John Darko
Bang & Olufsen has announced the Beoplay H100: the successor to its Beoplay H95 active noise-cancelling Bluetooth headphones. The new model puts 4cm titanium drivers sitting behind aluminium grilles over our ears to echo the design language of the Danish company’s Beolab 90 loudspeakers. Perhaps this is why the press release tells us that the “Beoplay H100 doesn’t just champion sound excellence, it feels like design excellence” and “Beoplay H100 is the best pair of headphones we have ever created”.
As a nod to user serviceability and product longevity, the lambskin-covered earcups and the knitted-textile inner headband are both removable and – therefore – replaceable. Back to the press release: “The new headphones have been designed based on cradle-to-cradle principles, and the company expects Beoplay H100 to be officially certified during 2025.”
The outer side of the earcups is covered in a “smooth, scratch-resistant and hardened glass” to double as a haptic touch surface with additional control coming from the click buttons located on the rear underside of each earcup rim. Those controls can be customised within the accompanying smartphone app.
Place your hand over one earcup to momentarily engage the H100’s ‘TrueTransparency™’ transparency mode. B&O claims this allows you to “hear your surroundings as clearly as if you weren’t wearing headphones.” Transparency mode is marshalled by the same ten “carefully configured” microphones that fuel the H100’s active noise-cancellation circuit and assist with the internal EarSense technology, which Bang & Olufsen claims optimises in real-time the sound of the H100 according to the wearer’s (unique) fit. Dolby Atmos compatibility and auto-wear detection are also part of the feature set.
Battery life is rated at 34 hours with – more impressively – a 5-minute quick charge netting 5 hours of playback time. When not in use, the H100 enter low-power mode for up to 90 days of standby time but placing them in the accompanying “luxurious leather case” turns the headphones off completely for up to a year of standby time.
Codecs? The H100’s press release makes no mention of ’em. Only that the H100 can play back up to 24bit/96kHz. And whilst hi-res audio playback might be possible, the narrow nature of the Bluetooth date pipe means it will also be lossy. Data will be thrown away. (A quick Google tells us that the outgoing H95 gave iPhone users AAC, Android users aptX Adaptive and the Bluetooth SIG-mandated SBC as a fall-back).
The Beoplay will sell for £1299, €1499 or US$1549 to land in the same price territory as the Mark Levinson No. 5909 and the T+A Solitaire T (reviewed here). Your choice of three finishes: Infinite Black, Hourglass Sand and Sunset Apricot.
Further information: Bang & Olufsen
