UreiNoMasou
New Head-Fier
These are my main headphones, and I've been thinking about them a lot recently, so I thought I'd answer some of your questions and maybe extend it into a mini layman's review.
Do they support multipoint connect?
They do not support multipoint connect. I honestly find them to be a bit finicky sometimes with not connecting to devices or not connecting properly. Like, it will connect to my laptop but the sound will still be coming from the laptop speakers, forcing me to turn the headphones off and on again. Having bluetooth on on two nearby devices also makes the headphones struggle to connect to either or focus on one only.
Can they be used in passive mode? (non-powered).
They can, but they sound like crap.
This was one of the main draws that convinced me to buy a pair of bluetooth headphones, as while bluetooth is fine for music, I use my headphones a lot for gaming (mainly portable consoles) and watching stuff on my laptop. Whenever you use them wired, you need to have them powered on otherwise they are just a muffled mess. When I run out of battery, I simply stop using them.
Do you still use them? How did you like them over time?
I've now had these headphones for over two years, and while I like them a lot, some of the downsides have been starting to grate on me recently. Back when I was looking for a new pair of headphones, I tried these out in a store and absolutely loved the sound.
I'm not much of an audiophile, so I can't get into details, but they are much better than any other headphones I have used. I also really like the bass that these provide. My previous pair were a SATOLEX DH307-A1, and while they had great clarity, the bass was really lacking, and some songs would sound harsh or almost piercing. The E700As were a huge improvement all around.
I was hesitant about buying wireless headphones because I mainly use them on devices without bluetooth or for games/movies, where the latency is unacceptable to me, but the option to use them wired and a half-price sale convinced me.
Wireless vs wired, battery, etc.
So I touched on this above, but in addition to using these wirelessly, you can also used them wired (either powered or passive). Using them wired while powered sounds great and there is even an improvement in sound quality over bluetooth. I can't describe it in detail, but they sound crisper and more detailed when wired. Not quite sure what Hi-Res means, but that's only available when using these wired.
That said, wired while in passive mode (headphones powered off) sounds terrible and is unusable in my opinion.
This might not be a problem for some, but I often use these all day while working and then want to use them to game at night, etc. The battery does last a good while, but it's pretty disheartening to have them shut off on me while I'm doing something and then not be able to use them, until I charge them up again. I don't think I ever got anywhere close to the 35 hours that Yamaha claimed, but I'd say they last maybe around 15-20 hours or so. Even after two years of use.
It does give me long-term concerns though, as when the battery does finally give out, I won't really be able to use the headphones at all.
There do seem to be issues with charging and battery levels though. Often when I charge them (which takes quite a few hours), the charge light will go off, but if I wait a while they start charging again. It's not a matter of them just repeatedly topping off the battery as the subsequent charge lasts a long time. I'm not sure if they are charging incorrectly, but sometimes they don't seem to have as much life as usual.
Another factor that is the battery levels always seem to be inaccurate, at least in windows. This, of course, could be a windows specific problem, but the battery levels I see on devices (even the dedicated Yamaha app) seem to fluctuate wildly and often don't match what the actual headphones tell me (a voice says whether the battery is high/medium/low). Recently, a full charge is only showing up as 79%, so again I'm not sure if the issue is in the headphones' internal battery reporting or Windows.
Noise cancelling
While the ANC is meant to be a main draw of these headphones, it's not a reason I bought them. Maybe it's just me, but with it on, I can hear a faint kind of hissing sound, which bothers me. There's also an ambient mode which lets background sound through. Honestly, I think they perform best with the ANC off. The bulk of the cups actually provides very good isolation as is, and I think the sound quality is best this way.
Features
These have some fancy features that Yamaha advertise like Listening Optimizer and Listening Care, but for the most part having them on or off sounded pretty much the same to me. Also, you can only adjust them with the mobile app, so I don't even know if the settings carry over when I use the headphones on my laptop or other devices.
I don't know much about bluetooth codecs, so I can't help you there.
Feel/build
These are quite large and bulky, but I like the aesthetic, and for the most part, I think they are pretty well made.
I do have a problem with the band starting to hurt my head after a while due to the pressure, but this could be due to the fact that I shave my head.
One disappointment though is that I recently noticed two small cracks that have formed in the plastic above the cups where they swivel. I have no idea how it happened, as I try to take really good care of these, but at least the cracks seem merely cosmetic and nothing major. Still, I'm not thrilled about it when I consider the original price point for these headphones and only two years of use.
Overall
I think these are great headphones, just not the headphones I should have purchased based on how I use them. For someone who uses them exclusively with bluetooth and makes use of the ANC, then I think they're a great buy if you can find them at a low price. The sound quality is really fantastic in my opinion, but again, take that with a grain of salt.
Finally, I doubt many people will look at this thread, but what would be a good pair of wired headphones with similar sound to the E700A? I want something with good bass like these, but preferably at a similar or lower price point.
