The Danish company Bang & Olufsen is known for extremes. (As you know, he recently sold a $55,000 CD player from 1996.)
Its latest product—the new Beoplay H100 headphones, out today—is proof of that. To create its next range of wearables, B&O built a new state-of-the-art R&D facility in Austria, and hired an entire ecosystem of experts to be able to bring the creation of its offerings fully in-house. (Which is a sacrifice, since B&O already has a large R&D headquarters in Struer, Denmark.)
“The whole concept of [Austria] the center was basically to get knowledge and build something unique—we spent the time needed to do something right and not, you know, deliver the next product,” said Bang & Olufsen Chief Technology Officer Neo Kaplanis, in a statement he might have canned elsewhere. “We wanted to build something that no one else could do.”
Kaplanis says there are already some great headphones out there today, but ultimately, it’s a “black plastic market” full of compromises between sound quality, style and aesthetics, and build quality. He wanted to make headphones without permission. And while the new H100s may look similar to the brand’s H95 headphones from 2020, Kaplanis says the guts are completely different.
In the past, he adds, when it comes to things beyond the company’s top-of-the-line acoustics, B&O has worked with different vendors and consultants to create their own headphones. But with their new structure, they have brought in a full multidisciplinary team of experts to give them complete control over their wearables. The team says it tested microphones in some of the 1,500 3D sounds, from trains to toilets. They spent years in R&D to create the first set of headphones other than gaming headsets to include Dolby Atmos sound. They dedicate hundreds of hours to just the headband, which is designed to adapt to the unique shape of each user’s head.
At $1,549, the end result comes with B&O’s hefty price tag—but with that you’re buying B&O’s trademark, as well as its technological advancements.
Improvements in sound
The headphones feature 40mm titanium drivers that deliver high-quality 96k/24-bit audio. This is unheard of in high-end headphones, but the H100 maintains that quality when other advanced features (noise cancellation, for example) are turned on at the same time.
Audio specifications aside, the headphones feature a number of improvements to the user experience that make wearing them a pleasure. When you strap on the headphones, they turn on immediately—a reason why, Kaplanis notes, if you’re wearing them, you probably want them. From there, thanks to the built-in studio-grade 10 microphone, you can decide how immersed you want to be in your sound, dialing the level of noise cancellation up or down using the haptic bevel on the side of either ear cup. If you want to be more present or ask a question from, say, a flight attendant, you can place your palm outside the ear cup or tap it to hear the world around you.
Head of Design Tiina Kierysch says she drew inspiration from the materials and colors of fine jewelry to achieve a sophisticated and timeless look. Here, that is seen in three colors: “Infinite Black,” “Hourglass Sand” and “Sunset Apricot.”
A few years ago, as Fast company reports, B&O has turned a strong focus on product longevity, and a big part of achieving that goal has been flexibility and products with replaceable and upgradeable parts. The H100 team says everything in the headphones was designed around that ethos—from the batteries to the toughened glass touch interface to the circuit boards to the sheepskin ear cushions to the software that supports it all.
Finally, B&O is releasing its new home wearable software platform, Amadeus, which will evolve as technology changes over time — and not at the mercy of the market. In addition, “[At] at this level, functionality is also tightly integrated between software and hardware,” added Mikka Tikander, director, head of acoustics at B&O, who previously led audio engineering for AirPods Max, Apple’s over-the-ear headphones.
We could go on and on about the specs and features of the H100s, but the design is ultimately driven by the experience of wearing them. “In our country,” said Tikander, “I think we have succeeded when you don’t think about the product. It just feels good.”
Source link
