Yamaha just announced a new line of eight (!) wireless headphones, ranging from true wireless earbuds to active noise-canceling, over-ear headphones. Buckle up, because there’s a lot to cover here.
The highlight of this new crop of headphones is the $350 YH-E700A, a pair of wireless noise-canceling cans that feature Advanced ANC, which Yamaha says “analyzes and removes background noise” while maintaining the music signal heading to your headphones. Along with the YH-E700A, each of the seven additional models will have Yamaha’s Listening Care technology, which the company says allows listeners to hear full-range sound even at low volumes.
Here’s what we know about Yamaha’s new roster of headphones.
YH-E700A over-ear headphones
On top of the Advanced ANC and Listening Care technologies incorporated into the YH-E700A, these new headphones have both Listening Optimizer technology and an Ambient Sound feature. That makes sense, since it’s hard to have good active noise cancellation without a solid accompanying ambient sound feature.
The YH-E700A have several other features as well, including Bluetooth 5 technology, up to 35 hours of battery life, and simple controls highlighted by voice assistant compatibility. The headphones will come with a carrying case, USB-C charging cable, audio cable, and flight adapter, and will be available in either black or white in December 2020.
An on-ear version of the YH-E700A, the $180 YH-E500A, will also be available in December.
EP-E70A wireless earphones
These $270 earphones from Yamaha feature the same technologies found in the YH-E700A headphones, including the Listening Optimizer, Advanced ANC, Ambient Sound, and Listening Care. They’ll also have Bluetooth 5.0 and voice assistant compatibility just like their headphone counterparts, though they’ll have up to 18 hours of battery life instead of the headphones’ 35 hours.
The E70A earphones will have a soft carrying case to travel with, a USB-C charging cable, a USB-C-to3.5mm audio cable, a flight adapter, and five different sizes of eartips. They’ll come in either black or white trims and will be available in October 2020.
There are two additional pairs of wireless earphones in this line – the $160 EP-E50A (coming in November 2020), and the $60 EP-E30A (available in September 2020).
TW-E7A true wireless earbuds
The TW-E7A are Yamaha’s true wireless, active noise-canceling earbuds, and they’re priced ($230) to compete with true wireless standouts like the Sony WF-1000XM3 and the Audio Technica ATH-ANC300TW.
The E7A will have Ambient Sound and Listening Care technology bundled in with their active noise cancellation abilities. Beyond that, they’ll have Bluetooth 5 technology, an IPX5 weather-resistance rating for protection against sweat and water, and five hours of battery life per charge and up to 20 hours total.
The E7A will come with a wireless charging case and pouch, a USB-C charging cable, three pairs of silicone sleeves, and five pairs of eartips. They’ll become available in October 2020, with black and white models as options.
There are two more tiers of true wireless earbuds being announced by Yamaha – the $160 TW-E5A, which are due out in December 2020, and the $130 TW-E3A, which are set to be released in August 2020.
New contenders
Obviously, it’s far too early to make assumptions about any of these eight new products, especially since most won’t actually hit the market until later in the year. But one thing is perfectly clear — Yamaha is trying to make a huge splash in the wireless wearable world, and it’s well on its way to doing just that.
Take the YH-E700A and the TW-E7A, which are not-so-coincidentally priced identically to Sony’s WH-1000XM4 and WF-1000XM3, respectively. If that’s not a direct message that Yamaha is going after one of the industry leaders, we don’t know what is.
Unfortunately, we won’t be able to tell you just yet if Yamaha’s new headphones are up to the challenges that their prices have presented them. Rest assured, we’re going to find out just as soon as we can get our hands on review units for these new Yamaha models. Until then, we’re left to optimistically wonder about the newest competitors in wireless audio.
