Edifier W800BT

Army-Firedawg

1000+ Head-Fier
Pros: Incredible battery life. Cheap. Detachable cables. Lightweight. Durable.
Cons: Comfort. BT range. Sound.


Edifier has been producing several products that has drastically outperformed the price range their offered at. From my first product I reviewed for them, their $50 H850, to their flagship $100 W855BT and a few iems in between. Edifier has provided very sound audio products that I’ve gladly recommended to several people who’re looking for a great price/quality headphone that’s quite easy on the wallet. Introducing their introductory wireless product, the $40ish Edifier W800BT. So how will the youngest sibling in the W series hold up to its older brethren? Please allow me to share my thoughts and impressions during my time with them.


A little about me

I would like to say that first and foremost I am NOT an “audiophile” but rather an audio enthusiast. I listen to music to enjoy it. Do I prefer a lossless source? Yes, of course. But I can still be very happy streaming from Pandora or even my YouTube “My Mix” playlist. I also prefer equipment that sounds the best to me personally regardless of what frequency response it has or rather or not it's “sonically accurate” and I always have and shall continue to encourage others to do the same.

I'm a firefighter for both the civilian and military sector and the cliché of wanting to do this since I was born couldn't be more present with me. I've worked hard over the last several years to earn this position and now it's time for me to work even harder to keep it.

My interests/hobbies are powerlifting, fishing and relaxing to audio products and reviewing them to help other decide on what products would work for them. Few things make me as an audio enthusiast/review feel more accomplished than when someone tells me that I helped them find the type of sound they've always been looking for.

Now, the sound signature I personally favor is a relaxing, warm and sensual sound that just drifts me away in the emotional experience of the music being performed. Yes, accuracy is still important but I will happily sacrifice some of that if I'm presented with a clean, warm sound that can wisp me away into an experience that makes me yearn for more.

My ideal signature are that of respectably forward mids and upper bass range with the bass being controlled but with some slight decay. I like my treble to have nice extension and detail reveal with a smooth roll off up top as to not become harsh in the least. Examples of products that have given me chills and keep giving me the yearning for more feels are the (in no particular order) Bowers & Wilkins P7, Oppo PM-1/2, Empire Ears Hermes VI & Zeus XIV, Audeze LCD-XC, Meze Headphones 99 Classics.

Equipment used at least some point during the review

-Sources

-LG V20/HP Pavilion

-Playing Pandora, YouTube, and various format personal music

Disclaimer

I am by no means sponsored by this company or any of its affiliates. They were kind enough to send me a product for an arranged amount of time in exchange for my honest opinion. I am making no monetary compensation for this review.

The following is my take on the product being reviewed. It is to be taken “with a grain of salt” per say and as I always tell people, it is YOUR opinion that matters. So regardless of my take or view on said product, I highly recommend you listen to it yourself and gauge your own opinion.

The Opening Experience

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Why I feel so strongly about the initial unboxing experience

Please allow me to explain why I feel so strongly about the initial unboxing experience with a product. Maybe it’s due to my southern roots in the hills of eastern Kentucky, but I’ve always been raised under the pretense of when you introduce yourself to someone for the first time you present yourself with confidence, class, character, pride, and competence. You greet the other person with a true warm smile, eye contact and a firm handshake. Anything less or short implies to other person that you either don’t care about them, are too full of yourself, too busy to be bothered by the likes of them, or worse, just generally disrespectful.

As a consumer, I take this same belief to when I open a new product. Why? Because think about it this way. How else can a company introduce themselves to their customers? How do they present their products? Are they packaged with pride and presented in such a way that makes the listener eager to listen to them? Or maybe they’re just wrapped up and placed in an available space. How about the box itself? Is it bogged down with jargon that says look at this, look what I can do. I’m better than anything on the market and here’s why read this and check out that. Or, is the package clean, simplistic and classy? As if saying to the customer ‘Good day, pleasure to meet your acquaintance. Please give me a listen and allow me to show you what I can do and allow my actions to speak louder than my words.’

This is why I feel so strongly about the initial presentation of a product, and I feel it’s truly a shame more people don’t. But with all that aside, let’s discuss how this products introduced itself shall we?



The initial handshake Edifier provided on their W800BT headphone is honestly about what I expect in a headphone of this price range. The front of the box does look rather nice I will say but the back goes to the standard “showy” design that’s to be expected in the most competitive price range. But upon opening the outer box up you’re given the W800BT positioned in a cheap white plastic shell that’s main job it to just hold the headphone in a solitary position. Lastly, inside the box, you’re given a smaller (obviously) second box which holds your micro usb charging cable, 3.5mm aux cable, warranty, and startup guide.

Not really a whole lot to talk about for the unboxing of the W800BT. It was a very normal handshake and with respect to the $40ish asking price, I honestly can’t expect much more than I received.


Construction

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The build quality of the W800BT is again, quite normal for the $40ish asking price. It’s completely plastic, of cheaper quality, with no articulation sub the head adjustment, which does give very physical and audible clicks when changing. The right side of the ear cups have the power/sync button on the face plate with the volume/track control buttons on the back of the ear cup. The bottom of the right cup is where you’ll find the micro usb charging port, and on the bottom of the left cup is where you’ll find the 3.5mm aux port that can be used if you’re on a device without bluetooth of if the headphones battery dies. A side to add is that there is a silver plastic strip between the pads and the cups to offset some of the (in my case) red.

The padding is a pretty firm foam that is fairly easy to remove and replace if you were to find a correctly size aftermarket pair of pads. But taking the cost of these into consideration, I wouldn’t recommend investing in a pair of pads.

My thoughts on the construction of the W800BT is that it’s very basic. They are however incredibly light headphones as well as impressively durable (though at least in my case they do scratch fairly easily), which is to be expected with plastic. I mention this to say that for those looking for an inexpensive headphone for a younger child, these would actually be a solid choice. They can take a drop, they’re not heavy and have fairly decent isolation for one to watch their movie/show in peace.



Comfort

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I’ll be honest and straight to the point with this one. The comfort can use a lot of work. The padding has zero breathability thus my ears grew a bit warm quite quick and well as the chosen material isn’t great for long duration of listening. The clamping force really isn’t that bad truthfully; the level of support is nice and i know that it’s not going to fall off my head if I bend over to grab something. What I believe to be a large factor in the level of comfort, other than the pad material selection, is that the cups themselves have NO articulation. This, at least in my case, cases pressure points on the front of my ears which limits my listening durations to not much longer than 2ish hours, but it wasn’t the best within that time frame either. Perhaps one with smaller ears/head will enjoy these more than I did.


Sound


So onto what most consider to be a very important factor in a headphone purchase, the sound quality. Coming into this I was under the pretense that this would have close to the same sound as the H850 headphone considering the similar pricing (but of course knew that the added Bluetooth feature would take away some). Unfortunately that is most certainly not the case. I mean you’re not going to be in pain listening to these, and they are very affordable, wireless, headphones, but imo they don’t perform close to what I’ve come to expect from Edifier. Now as for other $40ish headphones, um, they’re not bad, but they’re not great either, they’ll play a movie or music to pass time.

I will give credit to them for having fairly impressive musical separation (thanks to a viewer of mine for recommending the song Infected Mushroom by Spitfire). In the song just linked, it starts off fairly meh, but around the 28 second mark, when more sounds start getting introduced, the W800BT’s do a surprisingly good job at separating them and even making them sound out of your head.


Treble


The highs in the W800BT are fair. They don’t particularly give me chills but at the same time I’m not disappointed in it either. There’ve been a few cases where I heard a bit of sibilance but I’m unsure if it was the headphones or recordings because it wasn’t every time I listened to a treble based instrument/song/piece. Something I particularly did like in the W800BT’s treble is that I personally never grew fatigued with it or did it ever get harsh to me.


Mids


My personal favorite area in music in general. To me, this is where the soul is. As with the W800BT the mids are notably recessed but not to the point of being a v shape. Now, though the mids aren’t a shining focal point they do come across very clear and clean (with respect to the recession). Rather it be male or female it didn’t sound bad, just withdrawn from the rest of the music.


Bass


It’s present but it’s not gonna impress anyone. BUT with respect to the REST of the audio band of these headphones, the bass is definitely the most redeeming factor with the W800BT (reference the Infected Mushroom song again for a great example). When listening to rock music you can most certainly get a good bob your head beat.


Conclusion

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My final thoughts on the Edifier W800BT is that it’s a headphone I’d say would be good to have if you just need something for a trip or want something that you don’t mind being rough with. If I may offer a recommendation, try and save up another $50 (I know it’s double the cost of these) to purchase their W855BT, the difference between the 2 headphones is astronomical, and I firmly believe will make you happier as well. The battery life of the W800BT is very good though I forgot to add earlier. I never stopwatch timed it or anything but I’d say their claim of 35 hours of listening time is quite accurate for my goodness they seem to last forever.








Also, make sure to check out my unboxing and review videos. They’re pretty awesome AND you getta put a face to the Army-Firedawg name. If this review helped you out at all please hit that thumbs up button for it really helps me out a lot. Till next time my friends, stay safe.

genclaymore

Headphoneus Supremus
Pros: Light weight
Removable cable
Removable ear-pads
Easy to Adjust the size
Cons: Bluetooth Cons
1.Controls in an bad location
2. Volume control locked to holding a button and pressing another to raise or lower
3.Too few buttons
4. Small sound Stage
5.Muddy Bass

Analog Cons
1.Bright , too detailed with tinny sound
2.Doesn't play well with bright/neutral sources
3. Included 3.5mm Cable is too Short

Over All Cons
Durability,Made of plastic

First thing I going to say is that I receive an W800BT for my honest review, when you open the box, you will find the provided 3.5 cable and the charging cable inside it own box. Under that you will find the headphones, inside a plastic clam shell. Lets talk about the cables, most Bluetooth headphones that I have used in the past always included these cables. While the audio cable looks and feels like it decently made with gold connects. The charging cable that they included is better then the ones I seen from past BT headphones that I owned and at the same time feels like they wont break as easy such as the ones I have.



I know the 3.5 cable is meant to be used with a mp3 player or smart phone when the charge is up. But it's kinda short if you are some one who prefer to use analog over the BT function of the headphones. A second but longer cable for desktop usage would have been useful.


Durability wise the headphones is made out of plastic which feels cheap, Which looks like it could break if it took an hard drop to the floor.



Comfit



Padding on the ear’s and the head feels like p-leather, The headphone sits comfortable on the top of my head, While it doesn’t bother me on my ears, the shape of the ear pads causes it to touch the very bottom of my ear and the top. But it does not hurt. It sits on your head good enough, even with no clamping. Sound isolation isn't perfect but it did block some of my loud case noise.

Adjusting the headphones to fit a larger head is a snap, When you pull down the sides extend and locks into place with a click. Which is good because there are times where headphones that do not had this feature, would always slide out of the setting you had it, causing you to readjust it for your head. With the W800BT you won’t have this issue. But for other people with larger ears or those who wear glasses, you may have to mess with it, to get it to sit right on your head.

Power
They last quite a while when in standby mode which is 35hours, The battery size is 800MA.




Bluetooth


Before you start listening the first thing you should do is turn down the volume, as by default the volume is set to max. Lucky I had it on the table when I started to play some audio. I also tried an 4.0 Bluetooth receiver and an LG 345 Smartphone and both also paired with the W800BT,Even a comcast tv box paired without issues. Also the connection to the headphone hold and did not drop.

With the LG 345 Smartphone I was having some popping issues, it wasn't much but it was there, happen regardless if I was near it or away from it. Interesting enough I didn't have any popping issues when I paired them with my Comcast X5I box when. So it could just
been my phone, As other sources I tried didn't have the issue.




Controls




Unfortunately I wasn’t able to test the function out as the smartphone I had wasn't in service. One of the main problem that I ran into while accessing the buttons, is the location that they are in, I had a hard time changing songs due to holding down the Multi button and hitting volume, I had to put my hand in a certain way to do it and I ended up pausing the song instead of skipping to the next one. Lack of a good placement for the controls, as well lack of seperate buttons for the controls made it painful to use them.



Songs used
Tim Ismag - Bumble Bee
Egopool - Control
Kenji Kawai - Utai IV: Reawakening (Steve Aoki Remix)


Sources
CSR 4.0 BT adapter(PC)
Sound blasterX AE-5 (Direct HP) Analog
Comcast X5I Box/Ipod Mini mp3 player(Bluetooth)


Bluetooth

CSR 4.0 BT USB adapter

Right off the back hit hats,snares are not that clear,some times its an tad harsh depending on the song and other times it not clean. It also have an bit too much details and not just the tinny sound.

The bass have an sub woofer type of sound going for it, when it hit lows the bass becomes muddy, to the point that it's not clear. With Dub-step and any song that used a lot of bass, it was more apparent in the lows.

As for the sound stage, its tiny sorta sounds as the audio is inside your head and spreading out. The separation I would say is avg as some cases the instruments run into each other.

Comcast X5I Box and Ipod Mini (Bluetooth)
I paired the W800BT up with the Comcast X5i-p Box and with the Ipod mini, with the Comcast box I used the EDM music choice channel, and the sound quality was improved, the bass has improved, and it was smoother in the highs. The sound stage small and the image was outside my head. The ipod mini results mirror the results. While the bass has improved, it still has an hint of the sub-woofer style of bass. So The bass could use an bit of tweaking.



Analog(AE-5)

The first thing I notice is the highs, they are clearer and cleaner, but the down side is they are harsh and too detailed. I had the same issue with an Ipod mini and an smart phone that I tried. I had to removed the headphones off my head due to that.

Mid bass has improved, It no longer sound like an sub-woofer or sound muddy, it does have some hit to it, but its not too much. The low bass has also improved and hits hard,I don't hear the issue I heard in BT with the low bass. Drums, snares and hit hats are also heard cleanly but they do have an slight tinny sound.

Separation and sound stage has improved a lot, Instruments are no longer bunched together and I can hear there location easier, which also includes voices. As the Voices come off as being either directly in front of me or to my sides if not both. The sound is now projected outside of your head, instead of being inside, as I hear every thing outside my ears. Now the sound stage is not medium, but its not tiny, but small.



Conclusion

I found the Bluetooth quality to depends on what your pairing it with, when I paired it with the ipod mini and Comcast box and stayed away from any thing that messed with the signal. It did an very good job. I wish the bass was more refined, but that just me. The Bluetooth connection held up which was good, and I did like the long standby time which is an major plus. Which was an improvement over other bluetooth headphones I had in the past, since the headphones I had before would need to be recharge , even when I had them in standby, so the large charge time for standby is good.

The major problem for me is the location of the controls, They should be easier to get to, without having to take the headphones off, which mean if your working out or running, your going to have to fool with it til you get it an volume setting you want, or to an song you want after you take it off to switch the song. As I had to do just take, take the headphones off so i could change the song, as it was faster to just do that on the ipod.

Now the flaw with the headphone is it analog quality, While it did not pair all that great with my AE-5. When I tried to use the 3.5mm with both my LG Leon Smart phone and my Ipod Mini, both did tone down the harshness and the amount of details i had with the sound card, but it still did not help it, as the tinny sound was still there and the highs still had an some harshness to it. Which is an problem for those who rely on having the 3.5mm as an backup, when they run out of charge, as I can still see that happen.


Now if they work on the analog quality and maybe tweak the Bluetooth bass freq then they would have something good.

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