[MayaTlab]

First solid measurements I've seen for these courtesy of Oratory1990 : https://www.dropbox.com/s/wh6e3irhku2hk83/B&O H95.pdf?dl=0
https://www.reddit.com/r/oratory1990/wiki/index/list_of_presets

Nothing to write home about, but in comparison to how awful some of B&O's headphones or some of its direct competitors are, it's not that bad.

 

[Higaida]

Could you imagine guys, my H95 headset that has been found to be defective is still somewhere in B&O service. It was bought more than 40 days ago and then sent to B&O after a lot of discussions with support. But... they somehow sent a new pair of headphones to wrong address(!) and then changed the address(!) but it was wrong again and after all the attempts it finally returned to B&O again. So it's already more than month in shipment and every single step takes about a week. (Just for information — it takes about 24 hours for regular shipment from B&O location to my address and when I sent them my defective headset to B&O it took about 24 hours). So I have to admit B&O service is really slow and they are not able to solve some irregular cases in short time. Actually they are not able to solve it at all... I worked as a chief marketer officer and I knew how important to keep clients happy. I would rather send a new shipment immediately If my company sent package to wrong address. But B&O spent more than month of my time and the problem is still not solved. I think support is really important part of every product. That is why I post it here.

 

[angelom]

Nothing to write home about, but in comparison to how awful some of B&O's headphones or some of its direct competitors are, it's not that bad.

I think the measurements indicating the h95 is very good in general, in fact. And if you looking at others known good headphones, the h95 is better or is similarly good, not only "not that bad" comparing ONLY with other b&o headphones.

 

[MayaTlab]

I think the measurements indicating the h95 is very good in general, in fact. And if you looking at others known good headphones, the h95 is better or is similarly good, not only "not that bad" comparing ONLY with other b&o headphones.

It's not as well tuned as some passive headphones that cost $150, despite featuring a DSP that could easily take care of some of the problems.

Most headphones on the market aren't that good anyway (regardless of price) compared to what could be done in 2020 with an active system. It's only decent insofar as the ANC BT competition is mostly trash.

 

[angelom]

's not as well tuned as some passive headphones that cost $150

How many exactly is "some passive headphones that cost $150"? What models?

It's only decent insofar as the ANC BT competition is mostly trash.

No, is better or similarly good than some known wired headphones, and some of this wired headphones aren't cheap.

 

[Andricop]

I would rather send a new shipment immediately If my company sent package to wrong address

Fully agree with you! And instead you're paying the price for their poor organisation.

In this area Bose is excellent. I would have thought B&O better but unfortunately Bose, which is an American company is a lot more customer oriented then a high-end European company...it's really not in European culture to be customer focused - and I know what I'm talking about when I speak about bad service, I live in Paris ...

 

[VICosPhi]

Could you imagine guys, my H95 headset that has been found to be defective is still somewhere in B&O service.

Sorry it must be so frustrating. What was the issue with your H95 btw?

it's really not in European culture to be customer focused - and I know what I'm talking about when I speak about bad service, I live in Paris ...

This has been my experience as well. I was in UK and bought a digital camera in the heart of London which was DOA so took it back to the store the next day and the guy said:

"You must have broken it, what is the proof it was DOA? We can't accept return unless you prove it was bad out of the box. Also we will charge 35% restocking fees because it was returned to us as defective. I advise you sell it online and tell them it is not defective so you get full money back". (!)

Mind you there was no physical damage to it... I was shocked to see this kind of crap in a prominent camera store well known in UK. I then realized how lucky people who live in US are when it comes to customer service.

B&O service has been excellent for me in US by the way. I think the technical support people are from Denmark and returns are processed by B&O people from US locally.

 

[PenguinHeadphoner]

Hi,

In summer 2018, I bought the B&O H9i from an official retailer in the south of France.
In october 2019, the H9i turned out to be defective. Bluetooth could not be associated with any device anymore.

I wrote B&O about this.
They replied asking to return it to dealer.
I explained that this would be difficult as I bought it in south of France and I live in Paris (or next to Paris).

So they asked to make some basic test to see if I could fix it.
Those did not work.
They asked if I could make a short movie of the problem, which I did.
After they got the movie, they said that there seems to be a problem indeed.
So they gave me a coupon to print to return the headphone to be serviced.

After 3 days, the headphone arrived at their facility.
After 3 more days, they came back to me and said that the headphone was sent back to me with a tracking number.
3 days later, I could go get the package... SURPRISE : what I got was a brand new H9 3d gen as a replacement. Only thing is, it was the "Silver and gold" version
Oh : and they also added : please keep these mails as the warranty will start for 2 years again beginning from the day you'll receive the headphone.

Not complaining about the customer service. I shipped the headphone to Germany by the way, not Denmark...

Regards.

 

[MayaTlab]

How many exactly is "some passive headphones that cost $150"? What models?
No, is better or similarly good than some known wired headphones, and some of this wired headphones aren't cheap.

The K371 is a good example of what's wrong with the current crop of ANC BT headphones. Being passive they don't have any means to address their FR curves deficiencies with EQ, and yet they measure better than most active headphones.

DSPs have never been as cheap and easily implemented as they are now, and yet most ANC BT headphones on the market still can't bother to EQ their frequency response to eliminate some of the grossest deviations from the response curves that either personal preference variations or HRTF variations would encompass.

While the H95 measure better than a lot of competing ANC BT headphones (which isn't saying much since most of them are cr*p), there's a lot of room for better. As an example, there is zero rational justification for the wiggles in that region of the graph (there is no evidence whatsoever that personal preference variation could justify narrow peaks and dips in that FR range and HRTF profiles variation aren't that significant in that area of the FR range) :

Most headphones on the market are poor compared to what can be actually done in 2020, regardless of price, so it shouldn't be hard to find wired headphones that measure worse than the H95. It's an industry in desperate need of consolidation and professionalisation IMO.

Hence my "not bad". It's miles better than this POS (https://www.dropbox.com/s/3wx3nvscvt44i4w/Sony WH1000XM4.pdf?dl=0), but bettered by much cheaper passive headphones, and there's no good excuse for that when you already have built in all the means to address a lot of these deficiencies.

And "not bad" might be enough for me to actually buy one if in the coming months the upcoming ANC BT headphones continue to disappoint.

 

[Dolores Dolomites]

Nothing to write home about, but in comparison to how awful some of B&O's headphones or some of its direct competitors are, it's not that bad.

That's for sure. I had the chance to hang around with the H9i and A/B test for quite some time at my local B&O shop (I actually become friend to the guy since he's from the same district where I live, which is quite rare these days!) and to me, it was night and day.
Now, graphs are fun and I agree about the fact that they give you a decent picture about the tuning of a certain set. But that's just it, in my opinion.
What really made me kind of "write home", that is prepare my account to take a sudden €800 slash, wasn't just the frequency response but it was above-average (for a wireless ANC set) dynamics and stage. The H95 is indeed a punchy pair o' phones. Transients are very fast all across the board, and that's probably the main reason why the mids don't sound as recessed as the graph would suggest, along with the fact that you almost get no range of frequencies bleeding into another, which is indeed saying a lot. How they managed to achieve that with a single 40mm dynamic driver is really hard to explain for me.
Positioning is also definitely more that just "not bad", and I'm comparing it to a king-in-positioning pair of IEMs like the ThieAudio Monarch here, so I know what I'm talking about. Soundstage is also pretty wide for a closed-back set.

Anyway, I've set an EQ preset in Neutron like suggested in that PDF you linked us to, MayaTlab, and I really liked it: doesn't do magic, but it gets rid of that little extra sharpness and inconsistency in the trebles, so I might end up switching to that equalization on hot-trebles tracks. Thank you for the link!

Off topic, I finally charged the H95 for the first time! That was exactly on their "monthversary", October 12, when I got them at 80% battery level... 'Bout time! =)

 

[Higaida]

Sorry it must be so frustrating. What was the issue with your H95 btw?

It had a problem with right dial ring that controls volume. It rotated harder than left dial and increased volume faster than decreased it and sometimes stoped working at all for about half of full turn.

 

[Bompah]

This has been my experience as well. I was in UK and bought a digital camera in the heart of London which was DOA so took it back to the store the next day and the guy said:

"You must have broken it, what is the proof it was DOA? We can't accept return unless you prove it was bad out of the box. Also we will charge 35% restocking fees because it was returned to us as defective. I advise you sell it online and tell them it is not defective so you get full money back". (!)

Mind you there was no physical damage to it... I was shocked to see this kind of crap in a prominent camera store well known in UK. I then realized how lucky people who live in US are when it comes to customer service.

What you experienced is illegal in the UK and I'm surprised you experienced it from a well known store. Generally my experience here in the UK the customer service for purchased goods is very good, and most stores will swap new for old when you have an issue early on or handle a warranty matter for you, at the very least in the first 30 days.

Although, I must admit it has been a little while since I bought something in a store which had issues. I buy most things online these days as we have better consumer protection and stronger rights when you buy online. "Re-stocking" fees aren't even allowed in the first 14 days when you order online as long as the goods are return in reasonably good order.

 

[larzy]

Just received the new golden colour. Can’t wait to listen to these .

 

[Dolores Dolomites]

Just received the new golden colour.

Congratulations on your H95 purchase!
Photos and impressions are welcome, of course. =)

 

[larzy]

Too early for sound impressions but I think they sound great

More pictures here: