Opening your Beoplay H1oo headphones is a very particular unboxing experience.
Sheathed in one of Bang & Olufsen's classic minimalist boxes, you lift the lid and find your headphones and their pebbled leather case wrapped gently in gossamer-esque tissue paper. Certainly the experience is far more like unboxing a pair of luxury Italian shoes than the plastic-fraught cable-mess typically associated with unveiling a tech purchase.
Every moment of your Beoplay experience is designed to communicate one thing: that these are the most luxurious headphones you may ever lay your hands on.
Sound quality - it's pro level
The Beoplay H100 sit in a category of their own. A product that offers both exceptional sound quality and aesthetic luxury. We're in serious performance audio territory - it's hardly a surprise that these made the list of our best over ear headphones.
Bang & Olufsen has obsessed over the audio experience for the H100. For example, the H100’s “drivers” - that is, the things that drive the air to create sound waves - are 40mm in diameter. The larger the driver, the better the sound. To put the 40mm drivers into perspective here, the drivers on your typical pair of Bluetooth headphones measure around 13-15mm.
And believe it or not, CDs are still typically regarded as the gold standard for audio, with sound recorded onto the disc at what’s known as 16-bit. The BeoPlay H100, however, can reproduce sound up to 24-bit (known as Hi-Res audio). That means it’s actually producing sound at frequencies even beyond the range of human hearing to make sure you get every sound on the track.
No matter what you're listening to, your sound experience is customisable thanks to the in-app tuner - a feature that Bang & Olufsen calls the Beosonic tuner. It takes what used to be a confusing experience and makes it luxuriously accessible, even for beginners. It allowed me to experience superior audio to my specific tastes without having to fuss with the frequencies. It's one of the many ways that the H100 headphones bring pro-level audio closer to a luxury consumer.
Naturally, these support just about every kind of high-end feature you could ask for, from Dolby Atmos audio/video support for Spatial Audio, through to Hi-Res Lossless playback I mentioned earlier (when connected via USB-C). It provides a soundscape that extends beyond stereo. It's rare to find a device that does it all these days. These do.
As for the sound experience itself. It's clear, crisp and rich. The sophistication of the sound quality here is at a professional grade. It's a level of clarity that makes analysing and deconstructing melodies far easier than other devices.
Noise cancelling capabilities and battery life - it's customisable
If noise cancelling is an essential for you, the H100 will not disappoint. I asked my partner to try them and his response was "I can't even hear myself breathe". It truly does block out the world around you.
In all honesty, I hate the noise cancelling setting on all headphones. I find it creates an uncomfortable pressure in my ears, so I just don't use it. But of course, when a new review device makes it's way across my desk, I will always test the feature out in the interest of providing a good review.
I have to admit, the noise cancelling on these headphones is far more comfortable than any others that I've tried.
The noise cancelling feature is accessible by turning the dial on the left earcup. In a world of touch, tap and swipe controls, it was delightfully refreshing to have a physical dial that allows you to adjust your noise cancelling.
As for battery, you'll get 32 hours with the noise cancelling on and 30 hours with spatial audio. It takes roughly one hour to charge them to full battery via USB-C.
A modular design that's built to last
Design wise, these truly are everything the predecessor - the H95s - was and more. The same refined elegance but with future-proofing at the core.
The Beoplay H100 come in three refined colourways: Sunset Apricot, Infinite Black and Hourglass Sand. But the design is modular allowing for some of the components to be swapped out and colour customised. This also means if you need to replace any of the individual units or service them, you can - rather than having to source an entirely new set of headphones simply because an earcup is damaged. Bang & Olufsen's intention was to create a device with longevity. You can see this intent for circularity come through in the device's software capabilities too.
Bang & Olufsen’s Director of Product Circularity and Portfolio Planning, Mads Kogsgaard Hansen said of the design: "for Beoplay H100, we've prioritised longevity, maintenance and repairability through modular design.We have also developed our software with the future in mind so that the headphones can adapt and evolve with new technologies fora truly timeless design."
The comfort has certainly not been an afterthought. There's multiple layers of foam around the band making them supremely comfortable to wear for long periods - perfect for your next long haul flight. The trim and the earcups are made from a delicate lambskin leather, which is not just soft to the touch, but makes for easy cleaning. The side are crafted from scratch-resistant, hardened glass touch that has almost a silken feel to the touch. It's here that you have most of your controls, so the scratch-resistance is an excellent feature for these to help retain their condition.
Each pair comes with a matching pebbled leather case, which is conveniently big enough to also stash a tablet into.
It's also worth noting that you can sign up to Beocare for an extended 5 year warranty.
Controls, features and app
The on-device controls are easy and intuitive. You lift an earcup or remove the headphones to pause your music, swipe on an earcup to change a song, tap an earcup to play or pause, turn the right dial to adjust volume and turn the left dial to adjust the noise cancelling. There's two buttons, one of each earcup, which function as noise cancelling toggles or Bluetooth pairing if you hold one down for five seconds. A feature I really loved, you can cover and earcup with one hand to get a quick switch into transparency mode, in case you need to quickly listen to your surroundings. Of course, you can also access your controls via the Bang & Olufsen app.
The Bang & Olufsen app is fiddly. It was tricky to adjust important settings like the Beosonic Sound Mode or the what the physical control buttons did. I had trouble connecting the headphones to the app, I found they would only connect to the app about half of the time. I should note that I did have one of the first pairs in market, so there has likely been several software updates since my experience.
One feature I didn't like, your headphones have to be on your head to use features in the app. Since the headphones turn off automatically five seconds after you take them off your head, you have to be wearing them for any of the app updates to run smoothly. It does say in the user guide that you can adjust the auto off/sleep feature in the app. But I found it wasn't something that immediately came to mind and I wasted time having updates constantly pause because I took the headphones off.
It was worth it because the update I managed to eventually install delivered a huge boost in performance. It included a range of bug fixes and new features, and also Bang & Olufsen worked out a way to make the headphones run more efficiently. It meant I was literally downloading better battery life. 10 hours to be exact. To me this demonstrated that Bang & Olufsen truly is committed to consistent future-proofing the H100s.
These headphones truly sit in a luxury category of their own. They're a consumer device, yet they have many of the same features you'd expect from professional-grade headphones. And when comparing to the professional grade devices, these are at far more accessible price point, $2750 compared to the $3000-$5000 you'd normally pay for pro-devices. Undeniably, these are also a sleeker and more luxurious product. I took them on a recent jaunt overseas and it was an exceptionally lavish experience being able to slide my leather case from my tote bag and wear my H100s on the flight or by the pool at my hotel.
If music and sound is a passion, then the Beoplay H100 headphones are the perfect compliment.
