If any brand should test the market for a new flagship luxury model, retailing for more than $1,500 US, it should be Bang & Olufsen. With the AirPods Max, Apple showed that selling a premium product makes sense in the vibrant wireless headphones segment, and since then multiple brands have explored launching products priced well above. With its new flagship headphones Beoplay H100, Bang & Olufsen makes a statement at the top of the premium segment, offering the right combination of brand value, technology and design.
Building on the success of Beoplay H95, Bang & Olufsen's most successful headphones to date, the new Beoplay H100 was designed to offer high-quality sound, outstanding digital noise cancellation, with a new modular construction and a beautiful design that builds on Bang & Olufsen’s design icons. Unlike other attempts from other brands, this is also the first design that matches and surpasses the look and feel of Apple's AirPods Max.
"Beoplay H100 elevates what we have accomplished over the past ten decades and defines our future: an era where beautiful sound is built to last. It represents the true potential of what a Bang & Olufsen audio wearable can be, and we cannot wait to bring the headphones to our customers," says Bang & Olufsen CEO Kristian Teär. "Drawing inspiration from the unparalleled performance of our Beolab speakers, our iconic designs from the past and the modular construction that embraces material excellence and circularity, Beoplay H100 truly embodies our design and innovation capabilities."
The Beoplay H100 headphones are crafted from the finest quality materials, featuring a silky smooth, scratch-resistant and hardened glass touch interface on the side of the headphones. Together with precision haptic dials and tactile buttons, all essential controls are easily accessible. The new detachable inner headband, finely wrapped in knitted textile, has been ergonomically designed to provide all day breathability and comfort. Even the earpad cushions covered in soft lambskin leather have been adapted to provide a unique experience.
The new headphones are also available in three refined and timeless color-ways: Infinite Black, Hourglass Sand and Sunset Apricot. The Infinite Black shade references Bang & Olufsen’s classic design aesthetic where the deep black leather contrasts against the natural toned aluminum. The color of Hourglass Sand has a Scandinavian tone on tone approach while Sunset Apricot features a light copper aluminum which pops against the warm peach tones of the leather.
"Designing an immersive sound experience with ultimate comfort has been key in the development process when creating Beoplay H100," says Bang & Olufsen Head of Design, Tiina Kierysch. "We wanted to utilize high quality materials and colors inspired by fine jewelry to create a timeless and sophisticated design. With the solid sheen of aluminum, softness of leather and cold-to-the-touch glass, Beoplay H100 doesn’t just champion sound excellence, it feels like design excellence," she continues.
A matching lightweight and luxurious leather case provides easy and stylish portability while traveling. When the Beoplay H100 headphones are outside the pouch and not being worn, they enter a low-power mode, extending standby time up to 90 days while remaining ready to activate when worn. If stored in the pouch, the headphones power fully off, enabling more than a year of standby time.
Elevated ANC
With 40mm custom-made titanium drivers housed behind elegant aluminum grills, carefully tuned to enhance all sorts of music styles and enhance high resolution audio sources, the Beoplay H100 headphones are supposed to match the company's reputation in terms of elevating the sound experience. In fact, Bang & Olufsen says that its development team leveraged their expertise and principles inspired by the Danish audio brand's statement loudspeaker, Beolab 90.
"Beoplay H100 is the best pair of headphones we have ever created. Whether you are listening to your favorite music, having a phone call in a noisy environment, controlling the effect of the surrounding environment with active noise cancelling or audio transparency, H100 always delivers exceptional audio performance," says Bang & Olufsen Director of Technology Neo Kaplanis.
"To appreciate great sound, you need silence. In a peaceful environment, you will experience how effortlessly Beoplay H100 brings you the sound clarity and dynamic performance that you normally only hear on high-end loudspeakers. When commuting or traveling, you want to be able to control the impact that noise has in your experience. To achieve this, we have developed an advanced microphone system that delivers crystal clear voice even in very demanding situations, doubled the performance of our active noise cancellation (ANC) from Beoplay H95 and developed EarSense technology that tailors the sound to the wearer's unique fit in real time while you are listening to music on the go," he details.
The new over-ear Beoplay H100 headphones are also a prime example of what is possible to achieve with the latest technology, great R&D resources and not being restricted by price constraints. The Bang & Olufsen product development team selected a platform that is Bluetooth 5.3 and also supports AirPlay wireless connectivity. More details about the platform to follow in a separate announcement.
Currently the Beoplay H100 headphones ship with only the standard SBC and AAC codecs, with LDAC support and more hi-res codecs expected via a software update in 2025 - which we can only assume will also eventually bring LE Audio LC3 and Auracast support. The selected Bluetooth platform enables standard multipoint connectivity for two paired devices today, and will support 3-device multipoint in a future software update. Obviously, it also supports all flavor of Fast Pairing with Android, Microsoft, and Apple devices.
But that's only the beginning. The Beoplay H100 headphones will be also promoted for its wired hi-res capabilities, up to 24-bit/96kHz. And the design was also optimized for Spatial Audio and for Dolby Atmos, using state-of-the-art spatial audio processing and head-tracking technologies. Another technology highlight is the introduction of Bang & Olufsen's new EarSense adaptive audio processing, which the company says tailors the sound to the wearer's unique fit in real time. This is obviously enabled by the hardware platform and sensors specified for state-of-the-art active noise cancellation (ANC).
And talking about ANC, the Beoplay H100 headphones are equipped with 10 carefully selected and configured microphones - 4 MEMS microphones for voice, 4 MEMS for feed-forward processing, plus 2 analog feedback microphones. With this array, Bang & Olufsen designed what they call the "most advanced noise cancellation and transparency mode yet." Thanks to the available sensors, the Beoplay H100 headphones are also able to automatically detect when they are being worn with no need to find the power button.
Users will be able to move from listening to music with ANC on, to listening to the outside world by using the carefully crafted haptic dial to enable TrueTransparency - making the headphones disappear. When the user lifts an earcup or covers the earcup with the palm of the hand, on either earcup, the system switches from fully closed and immersed to open mode, allowing users to hear the surroundings. And obviously, all controls can be customized using the Bang & Olufsen app.
Another outstanding design feature is the battery and USB-C power system, enabling up to 5 hours of playtime with 5 minutes of charging, and ensuring up to 34 hours of playtime when fully charged (in just one hour). Bang & Olufsen specifies up to 32 hours with Active Noise Cancellation, and 30 hours with Spatial Audio and Head-tracking, per charge.
Cradle-to-Cradle Principles
In the best Bang & Olufsen tradition, the new Beoplay H100 headphones are designed with a commitment to product circularity, repairability and longevity. Based on cradle-to-cradle principles, the company says it expects the Beoplay H100's to be officially certified during 2025.
"We are excited to bring our modular design thinking to Bang & Olufsen's wearables category for the first time, and it is the right step towards our on-going journey to improve product circularity across our entire portfolio. For Beoplay H100, we've prioritized longevity, maintenance and repairability through modular design. We have also developed our software with the future in mind so that the headphones can adapt and evolve with new technologies for a truly timeless design," says Bang & Olufsen’s Head of Product Circularity and Portfolio Planning, Mads Kogsgaard Hansen.
Detailing the longevity factors incorporated into the Beoplay H100 headphones, Bang & Olufsen promises to offer user replaceable parts of the inner headband and earpad cushions, plus quick access to services in order to replace key components such as the batteries, glass surfaces, drivers and circuit boards. And Bang & Olufsen also promises to update the Beoplay H100 headphones with new features. The headphones come with an extended five-year warranty when joining Beocare – Bang & Olufsen’s extended warranty program.
The Beoplay H100 headphones retail for EUR €1499 and USD $1,549 and are available now in stores and online. Inside the box, Bang & Olufsen includes the Beoplay H100 headphones and matching leather carrying case, 1.25m fabric USB-C to USB-C cable, 1.25m fabric USB-C to 3.5mm audio cable and user guides. No charger is included. Bang & Olufsen specifies the USB-C connector for 5V DC/3A.
www.bang-olufsen.com
