JUNE 2019 MACWORLD 123damage in just a few hours.
ANC headphones reduce
your risk by reducing
ambient noise around you
(lowering the noise floor), so
that you can play your music
at a lower volume. As you’ve
probably guessed, some
ANC headphones are better
at this than others. If active
noise cancellation is the most
important feature you’re
looking for in headphones,
the Bose QuietComfort 35 (go.macworld.
com/bo35) and Sony’s WH-1000XM2
(go.macworld.com/1xm2) and
WH-1000XM3 (go.macworld.com/1xm3)
are better choices.
That said, the Beoplay H9i come
very close to ANC parity with those
competitors, and I think B&O’s
headphones sound better musically
speaking. I tested the Beoplay H9i over
a period of about five months in a variety
of environments: on an international
flight, in subways, on trains, walking city
streets, and in several noisy and
crowded environments.
The Beoplay H9i were extremely
effective at mitigating ambient noise in
every situation. These headphone did a
great job of putting me in a cone of
silence. When I plugged the headphones
into the airplane’s audio jack while
watching Ocean’s 8, for example, I could
listen to the movie easily at only one-
quarter to one-third volume. When I
switched to the Bose QC35 on the same
flight, I noted how the Bose did a slightly
better job in the ANC arena, lowering the
noise floor even further.
Like all other ANC headphones, turning
my ears to the direction of AC vents on the
train or airplane caused an accentuated
rumbling sound—much like the effect
when you open a single window in a car
while traveling at high speed.
In the air, the B&O H9i headphones
applied some pressure to my ears, but not
as much as the AKG N700 NC (go.
macworld.com/n700).
Perhaps more importantly, not only did
the Beoplay H9i mitigate ambient noise
effectively, they did so without sacrificing
too much of their audio performance.The headphone’s power, USB-C charging port, and 3.5mm
analog audio input are located on the right-hand ear cup.