Long time lurker, new registrant and first post!
I've had these for 2 weeks now.
The short answer is: they're amazing for movies and television. With virtualization off, they're not too bad for music either.
I ended up with them in my pursuit of a pair of all-rounder headphones that I could use in multiple rooms with multiple devices, but also travel with (I'm in Australia, but travel to LA a lot). I have a pair of OPPO PM-3's, which I love, but I was willing to take the trade-off if I could find wireless cans that were, at the very least, 'good enough'.
Caveats here: I'm more of a movie guy than a music guy, and I'm locked into an Apple ecosystem for most of my devices.
So, this is how I got to these headphones and why I'm keeping them...
Started out with just connecting my PM3's to a Bluetooth receiver to use when I'm not in the lounge. Latency was a huge problem though, making them unusable for non-music purposes.
For movies and TV in the lounge, I'd been using the PM3's wired to a Sony STR-DN1080, and they sounded great. Wired, they pretty much do for movies what they do for music - provide stellar accuracy and detail. But still, it was stereo and movies are intended to have a little something more than just accuracy and detail. So, they're kinda flat for home entertainment purposes.
Tried the XM3's next. Great sound. Perfect noise cancelling. They paired with my Sony Receiver via LDAC, which gave them a big boost and next to no latency. But it's still a stereo signal over Bluetooth, so they sounded great like the PM3's, but they also sounded just as flat overall. Tried them wired instead and they, er, sounded like...what's the technical term...? Ass. They sounded like ass.
In other rooms, the XM3's were much more hit or miss. Paired via AptX to my LG TV, no latency, but they were extra flat. But that was the TV processing audio from an Apple TV 4K, downmixing to stereo, then transmitting the downmixed audio to the cans. Lot of detail lost, uber flat and quiet. Paired directly to the Apple TV 4K, sound was pretty great, but latency with AAC made them unusable for me.
Then the Dolby Dimension...
Build quality is great. Super comfortable. Can get a little sweaty, but I do live in a humid climate. I have concerns over what happens when the synthetic leather inevitably cracks and flakes, because it covers not only the earpads, but the cans themselves. This is not going to be a self-install with some replacement pads - these are going to need to go back for a swap-out if/when the time comes.
Bluetooth switching is second to none. Seriously. Everything you connect to is registered in the app, which you can stay connected to at the same time as another device (the lack of which I didn't like in the XM3's). So you can pick what you want the three physical buttons for, then modify them on the fly. Switching takes maybe 3-5 seconds. It's a press on the button, then you get the 'Apple TV connected' voice, and you're on your way.
The sound?
Amazing.
They're as close to an Atmos speaker setup on your head as you're likely to find. And I don't say that flippantly either. I went in knowing that watching movies with the 7.2 speakers is a different experience and sound profile than watching the same movies with cans on.
But these are different. They have the accuracy and detail I was getting from the PM3 and XM3, but the virtualization in these is just magic, pure and simple.
Soundstage is obviously not as large as the speaker setup but, apart from that, they reproduce the positioning and vibrancy that my speakers would. And I spent days replaying scenes with these on and off to compare the speakers to the cans. They hold up amazingly well.
My go-to scene for testing any home entertainment audio components is the shootout in HEAT. I've heard this scene so many times that I know every footstep, glass crack and gun shot. And these cans nailed every part of it. I would say, maybe, even better than my current speaker setup. They put you right there on that Los Angeles street, and the smaller soundstage oddly works a little in its favor by making close-by sounds more intimate while this chaos erupts and echoes around you.
But here's the catch...
You have to connect these directly to the source. If you have an Apple TV, connect them to that. A UHD player with Bluetooth? Connect them to that. HTPC? Same. Etc.
Because any processing that your TV or Receiver does in between the source and your headphones is going to strip away a lot of the magic.
The sound difference between playing a movie on the Apple TV 4K with the cans connected to the TV or AV Receiver's Bluetooth vs connected directly to the Apple TV is night and day.
I don't know how they achieve it but, with a direct connection to the source, they are turning a stereo signal over Bluetooth into a scarily accurate sound field cocooning your head.
With an ATMOS source, they just get even better. Although I'm not a huge fan of the movies themselves, the TRANSFORMERS films have sequences that were just made for demoing HT sound. Fly-bys, fly-overs, speed-pasts, slow motion American flags rippling in the wind ... all here in detail.
The cans support SBC, AAC, AptX and AptX Low Latency codecs.
The unfortunate thing is that most BT transmitting HT devices, you're getting SBC and AAC, and only if you're lucky.
With AAC on Apple devices, there is slight latency, but nowhere near as noticeable as the XM3's. It's there though. Every now and again, a footstep or gun shot will be ever so slightly after the shoe coming down or the muzzle flash going off. Closeup scenes with talking, if you concentrate, you might see the lips very slightly out of sync. And I mean when specifically watching for a tongue flicking for the 'l' sound or lips pursing for the 'w' sound. If you're absorbed in the movie though, it's just good enough to not be a problem.
I suspect Dolby did a lot of testing with these and Apple products, because the only other phones I get this lack of latency on AAC with is the AirPods.
However, being pedantic, I wanted to compare them even further, because these are really not portable and I really had my heart set on owning just one pair of cans for everything.
I remember using the Silent Cinema feature on my old Yamaha receiver and being impressed with its virtualization over headphones, so I replaced my STR-DN1080 with a Yamaha RX-V685. The intention being that if I could get my PM3's to sound as good wired to the Yamaha with Silent Cinema, then the Dimensions would be easy to return.
But, unfortunately, it's not even a contest. Yamaha Silent Cinema with the PM3's are much more vibrant than the same cans with the Sony AVR's stereo aux output, but the immersion just wasn't there. I did another day of A/B comparisons, because I really wanted an excuse to return these headphones, but nothing was even close enough to be good enough.
As a last ditch effort for the latency issue (or non-issue for most), I bought an Avantree Bluetooth Transmitter with AptX Low Latency, connected it to the aux port on the Yamaha, then tried Silent Cinema, Straight and Pure Direct modes via that connection. Straight and Pure Direct were much better, because it is bypassing all of the Yamaha's onboard processing and sending the signal directly to the headphones via the AptX LL dongle.
Latency was completely gone, but there was just a little of that sparkle missing. I'm going to have to do further A/B testing over the next few days to see if the missing vibrancy is really a thing, or whether I'm biased in favor of just using these cans direct.
So, for sound quality, best to worst on these cans:
1. Direct connection with source via AAC or better
2. AptX LL dongle in AVR, Straight or Pure Direct mode
3. Connection with source via TV or AVR (too much extra processing)
As I said; I'm more of a movie guy than a music guy, but I did put some favorite FLAC tracks through the wringer.
Mostly select tracks from Nirvana's NEVERMIND, Fleetwood Mac's RUMORS, an Eagles' GREATEST HITS compilation and Miles Davis' KIND OF BLUE.
Turning off the virtualization in the app, they sounded good. Obviously a little brighter than the PM3's neutral sound and not as analytical. But way less of a 'character' than something like a pair of off-the-shelf Beats.
With virtualization on, they're a fun listen. And sometimes you just want a fun listen. I wouldn't say they're putting you in the studio or in front of the stage, but there is definitely an inviting immersion there. If you just want to laze around with some pop or rock, then these will do the job and you'll likely have fun with them.
But really, if you're buying these, you're buying them primarily for Movies and TV. Music should be a secondary consideration.
So, I'm keeping them. They're just too good for what they do to send back. Nothing was close enough to be good enough except my speakers, but the whole point for these cans was to enjoy movies at night while the rest of the house sleeps. And at that, these are perfect.
But I'm keeping my PM3's too. As portable cans, they're the best I've found. And I still need them for anything neutral and analytical.
So, there you have it. I set out to replace my PM3's, but ended up with XM3's (sold on eBay), the Dolby Dimensions, a new Receiver, a Bluetooth dongle and STILL have the PM3's anyway.
