Beoplay E8

TL;DR - a stunning set of wireless headphones that have prompted me to write my first ever Amazon review. They deliver beautiful sound without sacrificing comfort. Brilliantly designed and with great app features to tailor sound to suit you and hold enough charge for the daily commute. They offer steady bluetooth connectivity but there are some issues in pairing.Apologies for the long ramble below but read on if you want more details than mentioned above.I've been on a bit of a journey this year in the search of a perfect set of wireless headphones to meet my exacting requirements. I'm not an audiophile but perhaps I have become a borderline one after putting so many headphones through their paces. I look for a clear natural sound signature with bass, mids and treble all present and correct and toe tapping dynamics. Most of all I want to get to a place where I can stop my search and just simply enjoy my music. I'm not asking for much!The key criteria for me being sound quality coupled with comfort swiftly followed by connection stability, build and ergonomics, voice calling capability, isolation, styling and lastly any additional bells and whistle features.During the year I've trialled a number of different products. All are premium products and generally highly regarded and well reviewed. Most have active noise cancelling features since I sadly have to suffer the ear-splitting screeches of the Jubilee line on a daily basis.Over ears: Sennheiser PXC 550, Bose QC 35 II, Bowers and Wilkins PXOn ears: Bowers and Wilkins P5, AKG NC60In ears: Sony WF-1000XAll have had to be returned due to varying issues. The on ear sets I struggled with the most due to excessive clamping force and as a spectacles wearer I struggled to get on with them for more than short listens. The on ears were problematic over extended periods of time with my ears cooking and jaw ache due to the design. The Sennheiser set was very finicky with connecting to my Bluetooth device. The Bose set was very good but I found the noise cancelling interfered very heavily with the audio and also made me feel quite nauseous when it kicked in fully on the London underground. The sound quality in all were pretty good and in the case of the B&W PX's the sound was simply faultless. These failed on comfort and connectivity aspects sadly. By the time I tried these I also had come to the conclusion that I just felt too self-conscious wearing over ears and hence turned my attention to the Sony in-ears which on paper were the perfect set for me.This turned out to be a false dawn. I could not grumble much about the sound quality or general comfort but boy the technical flaws on these were incredibly hard to accept. The inherent design flaw where one earpiece is the Bluetooth master that relays sound to the other slave earpiece caused me no end of irritation as sound flitted between them on a regular basis ... especially when leaving the depths of the underground and rising to the congested city. The number of sound drops as the Sony's struggled to maintain a steady connection while competing with the congested wireless networks out at street level was a joke. Furthermore, the supposed noise cancelling was non-existent in my experience. Perhaps I had a faulty set but regardless they had to go back. I was also not enamoured with the way they stuck out of my ears and the blinking blue light made me feel conspicuous on the packed tube trains. A nice try by Sony but I think that they have been rushed out to release too early without being properly quality tested.So enter stage left, the Bang and Olufsen E8's. They took me a while to get hold of due to stock issues but the wait was well worth it. I've used these daily for about three weeks now and I've broken down my findings to date categorised as Highs, Mids and Lows :)*** HIGHS ***Sound quality.There are no superlatives to express the audio quality that these tiny little things provide but I'll try! The clarity is crystal clear and the full audio spectrum is delivered beautifully - nothing seems to be over-bearing or harsh. During the first week I was not overly impressed as the bass was weak even though I could appreciate the mids and highs well enough. I then took time to try the various tips that came with the B&O’s and of these the largest silicone tips gave me the best bass response but something was still lacking. I then tried a larger set of tips I happened to have on another cheapo Bluetooth set of headphones I had with me and … BOOM! That simple change transformed the sound hugely! Listening to the opening seconds of Frank Ocean's ‘Lost’ is always my test for bass response and my word that change of tips really delivered what I wanted - a warm meaty bass that was tight and never over-bearing. I’ve since replaced these tips with some Comply isolation tips and they have just improved things no end. I’ve found the musicality of these so impressive with everything I’ve thrown at it. Playing ‘Left to my own devices’ by the Pet Shop Boys, the E8's effortlessly deal with the multiple layering and the vocals and synth lines never compete with each other. The sound separation is incredible and I can tune my attention into each layer individually if I choose to. Marvin Gaye’s smooth delivery on ‘Abraham, Martin and John’ just melts over me … wonderfully warm and rich and the acoustic instrumentation is precise and balanced. I quickly realised that if you use a good quality source and get the right tips to give you the best seal and you will hear things you never knew where there on the record.Beoplay TouchTone.I love the app interface that is used to manage the sound. It’s far more user-friendly than the bog standard graphic equaliser. My preferred setting is to have the spot just off-centre in the ‘Warm’ quadrant and I have widened the sound stage to about 50%. This just sounds perfect to my ears and I have saved this as my custom setting. I do use the preset for podcasts as it does work well to bring the ‘voice in the head’ effect but the other presets I don’t bother with.Build quality and styling.Totally top-notch. The design is thoughtful and they look like they will take some punishment. They are very tactile and the carrying/charging case is as mentioned by others here a thing of beauty that complements the buds perfectly. While wearing the E8’s they look super smart and not at all flashy - the aluminium ring is a small but important aesthetic touch. I’ve had many complementary comments on these and I certainly don’t feel at all self-conscious wearing them as they don’t stick out significantly or have any visible lights.Bluetooth performance while connected.I’ve had very very few drops of connection. There are issues with getting a connection (see below) but once connected they are incredibly solid. Even with the challenging city environment I have put these through, they just breeze through with barely a glitch. Furthermore, I’ve experienced zero lag when watching YouTube videos on the phone - the Sony’s suffered badly in this regard.Comfort and isolation.I truly sometimes forget I am wearing these. This has been even more the case since I switched to the Comply tips. I’ve said goodbye forever to hot ears and jaw-line ache and can enjoy listening for long periods. The isolating nature of the tips has already made the awful screeching on the tube trains more bearable - they don’t offer true noise cancelling but I’m happy with the level of dampening of external sounds I get with these. With regards to general fit, I’ve worn these in the gym a few times now and even while running on the treadmill I don’t have any fear of them falling out.Phone calls/mic.I’ve used these in the office and held conference calls for over an hour at a time. Not once have I felt the need to ask others on the call to repeat anything and nor have I felt that I’ve not been heard. From a work perspective these perform really well for my needs.Charge levels.Four hours on the E8’s and an additional two charges in the case are more than enough for my purposes.*** MIDS ***Ergonomics.In most cases I find the tap features to work reliably. Though I’m marking these down slightly here as when trying to adjust volume I often end up either engaging the transparency mode or pausing the music depending on which ear bud I’m tapping. The trick I’ve read on another review is to hold the buds in between thumb and forefinger and then tapping/holding the panel on the bud. This does work but it’s a bit not quite natural to do it this way. Perhaps physical buttons as per the Sony WF-1000X would have been a better option but I can see why from the design perspective they would have been perhaps more difficult to implement as the buds don’t protrude out from the ear enough to support buttons.App connectivity.The Beoplay app and buds can take a while to connect to each other on occasion - anything up to 30 seconds which feels like an age when waiting. I had a similar issue with the PX’s so perhaps this is just something I’ll have to get used to. An annoyance more than a deal breaker for me.*** LOWS ***Bluetooth pairing.Not quite perfect here. First up is that these buds do not automatically connect to the last device which surprises me at most other headphones I’ve tried do this without any trouble. More so, I’ve experienced a handful of cases where the buds just totally fail to connect to my Samsung S7 phone after I’ve taken them out of the case. I’ve ended up having to place them back in the case and go through a process of removing the device from the phone and re-pairing again from scratch. This is very annoying when you just want to pop the buds in and get going. This is something I’m going to keep a close eye on to see if the issue deteriorates. I’m hoping the tech wizards at B&O are busy preparing a firmware fix to resolve this.*** SUMMARY ***So, in summary these are a damn near perfect set of headphones that tick all the boxes for me. Yes, they are expensive but you honestly do get what you pay for in this case. The Bluetooth pairing glitch is the one thing letting me down but I am hoping it’s just a short-term issue.I would recommend these in a heartbeat to anyone who loves listening to music on the go and demands the best sound they can get without sacrificing comfort.

I’ve had these for a few weeks now and have decided the time is right to submit a review.Firstly , prior to buying these I had been using the Bose Soundsport headphones ( which were excellent) apart from the connecting cable just seemed to pull on clothing all the time.Having looked around for a while I decided to go for the E8’s , having read other reviews and for the totally wireless experience.Well I can only say that I am very impressed with these.1) They sit perfectly in the ear , are extremely discreet and there is no sound leakage whatsoever.I have found these unbelievably comfortable even when wearing for long periods of time.2) The ability to change the sound settings via the app is a big plus and now I’ve worn them in the sound is on par, if not better than my previous Bose earphones.3) No catching on clothing at all due to no cables.4) Set up is easy and connection is excellent with hardly any drop outs.5) The carry charging case is small and easy to fit in most pockets.6) The biggest plus for me with these is that as soon as you place them back in the case after use they recharge from the cases battery.This means I only have to plug it into the mains about once or twice a week.As someone who uses these for about 2 hours commute daily this is excellent.To conclude , these are the best wireless earphones I have ever owned or used.I thought that nothing could beat my Bose earphones but I’ve been happily proven wrong.An excellent purchase , even for the high price.

Well firstly let's start with the biggest thing....these are expensive earphones....very expensive. I purchased them when Amazon were offering £10 off but even this made little difference to how much they cost. As with all B&O products the design is amazing and they look and feel expensive. The case is brilliant and holds up to 12hrs of charge time....so theoretically you can charge your headphones 3 times in the case before that needs to be plugged into a micro sun charger. Excellent for when you're on the move. The earphones dock magnetically in the case and charge via this method. The case looks amazing with its leather look finish but not sure how it will hold up over a longer period if you are keeping it in your bag or pocket although this should not affect the functionality of it.The earphones themselves come with multiple silicone ear tips (small, medium and large) and some sound isolating foam tips with ear wax guards. I'm currently using the sound isolating tips and they work really well. They fit the ear nicely and the headphones are not super bulky....you don't notice you are wearing them after a while.Setting them up out the box the first thing inside was update them with the latest firmware update off the B&O app which i had downloaded to my Samsung S7. The first attempt failed and I tried to access the help section of the B&O website which just stalled so I gave up. After a second attempt at firmware update it was successful (this took approx 15 mins). Pairing the headphones with multiple devices was easy you simply hold the earphones L and R close to each other and then tap and hold the body of the earphone until a blue light flashes on the R earpiece this means it is in pairing mode. Make sure you switch off the bluetooth on each device you have paired it to when trying to pair to another device otherwise it gets confused. You have to restart the pairing process on the headphones for each new device you want to connect but once it is done you won't need to do it again.I had it connected to an iPod touch and a Samsung s7....what i did notice is the loudness difference between the 2 devices....the iPod was far louder when connected compared to the s7....this is probably more a factor of the device than the headphones but worth mentioning.Musically I set them up with the Spotify app to optimise the sound output to my hearing range/frequencies which is a function of the Spotify app...I've done this on all my previous headphones and it improves the listening experience. In terms of sound....they are good headphones and the sound quality is really good...however I'm not blown away by it and I have some other wireless (corded) headphones which cost around £89 that sound almost as good. So if you are expecting earth shattering difference then you may be disappointed... it all in all they are good and I've experienced no distortion of the music I listen to.The B&O app is not great if I'm honest....its good for updating the firmware and there is the option to change the sound of your earphones via the app as well as the setup for the ambient mode ( which allows speech/ambient noise to filter through at 3 different preset levels when you tap the left earpiece once). But it's not really that great as apps go and I already have some B&O S3 speakers and I never use the app for them either.The touch functionality is really good once you get used to it and I do really like it. They definitely look amazing and fit (me personally) really well. I have been for two 12 mile runs so far using these and I have experienced no issues with the earphones coming loose and no issues with the music dropping/cutting out (this is with the iPod placed in my thigh pocket of my running kit). This is what I like most about them is the unobtrusiveness of them....you don't notice you are wearing them and they are easy to operate on the move ( even when running). My previous wireless headphones ( with the wire linking them together that looks round the neck) used to drive me nuts when running with the band slapping on my neck and eventually causing one of the earphones to work loose. They also used to cut out intermittently particularly when running through areas with heavy electronic congestion....i have experienced none of that with these B&O earphones. I have also used them in the gym with no issues and they're great for big compound moves like squats and clean and press as well as explosive calisthenic stuff like muscle ups, skin the cats etc....as there is no annoying wire dangling/flapping around your neck.So would I recommend them....yes I would even given the high price tag (these were paid for not a freebie review)....and I certainly don't regret buying them. I also did a lot of research via the internet before investing in them in relation to other options on the market. I would also add that these are the only headphones that I've owned where people actually stop me to ask about them (so perhaps if you don't like the idea of that then they are not for you).