When Bang & Olufsen, a Danish company renowned for its attention to detail in TV, speakers, radios, and design (as well as its premium pricing) decided to produce over-ear headphones and invite me for three different press meeting involving them, it begged the question: is any of this worth it?
After all, the B&O H6 headphones contain memory foam in the ear cups which are made of lamb leather, with cow leather lining the top. Polycarbonate reinforcements and brushed aluminum make up the rest of the H6 headphones, so by looks alone, you’d be convinced that they sound absolutely amazing.
But, the truth isn’t tan. At least, not in New York City.
Price as Reviewed: $399 at Bang & Olufsen
Design & Specs
It doesn’t take a lot to notice that Bang & Olufsen has what may be the classiest looking headphones, ever created. There are many contenders that would beg to differ, but I’m quite sure the H6 is in the top five. But when push comes to shove, it’s what the product was designed with that matters — no offense to Jakob Wagner, who designed the H6.
So, in terms of its capabilities, the H6 has a frequency range of 20-22.000Hz, a weight of 230 grams, a 40 mm custom designed driver with a neodymium magnet, support for dual 3.5mm headset jacks (so while you’re plugged into a device, another listener can connect to your H6, and listen in without splitting audio quality). It operated without fail, and is actually quite funny to see in-use.
Using It
Let’s start off with taking it out of the box: it’s quite grand. The fresh smell of the leather is somewhat intoxicating and needs to air out for a second, but otherwise it makes for an easy and fulfilling out-of-box experience.
Alright. Down to business.
“Animal lover’s nightmare, but a comfort-lover’s dream.”
They’re not conservative (duh), are quite expensive even in comparison to my favorite headphones — the $350 Sennheiser Momentum — but actually are very adept at clear voice quality. They lack bass; in fact they don’t really have much bass. Depending on what device I used them with, it either required max volume to get a feeling of immersion or depth that you’d want when wearing headphones made of a variety of animal skins and memory foam.
That’s not to say that they are bad; a lot of thought went into the H6′s design, and it shows: they are constantly gawked at when on my head in New York City and are extremely comfortable; they sit snug on your head and lock in on your ears, creating a small chamber of sound that doesn’t overwhelm you nor strain your temples.
Going back to the issue I had with bass, it takes some disclosure that I have a great range in tastes of music: from orchestras, EDM, rock, pop, and yes, dubstep. But no matter how hard I tried, using the B&O H6 for music at the highest quality in Spotify sounded great — not amazing.
Conclusion
Score: 7/10
A fantastic design, brand name with a 3-year warranty, and lots of comfort make the B&O H6 headphones something amazing to look at — art, almost. But in function, a lack of moderate bass and performance akin to lesser priced headphones kind of makes the H6 seem a number too high.
Pros:
Great design and build quality
Very comfortable
Audio-splitting feature works and is useful
Cons:
Lack of bass
Similar or better audio quality can be found for less
High price