Hi guys,
Thought I'd give you a small update regarding my H9i adventures since I hadn't posted anything in quite a while. With my latest H9i, my 3rd as described here above, I had the issue that the touch gestures stopped working (only play/pause would work) and every now and then the headphone would not respond when I'd turn it on or off (it occured like 5 times that I'd turn the headphone off but the white light would still be on). Furthermore, I had (once again) the distortion issue with this 3rd one and -for me - it was not fixed by the latest update, but since I was tired of the time and effort that I put in communicating this to B&O, I accepted that I'd have to live with sliding the Tonetouch slightly to the left to make the distortion go away. Of course, the unresponsiveness of the touch gestures made me return my 3rd H9i. As some have pointed out, I believe this is just very very poor quality consistency. For me it's unbelievable that there are so many and such a variety of issues with the quality consistency. I've experienced all the various issues that have been reported now in either of the 3 H9i's that I've had. The new one I got after returning my 3rd, was the apotheosis of consecutive quality issues because now for the first time: I do NOT have the S sound-distortion . Don't ask me why, how, what - I'm cannot not say that I am happy or relieved, it's just random luck.
In conclusion, my 4th Beoplay H9i seems to be the H9i that I was willing to pay 500 euros for in the very beginning. The inconsistencies are really a shame and to be they are unforgivable, I have not experienced this ever before. For now I am happy that I appear to have hit a good one, but the inconsistencies that (you and) I have been experiencing are just not OK in this price range. The only ''positive'' note I can place is that customer care was swift: they haven't rejected my request for a replacement procedure once....