Technics EAH-AZ80 Review: Premium ANC Earbuds With A Price To Match
- Great sound
- Outstanding ANC
- Great (and adjustable) transparency
- Completely customizable controls
- Expensive
- Battery life could be better
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You can look for a few different qualities when shopping for the best true wireless earbuds. Maybe you're looking for rich, premium sound, long-lasting comfort, killer Active Noise Cancellation, or the oft-overlooked solid transparency mode so you can talk while wearing the earbuds. As luck would have it, the Technics EAH-AZ80 earbuds tick all of those boxes, but they're not without some compromise, and one of those is a big compromise that might be hard to justify for some.
For others, it's totally worth it, but it all depends on how much you want to preserve your hearing. Because the sound coming from earbuds can be subjective from person to person, ANC and passive noise dampening that comes from a good fit can be the most important thing to look for in a set of earbuds. Technics provided us with a pair of EAH-AX80 earbuds for the purpose of this review.
Premium look and feel
The Technics earbuds are designed to go into your ear and ear canal, which makes the fit very important. Not everyone will like how these earbuds sit — it will largely depend on the shape of your ear. Personally, they fit into my ears wonderfully, as if they were purposefully molded for my ears. This obviously won't be the case for everyone.
The earbuds come with seven different ear tips so that you can find just the right fit inside your ear canal. That's step one in the defense against outside noise. Once you have a great fit, the noise you can hear from outside is lessened considerably, so have patience and find the right ear tips; it's worth the time investment.
The buds reside in a battery case that is not the smallest we've ever tested, but it's not super bulky either. The buds slip into their spots and attach securely magnetically. The earbuds each hold a charge of about seven hours, which is impressive considering how small they are. The case holds juice for another 24 hours. All of these estimates are provided by Technics, but they seem consistent with our testing, though we will update this article if we find that not to be the case long term.
The case supports either wired USB-C charging or Qi charging which is a nice bonus.
Everything is just a tap away
Each earbud has a touch-sensitive pad on the outside that can be configured any way you want them to be. The buds are controlled by a number of taps or by long taps. You can do anything from start and stop playback, to answering and hanging up a call, to changing the track or the volume. It's all completely customizable in the Technics app.
The touchpads are also resistant to accidental triggers if you are just pushing the earbud back into place. You need very deliberate taps to control the buds. That's something of a double-edged sword. You don't necessarily want to miss taps, but overall, Technics errs on the right side of caution here. Just be purposeful when controlling your earbuds and you'll be fine.
Other controls in the app include the equalizer, and earbud locator — either by map or by sounding beeps to locate them. The app also allows you to control how much noise the headphones let in when listening in ambient mode. That's important because along with ANC, a good ambient mode is hard to find among earbuds. This control lets you set the amount of outside noise you want to let in for a much more comfortable experience.
The sound is amazing
These earbuds each have 10mm drivers for exceptional sound and clarity. Even when the equalizer is set flat, there's a lot of depth in the sounds coming from these buds. The equalizer comes with a few presets and a five-channel custom profile. For buds this good, there should be a wider range of frequency adjustment, just because these buds are capable of handling it. As it stands you're limited to 100hz, 315hz, 1khz, 3.15khz, and 10khz.
Whether you're listening to dubstep violin from Lindsey Sterling or heavy metal like Anthrax, you are going to get audio that is both powerful and clear. The flat EQ is ok, but the "Dynamic" preset was definitely the ticket for impressive sound. Tests with voice calls suggested that audio was clear, even while a caller was driving a vehicle with its windows open. That's largely due to Technic's "Just my voice" functionality that can filter out outside noises and transmit just your voice as the name suggests.
The importance of ANC and isolation
When it comes to hearing health, ANC and isolation are critical to how long and how loud you can listen to your earbuds. Audiologist Sharon A. Sandridge told the Clevland Clinic blog that "listening at 80% volume for a maximum of 90 minutes at a time is the general rule of thumb...the longer you listen, the lower the volume." Put simply, the lower the volume you use to listen to your earbuds, the better it will be for your long-term ear health.
With ANC on and a proper fit for the earbud, you'll be able to listen to your music and podcasts at a much lower level than 80%, even with a noise like a train or a fan nearby. The ANC is rock solid and the multiple fits of earbuds ensure that you can get a good seal in your ear.
Additionally, the transparency mode is exceptional as well. It's one of the most natural-sounding transparency modes on the market today, and the ability to adjust the amount of noise coming through in the app is the icing on the cake.
Three points of connectivity
One particularly neat future of these earbuds is three-point multipoint connectivity. Most earbuds that support multipoint Bluetooth connectivity will support two points. Technics adds a third device, with a small caveat. When connected to three devices, only one device can play through the headphones, obviously, and it's going to be the latest one to start broadcasting sound. If you're listening to YouTube music on your phone and hit play on a video on your PC, the PC will take over (and pause the phone). That's a pretty cool setup with allows you to combine all your headphone needs into one set. The earbuds are comfortable enough to wear all day, so this is an added bonus on top of it.
Getting those devices to connect was somewhat of a challenge since it's not terribly obvious how to get them into pairing mode. They'll go into pairing mode if you wear them and tap and hold both earbuds for 10 seconds. That may take the user a bit to figure out, but once they do, they'll be able to connect to three devices as advertised. This is imperfect, and it's largely because Bluetooth is still not perfect in this regard. It would be nice if Technics could work out a new solution to make this more discoverable, so it's easier to take advantage of the feature it's particularly proud of.
Other test notes
The Technics EAH-AZ80 earbuds come with IPX4 water resistance which means the buds are splashproof and can survive out in the rain, but Technics also points out that the case is not IPX4, so if you get caught out in the rain, toss the buds into a pocket and dry them off before replacing them in the case.
The earbuds can connect to your phone's voice assistant, and that control is also customizable. It's an extra layer of accessibility in case the trigger words don't wake your assistant while driving.
The earbuds case has a soft pad in the lid that prevents it from making a sharp clap when the case closes. It's a minor thing, but it shows the attention to detail given these earbuds.
The earbuds also operate on very low latency, so you can wear them while gaming. While the sound doesn't sync up perfectly, the discrepancy did not end up being a distraction while playing games like "Genshin Impact."
Technics EAH-AZ80 earbuds final verdict
Put simply, these are some of the best earbuds you can buy. They're comfortable, great for your hearing, and pack powerful sound into a reasonably small package. The earbud case is a tad on the bulky side, compared to others, and it would be nice to see more than 7 hours of battery life on a charge, just so people can get through a traditional workday without having to charge at lunch. Then there's the cost — at $299.99 (on Amazon) these are also among the most expensive earbuds you can buy.
However, for the level of quality, you're getting in sound and ANC, that's not too much to ask. They sound that good. But it's enough to give the more thrifty shoppers a healthy dose of hesitation, especially since OnePlus launched a pair of ANC-enabled headphones for one-fifth the price. You do indeed pay for premium here, no doubt, and if you decide to take the plunge, you will be quite satisfied with your purchase.