Edifier WH500 Review

You’d think after reviewing headphones and other technology for over 3 years now, i’d start to get a little bored. It’s quite the opposite actually, especially when Edifier send over something brand new. Today, I’m going to be reviewing the Edifier WH500 wireless on-ear headphones.

I’ll cover a few different areas including; build quality, sound quality and price. I’ll end the review with an overall score and a link to where you can buy them.

So, let’s get into this blog post and find out if the WH500’s are any good.

I’ll start with my first impressions, at first glance I wasn’t overly impressed with the headphones but after using them for a day or so for the review, they grew on me. It pains me to say this, but I’m not the biggest fan of the compact design, but the sound makes up for it.

Despite their budget friendly price, Edifier have done a great job of not making the outer packaging look cheap. The front of the box features a glossy image of the product, it also features some neat styling touches.

The cardboard is pretty thin on the outside, but there is a stronger cardboard inner that holds the contents of the box. This should prevent the headphones getting damaged by anything other than the harshest knocks or bangs.

I’ve been banging on about single use plastic in tech packaging for what seems like forever now. But, it was for a reason, I was on a mission to let tech companies know, it’s not needed and it’s damaging for the environment! The Edifier WH500 hardly uses any at all, it’s not perfect but it’s almost there.

In the box you’ll find 3 bits of plastic and arguably, only 1 of them is single use.

Overall, my first impressions are ok. I’m feeling like I need to get under the hood, so to speak, to find out if they perform well and if they’re worth the asking price. Let’s have a look at the build quality now then.

Build Quality

As usual, build quality is a measure at which Edifier usually excel. I feel that the WH500’s are a little bit on the flimsy side. Don’t get me wrong, the materials in the construction of the headphones are good, it’s just all a bit ‘thin’. They feel like they aren’t as robust as some other Edifier models I’ve reviewed.

Another thing I don’t like, is that the earcups feel like they’re just dangling by a thread. They don’t feel attached to the main head band by anything more than the internal wiring. Which makes me a bit nervous.

It makes me nervous because one of the earcups on Eris HD10BT headphones has stopped working recently, I suspect due to thin internal wiring. The Eris’s have a much more robust earcup mechanism than the WH500’s, which doesn’t give me much hope that they’d last any great length of time.

It’s not all bad though. I really like the earcups, they are, despite the inner looking quite ugly (in my opinion) are really comfortable. I wore them whilst watching the almost 2 hour long original Pokemon Movie and I hardly noticed I was wearing them.

I also think the folding design is good, they fold down quite small so are a great option for travel.

I know I’ve been quite harsh on the construction material so far, but I’ve become accustomed to Edifier’s usually exceptional quality. I sort of have my ‘premium price range’ hat on. These are only £35 / $37 so are firmly in the budget category and for that price range, they are reasonably well built.

Just make sure you don’t use and abuse them and I’m sure they’ll probably be ok for office use or as a secondary back up pair.

The WH500’s connect via Bluetooth and it’s super quick and easy to get connected.

They can be recharged with the included USB-A to USB-C charging cable and once fully charged you’ll get around 40 hours playback – which is fantastic. If you’re travelling, you shouldn’t need to re-charge them at all for your entire trip!

The black body of the headphones paired with a subtle lime green logo accent is super stylish. But, as I’m quite a tall, stocky man they look a bit silly on top of my head because of the thin and compact design.

Overall then, I think the build quality is OK for the price and I’m really pleased that the ease of connectivity and the outstanding battery life have been their saving grace. I’m hoping the sound quality will be up to scratch. Let’s take a look.

Sound Quality

Spoiler alert, I was really impressed with the sound quality of the WH500’s.

They don’t have active noise cancelling but they do have what Edifier describe as being ‘environmental noise cancellation’. This provides a great ability to passively dampen environmental background noise in a busy office, with the brilliantly comfortable ear cups.

These have a fairly well rounded sound profile with just a slight lean towards heavier bass. This heavy bass sounds fantastic btw. I listened to Westide Boogie’s ‘MORE BLACK SUPER HEROES’ album and it really had the hip hop tracks sounding excellent.

I think they’ve tuned the bass to be like that because the midrange is lacking ever so slightly. The high end really gets those high hats and snares singing and I think it’s been well done.

Overall, I think the Edifier WH500’s have a good amount of detailing and separation. I’m easily able to identify individual elements to the music. They also have a decent enough frequency range that they’ll be fine for casual listening for most genres of music.

How Much & Where To Buy

The Edifier WH500’s will set you back around £35 / $37. You can pick them up from most good online retailers. And, depending on the time of year (black Friday sales for example), I’ve seen them for as low as £30 / $32. Hit the button below to check the latest price on Amazon.

Check Edifier WH500 On Amazon

Summary & Verdict

It was difficult to come up with a score for this set of wireless headphones. On the one hand, I really wanted these to be great, as I really do think Edifier make some brilliant audio equipment, but these just didn’t quite hit the mark.

Score: 6.5 / 10

They’re perfect for casual listening whilst travelling, a backup pair or for the budget conscious. Overall then it’s got to be a measly 6.5/10.