If I had a dollar for every product sent to me accompanied with the claim that it was a ‘truly revolutionary product’, I’d be a very wealthy person. The truth is that it’s rare to come across products that are genuinely revolutionary. However, these new Bluetooth wireless headphones from Audio-Technica have a fair claim to being the first headphones that are fully digital from start to finish and offer a performance that’s every bit as good as wired headphones.
What marks the Audio-Technica DSR9BT out from regular Bluetooth wireless headphones is their ability to deliver a totally digital signal directly to the driver units without the need to be processed into an analog signal. That’s right! These headphones actually manage to turn the ones and zeros of a digital music into an analogue sound without having to convert the digits into a conventional analog waveform signal. It’s quite an astonishing claim.
First things first, these deluxe wireless headphones are built to Audio-Technica’s usual high standard and their construction and styling remind me a little of Oppo’s PM3 magnetic planar headphones. In addition to their Bluetooth wireless function, the DSR9BT headphones also come with a USB cable so you can plug them into a computer and take a direct digital feed via a cable. There’s no conventional 3.5mm jack plug so you can’t use them with a conventional analog signal from smartphones or music players, but that’s the whole point; these are Hi-Res wireless headphones for the digital age and they can reproduce CD quality digital music without any loss of quality whatsoever. Alongside the supplied charging/data USB cable there’s also a high-quality carrying case to keep the headphones protected, which is a good idea as these aren’t cheap cans. Pairing with a Bluetooth smartphone or music player is straightforward and Audio-Technica has even included NFC for simple one-touch pairing with NFC-compliant phones.
Inside the DRR9BT are 45mm four-core voice coils coated with a hard DLC (diamond-like carbon) substance that gives rigidity that boosts the upper tonal response. The frequency response covers a staggering range from 5Hz to 45,000 Hz, which is more than most human ears can discern and certainly explains why their audio performance is so clear and fulsome.
Another major advantage of these headphones is the ability to cope with SBC, AAC, aptX and aptX HD codecs which means they are able to handle 24-bit digital files wirelessly up to 48kHz resolution. At the moment there aren’t too many devices supporting Qualcom’s apt-X HD codec but the list is growing. I auditioned these headphones using a variety of different Hi-Res music files stored on an LG G6 smartphone, which supports the aptX HD codec. More products supporting aptX HD are on the way and some of Astell & Kern’s newer Hi-Res music players already support the codec. I particularly like the fact that these headphones also support the AAC codec used by Apple and that means they can give the same Hi-Res audio performance to users of iOS devices. Unfortunately Apple still hasn’t chosen to support still aptX or aptX HD codecs although Mac OS devices can cope with basic aptX. You can easily tell which codec the headphones are using by looking at the status of the three LED lights on the left ear cup. Incidentally, the excellent LG G6 phone also tells you which codec it’s using when connecting to the headphones. Apple… please take note!
With a full charge of the DSR9BT’s lithium-ion battery you can get up to 15 hours of continuous use from a single charge which is plenty enough for a transatlantic flight or a few days of commuting. These headphones take about five hours to recharge and I found that the quoted 15-hour usage figure was pretty accurate. The headphones are finished with a padded pleather headband and soft foam ear-cushions, which give a really comfortable fit, yet provide a good acoustic seal from the outside world. You can happily wear the DSR9BT for many hours without your ears getting hot or sweaty, which isn’t something you can say for quite a few closed-back headphone designs.
When it comes to controls there’s an on/off switch on the right-hand ear-cup while the left ear-cup includes a Micro USB charging/data port, a volume control and a touch-sensitive control for pausing music and taking phone calls. If you want to use the USB connection on these headphones you can listen to digital files up to 24-bit 96kHz resolution in a variety of lossy and lossless formats including FLAC, WAV and AAC. The headphones include a microphone so you can take and make calls wirelessly with your smartphone, although this isn’t possible when using the wired USB connection.
What marks these headphones out as unique is the way they receive the high-quality digital signal from your smartphone or music player. The digital signal stays unmolested all the way from the receiver to the driver units. Instead of employing a DAC (digital-to-analog convertor) and an amplifier, as traditional Bluetooth headphones do, the Audio-Technica DSR9BT use Trigence Semiconductor’s Dnote chipset where the binary digital audio signals are received directly from the headphone’s wireless receiver and transferred onto the individual wires of the DSR9BT’s four-core voice coil driver. The Dnote chipset controls the amplitude of the driver motion and volume without the need for any amplification. The digital pulses move the voice coil and diaphragm forward and backward, transforming the digital signals to mechanical motion or sound waves. The result is a pure digital signal from the music device directly to the headphone driver without conventional circuitry to degrade the sound quality.
The sound quality of the Audio-Technica DSR9BT is the most pleasing and accurate wireless performance I’ve ever heard from a pair of Bluetooth headphones. If you’ve steered clear of Bluetooth headphones up until now, because of the compromise on sound quality, you need fear the move no longer. I can honestly say there’s not a trace of hiss or compression. Audio-Technica has managed to produce a pair of headphones that can compete with any wired headphones. Thanks to the DSR9BT’s support for aptX HD and AAC codecs alongside the Pure-Drive technology developed by Audio-Technica, wireless Bluetooth headphones have come of age and there’s now no compromise whatsoever.
Verdict: The sound quality of these amazing headphones is exciting, wide, deep and enjoyable. I was expecting a rather harsh and fatiguing sound from the world’s first pair of 100% digital headphones but that simply isn’t the case. The Audio-Technica DSR9BT are physically comfortable to wear and audibly comfortable to listen to for long periods. If you use them with high-quality streaming services like Tidal you’ll be amply rewarded with a superb listening experience. These revolutionary headphones are a worthwhile investment for audiophiles who want to go wireless without making any compromises. Highly recommended.
Prices: £499 / $549 / €599
More info: www.audio-technica.eu/
Specifications:
- Driver Size: 45mm
- Frequency Response: 5 – 45,000 Hz
- Sensitivity: 103dB/mW
- Impedance: 38 ohms
- Voice coil: 4-core twisted OFC-7N
- Hi-Res Audio: via USB connection (up to 24-bit/48kHz)
- Bluetooth Version: Version 4.2
- Support Codecs: aptX™ HD, aptX™, AAC, SBC
- Connector: Micro USB Type B
- Weight: 310g
- Battery Life (continuous use): 15 Hours
- Charging Time: 5 Hours
- Accessories: USB charging cable, Hard carrying case
