Tech reviews

Edifier W860NB ANC headphones review: Excellent active noise cancellation, but not the best audio performance


Headphones with active noise cancellation (ANC) allow you to retreat from the din of modern life. And who doesn’t want to do that now and then? Even better, you can listen to your favorite tunes at lower levels, thus protecting your hearing. After thoroughly testing Edifier’s W860NB ANC headphones, I can say they’re better for the former than the latter.

Features

The Edifier W860NB is an over-ear (circumaural) Bluetooth headphone with artificial-leather earpads and headband, weighing in at just over 10 ounces. It utilizes 40mm drivers with neodymium magnets to achieve a specified frequency response from 20Hz to 20kHz (no tolerance given).

As mentioned at the top, the W860NB offers active noise cancellation. Four microphones, two in each earcup, sample ambient noise, which is then phase-inverted and mixed with the original signal to reduce the perceived level thanks to phase cancellation. (There’s also a fifth mic for phone calls.) Unfortunately, the W860NB has no transparency mode, which would temporarily disable ANC so you can hear things in your environment, such as safety instructions in an airplane.

edifier w860nb lifestyle Edifier

Wireless headphones like the W860NB offer freedom from wires that usually end up in a tangled mess.

The W860NB supports Bluetooth 4.1 with the HSP, HFP, A2DP, and AVRCP profiles, and it supports the high-quality aptX codec. In addition to conventional pairing with Bluetooth sources, it can be paired with devices that support NFC (Near-Field Communication). In that case, all you have to do is hold the W860NB close to the source device and accept the connection.

Interestingly, you can pair up to two Bluetooth source devices to the W860NB and play audio from either one. According to the manual, “When two Bluetooth devices have different operating systems (e.g., one has Android and the other is iOS), some cross-system operations (e.g., pause music in Android and play music in iOS) may experience delays. Please be aware that this is normal.”

The only other audio input is a 3.5mm two-channel analog-audio jack at the bottom of the left earcup. When you connect to a source using such a cable (which is included with the W860NB), the headphone powers off, becoming a passive headphone with an impedance of 32 ohms. This is great news if the battery is dead but you still want to listen.

edifier w860nb in case Edifier

The W860NB comes with a nice hardshell case.

You charge the internal battery by connecting any USB power source (5V, 500 mA) to the microUSB connector near the bottom of the left earcup. A suitable cable is included with the headphone, but the connector is hidden behind a small plastic cover that seems certain to break off and get lost in short order. Charging takes about four hours, after which the battery will last about 25 hours with ANC engaged or 45 hours without ANC. That’s a very long battery life!

Like most such headphones, the W860MB lets you answer phone calls while listening to music. In that case, the music pauses during the call, and then resumes when you hang up.





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