Edifier W860NB Review
Review Tech

Edifier W860NB Review

Here’s my Edifier W860NB Review. Guess who’s back with yet another Edifier piece? I was slightly worried about this one, let me explain why.

I’ve reviewed a huge amount of speakers and headphones on the blog, but I haven’t really reviewed similar spec headphones from two different manufacturers within a short space of time before.

I was worried I wouldn’t be able to tell the difference between them in terms of sound quality. Build quality, design, style etc is all fairly easy to differentiate. But with sound, it’s more subjective than look and feel.

I didn’t need to be worried though as although they are similar, they are marketed toward two different markets so have some distinct differences that I was able to hear in the sound right away.

So, let’s get into the review

The packaging looks great as is usually the case with Edifier products.
The packaging looks great as is usually the case with Edifier products.

Edifier W860NB Review

A bit of a disappointing start really because the box arrived damaged! Obviously the blame can’t be placed on the headphones, but it just left me feeling a little deflated.

The branded packaging looked pretty great to be honest, I straightened out the bottom right corner of the box as much as I could and started to capture the photos for this review.

Edifier never fail to impress with their packaging design. They seem to pick classic colours that work perfectly together. Or, as they did with their Edifier X3’s they switched it up a bit by matching the brightness of orange with the classic sleek look of white and black.

They’ve kept a classic Grey look with the W860NB’s though, I’m pleased they decided to rock the grey as it looks really good. It gives a understated and refined look that only continues once you open up the box.

A stylish full size travel case is included.
A stylish full size travel case is included.

Edifier W860NB ReviewWhat’s in the Box?

Opening up the box I was greeted with a fantastically stylish full size headphone case finished in some form of faux leather. Everything about the case has been well thought out, including the zips which don’t look as if they’ve been picked off the shelf.

Inside the case you’ll find:

  • Edifier W860NB Headphones
  • Charging Cable
  • 3.5mm Audio Cable
  • Airplane Adaptor

The cables are all great quality and they’ve been custom manufactured. I love it when a brand pays just as much attention to the accessories as they do with the actual product.

The only thing that doesn’t feel like it’s great quality is the aeroplane adapter. But, I’ve never used one before so I’ve not idea how they’re meant to look and feel. But, if you would find a use for it, it’s worth taking note of.

Edifier W860NB Review A Neat Feature

Edifier have added a really simple but extremely neat feature. The mesh pocket within the case, used for holding the cables, has a Velcro strip attached! It’s really useful and stops the cables falling out when opening up the case.

Edifier W860NB Review Single Use Plastic

As I’ve mentioned countless times now, I like to check how much plastic has been used in the manufacturing and marketing processes. We all need to do a lot more to reduce plastic use and Edifier seem to have made strides with the W860NB’s

There is hardly any single use plastic at all to contend with here. It’s so refreshing to see. You could argue that the cable twist tidy could be used more than once, thus reducing the single use stuff further.

Sound Quality

The W860NB headphones have a great natural sound quality. They’re perfect for listening to all genres regardless of your tastes. During my testing I mostly listened to hip hop. I was really pleased with how they sounded, particularly the bass and treble!

As I mentioned the headphones have a fairly natural sound. They don’t sound as if they’ve been messed with too much. They have a super clear mid range and really strong high range output, they suit my tastes almost perfectly.

When listening to Stronger by Kanye West, the ample amount of bass really came to life. It’s really deep but at higher volume levels almost became too loud.

The other instruments in the beat had good clarity and I’m able to pick up individual instruments. But in terms of detailing and the overall sound they’re not quite as good as the PreSonus HD10BT’s. I almost expected this though, the PreSonus offering are marketed as professional headphones, so I’m not concerned.

Active Noise Cancelling

The active noise cancelling (ANC) works well. I tested them in my office which has a fair few computers and a storage server which can get quite loud, especially when all 15 cooling fans are running!

It works well at cutting out that low frequency hum that you get from a fan. It does allow some of my keyboard clicks to come through and I could hear some higher pitch sounds, such as my dog barking when the doorbell went, but overall it’s good.

I found myself enjoying the sound more with the ANC activated, it feels like the bass is deeper but with the deeper bass came a slight sacrifice of some of the high end. But, I can just about live with that.

The headphones do include some cool features that help enable the awesome sound quality. The Edifier W860NB’s have aptX. aptX can help provide a higher-fidelity music stream sent to the headphones from your Bluetooth device. Basically it gives you a better listening experience.

aptX is pretty complicated, so you can check the Wikipedia page here for further information..

Edifier W860NB Review Connections

The W860NB’s paired well. Connecting to my iPhone took around 10 seconds, so not too long at all and the connections was stable.

Built in Mic

The built in microphone on the headphones is okay, it sounds reasonably clear, but it is fairly quiet. This can make it quite tricky to hear the person on the other end of the phone call. It’ll be the microphone positioning causing that and it’s fine for what it does, but perhaps a tweak on the standard microphone gain could make all the difference.

Overall the sound quality is really good and I’d definitely have no issues with recommending these on sound quality alone.

Edifier W860NB Review They are really well designed and look great!
They are really well designed and look great!

Build Quality & Design

They’re available in two colours and I’m really glad we were sent the black ones for review. I’m really not a fan of the gold but each to their own I guess. I just don’t think they’d suit me, I like to wear headphones (gaming headsets excluded) that are subtle.

The headphones structure is predominantly made of plastic which makes them really lightweight and also makes them the almost perfect travel companion.

In terms of travel, the case in my opinion could have been made smaller, like a half moon size. The headphones do fold down like that so I’m a little confused as to why they went with a full size one.

As they are made mostly of plastic, I wanted to give them a good twist test to understand what punishment they could take. To be honest, I didn’t feel confident that I’d be able to twist them very far without causing permanent damage. I could hear some creaks that caused a bit of concern so I didn’t twist any further.

The plastic is finished in matte black which has been peppered with grey accents which I really like the look of. Overall I really like the styling and I’m not quite sure my photographs do them justice, they’re really good looking.

They are a typical over ear design but that design has been well executed in terms of styling. I feel the build quality could be a little better in respect of the materials used in the construction.

The W860NB’s are really comfortable, I think most headphones these days would have to do something durastic in their design to not be. Part of the comfortability comes from how lightweight they are.

Combining the lightweightness, padding on the earcups and headband is a great way to ensure they are comfortable and as I said, perfect for travelling. These are up there with some of the most comfortable headphones I’ve had the pleasure of wearing.

Controls & Input

You’ll find the controls on the left side earcup, with physical buttons for power and a good quality toggle switch for activating the active noise cancelling feature.

The buttons have a nice tactile feel to them and are just large enough to be subtle and easy to find.

For skipping songs or adjusting the volume there is a touch pad. This type of contol is a feature normally reserved for much more expensive headphones, so Edifier have done really well to add this feature and keep the price very reasonable.

I found the touch controls do work well once I had become familiar with them. It took me quite a long time to get used to it. The main reason is due to how sensitive they are, so do keep this in mind if you have any health issues that restrict your hand or finger movements.

When the headphones aren’t in use, they can be folded inwards, which is why I’m a little disappointed the case is so large!

They are really well built and all of the switches feel strong and sturdy.
They are really well built and all of the switches feel strong and sturdy.

Edifier W860NB Review How Much & Where To Buy

Wireless headphones and active noise cancellation sounds expensive! But, the Edifier W860NB Bluetooth headphones have managed to break from the norm and offer a great price for such a strong line up of features.

Considering the feature set they are pretty reasonably priced at around $119.99 / £95.99.

You can buy them from Amazon, just hit the affiliate link here.

Summary & Verdict

Score: 8/10

It’s clear to me that they aren’t as good as good as the PreSonus HD10BT. And, in fairness to the Edifier’s I shouldn’t expect them to be, due to the differing target markets of both devices.

Here’s the highlights:

  • Powerful bass.
  • Great noise cancellation quality.
  • Extremely comfortable over-ear fit.
  • Very reasonably priced.

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Disclosure:

If you use any of the Amazon links in this article they are affiliate links. This means that if you go onto buy something from Amazon I may get a small commission. It won’t cost you anything extra but it helps me to pay for the running costs of the blog and allows me to bring you great content! Thank you so much for your support.

The Edifier W860NB’s were sent to us in exchange for an honest review.

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