[Rackhour]

At this current point in time, would any current or former users of the H9i recommend this as a purchase?

Of all the different features of the H9i, the replaceable battery is by far the most attractive one to me, and I feel that the initially high (compared to other Bluetooth headphones) investment would actually make it a better buy in the long run.

 

[winslord]

At this current point in time, would any current or former users of the H9i recommend this as a purchase?

Of all the different features of the H9i, the replaceable battery is by far the most attractive one to me, and I feel that the initially high (compared to other Bluetooth headphones) investment would actually make it a better buy in the long run.

Still the freaking best headphones on the market for me.

 

[jonprocter]

I’ d still recommend them. They’re comfortable, sound great, look great, the ANC is about 95% as good as the Sony WH-1000XM2 IMO, they have a replaceable battery and support audio delivery over USB-C. I don’t have the sharp s noise problem on my pair, mine don’t pause randomly, and the touch panel works perfectly - really not got a bad word to say about them other than the ANC hiss that’s not noticeable in places where you’d be using ANC anyway ‍

 

[Marsson]

Pretty much the same thoughts as jonprocter above me has great pair of headphones if you get a proper pair.

 

[Rackhour]

...if you get a proper pair.

That part is what concerns me the most. I live in Korea, and here, it's not exactly easy to get exchanges once you break the seal. People here have talked about exchanging their pairs until they got one that was not problematic, so I was wondering whether B&O has tweaked the H9i enough to deal with these problems...or whether it's another case of "vocal minority" and usually people with negative impressions being more vocal while people with positive impressions silently enjoying their headphones.

 

[jonprocter]

That part is what concerns me the most. I live in Korea, and here, it's not exactly easy to get exchanges once you break the seal. People here have talked about exchanging their pairs until they got one that was not problematic, so I was wondering whether B&O has tweaked the H9i enough to deal with these problems...or whether it's another case of "vocal minority" and usually people with negative impressions being more vocal while people with positive impressions silently enjoying their headphones.

For what it’s worth, I just got a new pair last week (sold my natural/tan leather ones because I wanted the new AW18 terracotta ones) and they’re perfect out of the box - I think this far into the product lifecycle as long as you get one made recently (mine have a serial number beginning in 30 so they were made very recently) you’ll probably be fine

 

[Michaelc136]

For what it’s worth, I just got a new pair last week (sold my natural/tan leather ones because I wanted the new AW18 terracotta ones) and they’re perfect out of the box - I think this far into the product lifecycle as long as you get one made recently (mine have a serial number beginning in 30 so they were made very recently) you’ll probably be fine

I think we all under estimate how different ears hear things, especially high frequencies.

I don’t think the H9i has changed, I also do not believe different models have different signatures.

I think most times it comes down to placebo, different hearing styles & environments

 

[jonprocter]

They’ve released a firmware update that fixed the sharp s problem, that’s why I don’t count it as a problem anymore despite seriously annoying me at launch

Edit:
I mean unless you weren’t happy with the sound overall to begin with or you still heard the sharpness even after the update, in which case yeah they’ve not changed - my two pairs sounded identical (and both functioned perfectly in every regard - maybe I’m just lucky).

 

[Michaelc136]

I’d like to present this to everyone.

https://www.soundstage.com/index.ph...ise-canceling-headphones&catid=263&Itemid=203

I think this proves that the H9i is a fairly weird headphone when it comes to frequency response.

Different configurations result in different sound profiles.

Doesn’t mean it’s bad though, more so unique.

 

[Rackhour]

Here’s another question I’d like your opinion on.

The black H9i currently costs $360 on Amazon USA. After shipping to Korea and import duties, I would pay about $460 for them. This is in contrast to the local Korean retail price of about $620.

However, I have learned that the Korean distributor will not honor non-Korean warranties. If you were in my shoes, would you say screw the warranty and save $160, or buy locally and secure the warranty?

 

[jonprocter]

Here’s another question I’d like your opinion on.

The black H9i currently costs $360 on Amazon USA. After shipping to Korea and import duties, I would pay about $460 for them. This is in contrast to the local Korean retail price of about $620.

However, I have learned that the Korean distributor will not honor non-Korean warranties. If you were in my shoes, would you say screw the warranty and save $160, or buy locally and secure the warranty?

I’d just send them off to B&O directly via beoplay.com’s warranty claim section instead of your distributor for any warranty claims. The warranty I have (sent direct from B&O a few days after purchasing at my local dealer) is international, and when I had a warranty claim for a pair of Beoplay E8s I had to post them to their German repair centre.

 

[jonprocter]

I’d like to present this to everyone.

https://www.soundstage.com/index.ph...ise-canceling-headphones&catid=263&Itemid=203

I think this proves that the H9i is a fairly weird headphone when it comes to frequency response.

Different configurations result in different sound profiles.

Doesn’t mean it’s bad though, more so unique.

Oh that’s cool! Been trying to find a sound profile for the H9i (can only find the H6 and H9). Like you said though, everybody hears a things differently - I hated the sound of the WH1000XM2 (sounded muffled to me, even with EQ tweaking) but lots of people love them as long as the person using them is happy then it ultimately doesn’t really matter what anybody else thinks

 

[Rackhour]

I’d just send them off to B&O directly via beoplay.com’s warranty claim section instead of your distributor for any warranty claims. The warranty I have (sent direct from B&O a few days after purchasing at my local dealer) is international, and when I had a warranty claim for a pair of Beoplay E8s I had to post them to their German repair centre.

So after you picked up your pair, I take it you had to register that pair via beoplay.com?

Did you pay for shipping when you made the claim?

 

[Deivydas]

At this current point in time, would any current or former users of the H9i recommend this as a purchase?

Of all the different features of the H9i, the replaceable battery is by far the most attractive one to me, and I feel that the initially high (compared to other Bluetooth headphones) investment would actually make it a better buy in the long run.

I sold my H9i when I received Sony 1000m3 - no regrets. Better sound, better comfort and way better noise canceling. H9i won only in looks departament I simply can’t recommend H9i just because of silly sound harshness, that was hurting my ears badly.

 

[jonprocter]

So after you picked up your pair, I take it you had to register that pair via beoplay.com?

Did you pay for shipping when you made the claim?

Nope was automatically registered for me because I bought them from a B&O dealer (I’d imagine Amazon purchases would need registering though), so I just filled in what was wrong and yep they paid for postage, all I had to do was drop it off at a UPS drop-off place. Might be worth double checking if you can do that in every country though.