Would You Dongle It Up for Hello-Fi Audio?

I like hi-fi audio. I’m not an audiophile per se, however when crisp, lossless, distortion-free audio is in my ears, I tremendously recognize it. I’d say that I take pleasure in hi-fi audio about as a lot as I dislike dongles, which makes Sennheiser’s new $500 HDB 630 headphones a little bit of a contradiction for me.

The HDB 630 wi-fi headphones emphasize “true audiophile sound.” Good! There’s only one catch: to ship sound that parallels wired headphones or wi-fi rivals just like the Sony WH-1000XM6, Sennheiser is popping to the dreaded dongle. Included with the HDB 630 is a BTD 700 USB-C dongle, which you plug into your Android or iOS system to ship songs with extra digital data and better constancy than a normal Bluetooth connection.

In response to Sennheiser, the dongle transmits songs in a hi-res Aptx codec at as much as 24-bit with 96 kHz decision, which is nicely above your typical MP3 pattern fee, which tops out at about 44 kHz however will be as little as 32 kHz. For reference, that’s the identical typical pattern fee as a WAV file, which is standardized in numerous CDs. I might actually go down a rabbit gap explaining why all that issues, however the crux of it’s {that a} greater pattern fee captures extra frequencies, which ought to produce a wider soundstage and extra nuanced playback.

I do not know if all of that work on transmitting hi-fi sound really pays off, however in concept, it ought to translate to raised, extra nuanced sound, although it is going to additionally depend upon the way you’re taking part in/streaming music. Tidal is understood for catering to audiophiles with the choice to stream FLAC recordsdata, and Spotify is finally, finally, on the hi-res train, however you need to need/know to stream in these hi-res codecs to get probably the most out of your headphones.

Whether or not you’re prepared to make use of a dongle to make that higher sound work is one other query completely, although. I’ve seen gaming headsets like Sony’s Inzon H9 II and wi-fi earbuds resort to a dongle answer to assist scale back latency, however I’ve not seen the identical concept on the planet of headphones, so it’s arduous to say what the urge for food is for a dongle-filled setup.

One of the vital annoying components of dongles isn’t utilizing them (all you need to do is plug one thing in), but it surely’s preserving observe of them if you’re executed. What I’d like to see here’s a method to retailer the dongle in the headphones (a slot or one thing) if you’re executed. Sennheiser features a spot within the case to retailer the dongle, however let’s be sincere, not all of us are placing our headphones again within the case every time we’re executed utilizing them, neither is everybody taking their case with them all over the place. I communicate from expertise right here.

Outdoors of the dongle of all of it, the HDB 630 appear to be stable wi-fi headphones; they’ve energetic noise cancellation (ANC), 60 hours of battery life, although Sennheiser doesn’t specify if that’s with ANC on or off (my guess is off), and so they include a journey case, a 3.5mm cable for wired listening, and the aforementioned carrying case. Oh, and an adapter for listening on airplanes, which is a pleasant contact. If you happen to’re right down to dongle it up, you may preorder the HDB 630 now with an anticipated ship date of Oct. 21.