Slated for release March 2016 for $299.99, in North America, the Onkyo W800BT in-ear wireless headphones were presented by Gibson Innovations at CES 2016. With Noble Audio promising a similar concept for quite some time, it will be interesting to see if Gibson/Onkyo will be the first to market with the world’s first truly autonomous Bluetooth earpieces.
The W800BT concept was presented to the market by Onkyo of Japan in September 2015. With Noble Audio and some other crowdfunded projects promising a similar concept of integrating all the wireless electronics and rechargeable battery directly inside independent earpieces - in order to do without the “necklace” concept existing until now in similar wireless in-ear headphones - Gibson Innovations promoted the product as a working concept at CES 2016 in Las Vegas, and promised to be the first to market.
As many of the previous companies attempting the design have found, the challenge is not a small engineering feat, given the miniaturized dimensions of the two earpieces and the need to combine good quality audio drivers with amplification, wireless receivers and, most important, the battery to make it work for a decent period of time - without endangering the user by exposing such sophisticated electronics to moister and eventually even water.According to Onkyo, the W800BT True Wireless in-ear headphones have left and right earpieces that work independently and connect wirelessly to a user’s smart device and each other (right channel / left channel). “True Wireless is the future and we’re proud to showcase our genuine breakthrough innovation her at Las Vegas CES," said Sebastiaan Gruijters, Onkyo Business Leader at Gibson Innovations. “Our exciting advances in headphone technology featured in the W800BT allow users to immerse themselves in audio in a fantastic free and natural way.”
Free, undoubtedly, but many of the early attempts have also shown that one of the main concerns from users is that it also becomes very easy to loose one of the earpieces - particularly during fitness activities, one of the main target markets for wireless Bluetooth in-ears. So, the earpieces need to be balanced units that don’t fall-off easily, while being small enough and light enough to not cause discomfort.
Onkyo says the shape and the stabilizer design of the W800BT have been carefully considered according to ear geometry to ensure a secure, universal comfortable fit. The wireless implementation uses Bluetooth version 4.0, allowing for a listening range of up to 10m and supporting only SBC codecs and basic profiles, including A2DP.
According also to Onkyo, each of the W800BT earpieces incorporates an Ø8.6mm high-powered driver that delivers a balanced sound across a frequency range from all the way to 22kHz (sensitivity –107dB and 16Ω impedance). The closed acoustic architecture results in a clear and accurate audio experience with passive noise isolation, helping to improve the bass response. In this case, the right earpiece also includes a microphone to enable hands-free calls from any Bluetooth-enabled device.
The W800BT features a charging case to store headphones with its own internal battery, giving consumers the added convenience of four additional recharges. In this way, users are able to enjoy up to 3 hours music/talk time and up to 40 hours standby time. The charging case allows for a total of 5 charges, providing a total of 15 hours music playtime or 200 hours of standby time. Time for each recharge was not confirmed.
The Onkyo W800BT package includes the two earpieces, the charging case with built-in battery, USB cable and 3 pairs of silicone caps (Small, Medium, Large).
www.onkyo-headphones.com/en/headphones/in-ear/w800bt.html
