Yamaha YH-L700A Wireless Active Sound Cancelling Headphones Review: Distinct in Many Ways
In India, the Yamaha brand name is more than likely to make you consider a motorbike or scooter. Nevertheless, you’ll likewise find that Yamaha is a reputed name in many other item sections consisting of musical instruments, AV receivers, amplifiers, speaker systems, and earphones, with a number of these being technically advanced, premium items for high-budget purchasers. The business recently revealed a new variety of cordless earphones and earphones in India, consisting of the flagship YH-L700A over-ear headphones which I’m examining here.Priced at Rs.
34,990, the Yamaha YH-L700A is a flagship over-ear headset that concentrates on the listening experience above all else, with advanced Bluetooth codec assistance, a ‘3D Sound Field’ mode with head tracking for directional sound, and active sound cancellation, to name a few functions. Is this the finest premium cordless headset you can purchase today? Learn in this review.
The Yamaha YH-L700A supports the SBC, AAC, and Qualcomm aptX Adaptive Bluetooth codecs The Yamaha YH-L700A earphones look terrific, however are bulky In a market filled with items that comply with a comparable look, the Yamaha YH-L700A sticks out with its bold, different style. The headset isn’t smooth or trim like popular alternatives in this price sector from Sony and JBL, instead choosing a huge, premium look like the Apple AirPods Max. That stated, the Yamaha YH-L700A is a bit smaller sized than the AirPods Maxin sheer size, however the ear cups and cushioning are a bit thicker.The styling is likewise distinct, with liberal usage of fabric on the surfaces of the ear cups in addition to the headband. There is thick foam padding all around the ear cups for a proper over-ear fit that completely covered my ears and made sure excellent sound seclusion. The headband of the Yamaha YH-L700A has a metal frame with comfortable padding, and is adjustable to guarantee a great fit. The ear cups can swivel and tilt which adds to getting an excellent fit. Yamaha’s distinct logo design is badged on the external sides of both ear cups.The padding certainly assisted me get a comfy fit, but the Yamaha YH-L700A is still a huge and large pair of earphones weighing
in at 330g. The large weight of it did feel a bit too much over long listening sessions, and the clamping force was at times a bit too extreme for me with my eyeglasses on. I did get used to it with time, however I still required to give myself a break every 45 minutes or so.Unlike some completing items that use a mix of physical buttons and touch controls, the Yamaha YH-L700A has physical buttons to control whatever from power and modes to playback. The ideal side has the power button, a 3D Sound button, the USB Type-C port for charging, and the playback and volume controls, while the left side has a button to cycle between the active sound cancellation and ambient noise modes, and a 3.5 mm socket for wired connectivity.The playback and volume control buttons are on the side of the ideal ear cup, and are covered by a leatherette sheet. This looks excellent, in my viewpoint, but the buttons didn’t feel as tactile and simple to
sense as I would have liked. Even after a few days of use, I sometimes unintentionally hit the incorrect button. Although okay as such, the controls weren’t specific easy to get utilized to.Yamaha’s Headphones Controller app( readily available on Android and iOS )is used to set up and control fundamental customisations and functions on the YH-L700A headphones. Once the headphones are combined
utilizing Bluetooth, the app will spot them and provide device-specific options and functions to choose from.On this set of earphones, that includes settings for the 3D Noise Field mode, Listening Care and Listening Optimiser; ANC and ambient mode activation; and an auto-power-off timer.
You can likewise see the specific battery level of the earphones, but strangely, there is no chance to change equaliser settings to tweak the noise to your preference. On the whole, the app covers the performance of the headphones, but stumbles upon a bit too easy for a high-end headset such as this. The earphones look great, however the sheer size of the Yamaha YH-L700A and the clamping force can often feel a bit much
The Yamaha YH-L700A is powered by 40mm vibrant motorists, and has a frequency response variety of 8-40,000 Hz. For connection, the earphones utilize Bluetooth 5, with assistance for the SBC, AAC, and Qualcomm aptX Adaptive Bluetooth codecs. There is likewise support for the default voice assistant on your smartphone. Consisted of in the sales bundle are a charging cable television, stereo cable for wired listening, flight adapter, and difficult bring case for the headphones.Battery life on the
Yamaha YH-L700A earphones largely depends upon how you utilize the features; naturally, much heavier use of ANC and the 3D Noise modes will drain the battery considerably quicker. The headphones are ranked for approximately 34 hours of listening with only ANC running, and 11 hours with both ANC and 3D Noise in operation.In practice, with ANC running and periodic usage of the 3D Sound function, I was able to use the earphones for a little over 23 hours on a single charge. This isn’t extraordinary compared to the competition, however it’s more than appropriate for hassle-free all-day listening.Very excellent sound on the Yamaha YH-L700A, however 3D Noise isn’t for everyone Lots of people wanting to purchase
high-end over-ear headphones tend to choose alternatives from among the major brands in this
area: Sony, Bose, and Apple. However, alternatives such as the Yamaha YH-L700A use a gratifying listening experience to anybody looking beyond the obvious choices; this is a great pair of earphones when it pertains to sound quality. Features such as 3D Noise and active noise cancellation work well too, although the former might not in fact be something you want or need to utilize very often.Other functions such as Listening Care and Listening Optimiser operate in the background to improve the use experience. The previous preserves a volume level balance to prevent unexpected spikes, while the latter is stated to customise sound based on the sound levels it selects up inside the ear cups. I wasn’t truly able to observe any specific differences in my music with these turned on or off, however these modes are indicated to work inconspicuously in any case.Qualcomm aptX Adaptive support on the Yamaha YH-L700A indicates that audio quality is a bit better when utilized with Bluetooth source devices that support the codec, and expectedly, I did find sound quality much better when using a OnePlus 9(Evaluation)than an iPhone 13 (Evaluation). Starting with Frankie Sinatra by The Avalanches, the earphones immediately showcased Yamaha’s years of experience in the audio industry.The soundstage was large and glamorous, providing a very genuine sense of direction and feel with this vibrant sample-based track. The faintest sample aspects, the mid-tempo beat, and the instruments all felt present and well-positioned, and this was surprisingly with the 3D Sound mode switched off. The huge drivers and superb tuning of this set of headphones made for a natural propensity to boost even a basic stereo signal, and it had the ability to reproduce information on par with an excellent pair of full-size speakers.While the lovely soundstage of the Yamaha YH-L700A earphones is, in my opinion, its standout characteristic, there was a lot more to like about the earphones.
The sonic signature is well balanced and incredibly improved, providing all frequencies across the range lots of space to shine.With David Guetta’s Dirty Sexy Cash, the bass was tight and aggressive without ever feeling overbearing and out of control, while Just Human by Onur Ozman managed to get the sluggish rumbling beat on point, producing an immersive and enjoyable listening experience that felt just as pleasurable just like my current top choice among high-end earphones, the Sony WH-1000XM4. The 3D Noise mode and head tracking work well, but I chose to listen to music with these functions switched off A key feature of the Yamaha YH-L700A headphones is 3D Sound,
which is really comparable to Apple’s Spatial Audio innovation for its AirPods earphones and earphones in terms of what it provides. Surprisingly, when turned on, this mode works for practically any audio material no matter app or running system, and isn’t restricted to particular apps as is the case with Spatial Audio.The different 3D sound modes added various listening impacts, but definitely lowered the quality of audio, particularly when listening to
music. Just the’Audio Room’mode was decent in regards to keeping some level of sound quality without developing too unusual a depth impact. Head tracking worked exactly as it does with Apple’s Spatial Audio, and sounds seemed to “move”across channels exactly and quickly based on my head movements. Nevertheless, on the whole, I discovered the mode a bit gimmicky and just actually worth using when viewing TV shows or films, if at all.Active sound cancellation on the Yamaha YH-L700A headphones is decent, however far from the quality available from earphones such as the Sony WH-1000XM4 or Apple AirPods Max. The silencing effect was obvious and did help inside, however didn’t do much to reduce typical outside sounds.This was likewise mainly reliant on the noise isolating seal for efficiency, and my glasses produced enough of a gap in regular wearing to lower effectiveness by a reasonable quantity. Ambient Noise mode allows a decent quantity of noise to allow you to have discussions or stay mindful your surroundings, however it felt a bit’piped ‘and wasn’t as natural a result as on the AirPods Max. The headphones are good for calls both inside your home and outdoors, and connection stability and quality was never ever a concern for me, working well at distances of up to 4m from the source device.Verdict In the premium earphones segment which is controlled by a handful of brands and doesn’t see brand-new launches very frequently, the Yamaha YH-L700A comes as a breath of fresh air. This is an attractive set of over-ear earphones with very great sound quality and some fascinating functions, all of that make for a decent total experience. The company’s years of expertise in high-end audio products certainly helps make this an interesting product for the price.Although typical ANC performance and less-than-ideal controls do hold the experience back just a bit, the Yamaha YH-L700A headphones provide comprehensive, satisfying noise that is on par with leading products in this segment such as the Sony WH-1000XM4. At around Rs. 35,000, it’s likewise a reasonable bit more pricey than the Sony WH-1000XM4 and JBL Tour One, but is worth buying if you’re looking for top-notch sound quality and the benefits of its 3D Noise mode.Published at Tue, 19 Apr 2022