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
A very important bit by John Darko on the new HX here, beginning at 7:05.
https://youtu.be/HNovkK4LRes
Currently: BeoLab 17, BeoLab 18, BeoSound Core, Beosound Level, Beosound A1 2nd Gen, BeoPlay S8 Connection Hub, Halo, Essence Remote
Previously: BeoSound 1 non-GVA
Curly: A very important bit by John Darko on the new HX here, beginning at 7:05. https://youtu.be/HNovkK4LRes
Correct but... Bluetooth 5.1 had 2Mb bandwith.https://www.bluetooth.com/bluetooth-resources/bluetooth-5-go-faster-go-further/
It all depends on how far Bluetooth sender/receiver are located. Within a few meters with a clear line of sight the 2Mb is available.
No!
Darko mixes up things!
B&O never claimed, that these headphones are ‘highres related’ - there is no ‘wrinkle for highres enthusiasts’ about these headphones.
B&O writes about these headphones, that they are ‘Comfortable ANC headphones’ that ‘offers a powerful and authentic sound experience with Adaptive Active Noise Cancellation, a comfortable, lightweight build , impressive call quality and up to 35 hours of play time’.
You find no ‘Highres’ logo there - B&O is adressing different costumers.......not the ones, that Darko is making his videos for.
I am fine with Darko telling his stories (and from time to time pointing at some important things for those who care for audio quality) - however he picked the wrong company for this video.
That he did not do much research and definitely did not listen to the HX is very clear.
In the typical B&O way, B&O claims to make a headphone, that has ‘well-balanced bass and treble performance combined with a clear midrange (which) means that with Beoplay HX, you can enjoy music the way the artist intended’. And they do this for those who need a wireless headphone with noice cancelling features and outstanding call qualities - not for the highres nerds.
And I am pretty sure that these people will go looking for some other headphones, if they need any.
MM
There is a tv - and there is a BV
Millemissen: Curly: A very important bit by John Darko on the new HX here, beginning at 7:05. https://youtu.be/HNovkK4LRes No! Darko mixes up things! B&O never claimed, that these headphones are ‘highres related’ - there is no ‘wrinkle for highres enthusiasts’ about these headphones. B&O writes about these headphones, that they are ‘Comfortable ANC headphones’ that ‘offers a powerful and authentic sound experience with Adaptive Active Noise Cancellation, a comfortable, lightweight build , impressive call quality and up to 35 hours of play time’. You find no ‘Highres’ logo there - B&O is adressing different costumers.......not the ones, that Darko is making his videos for. I am fine with Darko telling his stories (and from time to time pointing at some important things for those who care for audio quality) - however he picked the wrong company for this video. That he did not do much research and definitely did not listen to the HX is very clear. In the typical B&O way, B&O claims to make a headphone, that has ‘well-balanced bass and treble performance combined with a clear midrange (which) means that with Beoplay HX, you can enjoy music the way the artist intended’. And they do this for those who need a wireless headphone with noice cancelling features and outstanding call qualities - not for the highres nerds. And I am pretty sure that these people will go looking for some other headphones, if they need any. MM
I was about to say the same.
"also comes with an hi-res audio related wrinkle"
All due respect to Drako, but he didn't do the research I'd have expected him to do before talking about a product.
Beoplay HX are not Hi-Res Audio certified, neither Hi-Res Audio Wireless certified, neither do they support any of the two Bluetooth codecs that are capable of technically Hi-Res Audio streaming (LDAC by Sony and LHDC by Huawei).
They support aptX Adaptive that - despite its lower bitrate compared to aptX HD - is supposed to offer (in ideal conditions, as aptX Adaptive is a scalable codec just like LDAC, unlike the other aptX versions) the exact same audio quality as aptx HD which despite the name doesn't claim to be able to stream what's commonly referred to as "HD audio". Instead, aptX HD and aptX Adaptive are (by Qualcomm, which quotes some "university studies") claimed to be indistinguishible by humans from HD audio (24bit/96kHz). Which, to be clear, doesn't mean they're (those codecs) able to stream HD audio (with this I'm not judging whether HD audio and higher bitrates are an audio freak thing or are something perceptible by human ears, I'm just posting facts without my opinion).
B&O products, and especially the Beoplay headphones, are not for audio nerds - and B&O don't claim to manufacture "audiophile-oriented" products indeed.
Just purchased, they were on Amazon UK on offer at £347 (vs RRP £449).
They should arrive on Thursday. Comparison with H9 3rd Gen coming soon :)
I find it very strange that there are no reviews out there that position the HX, H95 and the Portal against each other (and maybe throw in a H9 too). I'd be very interested in that!
Beolit 12 - Beolab 4 pc (dead now) - Beoplay H5 - Beolab 9 - BeoRemote One BT - Beoplay M3
crossbytje: I find it very strange that there are no reviews out there that position the HX, H95 and the Portal against each other (and maybe throw in a H9 too). I'd be very interested in that!
Not strange at all, the HX have been launched by B&O with minimal effort, they're a product from legacy management that had development started before internal changes, all the resources have been then moved on the new connected speakers and Portal.
HX are likely to be the last normal headphones model.
Yesterday I've been to a B&O store and spent about one hour comparing the H95 and HX (also, over the weekend I've purchased the HX that were on Amazon at the discounted price of £347, more than £100 off RRP, they'll be in my hands tomorrow). I felt some improvement in comfort with the HX compared to H9 3rd Gen, but nothing major. The H95 are on another league. ---- H95 ---- The sound quality of the H95 is much higher, same as the ANC which is much more effective compared to the one of the HX (which is actually a bit disappointing, even though kind of understandable given the price difference). I found the dials of the H95 to be too "loose" and with not enough friction to be able to give a premium tactile feedback. For instance, the BackBeat Pro and the Surface Headphones have much firmer dials, with "weight" to them, which gives them a better feeling compared to the H95 ones. The metallic switch instead felt rock solid to me (vs the plastic flimsy one of the H7/9 series). Indeed the magnet strength that keep the ear cushions attached to the frame is less strong than the one - let's say - of the B&W PX and PX7, however I didn't find it to be too weak (I've read of people who didn't like it, as they were afraid the ear cushions could accidentally detach, but personally I found it to be perfectly fine - it could have been stronger but it's not weak enough to raise a concern IMHO). The "beep" that the headphones give when you rotate the L dial (adjusting ANC/transparency) are not loud enough and don't get louder as you increase the volume of the music. As a result of this, with a music volume that's anywhere above 30/40% I couldn't hear them anymore, and it became frustrating to know what the dial was set as. Still it's nice that the ANC/transparency setting doesn't reset itself as you switch the headphones on/off (like it does with the H9/i/3rd Gen), despite the dial being fully digital and without limit switch (i.e. you could keep turning them endlessly, they don't have a range and stop rotating once they reach the limit of the setting you're adjusting, sorry but I don't know how to explain that in proper English 😂). Comfort is absolutely excellent, I've never had issues with the H9 3rd Gen headband however I never found the round earcups to be the best option for me. Here the H95 definitely wins, and the additional weight they carry (something like 330g vs 290g if memory serves me) is not felt at all by my head/neck. Initial conclusions: excellent sound, hardware build quality that's high but that for the asking price I would have expected to be higher and especially higher than some (much cheaper) competitors, in all aspects (dials, compared to those of Plantronics BackBeat Pro and Microsoft Surface Headphones). Software/firmware/"UI" that for £700 really needs some usability improvements, and after months that they're out has not got any significant update, this is something I don't like at all. ---- HX ---- Again, comfort-wise they're slightly better than H9 3rd Gen (more for the *very very slightly* roomy ear cushions than for the redesigned headband, as I said above I never had headband issues with any headphones I've owned, and I also have the Sennheiser Momentum 2 Wireless which are among the worst in this field, so YMMV). Design-wise, I like the bits and pieces that have been redesigned compared to the H9 3rd Gen, making it look more modern/contemporary, however I don't like at all the *hair-thin* leather that wraps around the outer side of the headband (same as H95) and that's *glued* to it, compared to the thick 2-2.5mm leather band that's *stitched* on top of the H9v3 metallic headband frame. Also, you can see from about 2.5cm from both ends of the headband, that under the thin leather there's the actual metallic headband frame that's slightly protruding and creating some sort of visual effect that I really dislike on the headband leather covering. Another thing: the metallic headband frame and the two "pivoting arms" that are attached to the earcups have a different finish, despite being of the same colour. One is brushed, one has a satin finish. And I don't like the "dark grey" colour of the parts in leather. It's not black, it's a dark grey (way lighter than the black it looks in the official renders) that I don't think is dark enough to prevent wear signs to appear (i.e. the H95 leather is actually black, not dark grey, and not only it looks better in my opinion but it's also much more less prone to show wear marks, which is a huge "problem" I'm having with the Argilla Bright H9 3rd Gen). Usability: a very huge step back compared to H9 3rd Gen IMHO. Let's start with the touchpad: it's less sensible than the H9v3 one, and hence requires much force to be applied with the finger to have the gestures detected. Not a big issue, but still it's not like the H9v3 was overly sensible so they had to make adjustments. Well, whatever. ANC/transparency controls: it's good that in the app you have the option to customise the level of ANC or transparency mode, however that level you set in the app is lost and is overwritten as soon as you press the ANC/transparency button on the L earcup. This makes that slider in the app completely useless. Regardless of what you have set in the app, the ANC/transp button will cycle between ANC max, transparency max, neutral (which is ANC off and transparency off). What they should have done, is it cycles between them but keeping them at the level set in the app (which would have required the app to have two separate sliders, one for ANC and one for transparency, but that shouldn't have been an actual issue as the Jabra headphones do it). ALSO, unlike the H95, these don't keep the ANC/transparency/neutral mode saved when you switch them off/on. That again is a major complaint I had with the H9 3rd Gen (which I've reported to B&O since getting them just a couple of weeks after launch, and following up with them every other month, and they've never done anything about it). With the HX if you set the mode to "neutral" and reboot them, they'll be in max transparency mode when they're back on. Absolutely ridiculous. A thing about transparency mode: I personally don't care about listening to music while hearing my surroundings. When I have music, or a video, playing, I want either ANC on or ANC off. Transparency? Never. So on this the H9v3 were great, as with a swipe up on the touchpad I could directly enable transparency mode AND at the same time that would also pause the media content that was playing. Which is exactly what I want, and that's perfect for when you're at home or in the office doing whatever you're doing, and you see someone's talking at you. Swipe up, the song/video gets paused, I can listen to and talk to the person, then swipe up again and they go back to neutral/ANC and the media starts playing again. HEAVEN. Now, with the HX there isn't any quick "transparency max and pause media" shortcut/command, you can only use the ANC/transparency/neutral button to cycle between the modes, but the media doesn't get paused when you enter transparency mode. This is something I totally hate, as they haven't kept the touchpad swipe-up command that the H9v3 had, and also they don't have a "quick chat" mode like most of other competitors headphones (such as the Sony and Bose). Unlike the H9v3, they don't have Google Assistant "built-in" (they have a button to summon the voice assistant app of the phone, like the H95, but that's not the same thing). I don't like the fact that they don't work passively, like the H95 (but without having the same exact electronic as the H95, as the ANC is clearly inferior) and unlike the H9v3 (of which they inherited most of the cons, with just a couple of the pros taken from the H95). Still, luckily, despite the above annoyances, there are some improvements in UX. Two of them, especially. The first. They have a freaking MUTE BUTTON. I can't stress how much I've missed it from the BackBeat Pro. Almost none of the competitor high-end headphones have it. I use it a lot as I use the headphones also to make calls for work meetings, and it's a life changing experience to have the mute button directly on the headphones. The second one. Finally the wear-detection (automatic play/pause when headphones are on/off the head) is back (H9i had it, H9v3 and H95 didn't). I've missed this a lot from the Plantronics BackBeat Pro (they're actually my favourite headphones ever, they literally had EVERYTHING and that was in 2014 at a price that's a third of what's asked now for current Bluetooth headphones). I love having it, and it works fairly well, but it doesn't work *flawlessly* all the times (which on the old BackBeat Pro it did, so it's in a way kind of disappointing). Soundwise, they sound more balanced than the H9v3. Highs are similar, lows are more recessed and, in a way, controlled. But I liked the sound of the H9v3 too, those small emphasis on the lows was very subtle and pleasant, not boomy at all (unlike it is on the Sony and some Sennheiser headphones). Unfortunately, on the sound I will be able to provide more comparison only from tomorrow when I get them in my hands at home. One thing that I can confirm though is that the HX indeed were affected by the issue pointed out in this review on Amazon IT, please use Google Translate to turn it to English: https://www.amazon.it/gp/customer-reviews/R39X1HJF5T43H1/ Summarising, if you keep the headphones volume above ~60% and use the Beosonic feature in the app to boost the lows (to some degree, more on this from tomorrow), you'll start get A LOT of cracking sounds. The headphones will actually sound broken like the drivers really had blown up. Which is concerning, especially given the default sound signature of the HX (which may bring users to use Beosonic to raise the lows a bit). I really hope B&O are gonna fix this, one way or another, or otherwise it will not end well.
More in the next days.
Still happy with the HX? I am torn between the HX and the H95......
Baard Hansen: Still happy with the HX? I am torn between the HX and the H95......
While an interesting assessment of both the HX and H95 from matteventu, and I have no experience with the HX (I’ve owned many pairs in the H8-H9 series over the years), I am not sure I agree with everything regarding the H95, or do not think the «issues» pointed out are that annoying. I have, in fact, bought two pairs of H95s (black and silver) that I am completely in love with. In my opinion the H95 has got a beautiful fresh design that all iterations in the H9/HX lineup were starting to lack over the years, and while the HX seem more up-to-date indeed, the H95 is just so much more elegant and minimalistic. Both the build quality and the sound are superb, I personally love the comfort too, and the H95 is down to the smallest bits well-thought-through. I could go on but I can never look back after having had the H95. For music!! I hear, people might want the Portal over the HX for other use cases than music. What things are you looking for in headphones from B&O? Hilsen fra Oslo ;)
I mainly listen to classical music. That's why I would like a headphone from B&O. I was set on the HX, but your comments made me think again. I went to the B&O store in Sandvika yesterday, and I tried the HX. The shop keeper asked me if I wanted to try the H95 too, but I said I was too afraid. If I liked the sound of it, then maybe I would change my mind about the HX :)
My previous experience with headphones is varied. I have the Sony WH-1000XM3, Jabra Elite 85H and the Audio Technica ATH-M50x bluetooth. The last one is for gaming.
You made me think again, so I have to reconsider. I find it fascinating that you have TWO pairs of H95.
Hilsen fra Asker :)
Baard Hansen:I mainly listen to classical music. That's why I would like a headphone from B&O. I was set on the HX, but your comments made me think again. I went to the B&O store in Sandvika yesterday, and I tried the HX. The shop keeper asked me if I wanted to try the H95 too, but I said I was too afraid. If I liked the sound of it, then maybe I would change my mind about the HX :) My previous experience with headphones is varied. I have the Sony WH-1000XM3, Jabra Elite 85H and the A udio Technica ATH-M50x bluetooth. The last one is for gaming. You made me think again, so I have to reconsider. I find it fascinating that you have TWO pairs of H95. Hilsen fra Asker :)
Baard Hansen: I mainly listen to classical music. That's why I would like a headphone from B&O. I was set on the HX, but your comments made me think again. I went to the B&O store in Sandvika yesterday, and I tried the HX. The shop keeper asked me if I wanted to try the H95 too, but I said I was too afraid. If I liked the sound of it, then maybe I would change my mind about the HX :) My previous experience with headphones is varied. I have the Sony WH-1000XM3, Jabra Elite 85H and the Audio Technica ATH-M50x bluetooth. The last one is for gaming. You made me think again, so I have to reconsider. I find it fascinating that you have TWO pairs of H95. Hilsen fra Asker :)
Jeg skal holde det på engelsk i tilfelle andre vil forstå :).
I have had H8, H8i, H9, H9i, H9 3rd Gen and with all the limited editions I started to feel the desire for a different design. Suddenly B&O came up with the H95 and I was sold immediately :).
Then I heard them for the first time. I had a good first impression of the sound, but I remember spending an hour or two just listening to different types of music and watching certain scenes in a few movies just so I could explore their sound performance. I was really blown away. Movies felt almost like going to a movie theatre, and music detailed in a way I had never heard before. If you listen carefully - or may not even have to - you can hear the tiniest instruments and sound effects that are in the background in a way that you had no idea they’ve always been there. At least I had not heard my favourite music like that with any H9s I’d previously owned. After a while I switched back to an old H9i I still have (whose sound I preferred to the H9 3rd Gen), and the H95 is in a different league. Over the years only incremental adjustments had been made from one H9 to the next. I heard reviewers claiming the HX does somewhat more compared to the H9 3rd Gen, but also those who prefer the 3rd Gen.
Now every time I put on my H95s I am excited and they never cease to amaze me. They are gorgeous, they never struggle with any music (be it something bassy, or ambient post-rock with cello, e.g. Hammock - Without Form and Void - try this gem of a music, I think you’ll like it!) and the whole thoughtfulness behind these, for me it’s not a question what I’d recommend. While the HX might sound better than the H9 3rd Gen, the HX will not sound THIS good.
Yes, the price tag is high, but you do get a new design, including magnetic ear cushions, volume and ANC dials that are much nicer than the touch surface on the H9s at least, a very nice aluminium carry case, high quality cables, even a cleaning cloth and a greeting note that tops the experience... All in all you get a whole lot more for your money. I heard they would have cost more than what they have actually launched for (by more than 20%), and in my opinion they would still have been worth the money. Although I probably wouldn’t have bought two pairs then :).
If you are like me and want B&O headphones for music, and want the best sound quality they offer in their line-up, I honestly highly recommend the H95.
Thanks for your comments. After reading them I went to the B&O store to get..........the H95
I also wanted to find out how I can use the headset for listening to lossless Apple Music. B&O support gave me this answer:
Both the audio cable(3.5mm jack), as well as the USB-C cable, can be used as audio inputs for the Beoplay H95. The USB cable supports audio as follows: Stereo 24bit, 48kHzApple Lossless Audio Codec(ALAC) can be 24bit up to 194 kHz. Therefore, this surpasses the USB audio capabilities. The 3.5mm jack connection is an analogue line-in and can therefore take any signal that is put out by the same connection. therefore the line-in connection will be the best connection to use when listening to ALAC media.
Baard Hansen: Thanks for your comments. After reading them I went to the B&O store to get..........the H95 I also wanted to find out how I can use the headset for listening to lossless Apple Music. B&O support gave me this answer: Both the audio cable(3.5mm jack), as well as the USB-C cable, can be used as audio inputs for the Beoplay H95. The USB cable supports audio as follows: Stereo 24bit, 48kHzApple Lossless Audio Codec(ALAC) can be 24bit up to 194 kHz. Therefore, this surpasses the USB audio capabilities. The 3.5mm jack connection is an analogue line-in and can therefore take any signal that is put out by the same connection. therefore the line-in connection will be the best connection to use when listening to ALAC media.
That’s fantastic, happy to hear! Congratulations! I suppose I have sold a pair for the store :). Then again I am in a better position because my selling points were based on user experience and not driven by the common motivation of a need to sell to a potential buyer :).
Unfortunately I have no experience with Apple Music lossless files, but please let me and us know about your experience (both first impressions and later) regarding the H95. I hope you’ll be happy with your purchase!
Baard Hansen: The USB cable supports audio as follows: Stereo 24bit, 48kHzApple Lossless Audio Codec(ALAC) can be 24bit up to 194 kHz. Therefore, this surpasses the USB audio capabilities. The 3.5mm jack connection is an analogue line-in and can therefore take any signal that is put out by the same connection. therefore the line-in connection will be the best connection to use when listening to ALAC media.
The USB cable supports audio as follows: Stereo 24bit, 48kHzApple Lossless Audio Codec(ALAC) can be 24bit up to 194 kHz. Therefore, this surpasses the USB audio capabilities. The 3.5mm jack connection is an analogue line-in and can therefore take any signal that is put out by the same connection. therefore the line-in connection will be the best connection to use when listening to ALAC media.
That would heavily depend on the DAC you use I suppose, also in general I would rather rely on the H95 build in processing. Anyway, in practice it is probably best to try both options and decide for yourself which option sounds best to you.
Thanks for your tips. I look forward to testing this out.
Frederik: That would heavily depend on the DAC you use I suppose, also in general I would rather rely on the H95 build in processing. Anyway, in practice it is probably best to try both options and decide for yourself which option sounds best to you.
"Test it and decide for yourself" is the correct answer - however, unfortunately, the answer is much more complicated than this...
If you take the minijack analogue solution, the signal path goes through a DAC of the player and the ADC of the headphones. This means that you do not have the dynamic range that is theoretically possible with a lossless LPCM 24-bit connection (as you would have via USB audio). This is not only because of the limitations of the analogue conversion components (it's physically impossible for any analogue system to have the 140 dB dynamic range of a 24-bit LPCM signal), but also the volume setting of your source and its maximum output level.
If you take the USB-Audio path, then you are relying on the sampling rate converters inside your source or its player (depending on what you're using) for audio files that are 88.2 kHz or higher. Some sampling rate converters are extremely good, since they're not only well-designed but they're running at 32-bit floating point resolution or higher. Other sampling rate converters are audibly terrible, and will degrade your audio signal significantly. The problem is knowing the performance of the SRC in the player software / hardware that you're using. Not only is this difficult / impossible to find out, it could change overnight with a firmware update.
This means that, although you test a file in a player (meaning both software and hardware) through two different signal paths (minijack analogue and USB-Audio digital) today and decide that one is better than the other, your decision might not be valid tomorrow.
To make things even worse, some SRCs are good for one sampling rate combination, but bad for another. For example, I've seen one system where 88.2/16 -> 48 kHz worked great (meaning its artefacts were more than 120 dB below the signal) but 88.2/24 -> 48 on the same system was awful (meaning the aliasing artefacts were only 80 or 90 dB down from signal).
As I said, it's complicated...
Cheers-Geoff
P.S. All audio is going through H95's built-in processing, regardless of the connection path.
Firmware 2.0.1 has been released.
Official changelog:
fixed issue with high bass and high volume causing distorsion
improvements in handling of TikTok
USB volume improvements (and volume improvement handling in general)
lowered the sound on audio prompts
fixed a bug where the voice recognition features weren't working properly
improved multipoint handling, less delay
fixed issue where, in some headsets, distorsion was on the right side on power on
SO... let's talk about the elephant in the room.
Yes and no. The high volume high bass distorion issue is only partially fixed.I believe what they did was lowering the maximum volume, and changing the DSP behaviour where even if you raise the volume, the bass will proportionally get a bit lowered.I'm saying this because the issue still occurs with some songs, but at a higher volume threshold (i.e. if before it was happening with volume at 75%, now it's happening with volume at 90%, partially IMHO also because of a slight decrease of volume, so the old 75% loudness more or less equals the current 90% volume level).
About the "generic volume improvements", the touch controls are still subpar and not as good as the H9 3rd Gen ones, but I believe now they have increased the number of volume steps that you could set via the touch panel (which previously was much inferior to the number of steps the H9 3rd Gen had - see my previous posts). However, at least, now we have a wider range of volume steps, for a more refined control. I appreciate this.I haven't tried them yet via USB-C to see what the changes are there compared to fw version 1.2.9, but I'll report back once I get a chace to try it.
I haven't noticed the audio cues to be of any lower volume, and actually I'd like to have them to be LOUDER together with the music volume level i.e. they follow the music volume (so you can hear them also when the music is at high volume, which now you can't unless you listen to silent music lol). They shouldn't be fixed at the same volume level, it's such a stupid choice (same goes for the sound that is brought in by the transparency mode, it shouldn't have a fixed volume).
If with "voice recognition" they mean the voice assistant trigger button (long press the round button), it's still crap as it was with fw 1.2.9. The proper Google Assistant integration the H9 3rd Gen had is miles ahead, that was actually useful. The voice assistant trigger of the HX is in my opinion barely usable.
I haven't had any multipoint issuess, so can't comment on that.
There was a slighly audible static/distorsion noise coming from the right driver when switching them on (only noticeable if you had them on your head while switching them on, which anyway is not recommended as it could prevent a proper calibration of the wear sensor), it never bothered me, but now it's gone. Good, I guess.
There are two other changes I've noticed and that aren't mentioned in the changelog:
new "battery health" section in the product settings page, which shows the current battery level in % (same as the product page) and an estimate of the remaining battery life in minutes (always in minutes lol, it doesn't switch to hours when minutes are more than 60)
new "reduce wind noise" toggle below the ANC settings, I won't be able to try its effectiveness as I don't take these headphones for a walk that frequently, but you can feedback on this
Changelog picture and battery health/wind noise setting here: https://imgur.com/a/lTuEgEK
Disappointing that they haven't added the swipe-up gesture to trigger max transparency and simultaneously pause the music (as the H9 3rd Gen had it), and that the plugin in the app still doesn't show the source of the music the headphones are playing from (Bluetooth, USB-C, or aux-in, which the Beoplay Portal have).
Also, the volume bar in the app now looks even buggier than it already was with fw 1.2.9.
The delay in the B&O app opening/connecting to the HX is still there as it was before.
The ANC hasn't got any better (in H9 3rd Gen it's much better, and in H95 it's waaaaaay better).
The Google Fast Pair wrong app link has not been fixed.
The battery level is still bugged and not visible in Windows (it is with H9 3rd Gen).
To be noted is that B&O are also releasing, at the same time as this update for HX, an update for the Portal, numbered 2.0.9, and that is 80% shared with the HX 2.0.1 changelog, except a couple of fixes related to the Xbox connectivity feature which is exclusive of the Portal. This further corraborates the hypothesis that the two headphones share the same base platform and are managed, for what concerns software support, in parallel by the same team.