Review: Beyerdynamic Aventho Wireless On-Ear Headphones

Another day with another story on a pair of headphones. Yesterday we covered a pair of headphones from Beyerdynamic, a German company well known for its product line. It was a pair of studio monitors made for those in the field of mixing/monitoring sound, both for live events or recording scenarios (ie, recording studio, interviews, etc). Today, we move on to a pair of headphones designed with a heightened level of sound, fit for those who call themselves audiophiles. Launched this January, the Aventho on-ear wireless headphones by Beyerdynamic have been making their rounds here as we really put them to the test, and here is what we found.

Design and Comfort

The design of the headphones features a mostly-aluminum body with some plastic features. The headband is aluminum wrapped with very soft leather (feels like lambskin) that feels great on the head (I am told even those with a lack of hair have enjoyed them immensely). The muffs feature the same style of leather that feels great to the ears and offer a two-axis swivel to adjust nicely to your head with.

They are available in both a black/silver option as well as a black/silver with brown cushions.

Firm yet giving, the band flexes well to shape most any head and feels quite durable, giving you the impression that these will last quite a long time. It is slide adjustable on both sides, like any other headphones, with the cables running up from the muffs into the band on both sides. The firmness of the band does lead to some exhaustion after long use (pressure against the ears), however, you may be able to stretch them out every so slightly to help reduce this effect with (just make sure you don’t lose your ability to grip the head without sliding around).

The outer plates of the muffs are plastic with one side simply featuring the Beyerdynamic logo, while the other is a blank slate with touch-sensitive controls (wireless mode only). As you can see in the above video, by tapping or sliding your finger across the place, you can find all of your familiar controls using nothing but your finger.

A double-tap will play or pause the music you are listening to, or answer/end a phone call. Touching and holding your finger to the plate will trigger your voice assistant. You can increase or decrease the volume by sliding your finger up or down, and you can control the tracks you are listening to by sliding left or right. All of this is quite accurate and responsive to your touch.

The feature only works while the headphones are paired using Bluetooth and will not function if the headphones are connected wired via the cable. Being able to use your finger to control the headphones is a nice touch since you aren’t fumbling around looking for buttons while trying to remember which one does what without taking them off to look. We felt that tapping or sliding your finger across the plate does create a lot of noise (a hollow sound) in your ear, but this can be reduced with a lighter touch.

The left muff contains nothing additional as everything is located on the right. This includes your cable input in case you do want to go wired, your touch controls on the faceplate as well as your, a USB Type-C port (that’s right, these are quite modern), as well as the hole that contains the microphone, a power button, and a small LED light for the status indication (on, off, pairing, connected, etc).

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The power button is a bit small and takes a little more effort to push than average. This isn’t a complaint per se, but something we felt like pointing out. It, at least, prevents accidental presses?

The USB Type-C is also a nice touch as it brings the headphones into the modern age of charging and connectivity. You can also get a quicker charge using the connection type, even connected to a PC. It helps to reduce cables since most of today’s (non-iOS) phones feature this connection type (and yes, it does come with a cable as well).

Performance

This is where I am going to rave on about how great they are, while also pointing out a massive mistake on Beyerdynamic’s part.

These headphones are absolutely amazing. A pair that nearly any audiophile would be happy to call their own. Although they don’t compare to many headphones we have listened to, those headphones typically weigh in at a much higher price tag–as if the price tag on these weren’t high enough.

Headphones like these are not for general MP3 consumption typically. When it comes to audiophile listening, you want losslessly compressed media or better (like no compression) if you are going to take these for a spin. The reason behind this is that you are only limited by your weakest link. In this case, your weakest link seems to be the cable (or Bluetooth, which we will get to in a moment). For audiophile listening, you want to seek out vinyl, DTS, FLAC, DSD, etc.–as well as a good amp to really bring them to life with if going wired (recommended).

We recommend wired as that is where these headphones truly shine. This is also where we think Beyerdynamic has made the massive mistake I spoke a moment ago about, that could have been easy to avoid. Either these headphones should have been marketed as a wired pair of headphones with the “ability” to go wireless if you do need them to (with a drop in quality), or chosen to go Bluetooth 5.0 instead of 4.2 for the sake of bandwidth (and then focus on calling them a wireless pair of headphones).

In fact, the ONLY thing separating these headphones from a perfect 10 score, is that lack of Bluetooth 5.0. Switching to wireless gains you a loss of what feels to be around 30% or more in quality compared to wired. I had to take a poll around here without providing any personal opinion ahead of each test, just to make sure I wasn’t hearing things. We believe that Bluetooth 5.0 could have solved this as you get around twice the performance if not better (data throughput, connectivity speed, and so forth). Of course, you will more than likely see a decrease in battery performance, but the trade should be more than reasonable.

Wireless

That being said, I will begin by highlighting their wireless performance. Although they sound fantastic, with what feels like slightly limited range (as mentioned), it is hard to focus on wireless when you compare performance to price. Wireless, these sound more like something from Bose. A loss was expected with Bluetooth due to the fact that no matter what Bluetooth technology you use (currently), you are still dealing with compressed/limited bandwidth. This is why switching to the most recent Bluetooth spec could have helped with this (it’s like listening to a 128kbps MP3 vs. a 320kbps MP3). Despite all of this, the music is still very enjoyable, and you might find yourself using these to listen to MP3s just as much as you would anything else.

You do get up to 20 hours or more worth of listening, and the headphones will announce the current battery level (percentage) when you first turn them on each time. As mentioned they feature Bluetooth 4.2 combined with “Tesla technology” (with Qualcomm^® aptX™ HD and AAC).

While in wireless use, you will be able to make full use of the touch controls on the right muff, which includes the ability to talk to your voice assistant (ie, Siri, Android Assistant, Bixby, Cortana, etc).

Conversations are quite clear for both ends of the connected party and seem to be included within the advertised battery life.

Wired

You would think that the above Bluetooth issue would affect the score with us greater than it has, but what saved these headphones is their wired performance. Slap a wire between the headphones and your source, switch over to the formats I discussed earlier, and begin melting into your seat. If you are standing, it will make you want to sit down quickly, so that you can comfortably become assimilated with what you are listening to. Now all of a sudden the headphones begin to sound like something from Beyerdynamic’s better product selections, or companies like B&W, Oppo, and so forth.

The highs are absolutely fantastic, with a deep range that leads to all the quality your ears yearn for. This helps to bring so many things to life in music of all genres. Vocals are so crisp, and instruments will light up, allowing you to easily paint a mental depiction of the soundstage in your mind. In some cases (depending on what you are listening to), the highs can be a little bright causing some exhaustion after listening for long-term sessions, however, this can be easily corrected using the EQ on the device you are playing from (assuming it has one). In most cases, you may not even notice this.

The mids are also absolutely fantastic. They too deliver a great range of sound, highlighting the detail in each track, providing you with the same enjoyment that you get out of the highs.

Lower frequencies, once again, are also pretty fantastic. They seem to be well balanced without kicking abnormally hard in your ears. This helps to bring proper warmth to the content, and the feeling of deep detail vs the loud and exaggerated SPL that you get out of brands like Beats.

When wired, these are truly audiophile and seem to fit well within the $400-$500 range. This includes both performance and comparison to similar competitive models/brands. This is why they only drop when it comes to wireless.

It would be interesting to hear what an over-ear version of these headphones would sound like.

Media we used for testing

Albums/content tested mostly include FLAC, SACD and DSD, such as “Beck – Sea Change (MoFi MFSL Gold CD)“, “Dire Straits & Mark Knopfler – Best Of Dire Straits & Mark Knopfler Private Investigations (FLAC)“, and even tracks by Aurora (she is an amazing YouTube wonder–you can check her out here).

App

Giving you the ability to dig even deeper into the detail your ears may yearn for, Beyerdynamic has an app called “MIY” (which stands for “Make it Yours”) that was designed specifically for these headphones. It is available for both iOS and Android, and opens up the ability to not only control the sensitivity of the touchpad but can also provide you with analytics of your listening habits, as well as provide you with a hearing test. With the hearing test, the app can better customize the headphones to your own personal ears, and then upload the profile to the headphones themselves so that they are “tailored” specifically to you.

They will offer support for additional headphone models in the future, including the AMIRON over-ear headphones as well as the Xelento wireless in-ear earphones (no timeline is given at this time).

What’s in the box!

The headphones come with a soft cotton pouch to store them in. It features a decently thick design, a reinforced button (feels to be a thin sheet of plastic sewed within), a drawstring format for securing it shut with, and a small pocket inside to store your cables with. The only thing it is missing is velcro to hold the inside pocket closed so nothing falls out and into the main portion of the pouch.

Alongside the pouch, is a USB Type-C cable for charging them with (for wireless use), as well as a 3.5mm cable for connecting them wired to a device. You also have plenty of documentation to walk you through using the headphones, as well as the MIY app.

Our Conclusion

Although these headphones fail (slightly) to perform to our expectations wirelessly, they are absolutely killing it when going wired. When using a wire, these provide such an enjoyable range of sound that you will find it hard to get up out of your seat. You will become a vegetable–a slave to your music–as you find yourself moving track to track, hoping that it never ends. They look and sound absolutely amazing and the only thing they lack is the latest Bluetooth spec that would help give them exactly what they need to deliver close to the same performance wirelessly. They are a true pair of audiophile headphones that will bring a smile to your face.

*Average price is based on the time this article was published

Unboxing Video:

Interview (CES 2018):

Additional Images:

Specifications:

TRANSMISSION TYPE
Wireless (Bluetooth)

NOMINAL IMPEDANCE HEADPHONES
32 ohms

HEADPHONE FREQUENCY RESPONSE
10 – 40,000 Hz

NOMINAL SOUND PRESSURE LEVEL
105 dB SPL (1 mW / 500 Hz)

CONSTRUCTION
Supraaural (on-ear)

SKU
Aventho wireless

EAN
4010118717444

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