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Ready to step up to the next level of audio reproduction and gain some solid Active Noise Cancelling (ANC) features too? Tech expert Dave Taylor of https://www.AskDaveTaylor.com/ checks out the Audio-Technical ATH-ANC900BT ANC Bluetooth Headphones and finds quite a lot to like. Chief among its features is great sound reproduction. But there's at least one thing that A-T could improve, however, as he explains...
Check 'em on Amazon: https://amzn.to/2WG5IuJ
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High-end ANC headphones from Audio-Technica? Let's check them out
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Dave Taylor here and I'm checking out these. These are the Audio-Technica ATH-ANC900BT
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Now, Audio-Technica has their 500BT, but this is one up from that
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This gives you better sound reproduction and better ANC. Let's start with the earpieces. They feature 40mm drivers, which gives you 5-40,000Hz reproduction
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Pretty darn nice. Bluetooth 5.0 for that Bluetooth usage. And on Bluetooth you can use aptX or AAC or SBC
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So aptX is generally for Android. AAC is generally for iPhones and similar
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And SBC is for everybody else. If you use it in wired mode, you can use it with high-res audio, which gives you really great reproduction too
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And of course, if you don't want to use Bluetooth or you're just running super low on battery
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one of the things that comes in its hard-carrying case is a cable that lets you actually use it as wired headphones
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Pretty nice, right? So, gives you that. There's also a charging cable in here and somewhere in here there's also an airplane adapter
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Now, I'm not taking a lot of flights nowadays, but if you are, that might be something very helpful
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And I will just say, it's not a horrible hard case. I'm not a big fan of these hard cases
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but this one at least is relatively small. So, it's actually something you can live with. Some of them are just monsters
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So, alright, back to this. So, this is the best quality active noise cancelling of any QuietPoint unit from Audio-Technica
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So, it's their top-of-the-line ANC. It does a pretty nice job. We'll come back to all of the actual functionality
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So, touch controls, the left earpiece. Let me actually make sure. Yeah, this is the left earpiece. It is actually a touch panel
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So, the middle part gives you various button functionality and then there's top and bottom
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So, you can increase volume by doing that, decrease volume, pause play, resume play
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You can actually turn into what they call, what is this, this hear-through function, right
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And so, if you're listening and it's really loud, you can do that
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and it'll switch to a mode that lets you hear more of the ambient noise around you
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Why would you do that? Because someone's talking to you. So, what it doesn't do is it doesn't automatically mute the music
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So, you're still going to hear whatever you're listening to, but now you can also hear the ambient noise if you have ANC enabled
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So, you do it once, it goes into hear-through function. You do it a second time, ANC is turned off
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You do it a third time, ANC is turned back on. Now, one of the things that's really slick is that there's an app you can get
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that you can just download for free. It's called the Audio-Technica Connect app
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and it gives you control over things like what kind of ANC signature you want to use
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As you can see here, there are three different choices depending on your environment
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You can also switch codecs if for some reason you don't want to listen with aptX
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or something, you can switch. And you can even disable voice prompts
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though I don't know why you would do that. I like the little voice prompts on these things
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So, let's see. They have a built-in condenser mic, so yes, while you're doing this
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you can also take phone calls. They are memory foam earpieces. There's, I think, also memory foam on the top of the band and it's adjustable
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and has a big pivot, mostly because that makes it also easier to fold up to travel
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So, you can do something like this and then you just fold it out when you're ready
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to actually listen to them. Now, battery life, 35 hours. That is pretty sweet
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Downside is that it's a micro USB connection for charging. So, Audio-Technica, you should have stepped up to USB-C
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That's a more modern connection because then I don't have to worry about which orientation
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I really dislike micro USB, so I'm taking points off for that one
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So, app is really cool. That cable is a 4-foot cable with, like I said, the airline adapter
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And the headphones themselves are really light. They're just over 9 ounces
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So, you really can forget you have them on. And the controls, let me give you a close-up. Here's all the different controls
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to give you the plug for using them in wired mode, power on-off
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and then the mystery unlabeled button lets you turn on and off ANC and various other functions
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And, you know, you stretch them out, put them on, maybe close them down just a little bit
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and they are very comfortable. They just sit very lightly on your ears
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Now, of course, that's a bit of a trade-off because the tighter they are
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the more you isolate yourself from your acoustic environment. But that's what ANC is for, right? So, you want to use the active noise cancelling
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so you don't have to have these jammed on your head, and you don't have to find them super uncomfortable after such a short period of time
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So, you know, really there's lots that Audio-Technica has gotten right with these
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So, let's talk about the audio features and capabilities. Alright, number one, using these for a phone call is a mediocre experience
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So, number one, it's a little disconcerting that when you're actually using phone mode
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the ANC turns off, and so while you're waiting for that call to connect
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you get this sort of echoey wind tunnel effect. It's not really that big a deal
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But I don't know why they turn off ANC if someone's talking to you, right
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So, that's something that they didn't need to do, but it doesn't seem like there's any way to adjust that
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In terms of latency, there's no latency issues. If you want to use these while you're watching a movie on your iPad or something
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you will be happy that everything is perfectly in sync. That works really well
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And overall, the sound's really fun. I really like the Audio-Technica sound signature
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There's a sort of emphasized bass, but it's just a big, rich sound
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And the music I've been listening to, I've been playing around with Tidal. So, I've been using Tidal and listening to some real classic jazz
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and Tidal gives you a huge bandwidth of information. And these headphones seem to be doing just dandy decoding it all
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and it's just like I'm sitting in the studio listening to someone like Bill Frizzell actually playing his jazz saxophone
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I mean, it's just fantastic. It's such a nice sound signature. Big, big sound stage. The ANC works really well, and the environments I've tried it in
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I obviously have not been on an airplane, I have not been on a train heading into the city or anything
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So, those are particularly tough environments for ANC. But in terms of being at home, and if you're just quiet for a second and listen
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there's all sorts of low hums and rumbles in your home from refrigerators
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maybe your heating system or your AC if you live in a hot environment
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All of those, you just sort of tune out, but these will get rid of them
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That's what ANC really does when you're working from home or something, is it gets rid of all that ambient noise that you otherwise just discount
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So, you can hear the bass. You can actually hear, if there's a bass line going up and down on the very low frequencies
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you'll hear those notes, rather than have that just sort of get blended into the muddy background noise of your environment
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Now, in a work environment, in a coffee shop, at, I don't know, a shared office space or something, these would be great
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And that 35-hour battery is a rock star. It's really wonderful to have these where you know if you charge these fully on Monday morning
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you're good to go for the entire week without ever having to think about charging these again
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And you have the voice prompt, so it'll say, battery low, if your battery's low
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Or in the app, it will show you what percentage charge you have. I only have 60% charge because I've been listening to these for a chunk of time
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They also have a really good range because that's Bluetooth 5.0, but I found that I could have my phone even 25 or 30 feet away and didn't have any hiccups or problems or dropouts or anything
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Really solid connection. Really pleasant, actually. So, I'm a big fan of these. The biggest limitation is that micro USB connector for charging
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but honestly, you know, you can probably manage that every week or two and plug the thing in and get it to charge
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Otherwise, really cool design. You will eventually get used to the touchpad on the edge of the earpiece
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or you might never use it. You might just find that you control everything from the source device
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That's okay, too. It's still going to work really well. And if you jump in the app, it also gives you, obviously, control over things like ANC, which is great
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So, we need to talk about price, but before we get to the price, let me ask if you can subscribe to my channel
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Really appreciate that. Just go ahead and click or tap on that little red box on the lower right
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and kablooey, you are subscribed to my channel. How lovely. Thank you
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All right. These are the Audio-Technica ATH-ANC900BT, bit of a mouthful, and they are $299
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But right now, when I recorded this, they were on sale for $199
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That's a pretty solid price for a solid ANC with such a nice sound signature
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They really do sound really nice. So, you definitely want to check these out at Amazon.com
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And as for me, I'm going back to Tidal to listen to some master quality, authenticated jazz
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So, that means I'll have to catch you in my next video. Transcribed by https://otter.ai
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#Consumer Electronics
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