almost too well. The downside of high-gain ANC is the potential for microphone feedback squeal, which, as other reviewers have mentioned will happen if their ears are pressed too much onto the internal drivers, which can happen when pressing your head firmly against a pillow or headrest with the headphones on - not very cool. Interestingly though, I found the H8’s to have better noise isolation than the Bose as well, which tends to cut out the higher frequencies in a good way. In fact, the passive noise isolation of the H8 is one of its unsung qualities: not only does it do a good job letting outside sound from coming in, but keeps the music from getting out and affecting others around you. One potential issue with the H8’s ANC, is that there is noticeable difference in sound characteristics when ANC is on or off. With ANC on, the sound quality is very good: clear, clean, with tight bass, and decent sound stage. IOW, very suitable of listening in a noisy environment. Some other ANC headphones I’ve listened to seem designed to compensate for the ANC effect and either boost volume, boost bass, or flatten dynamic range range (adding shrillness). The Phaiton M530’s come to mind here, an other otherwise good on-ear BT+ANC headphone that fell short sonically with ANC enabled. The H8’s, on the other hand, doesn’t play these compensation games, but rather leaves sonic landscape of the headphone with ANC as is - yes, the sound is affected, with volume somewhat attenuated, but not in away the induces a negative listening reaction. However, when ANC switched off (still wireless), the H8 really does open up. The bass is even more pronounced, yet still clean and taught. But best thing is the full sound stage - it is something to behold for a BT headphone, and is one of the best I’ve heard so far in this regard. Its the thing that makes me want to keep using them even when I don’t need to. The good thing is that wireless and wired performance is nearly identical, so there’s really no need to be wired for critical listening if you have the high-sampling codexes in place. Also, the cool thing with ANC off, is that the inherent noise-isolation characteristic of the headphone is still there and blocks out the environment very well. Because of this, I find there are two main modes to listening the H8: Wireless with ANC On and Wireless with ANC Off. ANC ON: I’ll use this mode when the outside noise is really bothersome and loud - such cars, subways, planes, and noisy open work environments. The aggressive noise-canceling really does the trick here. Here, critical listening, is well, non-critical. Also, if the is too strong a bass track, I’ll use this mode regardless to keep excessive bass in check. ANC OFF: I’ll use this mode for critical listening for sure, since the full sound stage is all there. I’ll also use this mode if outside noise is mild, since the noise-isolation strength of this headphone provides good enough to block out unwanted noise without the need to go weapons-grade ANC. The other dimension I feel strong in evaluation these headphones is about Bluetooth headset mode quality. Call quality on both ends of the conversation is hugely important and must be resilient when external noise and winds get stronger. And the H8 seems good in this department. Certainly better than the Samsung Level Over’s I’ve been using over the last year, which fell pray to wind noise so easily and were overly sensitive on the mic, which made conversations with other party more difficult, especially when they where on a speaker phone. So far, I haven’t noticed situations where folks couldn’t understand my words nor have I had trouble hearing their words, even when the conversations take place in medium-to-noisy environments. The Sennheiser Momentum’s seem very good as well in this regard, perhaps better than the H8’s, but for me, call performance just needs to be good enough: only when it doesn’t work well is when its important to me. Also the H8 BT latency is seems pretty good as well - I’m able to watch movies without heinous lip synch issues on my iPhone 6s (YMMV for other phones, since mobile processor performance matters here). When on calls, I haven’t noticed latency issues since I’ve yet to have problems with cross-talk (basically other people jumping into the conversation because my voice was not heard by the other parties in time) when on conference calls with multiple parties. I’m on so many conference calls that the BT latency is big factor for me. Luckily the H8’s are not a problem for me so far. There are so many other important dimensions to cover, but don’t have time to cover. Howerver, I will call out the nits I’ve had with the H8’s: Overall the controls are finicky. Cool but finicky. First the On/Off switch has three modes: OFF, ON (ANC), and momentary On( used to connect and disconnect BT and for pairing). This adds some unneeded complexity under normal operation because you need to first switch the headphones ON, and then push the switch further to actually connect the cans to you mobile sound source (Its possible to do this in one operation, but but adds some uncertainty until you hear a single-tone). The only advantage I see here is the ability easily use ANC without a connecting to sound source. But this creates confusion as I often forget if I’m connected or not. Sometimes I flip the switch to connect, but end up disconnecting because I didn’t know I was already connected. Secondly, the touch controls are cool, but the design makes them prone to accidental activation. Not just accidentally starting music, but also accidental phone dialing! Basically a single-tap starts and stops music, but a double-tap redials the last number. If you take off the headphone and lay the cans flat around your neck, no doubt you will be butt-dialing your phone with your neck. In contrast with the Samsung Level-Overs, they use a double-tap to start/stop with no touch gesture for redial, so accidental activation with those headphones are less common. However, both of these headphones are prone to accidentally skipping tracks, because a single swipe will do this, which is easy to do accidentally, whether or not the track is playing - a two-finger gesture would have be a better design approach. Finally, when it comes to on-ear headphone design of the H8, because they are designed to swivel flat for storage, there is a greater tendency for the headphones to inadvertently swivel and slip off your head when you stoop or move your head too quickly. I had this problem with my old on-ear Bose QC 3’s. A better design approach for on-ear phones, is to have them fold inward to the center, like your typical Beats. A good example of this design is the Phaiton M530’s, which was the most long-term comfortable and stable on-ear wireless headphone I’ve tried. Sorry for going all “WireCutter” on you, but this is what I’ve come up with for a review.