The $1,549 Bang & Olufsen Beoplay H100 Are the Most Expensive Bluetooth Headphones on Sale: They May Just Be Worth It

Bang & Olufsen isn’t like other tech companies. While most brands try to balance value for money with the latest features, cutting back on materials and design to focus on core functions, the Danish design-centric firm has yet to learn the word “compromise”—at least not with its flagship products.You could buy any number of wireless Bluetooth speakers, many of which sound pretty good, but if you want the best sound, all the connectivity features you could need, and package it in a gorgeous demonstration of industrial design prowess, you had to buy their Beosound A5. As I said in my review, it’s not for everyone—particularly if you don’t fancy spending $1,099 on a portable speaker—but for those who are interested and can afford it, it’s a basically flawless product.And so we turn to the Beoplay H100, their ultimate Bluetooth headphones made to mark the 100-year anniversary of the brand. The question becomes: can they pull the same trick off in the Bluetooth headphone space? It’s a much more crowded market than portable speakers, with premium headphones available for over $1,000 less.To put the price into context: if you were cross-shopping, you could either buy a pair of Beoplay H100 or an entry-level MacBook Air along with a pair of Bose QuietComfort Ultra or Sonos Ace, which I consider the two best Bluetooth headphones on the market. With the latter, you’d have at least $200 left over.Starting with the design: these are the most beautifully built headphones I’ve ever handled. They’re slim and light, despite their lack of plastic touchpoints. Everything is made of metal, leather, or glass, and they’re extremely comfortable on the head. They come in three colorways: gold with a cream headband, silver with a black headband, or apricot orange. The headphones come with a leather carrying pouch that looks more like a handbag from Lemaire or Mulberry than a standard headphone case. They also have an off button, but when taken off the head for long enough or placed in the case, they go into a deep-sleep mode, saving battery and allowing them to turn back on immediately.Each earcup is round and has a classic yet quirky style. The touch surfaces are a lovely matte glass, and surrounding them is a magnetically connected ratcheting wheel, almost like a rotating bezel on a watch, letting you adjust the noise-cancelling on the left earcup and the volume on the right.It’s a beautifully satisfying interface, and I found myself fiddling with the noise-cancelling just for the sheer pleasure of using it. Play, pause, and track navigation are handled with taps and swipes on the glass surface, and covering one of the cups turns on transparency mode—useful for public transport. Additionally, lifting a single earcup triggers the same feature, ideal for those who feel self-conscious about talking to someone while wearing headphones. Battery life is quoted at 32 hours with noise-cancelling enabled, and a five-minute charge gives you five hours of playtime.The H100 also uses sensors to pause playback when you remove the headphones and adjust the sound based on their placement on your head. Wearing glasses or shifting the headphones slightly won’t affect the sound quality from the 40-millimeter custom-made titanium drivers. The headphones also boast advanced spatial audio settings, providing a true surround sound experience for Dolby-mastered music and films.Not only are these headphones beautifully built, but they are also designed to be easily repairable. Bang & Olufsen provides a five-year warranty, and the batteries, drivers, headband padding, and ear cushions are replaceable with just a single screwdriver. Additionally, these are the first headphones to use the same chips found in Bang & Olufsen speakers, allowing for remote updates. For example, while the highest fidelity Bluetooth codec they currently support is AAC, new codecs will be added through future updates. Similarly, they launch with dual-device multi-point connectivity, but an update will enable three-device connectivity.In short, while most Bluetooth headphones are unrepairable and receive minor software tweaks at best, the H100’s hardware and software can be fundamentally upgraded over time. Given Bang & Olufsen’s track record of supporting products released decades ago, I expect them to deliver on this promise.But how do these headphones sound? After all, if they don’t sound good, everything else is irrelevant. While this is not a full review, I did get a chance to try a pre-production unit at a Bang & Olufsen facility in a controlled environment. My initial impression was that they sounded utterly amazing. I expected them to sound good, but I was blown away. The sound quality was akin to high-end wired headphones, with a remarkable combination of detailed instrumentation, a wide soundstage, and rich, deep bass—even over Bluetooth. Plugged in with a cable, you can listen to pure lossless audio while still benefiting from all the noise-cancelling features.I need to test them in the real world before drawing any conclusions. The noise-cancelling was impressive in a demo setting, but how will it perform on London’s notoriously loud Central Line? The sound was superb in isolation, but how will they stack up against competition costing way less?From my first impression, Bang & Olufsen have certainly made the most expensive Bluetooth headphones on the market. They may also have made the best. I’m eager to try them during a proper review period, and I might just be tempted to make a financially reckless decision.

The $1,549 Bang & Olufsen Beoplay H100 Are the Most Expensive Bluetooth Headphones on Sale: They May Just Be Worth It

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