Audeara A-01 review

 The Audeara A-01 Bluetooth headphones feature noise cancellation and connect to an app that adjusts to your own personal hearing profile, but there are better-sounding options out there for the price.

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Easily one of the more intriguing pairs of headphones you’re likely to experience, the Audeara A-01 deliver a curious take on where headphones go when your health is considered, not just your audio experience. They’re not perfect, that said, and still feel like they could do with some tweaks, something we imagine would see release in version 2, if it ever did some out. We’d like to see performance improvements, and wonder if that can be dolled out to the current generation simply by firmware.

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For its hefty price tag, you’d expect the Audeara A-01 Premium Intelligent Wireless Headphones to be topnotch straight off the box. But with mixed reviews, this pair of earphones simply doesn’t justify the price especially since there are other so-called smart headphones in the market that have the same technical features and more robust construction …

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The headphones are built solidly, look great and then paired with sound profile customization that is fantastic. I’m looking forward to an official FW update that hopefully resolves some of  the test issues. Overall… very well done.

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These headphones sound great without the software/app and with the software/app, they sound slightly better when setting the experience to 25%. When I set the experience to 100% I felt the sound was really not impressive at all. The design is not all that spectacular but fairly bland. They’re decent in the comfort department and monsters on battery life.

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Despite an understated design, the Audeara A-01 headphones stand out from the crowd. As well as providing impressive active noise cancellation, the headphones boast a hearing test that, once complete, customises the output of the audio for your hearing range. This makes music sound phenomenal – even songs you’ve listened to for years – and when combined with a 35-to-65-hour battery life, what’s not to like? 

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It’s not that the Audeara A-01 headphones sounded bad by any means but they lacked the deep rich bass, clean highs, and open soundstage of other more affordable headphones. When you’re asking $499 for a pair of headphones you are hitting at the premium sound end of the market and you better deliver. You can find better-sounding headphones at half of the price.

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Overall, the headphones compromise on a lot of non-essential features, like noise-canceling, but absolutely nail it in the one category that matters: audio fidelity. Because the A-01 is a unique product with no competitors in its specific niche, I have no choice but to recommend them.

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They can’t compete with the many excellent portable headphones at the same price. Active noise cancellation is the most egregious issue. Footfalls cause pops with every step, making these headphones virtually unusable while running or walking. Profiling your ears is also laborious, and far more subjective than the approach used by the Nuraphone. And even after profiling, these headphones’ tonal quality, separations and dynamics are significantly worse than the best at the price.

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The Audeara A-01 Bluetooth headphones are fine headphones, well packaged and with thoughtful inclusions. Don’t let my reservations about the calibration function put you off. They are very nice without it, and you might find that you like it anyway.

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