They won’t fit a lot of budgets, but if you’re an audiophile who has long wished for a set of wireless headphones that can deliver truly lossless, hi-res audio, the Hed Unity are the first product that can grant your wish. The over-ear cans use Wi-Fi as well as Bluetooth and can store hi-res music within their onboard storage for access to those hi-res tracks even when you’re not at home on your Wi-Fi network. The price for this ultimate level of wire-free listening? $2,199 and you can order them starting April 12 at getunity.com.
Hed
The Unity is the first set of headphones from Hed, a Swiss audio company. The company calls the Unity’s Wi-Fi-based audio Full-Fidelity. “We believe that everyone should be able to listen to audiophile quality audio, whenever and wherever, simply and without compromise,” said Tim Degraye, Co-Founder of HED Unity in a press release. “It’s time to demystify the process. Once you hear the difference it’s impossible to go back.”
Hed says you’ll be able to listen to lossless hi-res tracks at up to 24-bit/96kHz via Wi-Fi, including peer-to-peer connections when a Wi-Fi access point isn’t available. Most wireless Bluetooth headphones can only support a lossy version of hi-res audio, via codecs like LDAC, aptX HD, and aptX Adaptive, and because of the nature of Bluetooth connections, it can be hard to reliably maintain the bandwidth needed for truly hi-res audio. Curiously, the Unity Bluetooth codec support is limited to just SBC and AAC, neither of which can handle hi-res or lossless audio.
These Headphones Cost How Much? | Hed Unity Wi-Fi Headphones Review
The Unity launch comes just a few weeks after PSB Speakers announced that it would be the first to deliver hi-res capable headphones. However, PSB’s headphones aren’t planned for release until 2024, and the company plans to use ultrawideband (UWB) technology instead of Wi-Fi to deliver the extra bandwidth hi-res audio requires. UWB support is far from universal on smartphones and other devices, whereas Wi-Fi is nearly ubiquitous.
At launch, you’ll be able to stream hi-res audio directly from Qobuz, and non-hi-res support includes both Soundcloud and Spotify. Tidal support is coming, according to the company but no word yet on Amazon Music or Apple Music.
Along with the Unity headphones, you can use Hed’s Multisource Music Player inside the Unity app for iOS and Android. This gives you access to catalogs and lets you sync existing favorites within multiple music streaming provider accounts or connect directly to your local media server over DLNA or UPnP network protocols.
If you want to take your music to go, the Unity’s onboard 16GB of storage is enough for about 100-267 songs that have been encoded as lossless FLAC at 24-bit/96kHz, depending on length, or about 600 CD-quality lossless tracks.
Hed
Strangely, despite offering playback compatibility with hi-res audio formats, the headphones themselves are not hi-res certified by the Japan Audio Society because they don’t meet that organization’s requirements for high-frequency reproduction at up to 40kHz. The Unity’s claimed frequency response is 20Hz to 22kHz.
The Unity are also active noise canceling (ANC) headphones and sport a huge array of 12 microphones. According to Hed, four of those mics support ANC, while the other eight are beamforming and background noise canceling for phone calls. By using dense materials that reduce the outside noise, the ANC may not produce the same sensation of pressure that can be common on other ANC headphones.
Hed has also loaded the Unity with a 9-axis motion sensor (accelerometer, gyro, magnetometer) which will be used for head tracking and augmented reality. At launch, these features (plus Hed’d own version of spatial audio) won’t be available, but the company says it will roll them out with future firmware updates.
Hed
Though the Unity’s design won’t strike everyone as beautiful, Hed hasn’t spared any expense on the materials — as you would expect for a $2,199 set of headphones. The ear cups are milled from a single block of architectural-grade aluminum alloy and combined with a vibration-reducing, carbon fiber-infused nylon chassis. Hed claims this design offers a strong, lightweight structure with a radiant finish.
The Unity’s battery charges quickly — from empty to 100% in 1.5 hours — but it doesn’t last very long. The company says you only expect between six and eight hours of Bluetooth streaming or Hi-Res Wi-Fi streaming.
Hed
As exciting as it is to finally have the option to listen to lossless, hi-res audio on a wireless set of headphones, the price of the Hed Unity is bound to give many folks pause. At $2,199, they’re one of (if not the most) expensive wireless headphones you can buy.
Are they worth it? If we get an opportunity to put them through their paces in a full review, we’ll let you know.
Bose revamps QuietComfort headphones and earbuds with lossless, hi-res, and spatial audio
Bose has debuted its latest QuietComfort wireless headphones and earbuds -- the Bose QuietComfort Ultra Headphones ($429) and Bose QuietComfort Ultra Earbuds ($299). They feature new designs, new materials, and in keeping with the industry's recent obsession with spatial audio, the new models are equipped with Bose Immersive Audio, Bose's version of the 3D audio experience that Apple helped to popularize with its AirPods Pro. The Ultra models also have Qualcomm's Snapdragon Sound platform, which enables hi-res or lossless CD-quality audio via the aptX Adaptive Bluetooth codec when used with compatible Android smartphones.
The new Ultra models replace the Bose Noise Cancelling Headphones 700 and the Bose QuietComfort Earbuds II (QCE II) as the company's wireless audio flagships. Bose has also introduced a successor to the Bose QuietComfort 45 Headphones, known simply as the Bose QuietComfort Headphones ($349). All three models will be available in black or white, with an additional limited-edition green color for the QuietComfort Headphones. The Ultra models start shipping in October, with the QuietComfort Headphones arriving a little earlier, on September 21. Preorders for all three models start September 14 on bose.com.
Bose Immersive Audio
Bose says its immersive audio system creates a wider, more spacious soundstage for all kinds of content. And similar to the Dolby Audio spatial option on the recently released Jabra Elite 10 wireless earbuds, Bose's system uses sensors to enable optional head tracking.
Tidal’s new hi-res FLAC option couldn’t be more annoying
When Tidal CEO Jesse Dorogusker announced in April 2023 that the music service would soon be adding lossless hi-res audio in the open-source FLAC format, a lot of folks cheered the move. And by a lot of folks, I mean audiophiles who have never been happy with Tidal's decision to use the controversial MQA format as its sole better-than-CD quality option. Right or wrong, it looked like the addition of hi-res FLAC would be the perfect compromise: when available, a listener could hear the FLAC version of their favorite track, and Tidal seemed to indicate that it will be keeping MQA as well, which made this seem like a win for all concerned.
Tidal has said that starting today, select subscribers will be able to access its catalog of music in hi-res lossless audio that uses the open-source FLAC format. The announcement was made via a Reddit post in which CEO Jesse Dorogusker said that hi-res FLAC tracks, in up to 24-bit/192kHz resolution, are now available to the company's Early Access Program (EAP) users on iOS. Dorogusker says the company wants feedback from this smaller group of listeners before rolling out the format more broadly. All HiFi Plus subscribers are expected to get access to the new format by August.
If you're an EAP member, you can access the new hi-res lossless content by updating your beta app and selecting "Max" quality in the new Audio & Playback settings screen.
