Edifier W830NB Noise Cancelling Wireless Headphone Review

[Jbar45]

Reserved for @RickS to kindly post the specs.

Specification

Bluetooth® Specification:​

Bluetooth Protocol: A2DP, AVRCP, HFP

Battery:​

Charging Port: USB-C (Type-C)

Input: 5V ⎓ 1A

Charging Time: Approx. 1.5 hours

General Features:​

Frequency Response: 20Hz - 40kHz

Bluetooth: V5.4
Playtime:

ANC ON: Approx. 54 hours
ANC OFF: Approx. 94 hours

Audio Codecs: LDAC, AAC, SBC

Driver: Φ40 mm Dynamic Driver
Sound Pressure Level: 91 ± 3 dB(A)

Net Weight: 267g

Dimension (L x W x H mm): 170.99 x 78.88 x 194.01 mm

Hi Amir

This is a review, listening tests, EQ and detailed measurements of the Edifier 830NB wireless Bluetooth NC headphone. It was kindly drop shipped by a member and costs US $79 (15% off coupon available on Amazon).
View attachment 465257
The W830NB has look and feel of a much more expensive headphone. The cups are too small for me to be comfortable but others will probably like the supple pads. The headband is adjustable which is nice.

Despite its low cost, the headphone has a companion app that provides somewhat restrictive, 4-band PEQ and usual settings for noise reduction and such. Alas, no matter what I did, I could not get the unit to power on let alone pair and talk to the app on my phone. Plugging in the USB-C cable though, brought it back to life and after short period indicated it was fully charged. But still would not power on. So I focused my testing on USB cable which nicely shows the unit as a DAC in the OS. Volume buttons let you adjust levels in Windows which is nice and are easy to use. The power button did activate different modes as far as noise cancelling, pass-through, etc.

EDIT: I was pushing the mode button instead of center of the volume control to power the unit on. I used the proper method and it did power on.

Edifier W830NB Headphone Measurements
Due to smallish cups, getting a proper fit on my GRAS 45CA measurement fixture was quite hard, especially in bass. Eventually I got there but within some degree of error. Here is our headphone frequency response:
View attachment 465264
I was quite surprised by the large peaks and dips in treble region. Searching online, I find that others have measured similarly (although much more smoothed due to their lower resolution). So I think they are representative. What this means is that tonality will be highly content dependent. If a note hits a peak, it will sound bright, if a dip, muffled. Maybe they boosted the treble as without it, the dips could have made it have too little treble in their view. There is also some peaking in bass and 1 to 2 kHz.

With EQ being necessary, this is the job in front of us:
View attachment 465266

At max volume, I could only get 104 dBSPL so nothing for 114:
View attachment 465267
We see issues again where the frequency response errors are.
View attachment 465268

Impedance and sensitivity do not apply to powered headphones so let's go to listening tests.

Edifier W830NB Headphone Listening Tests and Equalization
I expected brightness but first listen actually sounded wooly due to factor I mentioned in the previous section. It wasn't under I played content that had a lot of treble energy that I realized it does sound a bit bright. Again, the combination of dips reduces the total energy there. So I created a set of quick filters:
View attachment 465269
Without the bass filter, the sound was still not right at times. Once I also corrected that, the treble was much more balanced but importantly, clarify improved. The sound now was quite enjoyable and reasonably accurate. Some, but not all of this you can implement using their EQ (they restrict filters to different parts of audio spectrum).

Conclusions
With on sale prices less than $70, the W803NB is an incredible bargain. Yes, something is wrong in treble region but we are given a full meal in bass which we often do not get. With its EQ, you might be able to get close enough tonality to make this a good headphone if it fits you well.

I should note again that something is wrong with my sample since it doesn't work in wireless mode.

I can't recommend the Edifier W803NB. I wish they had used their filters in default mode to have proper response.
------------
As always, questions, comments, recommendations, etc. are welcome.

Any donations are much appreciated using: https://www.audiosciencereview.com/forum/index.php?threads/how-to-support-audio-science-review.8150/

Hi Amir. Could you please check your DM from me? It’s regarding my Eversolo amp. If there’s another way to contact you please let me know.
Thanks

 

[vondy]

Ok, so I've used this for a while now and I want to backtrack on my comment regarding its comfort. These are not comfortable at all, the headband's shape (too straight) puts a lot of weight onto the top of my head (more rounded) and it looks really stupid with how much it flares out. It doesn't follow the shape of my head at all, and as such it presses on my scalp making it unfit for prolonged use. I constantly have to change its position to relieve the pressure.
I got to try its predecessor (W820NB Plus) and although it's somewhat less premium due to its all-plastic build, it instantly felt like a way better fit.

 

[kyuu]

Hm. Been using it for a while myself and have had no issues with comfort. At least beyond the issues I have with all headphones.

 

[mlsstl]

Ok, so I've used this for a while now and I want to backtrack on my comment regarding its comfort. These are not comfortable at all, the headband's shape (too straight) puts a lot of weight onto the top of my head (more rounded) and it looks really stupid with how much it flares out. It doesn't follow the shape of my head at all, and as such it presses on my scalp making it unfit for prolonged use. I constantly have to change its position to relieve the pressure.
I got to try its predecessor (W820NB Plus) and although it's somewhat less premium due to its all-plastic build, it instantly felt like a way better fit.

Just goes to show that there are a lot of different head and ear shapes/sizes out there. I find the headphones reasonably comfortable. Of the six pairs of phones I have the Grados and JBL Tunes are the worst in terms of comfort (but still tolerable) and the Sennheisers the best, with the Edifiers and Sundaras in the middle, though the Sundaras are far away the best sounding.

So, pick your poison!

 

[GrizzlyPet]

Hello guys, I bought the edifer w830nb, and i'm a trying to eq them via the edifer app, but i'm a complete noob on this subject and don't know what to change.
Can someone please help me? Thanks!

 

[kyuu]

Hello guys, I bought the edifer w830nb, and i'm a trying to eq them via the edifer app, but i'm a complete noob on this subject and don't know what to change.
Can someone please help me? Thanks!

Do you mean you don't know how to use the app, or you don't know what filters to implement?

Personally, in the headphones themselves I only implemented the bass correction, a single filter. Its shown in the review. I tried doing other filters via PeaceEQ for the mid/treble but ultimately found that I preferred it without those. Just the bass correction makes a huge difference and they sound great to me.

 

[GrizzlyPet]

Do you mean you don't know how to use the app, or you don't know what filters to implement?

Personally, in the headphones themselves I only implemented the bass correction, a single filter. Its shown in the review. I tried doing other filters via PeaceEQ for the mid/treble but ultimately found that I preferred it without those. Just the bass correction makes a huge difference and they sound great to me.

Hi, thanks for your reply. What I meant is that I have little knowledge on how to equalize headphones, mainly because it's my first proper pair (even though they're budget), and I'd like to squeeze all the potential out of them.

I tried to read the frequency response graph from the SoundGuys review, and this is the custom EQ I made. I just don't know if it's actually good or not. Are you using the EQ of the Edifier app or an external one?

 

[kyuu]

I implemented the single bass filter in the Edifier app (that way it would always be applied regardless of source). This is the filter:

Like I said, for me at least, this filter is all I needed for them to sound really good to my ears.

 

[GrizzlyPet]

(that way it would always be applied regardless of source)

Does it mean the edifier app filters work on pc too after applying them on the phone? Btw I will try the single filter, thanks a lot.

 

[kyuu]

Does it mean the edifier app filters work on pc too after applying them on the phone? Btw I will try the single filter, thanks a lot.

My understanding is that filters loaded into the app are applied directly by the headphones. My understanding could be incorrect... I should probably look into that.