ARCHIVED FORUM -- March 2012 to February 2022READ ONLY FORUM
This is the second Archived Forum which was active between 1st March 2012 and 23rd February 2022
Hi All
Had my H9 Gen3 for just over a year and absolutely love the sound albeit they are a little low in volume, after reading up on the site I found that it appears to be Bluetooth related. Decided to try the audio cable this evening connected my iPhone and I’m not hearing much difference in volume if any. I checked out the manual and it mentions using the power switch on the cans to disable ANC. I gave this a try and noticed that when I set the switch to off and then back on the volume appears to be much louder but only for a split second, almost as if the setting applies and they instantly disables. Just wondering if anybody else has noticed this and can verify if it’s as should be or if there could be an issue with my headphones?
Also can the B&O app only be used via Bluetooth as I couldn’t get mine to to connect with the audio cable?
I love my H9 3rd gen. Yes, the volume with ANC and BT is lower than wired. That has been my experience as well. I use mine 90% with ANC off. I have never used the B&O as the source of my music.
B&O in my life 😊:
Sorry. I posted before I competed my response. In summary:
1. To get the maximum volume turn the BT off on the headphone and connect it wired. The sound in my experience is around 30% higher and ANC is off by default and the B&O app no longer connects to the headphone.
2. If you keep BT on and connect to your phone using a wired connection then ANC will stay on but you still get the 30% louder volume. I say 30% because once I got from BT to wired on my iPhone, I have around 1/3 more remaining on on volume slider.
3. If you really want to crank up the volume you can add a portable headphone amp to the mix. The cleaner sound of the H9 comes at the expense of volume in my experience. However, this is also true for all the high end headphones I have owned. The H9 is a bit under appreciated for how good it really is in wired mode with BT/ANC off. With ANC it is still the best AQ overall for an ANC set IMHO.
Hi,
If you look here
https://www.tonmeister.ca/wordpress/2016/05/23/bo-tech-headphone-signal-flows/
you'll not only find an answer to your first question, including an explanation not only as to why there may be a difference, but also why different people with different equipment will experience different differences... (note that, although that article uses the H8's as the example, the principles are identical for any pair of BT/Wired headphone/earphone/loudspeaker)
What is NOT mentioned in that article - but should not be forgotten - is the fact that Bluetooth audio is ALWAYS using a lossy CODEC of one kind or another. If you're connecting using a wire (either analogue or USB), then the transmission to the headphones is lossless (in the definition that would compare it directly to a lossy CODEC). However, your source material may be encoded in a lossy format (even if it's from a so-called "lossless streaming service"). So, if you care about this, you should always use a wire.
Cheers-geoff