HWM Singapore — May 2017

The Onkyo W800BT
was actually one of
the earliest completely
wireless headphones on
the market, announced in
January at CES 2016, with
units hitting the market
as early as March 2016. It
took a lot longer to come
to Singapore, but since it’s
still Onkyo’s only model in
this category, it remains
relevant.
Like most of the
competition (read our April
2017 issue), battery life for
the W800BT remains low,
managing just three hours
of playback on a full charge.
That’s why the included
carrying case also acts as
a spare charger, allowing
for an additionalȴve

CONCLUSION

Great looks,

but audio

performance

doesn’t justify

the price.

There’s only a single on/o΍button

on the headset.

charges, giving you about

18 hours playback in total.

With the W800BT, the left

and right earpieces work

independently, so they will

have to pair with each other

before connecting to your

audio device. Despite their

somewhat

large size, the

W800BTȴts

nicely into your

ears, giving an

above-average

seal for passive

noise isolation.

One thing

to note is that

there are no

other buttons

on the W800BTs other than

the single one in the center.

This means the only thing

you can do without taking

out your smartphone, is

to pick up a call or shut o΍

the headphones. That’s

incredibly limiting.

In terms of audio, we

found that they performed

better on pieces with

greater emphasis on the

mid-high end. Instrumental

pieces like Ottmar Liebert’s

Fireopal are rendered

nicely, as is the acoustic

recording of Eric Clapton’s

Tears in Heaven. Where

it feels a lacking is on the

low end, as

we sometimes

struggle to hear

the bass notes.

On our formal

test tracks,

the W800BT

did best with

Adele’s Melt

My Heart to

Stone and The

Eagles’ Hotel

California – not a surprising

result considering these

are the two tracks with

less prominent bass

components.

During testing, we faced

constant drop outs from

the left headset though,

something we didn’t

encounter from other true

wireless headphones we’ve



TESTED & RATED

SINGAPORE

PICTURES

21.<2

8)78

A miss-wired

opportunity

-OLYP5 2
@Y/9

tested previously (again, the

April 2017 issue), so that’s

certainly one main area that

Onkyo must look to improve

on.

2

AT A GLANCE

FREQUENCY

RESPONSE

6-20,000 Hz

SENSITIVITY

107dB

IMPEDANCE

16ohm

WEIGHT

125g

PRICE

$489

76 +:0 | MAY 2017