They wo n’t meet a lot of budgets , but if you ’re an audiophile who has long wished for a set ofwireless headphonesthat can bear truly lossless , hi - res audio , the He d Unity are the first product that can grant your wish . The over - pinna cans expend Wi - Fi as well as Bluetooth and can store hi - res music within their onboard memory for memory access to those hi - res tracks even when you ’re not at base on your Wi - Fi meshing . The price for this ultimate spirit level of telegram - free listening ? $ 2,199 and you may order them starting April 12 atgetunity.com .
The Unity is the first set of headphones from He d , a Swiss sound caller . The companionship calls the Unity ’s Wi - Fi - based audio Full - Fidelity . “ We consider that everyone should be able to listen to audiophile quality audio recording , whenever and wherever , simply and without compromise , ” said Tim Degraye , Co - Founder of HED Unity in a press liberation . “ It ’s fourth dimension to demystify the procedure . Once you find out the difference it ’s impossible to go back . ”
He d says you ’ll be able to mind to lossless hi - res racetrack at up to 24 - bit/96kHz via Wi - Fi , include peer - to - peer connections when a Wi - Fi access stop is n’t usable . Most wireless Bluetooth headphone can only defend a lossy version of hullo - res audio , viacodecslikeLDAC , aptX HD , and aptX Adaptive , and because of the nature of Bluetooth connections , it can be hard to faithfully maintain the bandwidth needed for sincerely hi - res audio . Curiously , the Unity Bluetooth codec accompaniment is limited to just SBC and AAC , neither of which can handle hi - res or lossless audio .
The Unity launching comes just a few weeks after PSB Speakers announced that it would be the first to deliverhi - res adequate to phone . However , PSB ’s headphones are n’t planned for release until 2024 , and the company plans to utilise ultrawideband ( UWB ) engineering instead of Wi - Fi to surrender the extra bandwidth hi - res audio requires . UWB reenforcement is far from universal on smartphones and other machine , whereas Wi - Fi is nearly ubiquitous .
At launching , you ’ll be capable to rain buckets hi - res audio directly fromQobuz , and non - hi - atomic number 75 support let in both Soundcloud and Spotify . Tidalsupport is coming , accord to the company but no parole yet onAmazon MusicorApple Music .
Along with the Unity earphone , you could expend He d ’s Multisource Music Player inside the Unity app for Io and Android . This sacrifice you access to catalogs and lets you synchronise existing favorites within multiple music streaming provider account or link up directly to your local medium server over DLNA or UPnP connection protocols .
If you want to take your euphony to go , the Unity ’s onboard 16 GB of reposition is enough for about 100 - 267 songs that have been encoded as lossless FLAC at 24 - bit/96kHz , depending on distance , or about 600 CD - timber lossless tracks .
Strangely , despite offering playback compatibility with howdy - Ra audio formats , the headphones themselves are not hi - res certify by theJapan Audio Societybecause they do n’t match that organization ’s requirements for in high spirits - frequency reproduction at up to 40kHz . The Unity ’s claimed frequency response is 20Hz to 22kHz .
The Unity are also active noise cancel ( ANC ) headphones and sport a huge array of 12 mike . According to He d , four of those mics support ANC , while the other eight are beamforming and background signal interference delete for phone calls . By using obtuse materials that reduce the out-of-door disturbance , the ANC may not produce the same sensation of pressure that can be common on other ANC headphones .
He d has also charge the Unity with a 9 - axis vertebra motion sensor ( accelerometer , gyroscope , magnetometer ) which will be used for head tracking and augment reality . At launch , these feature ( plus Hed’d own version of spacial audio ) wo n’t be available , but the company says it will turn over them out with future microcode updates .
Though the Unity ’s design wo n’t strike everyone as beautiful , He d has n’t spar any disbursement on the material — as you would await for a $ 2,199 set of headphones . The spike cups are mill from a exclusive stoppage of architectural - grade aluminum admixture and compound with a vibe - reducing , carbon fiber - infuse nylon flesh . He d claims this design offers a unassailable , lightweight social organization with a radiant cultivation .
The Unity ’s battery thrill cursorily — from empty to 100 % in 1.5 hour — but it does n’t last very long . The company says you only expect between six and eight hour of Bluetooth cyclosis or Hi - Res Wi - Fi streaming .
As exciting as it is to finally have the pick to listen to lossless , hi - res audio on a wireless set of earpiece , the price of the He d Unity is bound to give many ethnic music pause . At $ 2,199 , they ’re one of ( if not the most ) expensive wireless earphone you’re able to bribe .
Are they worth it ? If we get an chance to put them through their tread in a full review , we ’ll let you have it away .
