[OkayKun]

Hey folks!
I registered for this question, this will be my first post on here so please be nice! ;-D
 
I tested the H8 in the Bang & Olufsen Store and I fell in love with their design and sound. I really liked the bass!
Well the store is quite far away and I missed to test one thing:
It is possible to use the cans wired and without NC. I looked in the instructions online and it seems you just have to turn them off completely.
But ... how will the sound be? I totally loved the sound and the punchy bass of the H8 in blutooth, wired and with NC on. I didnt test them wired and switched off...
Will the sound be as great as it is switched on?
My home is very noisy with a busy street and lots of cars next to my window, I love the NC of the Bose QC25. But my workplace is very quiet, I dont need NC and can happily live without the white noise.
But my concerns are, that switched off the sound might not be as good...
The Bose QC25 have terrible sound switched off, unusable.
Can someone of you (happy?) H8 owners test this for me? 
 
Best wishes!

 

[chailee80]

  Hey folks!
I registered for this question, this will be my first post on here so please be nice! ;-D
 
I tested the H8 in the Bang & Olufsen Store and I fell in love with their design and sound. I really liked the bass!
Well the store is quite far away and I missed to test one thing:
It is possible to use the cans wired and without NC. I looked in the instructions online and it seems you just have to turn them off completely.
But ... how will the sound be? I totally loved the sound and the punchy bass of the H8 in blutooth, wired and with NC on. I didnt test them wired and switched off...
Will the sound be as great as it is switched on?
My home is very noisy with a busy street and lots of cars next to my window, I love the NC of the Bose QC25. But my workplace is very quiet, I dont need NC and can happily live without the white noise.
But my concerns are, that switched off the sound might not be as good...
The Bose QC25 have terrible sound switched off, unusable.
Can someone of you (happy?) H8 owners test this for me? 
 
Best wishes!

They actually sound their best when wired and turned off.

 

[OkayKun]

Hey! Thank you for that reply!
Is the bass the same when turned off? (yes... I like the increased bass of the H8)

 

[Ahzari]

  Hey! Thank you for that reply!
Is the bass the same when turned off? (yes... I like the increased bass of the H8)

I felt like the bass seemed more present with the NC on, but that may be because other frequencies are being affected by the NC.

 

[chailee80]

Hey! Thank you for that reply!
Is the bass the same when turned off? (yes... I like the increased bass of the H8)

The bass sounds about the same to me in either mode, it's a bit overdone for my tastes but better to have a bit too much than not enough I think. The biggest difference is with the noise cancelling on, the mids sound a little recessed and the overall sound seems a little more congested. I usually have nc off anyway so it no big deal, passive isolation is good enough when out on the street, haven't travelled with them yet. My biggest gripe is the Bluetooth connectivity, there seems to be random drop outs which require me to go to my settings and reconnect. Also when I have both my iPad and iPhone connected it seems to favour the iPad for some reason. If I try to play music on my iPhone it always seems to drop out and connect back to the iPad and even if I have one of them turned off it doesn't always auto connect when I turn them on which is very annoying. I'm not sure if I will keep them due to the dodgy connectivity I'm having. I'm thinking about grabbing the new b&w p5 wireless to see how it compares.

 

[OkayKun]

Oh wow...
Many people seem to have problems with the bluetooth... 
And I read about the Sennheiser BTD 504190 Bluetooth receiver making things much better but...
THats no solution for iPhones and iPads... 
Very discouraging

 

[chailee80]

  Oh wow...
Many people seem to have problems with the bluetooth... 
And I read about the Sennheiser BTD 504190 Bluetooth receiver making things much better but...
THats no solution for iPhones and iPads... 
Very discouraging

Yeh i'm rather disappointed with the bad connectivity, i dont know if its due to the headphones or my apple devices or possibly both. I was listening at my desk today, had my ipad sitting on the desk about half a meter away from me, nothing in between and i was having cut outs. Very annoying indeed!

 

[OkayKun]

Hm ... I had cutouts with every Bluetooth headphone i tried in stores... maybe because outside are more bluetooth devices.
 
How is the bluetooth whine though? That high pitched noise most bluetooth headphones have. My girlfriend has a rather cheap set of cans and the whine is terrible. 
Out in the stores nothing was audible, of course, as you have noise around you.
But I know that most have that high pitched whine... i have very sensitive ears.
Did anyone compare these to for example the Sennheiser Momentum Wireless, on ear or around ear?

 

[chailee80]

  Hm ... I had cutouts with every Bluetooth headphone i tried in stores... maybe because outside are more bluetooth devices.
 
How is the bluetooth whine though? That high pitched noise most bluetooth headphones have. My girlfriend has a rather cheap set of cans and the whine is terrible. 
Out in the stores nothing was audible, of course, as you have noise around you.
But I know that most have that high pitched whine... i have very sensitive ears.
Did anyone compare these to for example the Sennheiser Momentum Wireless, on ear or around ear?

This was at home sitting inside at my desk and still getting cut outs which i think is just not acceptable. Apart from the cut outs i don't notice any whine when listening to music, there might be something when no music is playing, i'll give them a test and see what i find.

 

[OkayKun]

Thats unacceptable you're right...
And thanks for checking. When music was playing I never recognised any whine, except with the cheap August cans of my girlfriend. And here it only was audible in quiet parts.
I am just interested if all bluetooth technology headphones still have this.

 

[thelurker]

Can't believe b&o would release a $500 bluetooth headphone and it cuts out at home?? Is this a wide spread issue?

 

[chailee80]

  Thats unacceptable you're right...
And thanks for checking. When music was playing I never recognised any whine, except with the cheap August cans of my girlfriend. And here it only was audible in quiet parts.
I am just interested if all bluetooth technology headphones still have this.

Theres nothing that i would consider whining with no music playing, with noise cancelling on there is a slight hiss which is not noticeable once music starts playing. With noise cancelling off theres maybe a faint bit of hiss or arftifacting if you really try to listen for it, this goes away a few seconds after you stop playback and then you'll get a slight popping noise when you hit play again.

 

[cmouse58]

Was wondering if anyone also experienced horrible call quality? I tried H8 at B&O store, MediaMarkt and Apple Store in Berlin. While the sound was great and noise cancelling was effective enough enough to let me hear the soft singing in some arias, the call quality was really bad. Not only can't the person on the other end hear my voice loud enough to make out the words I said, the voice from the headphones was like being played back on a radio with lots of static sounds. I don't think it's just the problem of one headphone because I tried it on all 3 locations and they all have the same problem. However, B&W P5 wireless has no such issue. The call was clear and mic can pick up my speaking even in open loud space.
 
Anyone with similar experience? I am using iPhone 6 btw.

 

[rasmushorn]

  Was wondering if anyone also experienced horrible call quality? I tried H8 at B&O store, MediaMarkt and Apple Store in Berlin. While the sound was great and noise cancelling was effective enough enough to let me hear the soft singing in some arias, the call quality was really bad. Not only can't the person on the other end hear my voice loud enough to make out the words I said, the voice from the headphones was like being played back on a radio with lots of static sounds. I don't think it's just the problem of one headphone because I tried it on all 3 locations and they all have the same problem. However, B&W P5 wireless has no such issue. The call was clear and mic can pick up my speaking even in open loud space.
 
Anyone with similar experience? I am using iPhone 6 btw.

Yes. I have had the same experience. Both in receivers end and in my end the sound was bad and almost unbearable to have a normal conversation. I always ended up disconnecting the H8 and just use the phone instead. 

 

[OkayKun]

For me too.
Really disappointed in that. My biggest flaw so far with these cans. How on earth can the call quality be so terrible, when a 50$ August pair from China has much better Mic quality?
 
Strange thing I found out: Using the H8 for Skype. When I used the MacBooks Mic,the caller could hear me nice and clear. And also I had nice audio quality and could hear the callers voice clearly. But then I changed to the H8's Mic in the Skype settings and not only did my audio quality the caller heard become very bad, also the caller suddenly became muffled in my ears...
So these headphones are just terrible for calling ...