Review: Technics EAH-A800

Just when we thought we’d ticked off every prestigious brand name where active noise-canceling wireless over-ear headphones are concerned, along comes Technics. How did we forget Technics?

After all, no other audio brand has more emotional resonance than Technics. Don’t tell us you’ve ever had a big night out that wasn’t soundtracked at some point by a pair of Technics turntables. It’s safe to say most brands that consider themselves competition to Technics would love to have the same sort of brand recognition and cachet.

With the EAH-A800, Technics is attempting to leverage all that profile and built-in goodwill into what is currently the toughest job in all of Consumer Electronics  Land: making a pair of wireless headphones that deliver better performance for the price than a pair of Sonys. 

It’s not just WIRED that reckons the Sony WH-1000XM4 are the best all-rounders money can buy—and, what’s more, the Sonys are more affordable than a pair of Technics EAH-A800s. So it’s going to take a bit more than slapping a Technics logo onto a pair of me-too, same-again headphones and hoping for the best. Fair’s fair, though: With the EAH-A800, Technics has managed to cover pretty much every base. 

Photograph: Technics

These are, by prevailing standards, reasonably compact (they fold flat into a smaller carrying case than most rivals need), reasonably light (298 grams, to be precise), and reasonably well turned out. They’re available in silver or black (which is mostly black with some mildly metallic gray accents), they prove comfortable over the long haul (pleather-covered memory foam at every contact point is always a good idea), and they feature some genuine highlights where specifications are concerned.

The Technics use Bluetooth 5.2 for wireless connectivity, as well as compatibility with SBC, AAC and the hi-res Sony-centric LDAC codecs, which also contributes to battery life that’s a match for any rival at any price. As long as you’re not absolutely pounding the volume, the EAH-A800 should last between 30 hours (using LDAC and with noise-canceling switched on) and 60 hours (using AAC with noise-canceling off). These, by any metric, are big numbers—and a flat-to-full time of three hours, with 10 hours of use available from just 15 minutes on the power, are not to be sniffed at, either.

Sound is served up by a couple of 40-mm free-edge dynamic drivers. Each is augmented by an “acoustic control chamber” which is, according to Technics, able to increase the audible sensation of space and sharpen up low-frequency precision. And on the outside there are a total of eight mics spread across the ear cups—they take care of noise cancellation, voice control, and call quality. 

Getting the EAH-A800 to do what you want isn’t much of a struggle. There’s compatibility with Amazon Alexa and Siri voice assistants, some physical controls on the right side of the headphones themselves, and—as is obligatory in a product like this—a control app for iOS and Android too.

On the right ear cup there’s a three-button strip dealing with play/pause, skip forward/back, volume up/down, and answer/end/reject call. Another button handles power on/off/Bluetooth pairing, and alongside these there’s a USB-C input and a 3.5-mm analog connection. The right ear cup also features a touch surface beneath that bold Technics logo—it’s just as responsive as the buttons but can only deal with telephony and your noise-cancellation options. 

Letting the touch surface know what you want to control happens in the Audio Connect app. Here, you’ll decide how much noise-canceling you want (from 0 to 100), and you’ve a similar amount of adjustment for the level of ambient sound you want to let in. The app also gives access to some EQ presets and a five-band equalizer for you to create one of your own. Other stuff (such as an indication of remaining battery life, notifications of software updates and what-have-you) is available, too. But there’s no two ways about it, this is neither as extensive or as good-looking as the Sony equivalent. 

On paper, then, all seems well—sensible at the very least and impressive in quite a few areas. But no one ever overcame a Sony market-leader on paper.

Photograph: Technics

Happily, the EAH-A800 have quite a lot to recommend them beyond the way their spec sheet reads. With a nice, chunky, high-resolution file of Earl Sweatshirt’s “Sunday” playing, the Technics take mere moments to establish themselves as an accomplished, entertaining, and lavishly informative listen.

The frequency extremes are dealt with in fine style. At the bottom, the Technics are able to dig cavernously deep, load bass sounds with plenty of detail on texture and timbre, and—perhaps most important of all—shape and control those low notes. Too often, headphones seek to make a virtue of too much bass, but the A800 control their low frequencies properly, and there’s authentic momentum to their sound as a result. 

Similarly, the top of the frequency range serves up all the brightness and clarity that’s crucial to treble sounds—but its controlled to the extent that the Technics never threaten to sound hard or edgy, even when given unsympathetic material to play or too much volume at which to play it.

It’s between these extremes, though, that the Technics really shine. Their midrange reproduction is just endlessly listenable—they load a singer with so much information, so much detail and nuance of tone and technique, that it almost seems intrusive. Want to know exactly what your favorite vocalist’s attitude is and concerns are? The EAH-A800 will clue you in.

Elsewhere, the musicality of the headphones fluctuates between very good and great. They have the dynamic headroom to properly emphasize volume shifts, and the insight to make the more subtle harmonic dynamics of an instrument apparent too. They can handle even tricky rhythms and club-footed tempos without apparent difficulty, and have no problem unifying any number of instruments, no matter how disparate, into a singular entity. As far as the suggestion of a performance goes, the Technics are happy to express it.

They don’t establish the largest soundstage for performers to do their thing on, mind you, but the stage they describe is, at least, well defined and easy to understand. Even if it’s absolutely packed with musicians—as with a symphony orchestra, for example—the Technics can keep order and allow each of them at least a little elbow room.

Photograph: Technics

The active noise-cancellation aspect of the EAH-A800 performance is a success of the more qualified kind, however. Unarguably, the ANC circuitry here can filter out external sound without altering the winning tonal balance or introducing a suggestion of counter-signal into the background—but it simply doesn’t deal with external sounds as completely as the best rivals can. 

When talk turns to pure noise-canceling ability in products like this, we invariably invoke Bose, Microsoft and, yes, Sony—and, there’s no getting around this, the Technics lag behind a little. That’s emphatically not the same as saying they’re not effective noise cancelers, you understand, it’s just that if this is an important feature for you, one you won't compromise on, you can buy better. And spend less while you’re at it.

So we go out the way we came in: wondering how on earth anyone (even Technics) can hope to dethrone the Sony WH-1000XM4. After all, if a brand as capable as Technics can’t quite manage it (despite throwing the metaphorical kitchen sink at the task and then slapping a big price tag on), what chance does anyone else have?