ANC Bluetooth Headphones on a budget

Introduction

I thought it might be fun after recently reviewing the Sonos ACE Bluetooth ANC headphone to review at the other end of the price scale, an uber cheap ANC bluetooth headphone, so I decided buy the Edifier WH700NB on Amazon, given Edifier reputation for quality audio at pragmatic prices, I thought it would be an ideal uber cheap headphone to review.

The WH70ONB is currently $44.99 (with the 10% discount applied) on Amazon.com non-affliated link

So this headphone is 1/10 of the cost of the Sonos ACE !!

But is it any good, read on to find out.

Unboxing, Design and Build quality

The WH700NB comes in a nice retail box:

The back of the box:

Opening the box you get some secure packaging for the headphone and its usb-c charging cable:

Removing the headphones from the packaging:

The WH700NB features a conventional design with an all-black finish and a sturdy build.

They fold flat so good for travel and the headband expands well to accommodate large heads:

The headband extension mechanism is pretty good (especially at this price):

Despite its affordability, the headphones feel reasonably durable and are easy to carry around thanks to their foldable design.

Comfort and Usability

Comfort is one area where the WH700NB performs well. The ear pads are soft and do not cause discomfort during extended listening sessions.

The ear pads are made from a soft material that ensures comfort during long listening sessions.

Ear cup size comparisons

Comparing the earpads with the Earfun Wave Pro you can see they are very similar both in size and material:

They also swivel to roughly the same angle - so will fit very similarly on most heads:

Stacking them on top of each other they are identical even when expanded to their maximum headphone extensions:

Features

Let’s now get into some of the key features of this headphone:

Battery Life

One of the highlights of the WH700NB is its impressive battery life. With ANC turned off, the headphones can last up to 68 hours, and with ANC on, they provide around 45 hours of playback. A quick 10-minute charge can give you an additional 8 hours of listening time, which is convenient for users on the go. In my time with the WH700NB I never even had to think about battery life and that 10-minute quick charge option is great.

Connectivity

The headphones utilize Bluetooth 5.3, ensuring a stable connection with low energy consumption, and it is a great feature at this price point. This latest generation Bluetooth also allows for seamless switching between 2 devices, which is a very useful feature for users who frequently transition between different gadgets, for example, their laptop and their mobile phone.

Button controls

The headphones also feature physical buttons for controlling playback and volume, which are responsive and easy to use.

The buttons feel cheap, but they work as expected and I like that all the buttons are on one side - making it easy to remember the left and right sides.

Edifier Companion Mobile App

At this price point having a companion mobile App to configure and tweak your Headphones is a great feature.

The main window within the app shows the basic controls to switch between ANC and transparency modes:

You can configure how the buttons ’toggle’ between ANC, Transparency and off modes:

You can configure the level of Ambient noise:

Another nice feature to configure is the ‘game mode’ this is typical of Bluetooth 5.3 and provides the ability to have much lower latency at the expense of a little more battery life:

So one thing I always look for with ANC headphones is the ability to configure EQ, so with this specific Edifier headphone you can only do basic EQ changes and as you will see later when I measured them, they are effectively just toggles to 2 levels of bass and 2 levels of treble:

I imagine Edifier did not want this headphone cannibalize their higher end models, but it is a pity as it makes this headphone less competitive with some of the other ‘cheap’ ANC bluetooth headphones I have reviewed. But in fairness, at this price point. I believe this is the most configurable bluetooth headphone you can get.

I also thought it was interesting that Edifier App can act as music control with some basic track information and playback controls:

Active Noise Cancellation and Transparency

The WH700NB is equipped with ANC, designed to reduce background noise in both outdoor and indoor environments. However, I found the implementation was subpar compared to competitors from Soundcore or Earfun.

The ANC struggles to effectively cancel out ambient sounds, making it less suitable for noisy environments. So, running a bunch of tests I found it would work adequately in an airplane or train to block the background ‘rumble’ but it worked very poorly with simple traffic noises when I brought it out for a walk. I have closed back headphones which actually perform better with simple passive isolation than the ANC on this headphone.

The Ambient (i.e. Transparency) mode on the other hand worked quiet well, allowing me to hear clearly (and realistically the surrounding environment).

Microphone quality

Similar to the ANC quality, I found the microphone quality to be poor with the WH700NB, it lacks some of the features of slightly more expensive models like background noise reduction on microphone, so while it worked fine in a quiet environment (like my work from home space), it didn’t work well when I took a few calls while out on walks nearby my house on a busy road. But again at this price point I think the quality can be forgiven.

Sound Quality

The default sound quality of the WH700NB is typical for ANC headphones, with a very V-shaped sound with lots of bass, a recessed midrange and some treble extension. The 40mm dynamic drivers does offer punchy bass, but the overall frequency response is not well-balanced. The mids feel recessed, and the lack of a proper EQ means users can only tweak the bass and treble slightly. The treble while extended (so can sound exciting) is very variable so effectively impossible to fix with EQ (just listen to a treble “sweep” and you can hear the sound varying dramatically.

Measurements

So lets get into some measurements:

Frequency Response:

So you can see the extended bass and treble and the recessed midrange.

Also, note the unevenness of the treble so that region so it will be difficult to EQ, the bass and midrange would be ideal for EQ if the Edifier Application had offered more EQ options.

EQ comparisons

But here are the 4 EQ options measured:

It might be unclear in this measurement but basically there are 2 options for bass and 2 for treble, e.g Classically has more Treble and less bass, Rock has more bass and treble, Pop has more bass and less treble and ‘Classic’ is just less bass and less treble and is in my opinion the better profile but really all 4 are pretty bad and surprising from Edifier, but I guess it is a ‘consumer friendly’ sound profile.

Here are the measurements on my headphone DB which are available here:

But you can see the variations a little better with this view:

Distortion measurements

Distortion is pretty good for this price range:

Looking at these measurements I do feel that Edifier have some good hardware here that is probably just held back by the lack of some EQ tweaks that really could turn this headphone into an amazing bargain.

Comparisons

While I started the review mentioning, I might compare this with the Sonos Arc but I quickly realised that is totally unfair comparison, the ANC, build quality, comfort and sound quality (with some EQ tweaks) of the Sonos Arc are rightly (given the cost differences) in a different league to this Edifier.

So, a better comparison is with some other ANC bluetooth headphones I have reviewed like the Soundcore Q30 or Earfun Wave Pro. Sadly, the WH700NB falls short in several areas compared to both those headphones.

So firstly lets get some measurement comparisons with these headphones:

I picked the ‘best’ of the 4 profiles (which lowers both the bass and the treble) but you can see that they are still way more than what I would consider a reasonable frequency response.

Since, both the Q30 and Wave Pro also offer superior ANC performance, more features and slightly better build quality and better customisation of the sound quality, they are easily the better buys.

Ratings

I have given the WH700NB a pragmatic 3-star rating - while they are exceptional cheap the ANC and have some nice features at an incredible cheap price point, the default frequency response was poor and sadly the EQ options within the Edifier companion Application are very basic.

But they do have some Pros

Pros:

• Long battery life
• Comfortable fit
• Affordable price

Cons:

• Poor ANC performance
• Mediocre frequency response
• Lack of proper EQ and sound customization

Conclusion

The Edifier WH700NB is a budget-friendly option for those looking for an incredible cheap ANC Bluetooth headphones. It offers long battery life and a comfortable fit, but its poor ANC performance and lack of sound customization options make it less appealing. For users seeking better sound quality and noise cancellation they should spend a little bit more and get the Soundcore Q30 or Earfun wave Pro as those headphones while not perfect are worth the extra investment over the WH70ONB.

In summary, the Edifier WH700NB is a respectable pair of uber budget ANC headphones, but for those willing to spend a little more will have some better EQ options are available to tweak the sound to their preference.