Best Audiophile Bluetooth headphones [2022-12-09]

[metasharp]

Hello,

I thought it'd be nice to a a summary of the available products and information we have or lack.
I didn't mention below headphones that are most certainly not qualified to be the best. If I forgot anything, please mention it.

Model (candidates for best)	Price (2nd hand)	Audio Science Review	Rtings	Headphones	Comment / Other links
Apple Airpods Max	629€	Amirm 2021-08-08	Rtings 2021-09-17	Headphones 2021-01-14, Topic	Good ANC
AKG K371-BT	(170€)	Amirm 2021-01-23 (not BT)	Rtings 2019-12-18 (not BT)	Headphones 2019-10-11 (not BT), Topic
AKG N700 NC	300€	Amirm 2020-08-25	Rtings 2018-10-04	Topic
AKG N700 NCM2	100€		Rtings 2021-11-25
Audio-Technica ATH-WB2022	3000€				More info
Austrian Audio Hi-X25BT	149€
Bower & Wilkins P7	(200€)	Topic	Rtings 2016-08-08	Topic	No ANC
Austrian Audio Hi-X25BT	149€
Bower & Wilkins PX7 / Carbon	269€		Rtings 2019-11-01
Bower & Wilkins PX7S2	429€				Good ANC?
Bower & Wilkins PX8 / 007	699€ / 799€	Topic		Topic	Good ANC?
Bang & Olufsen Beoplay H95	899€
Bang & Olufsen Beoplay HX	499€
Bang & Olufsen Beoplay Portal	499€		Rtings 2021-05-04
Beyerdynamic Amiron / Copper	555€ / 699€		Rtings 2020-03-09
Bose NC700	275€	Amirm 2021-07-01	Rtings 2021-10-29		Superb ANC, Best Mic
Bose QuietComfort 35 II	350€	Amirm 2021-02-21	Rtings 2020-11-26		Superb ANC
Bose QuietComfort 45	275€	Topic	Rtings 2021-11-11		Superb ANC
Final Audio UX3000	139€	Topic
Focal Bathys	799€	Topic		Headphones 2022-10-04, Topic
Hifiman Ananda-BT	789€		Rtings 2020-09-03	Topic
Hifiman Deva Pro	339€			Topic
Hifiman HE-R9 Bluemini	849€
Mark Levinson N°5909	999€	Amirm 2022-06-27, Topic		Topic
Philips Fidelio L3/00	300€
Sennheiser Momentum 3 Wireless	249€	Topic	Rtings 2019-10-21
Sennheiser Momentum 4 Wireless	430€		Rtings 2022-10-07	Topic
Shure Aonic 50	359€		Rings 2020-07-29	Topic
Sony WH-1000XM3	(200€)		Rtings 2020-11-13	Topic	Best ANC
Sony WH-1000XM4	330€	Amirm 2021-01-26	Rtings 2022-11-01	Headphones 2020-09-01	Best ANC
Sony WH-1000XM5	400€		Rtings 2022-06-17	Headphones 2022-07-07	Good ANC
Stax Spirit S3	379€
T+A Solitaire T	1300€

Noise Cancellation Performance comparative @ Rtings
IEF Neutral & Harman compliance comparison tool

I'll update the thread given provided links or the ones I find.
Any comment or link is welcome.

PS: since I'm not a forum donor I can only update my threads for 24h, so I'll renew it when there's enough content in comments with a new post.

Spoiler: Interesting videos to see

Interesting comparison between 3 contestants for the throne :

Big comparative (but not too much in depth, no measures, ...) :

B&W PX8 vs Focal Bathys vs Mark Levinson N°5909 vs Apple AirPodsMax vs B&W PX7 S2 vs ... (no measures) :

B&W PX8 vs Focal Bathys vs Mark Levinson N°5909 :

Spoiler: Metasharp ranking of actually listened bluetooth headphones

- Focal Bathys
- B&W P7
- B&W PX8
- B&W PX7 S2
- Sony WH1000-XM4
- B&W PX7
- Beyerdynamic Amiron
- Sennheiser Momentum Wireless 3
- Sennheiser Momentum Wireless 4
- Yamaha YH-L700A

Spoiler: Supposed ranking

- Audio-Technica ATH-WB2022 (not tested, pure supposition due to hardware involved)
- T+A Solitaire T
- Bang & Olufsen Beoplay H95
- Focal Bathys
- Mark Levinson N°5909
- Hifiman Ananda-BT

The home audiophile headphones going nomad?

Here are some leads to investigate...

FIIO produces some bluetooth headphones amps :

• Earstudio ES100/MK2
• BTR1K
• BTR3
• BTR3K
• BTR5
• BTR5 2021
• BTR7 (current flagship)

Spoiler: FIIO bluetooth headphones amps data

FIIO produces as well some bluetooth ear hooks :

• UTWS1
• UTWS3
• UTWS5 (current flagship)

Spoiler: FIIO bluetooth ear hooks data

We also have some other gear on the market :

• Qudelix-5K

Bonus : Inexpensive way to measure your headphones performance

- E1DA Cosmos ADC (150€)

 

[staticV3]

AKG N700 NCM2

250€

You may be surprised to know that the N700NCM2 regularly sells New, unopened on eBay for $80-100.
Same in Germany. 80-100€ New on eBay.

 

[Descartes]

For me AirPod Pro 2!

 

[metasharp]

You may be surprised to know that the N700NCM2 regularly sells New, unopened on eBay for $80-100.
Same in Germany. 80-100€ New on eBay.

Updated. Thanks.

For me AirPod Pro 2!

Those are not a headphone.

 

[usersky]

Got my Austrian Audio Hi-X25BT. Really good sound and comfort wise, without any EQ. I am totally impressed and wish to see they measured. Cannot recommend anything above these considering comfort, sound quality (with or without eq!), build and materials qualy, looks and price.

 

[metasharp]

Added T+A Solitaire T

 

[metasharp]

Comparing to the DCA Stealth here all available models of this site's list :
https://crinacle.com/graphs/headphones/graphtool/?share=Harman_AE_OE_2018_Target,Stealth
Those are the closer competitors to the Stealth :
- AKG K371
- Audeze Mobius
- Bose QuietComfort 35 II (QC35) (Active)
- Bose Noise Cancelling Headphones 700
- DCA Aeon Closed
- DCA Ether C Flow 1.1
- Focal Celestee
- Neuman NDH 20
- Sennheiser HE-1
- Sony MDR-Z1R
- ZMF Verite Closed

 

[Moonhead]

Jabra Elite 85h & Razer Opus 2020 could be an option to when you look at rtings.

 

[MCH]

Bonus : Inexpensive way to measure your headphones performance

- E1DA Cosmos ADC (150€)

How can this be done?

 

[threni]

My Raspberry Pi Zero W - cost £7 - can stream FLAC over wifi. Why can't expensive (or even cheap) headphones allow the same? They're dicking around with aptx, ldac, endless bluetooth revisions. Why bother? Is it a battery thing? Or maybe it's considered a tiny market intersection of "people who want perfect quality" and "people who want wireless headphones"? If so, isn't that just precisely because you can't get perfect quality over bluetooth? Another option would be to add a micro-sd card slot to the heaphones. You're update the card either offline - pop the card out to update it - or have the headphones accessible over samba/etc so you can update the files remotely.

 

[MCH]

My Raspberry Pi Zero W - cost £7 - can stream FLAC over wifi. Why can't expensive (or even cheap) headphones allow the same? They're dicking around with aptx, ldac, endless bluetooth revisions. Why bother? Is it a battery thing? Or maybe it's considered a tiny market intersection of "people who want perfect quality" and "people who want wirelessheadphones"? If so, isn't that just precisely because you can't get perfect quality over bluetooth? Another option would be to add a micro-sd card slot to the heaphones. You're update the card either offline - pop the card out to update it - or have the headphones accessible over samba/etc so you can update the files remotely.

I have no idea, but I would believe it is a combination of the following two:
1. Battery life is everything for wireless devices used mostly on the go. Not only your headphone but also your phone would use more battery if transmitting via WiFi to the headphones (?)
2. Bluetooth is way more than enough and only very few people care about the supposedly better results provided by, say, flac over wifi, and even those who care would never be able to tell them apart.
Now combine the two and you have your answer (imho)

 

[threni]

I have no idea, but I would believe it is a combination of the following two:
1. Battery life is everything for wireless devices used mostly on the go. Not only your headphone but also your phone would use more battery if transmitting via WiFi to the headphones (?)
2. Bluetooth is way more than enough and only very few people care about the supposedly better results provided by, say, flac over wifi, and even those who care would never be able to tell them apart.
Now combine the two and you have your answer (imho)

I think the battery argument makes the most sense, if true. I'm not sure about "no-one can tell" as I'd then need another explanation for the popularity of hires music!

 

[Nango]

Denon AH-GC30 sounds great over BT!!

 

[metasharp]

Any updates anyone?

 

[Googolbyte]

Any updates anyone?

Audeze Maxwell is officially my favorite headphone, hands down, everything about the Penrose has been totally outclassed and succeeded by the Maxwell, with the small exception of the BT + USB audio mixing not being a feature, which was never important to me to begin with. For me, its like listening with the bass punch of the LCD-X without the rest of the track sounding like ass. They also have a handy feature that allows you to adjust the EQ with hardcoded presets on the headset.

They also feel amazing on my ears, the pads are very plush, and the low-tech headband adjustment makes a lot of sense to me.

 

[egellings]

My impression is that phono stages tend to an afterthought in most receivers.

 

[raindance]

My impression is that phono stages tend to an afterthought in most receivers.

What are you responding to?

 

[egellings]

My error. I somehow got off a thread on phono stages and posted here by mistake.

 

[chelgrian]

My Raspberry Pi Zero W - cost £7 - can stream FLAC over wifi. Why can't expensive (or even cheap) headphones allow the same? They're dicking around with aptx, ldac, endless bluetooth revisions. Why bother? Is it a battery thing? Or maybe it's considered a tiny market intersection of "people who want perfect quality" and "people who want wireless headphones"? If so, isn't that just precisely because you can't get perfect quality over bluetooth? Another option would be to add a micro-sd card slot to the heaphones. You're update the card either offline - pop the card out to update it - or have the headphones accessible over samba/etc so you can update the files remotely.

Because fundamentally Bluetooth can't do the 1.5Mbit/s you need for stereo CD quality.

While technically you can get 2.1Mbit over a Bluetooth connection you can only do this in connection modes that aren't suitable for audio the best you can do in the modes that are is ~900Kbit/s which is what things like LDAC and some varieties of aptX do.

The Bluetooth SIG has had added all sorts of stuff over the years to reduce energy consumption and to add things like location features but has done nothing much to increase the data rate.

Lossless compression doesn't help as some samples are intrinsically incompressible.

This is how things that lie for marketing like aptX Lossless work. They are losslessly compressed sone of the time but fail to lossy compression when the RF conditions aren't perfect or the sample won't compress.

I have wired headphones and dongles because all perceptual audio codecs have problem samples and the kind of stuff I listen to runs in to them more often than 'mainstream' music.

 

[MrOtto]

Any without excessive bass? I tried QC35, way too much sub bass for my taste. Showing only +1 dB from Rtings target on bass, and QC35II shows +2 dB. What to try? Shure Aonic 50, Senneheiser Momentum 3? aptx HD would be nice.