Panasonic is all ears at this year’s CES, unveiling a range of wireless headphones, including Technics first True Wireless noise cancelling buds.
The brand is touting enhanced bass response as the reason to buy its upcoming M-Series over-ear cans. Three models, the RB-M700B, RB-M500B and RB-M300B, boast XBS (Extra Bass System) Deep technology, with 40mm drivers and Harmonic Tuning EQ, which magnifies bass below 100Hz and suppressing bass above 100Hz.
There’s also a Bass Reactor on the M500 and M700 models which sets out to amplify low frequencies in response to a track’s bass sounds. The result, Panasonic maintains, emulates the sort of throbbing bass you might experience at a nightclub.
Battery life is impressive. The M300 boasts 36 hours, the M50031 hours and the M700 21 hours.
If you’d rather commute than dance, the trio are joined by two true wireless offerings, the RZ-S500W and RZ-S300W. The S-500W offers Dual Hybrid Noise Cancelling, a combination of FeedForward Noise Cancelling and Feedback Noise Cancelling techniques, plus analogue/digital processing, to combat noise generated both inside and outside the ear cups.
A high-performance MEMS microphone is used to suppress wind noise and other sonic interference. Other niceties include an ambient sound mode, plus one touch NC control.
The first Technics True Wireless offering, the EAH-AZ70W, promises the Hi-Fi brand’s signature audiophile clarity, courtesy of a newly developed dynamic driver that uses a graphene-coated PEEK (a hard plastic material) diaphragm and airflow optimised acoustic control chamber, said to favour detail and mid-range slam. It’s this acoustic chamber that’s responsible for the size increase over the Panasonic RZ-S500W.
Like their Panasonic RZ-S500W stablemate, the EAH-AZ70W also features Dual Hybrid Noise Cancelling technology, however we’re told the noise cancelling is superior on this model thanks to the use of higher-performance microphones.
Simultaneous left/right Bluetooth reception maintains sonic integrity. There’s also ambient sound and NC touch control.
Fully charged, the EAH-AZ70W will play continuously for six hours, with the charging cradle battery providing a total of 18 hours of playback.
Bluetooth 5.1 is used across the range.
The M-Series are due April, the rest will follow in May.