[SomeGuyDude]

Fair enough.

In a separate thread I was asking for alternatives to the Sine that I could audition and the most suggested can was the H6. Given that B&O has discontinued the H6 I figured I’d give the H9i a try, given many of the reviews I’ve read put the sound of the H9i very close to the H6.

Any suggestions for something other than the H6 I could try? Alternate question: how does the sound of the H9i compare to the H6?

Never heard the H6 but if you're talking about a $500 set my first instinct is the TH-X00. If portability is a factor, the Sine is near the top of my list as long as you have an iDevice. I'd also add the Audioquest Nightowl/hawk to the mix, but that's me. I like warm. Barring that I'd probably start looking at some quality IEMs.

The H9i is fantastic, but it's also made for a specific use case. Its price is largely because of the tech in it is made for portability and wireless use.

 

[CaptCanuck]

Thanks. That description of the H9i makes perfect sense. I get it now. The tech was pretty swank.

The X00 sounds incredible from the reviews... also appears to be very difficult to get until some possible future Massdrop.

I’ve been a fan of IEMs for a long time (most recently with a splurge of $100 to get, like, five absolutely incredible Chi-Fi models... that lasted about a year before they all started falling apart) but was thinking I’d get a better experience from a an over ear as well as a more conspicuous presentation that I’m listening to music when someone comes up to me in our open plan office.

Thoughts?

 

[Michaelc136]

Can any B&O expert chime on on what the dot in the midle in front of the driver is? My own guess is that it is the microphone for the noise cancellation, can anyone confirm this? (It would make sense, since it is wired)

This is the interior microphone

 

[Michaelc136]

Does anyone think this clipping problem in the high frequency can be resolved with software updates ?

 

[SomeGuyDude]

Thanks. That description of the H9i makes perfect sense. I get it now. The tech was pretty swank.

The X00 sounds incredible from the reviews... also appears to be very difficult to get until some possible future Massdrop.

I’ve been a fan of IEMs for a long time (most recently with a splurge of $100 to get, like, five absolutely incredible Chi-Fi models... that lasted about a year before they all started falling apart) but was thinking I’d get a better experience from a an over ear as well as a more conspicuous presentation that I’m listening to music when someone comes up to me in our open plan office.

Thoughts?

I've had more high-end IEMs and they're totally worth it. The Periodic Be is a stunning piece of tech and I always recommend it.

Does anyone think this clipping problem in the high frequency can be resolved with software updates ?

From what I recall, the distortion didn't show up until the latest firmware update, like some people were trying to roll back to the previous version to alleviate the distortion. So yeah.

 

[Evgeni]

I purchased a pair of H9i which I received on Friday. I also have H6 (2nd gen) that I love. Fortunately H9i have very similar sound signature to H6 while also adding the benefit of wireless and NC. However I have some real problems with them falling back to SBC instead of AAC on my Mac. I contacted the support and they gave me some recommendations, including unpairing and resetting the headphones, then pairing them again, as well as executing a terminal command that would force the Mac to establish AAC codec rather than SBC and while that works after a Mac restart, it switches back to SBC if I power off/on the headphones and the only solution is to reboot the Mac again. I haven't received an answer from the support yet and they have escalated the issue to their engineers but I was wondering whether other people on Mac can confirm that. Here are the steps that I also sent to the tech support:

MacBook Pro 15-inch (with touch bar, 2016), macOS High Sierra 10.13.6
iTunes 12.8.0.150
H9i, serial 29845199, firmware 5.0.4
iOS app installed on iPhone X, iOS 11.4.1
The headphones are connected via Bluetooth to both the Mac and the iPhone
The following command is executed in the Mac terminal: sudo defaults write bluetoothaudiod "Enable AAC codec" -bool true

1. Reboot the Mac
2. Start listening to streaming music from Apple Music on iTunes on the Mac
3. Option-click the bluetooth icon in the menu bar, select the H9i and expand it
Result: audio codec is AAC as expected

4. Pause the music.
5. Leave the headphones on your head.
6. Turn the headphones off (headphones should always stay on the head for the rest of the steps)
7. Wait until noise canceling disappears and external noises are heard
8. Turn the headphones on
9. Wait until they automatically reconnect to the Mac
10. Start playing the music again
11. Repeat step 3 (Option-click the bluetooth icon, etc.)
Result1: audio codec is now SBC and the audio quality has degraded
Result2: the music stops after a few seconds and might start again and stop intermittently
Result3: when the music stops by itself remove the headphones from your head and you will hear the music starts although the headphones are not on your head

Can anyone confirm that happens with their H9i. I really like them when they work as expected, however the switch to SBC is unacceptable since it's audibly worse and the intermittent audio pauses and Bluetooth problems as a whole are a no go for me and I am pretty positive I will return them. However it might be just my pair. I don't like any other wireless/NC headphones and I would have loved to keep the H9i If that's a global problem with H9i then I will simply keep on using my H6 which work like a charm.

 

[garethr]

Can anyone confirm that happens with their H9i.

When I had my H9i not once did they fall back to SBC. It was always consistently AAC - and I didn’t need to use the terminal command to force AAC either.

Gut feel, it sounds like yours could be faulty.

 

[Evgeni]

When I had my H9i not once did they fall back to SBC. It was always consistently AAC - and I didn’t need to use the terminal command to force AAC either.

Gut feel, it sounds like yours could be faulty.

Well, that's strange. From what I've read, by default all non-Apple bluetooth headphones (which actually means everything but AirPods) would use SBC. So the terminal command is really necessary. That applies even to the Beats headphones. Strange that you always had them in AAC. Are you sure about that, have you checked it consistently? Wondering what it depends on. Could it be macOS version?

 

[Hummer101]

My H9i are switching to SBC when using the H9i as an input device. Switching the input device to another device like the internal microphone solved the problem.
If someone knows a workaround to use the input and output of the H9i simultaneously - you're more than welcome!

 

[Evgeni]

My H9i are switching to SBC when using the H9i as an input device. Switching the input device to another device like the internal microphone solved the problem.
If someone knows a workaround to use the input and output of the H9i simultaneously - you're more than welcome!

Just tried it. If the input device is the H9i, then I start hearing the external sounds (I guess the headphones automatically switch the transparency mode on) and the active codec is not SBC but SCO. Playing music at the same time results in some extremely low audio quality. If I select another input, then they switch to SBC.

 

[garethr]

Well, that's strange. From what I've read, by default all non-Apple bluetooth headphones (which actually means everything but AirPods) would use SBC. So the terminal command is really necessary. That applies even to the Beats headphones. Strange that you always had them in AAC. Are you sure about that, have you checked it consistently? Wondering what it depends on. Could it be macOS version?

Yep, 100%. With this Mac I've used Bose QC35II, Beats Solo 3, B&O H9i and the B&W PX. All (with the exception of the PX which mostly prefers AptX) use AAC by default. I'm currently running High Sierra 10.13.6. Its a 2017 15" Pro with Touchbar. In Bluetooth Explorer I've got 'Enable AAC' checked and that is it. Have you tried 'Reset audio default' in an up to date version of Bluetooth Explorer?

 

[Evgeni]

Have you tried 'Reset audio default' in an up to date version of Bluetooth Explorer?

Yes and as a matter of fact before doing the sudo command, I tried with the Bluetooth Explorer to set the AAC preference however it didn't preserve it after a reboot. Then I reset it and changed the setting through the command instead. I have now removed the setting (not by setting it to false but rather removing the entire setting as is the stock macOS: sudo defaults delete bluetoothaudiod "Enable AAC codec"), rebooted, disconnected everything, deleted the Beoplay app, reset the headphones, I mean I tried to start from scratch. Connected the headphones only to the Mac. Didn't help. It's now constantly SBC and it doesn't even go to AAC even after a Mac reboot. I mean I reverted everything to my very initial problem I've had with the H9i-s. I will wait for the B&O support response and decide whether I will ask for a replacement with the Amazon's seller or will simply return them entirely.

 

[brueland]

Has anybody had luck with fixing the random audio pausing issue? I experience it even after disabling the proximity mode.

 

[Evgeni]

Has anybody had luck with fixing the random audio pausing issue? I experience it even after disabling the proximity mode.

I haven’t received an answer to my B&O support ticket for more than a week and besides the audio codec issue, I also reported the random audio pausing. So I returned the headphones while I was still eligible to do so. A bit disappointed with a premium brand such as B&O though.

 

[brueland]

Yeah, it's very disappointing. Would you give the support a reminder about your issue? Perhaps it speeds it up.