BEOPLAY H9 VS BOWERS & WILKINS PX
(Just because this thread wasn't long enough already
)
Here are my notes comparing the B&O H9 with the B&W PX - I've got both of these excellent headphones for a trial and need to choose. Not quite there yet - thoughts welcomed.
Testing primarily with an iPhone X, listening mostly to classical music and jazz with a bit of rock; source (until I get on the road) is Roon player on iPhone. (My normal listening environment is a Linn Klimax DS and Exakt Akubariks; and ACS T1 IEMs on the road.) I'll also use these for phone calls from iPhone, movies on iPad, and FaceTime from iPad and Mac.
Sound:
- Both are very listenable with plenty of detail and a good soundstage. B&O has a lovely warm sound, kind to most music I've tried. B&W slightly more clinical.
- B&Os are bass heavy. Perhaps too much so. This means that for some recordings, my attention was drawn too much to some elements - in particular, the rumble of a concert hall just before a piece of music starts, or the mechanics of a piano (try Diana Krall, "Just the Way You Are" from Live in Paris, admittedly mastered with too much thump). Or in Schubert's
Trout Quintet (Takacs Quartet) I get just too much double bass. Of course, for other tracks, like Rickie Lee Jones, "Chuck E.'s in Love", the pedal bass drum drives the music forward powerfully with a heavy bass like these phones.
B&Ws are neater on the bass but I found some tendency towards shrillness for sopranos. B&Ws also bring out more midrange contrast - eg in St Vincent "Digital Witness" on the B&Ws the opening is all about the brass, whereas the B&O's are all about the bass thump.
- B&Os have low maximum volume. Others have discussed this here and elsewhere. It depends on what you are listening to. So far, almost everything in my repertoire has been "adequately" loud; and for some pop recordings (yes, you, Katy Perry's engineer with your powerful compressor) I needed to trim it back a little as it was close to my hearing limit. However there are times when I wanted to turn it up louder - for example, the Prelude to Wagner's
Die Meistersinger (Chailly conducting) needs that full orchestral loudness to make it exciting, and I felt the B&O just refused to do what I wanted. The clarinet solo at the start of Sibelius
Symphony no 1 (Vanska / Minnesota) was a strain to hear. I also needed more room to turn up the sound track on movies.
Noise reduction:
- The two headphones are very different and probably a matter of personal preference. B&W has excellent isolation and very good noise reduction, but when you turn up the noise reduction it alters the sound. B&O's noise reduction is less efficient but leaves the sound untouched; and you feel a little more in touch with the world around you. On balance I think the B&O is more relaxing to listen to, and the B&W feels like a noise elimination machine clamped to my head.
Comfort:
- The B&O has extraordinarily soft earpieces, which give a lovely comfortable feeling. Sadly this is not matched by the hard headband, which constantly reminds me it's there by pressing on my scalp.
- The B&W clamps firmly around my ears and is comfortable (although not so pleasant right after wearing the soft B&Os!).
Bluetooth connectivity:
- Both appear to connect to multiple devices (8 on B&W, unstated on B&O but I got at least four to work).
- Multiple sources: B&O is less reliable and sophisticated than the B&W here. I've had several peculiar scenarios in switching between devices. Whereas the B&W mostly "just works" when you pick up a device and play it (it listens to the most recent input), the B&Os involve some complicated (and undocumented) dance of turning Bluetooth off and on, then reconnecting using menus on the device. This is quite frustrating - eg when I want to switch from watching a movie on my iPad to listening to my iPhone or making a call. Also my Mac seems to grab the connection when I am trying to switch between phone and iPad.
Phone calls: (these seem to be rarely covered in reviews)
- The other party reports that on both pairs I sound as though I am in an empty room (due to the distance from mouth to microphone) but preferred the sound of the B&O which they felt was crisper.
Portability:
- Both pairs collapse flat but are still bulky items to slip into a shoulder bag.
- Both come with a soft bag - B&W's is better padded and presented, and includes a little pocket for a cable. For me, a soft bag is fine as the phones will go into my shoulder bag and I just need to protect them from scratching my iPad or vice versa; a hard bag may take up too much space. What a shame that B&O chose to use such cheap and nasty material for their bag; they could have a spent a few more krone on something which fits their brand better.
- B&O comes with an adapter for airplane sockets (although I've not been on a plane with those old twin two-pin plugs in a decade).
- B&O has micro-USB (compatible with so many other things therefore easy if I forget a cable), B&W has USB-C (pleasantly reversible and the way of the future). Both work.
User interface:
- As others have commented, the touch panel idea is quirky and a bit unreliable (eg volume does not always respond). However compared with the PX and others, its probably easier than hunting for little buttons.
- What lunatic specified this double-touch-to-redial function?? Perhaps for 0.01% of users this is a useful function. For the rest of us, it is a complete pain. Easily accidentally triggered, the consequences can be highly embarrassing (calling a client at 2am for example!). Worse, there are some implementation quirks - eg when putting my headphones down after listening on the phone, it originated a call not on my iPhone but on my iPad which had previously been connected. B&O really need to fix this (eg allow us to disable the feature) because this is one of those cases where the price of accidental misbehaviour is far greater than any potential utility. I don't want to live in fear of dialling the wrong person accidentally (especially as I have outbound caller ID switched on, so if I dial and hang up it is likely the called person will ring me back and that's even more embarrassing).
- Not sure why I need to manually enable Bluetooth with the switch each time I turn the phones on. Surely if there is no cable plugged in, it should automatically enable Bluetooth?
- The phone gives the same beep tone when ANR is switched on and off; and the same tone for "Bluetooth on", "Bluetooth off", and "pairing": this is a beginner's UI design mistake.
- The B&W has a user interface which is broadly similar, via an array of confusing (and unlabelled) buttons including one peculiar switch which can be pushed as well as slid. However it also benefits (or suffers, depending on your use case) from automatic sensing which will pause music when you lift an ear, and put the phones into sleep mode when you set them on your desk. I found this very helpful, although it does get it wrong occasionally. It's also a bit weird that when you put the B&Ws on, they not only connect but also continue playing the last thing you were listening to.
- Both have apps (with nonstandard IOS controls) but the B&W one often failed to connect to the headphones.
In summary:
- Both highly credible devices but B&O seems (so far) my personal preference due to less "isolated" feeling, more fluid and rich sound
- B&O have the opportunity to improve several things in software: disable (or make optional) the "call last number" feature, increase the max volume, improve the UI tone responses, and add better handling when switching between sources. I know B&W have been improving their software - it will be interesting to see whether B&O does this too (or just dumps old models and tries to sell us new ones).
- I strongly suggest B&O need a simple switch on the app, to add some bass rolloff (the current EQ settings don't address this specifically). For some users these phones will be too bassy and it would be a shame if B&O lost sales of such a nice product because of this. This is the one thing holding me back so far.
