Edifier WH950NB
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There’s no shortage of premium noise-canceling headphone options to consider. Still, the new Edifier WH950NB, with its exceptional audio performance at a competitive price, is worth adding to your list.
We loved the sound and comfort of the WH950NB headphones, and their ability to attenuate sounds around us was impressive.
With a retail price of $180, these headphones significantly undercut Sony’s equally excellent WH-1000XM4 and set AirPods Max shame on the cost front.
Of course, just because the price is right doesn’t mean a product is a must-buy. But after weeks of use, we can confidently say that the WH950NB headphones are great and offer tremendous value.
Edifier WH950NB review – Specs
Edifier’s WH950NB headphones are great because they pack a lot of valuable features for everyday use.
The WH950NB headphones are charged via USB-C
Battery life was exceptional and we loved not having to think about charging them often. The headphones are rated for 34 hours with ANC on and 55 hours with it off.
The headphones use Bluetooth 5.3 and can connect to two devices at the same time. We had no complaints about this niceness.
The WH950NB headphones support Hi-Res Audio and Hi-Res Audio wireless and are LDAC certified, but currently only for Android devices. The Google Fast Pair function is also available for Android devices.
It wasn’t all roses. There were a few disappointments we encountered. There is no way to skip tracks from the headphones.
There are physical buttons for volume, pause/play and changing noise canceling modes, but no skip button or way to modify an existing button to get that job done.
It’s an odd omission and probably not a deal breaker for anyone, but it caught us off guard and was annoying at times.
There is also no ear detection. If you take the headphones off your head, it won’t pause. This was less annoying than no skip button, but still a feature we’ve become accustomed to on the more expensive headphones.
Additionally, while there’s a power-off timer in the Edifier Connect app, presumably for use at night around bedtime, there’s no way to power off the headphones after a period of inactivity.
Listen to Edifier WH950NB
We tried the white color option and thought the headphones looked attractive enough. More importantly, the soft protein leather and memory foam ear cushions were comfortable. The comfort allowed for long listening sessions.
Memory foam made the headband and ear cushions comfortable for extended use
The headband and ear cushions were soft without too much pressure. We also didn’t have an overly sweaty feeling around the ears, but that will differ for other people.
WH950NB has a frequency response of 20Hz to 40kHz and uses 40mm drivers. As a result, the bass was deep and thick while the vocals were present and the midrange was clear.
A good example of fusing these elements together was Phoenix’s song “Identical”. Most importantly, though, these headphones felt personal across all genres of music and allowed each track to thrive.
These headphones struck a fine line of presenting accurate sound without appearing too flat or sterile.
If you want to use these wireless headphones for mobile gaming, an 80ms low-latency gaming mode is available in the Edifier Connect app.
In terms of noise reduction, there was plenty of choice. You can choose between high noise reduction, low noise reduction, wind reduction and ambient noise.
These modes can all be cycled through with the button on the headphones, or you can remove certain modes from the app so that the cycles through the button are shorter modes.
The ANC performance wasn’t as strong as Sony’s, but it was good enough to keep us focused at home and in a cafe.
The ambient sound mode, which lets us hear the world around us, kept us well informed about sounds we should listen to.
Will the Edifier WH950NB be your next pair of headphones?
There are a lot of really good general purpose wireless headphones that we could have recommend that sounds excellent and offers plenty of features, but few dip below the $200 price point.
The headphones can be folded to fit in the included carrying case
While $180 isn’t cheap, Edifier has made the WH950NB headphones a more affordable premium option.
We wish there were some little conveniences like ear detection or a skip button on the headphones, but we could live without those things in favor of sound quality, comfort and solid ANC performance.
Edifier WH950NB pros
- Dynamic and wide soundstage
- Better than average ANC performance
- Large value
Edifier WH950NB cons
- Lack of small features like idle shutdown
- No skip button on headphones
Rating: 4 out of 5
Where to buy Edifier WH950NB Headphones
These headphones are for sale at Amazon for $179.99.