At a look
Knowledgeable’s Score
Professionals
- Nice worth for cash
- Glorious sound high quality
- Spectacular battery life
- Bundled aptX adaptor
Cons
- Costly
- Guide might be clearer
- Not everybody wants aptX
Our Verdict
It’s geared toward audiophiles who actually care about sound high quality, however the HDB 630 is great worth for cash. It gives a quick-and-easy Bluetooth connection when comfort is most vital, and a separate aptX Adaptive dongle for instances if you need one of the best sound high quality. It additionally gives spectacular battery life and helpful equipment that are perfect for life on the highway.
Value When Reviewed
This worth will present the geolocated pricing textual content for product undefined
Finest Pricing At present
Value When Reviewed
$499.95
Finest Costs At present: Sennheiser HDB 630
$499.95
Many high-quality Bluetooth headphones use the favored aptX codec for Bluetooth audio – effectively, it’s standard with Android customers, Apple has averted aptX for years (probably due to a long-running patent dispute between Apple and Qualcomm, which owns the aptX know-how).
Fortunately, a lot of the greatest Bluetooth headphones and earbuds help Apple’s most well-liked AAC codec, so you may nonetheless use Apple gadgets with a variety of Bluetooth headphones, however many individuals argue that aptX gives superior sound high quality, particularly for listening to the lossless or hi-res music that’s now accessible on Apple Music and different streaming providers. Apple’s refusal to help the aptX codec signifies that it’s not one thing AirPods customers can take pleasure in, however non-Apple headphones are beginning to add their very own technique of help, and we’re taking a look at one such pair of headphones right here. (The Bowers & Wilkins Pi8 additionally help aptX).
Priced at $499.95/£399.90, Sennheiser’s HDB 630 will get round the issue by offering a flexible set of noise-cancelling over-ear headphones that even provides Apple gadgets a alternative between utilizing AAC or the most recent high-quality aptX Adaptive codec.
Aimed toward “the high-performance audio fanatic who desires all of it”, the HDB 630 headphones help each aptX Adaptive and AAC for Bluetooth audio, in addition to offering a USB-C interface for a wired connection as effectively. And, when you’re utilizing Apple gadgets that don’t help aptX, the HDB 630 additionally features a small Bluetooth dongle (adaptor) referred to as the BTD 700, which makes use of a USB-C interface to connect with your computer systems or cellular gadgets, after which acts as a Bluetooth transmitter that helps aptX Adaptive.
Sennheiser says that the dongle’s aptX Adaptive can deal with hi-res audio codecs as much as 24-bit/96KHz, so it’s a superb choice if you wish to hearken to lossless or hi-res music.
The HDB 630 can be utilized with Bluetooth or wired connections, and in addition features a USB-C adaptor for aptX as effectively.
Which means individuals utilizing Apple gadgets have a alternative of audio choices. You should use a direct Bluetooth reference to AAC to offer a fast and simple connection to the headphones, which can be handy if you’re out and about or understanding on the gymnasium. However, when you’re enjoyable indoors or on a protracted aircraft flight, then you may plug the dongle into your Mac, iPhone or iPad – so long as they’ve USB-C, in fact – and use its aptX Adaptive help to wallow in your favorite tunes with the very best sound high quality.
And the sound high quality actually is great. The design of the HDB 630 is similar to that of Sennheiser’s inexpensive Momentum 4 headphones, however Sennheiser says it has fine-tuned the inner design of the earpieces to enhance each the mid-range and lower-treble efficiency.
Some individuals will argue that aptX doesn’t sound a lot better than AAC, however I might hear a transparent distinction when listening to the hi-res model of The Beatles’ Eleanor Rigby on Apple Music. With the BTD 700 dongle plugged into my iPad Air, the sharp, stabbing strings sound extra forceful and dramatic, and the deep cellos particularly have a richer, extra resonant tone than when listening by way of the iPad’s commonplace AAC connection.
The dongle additionally does an important job with the dense rock sound of Sing Alongside by Sturgill Simpson, laying down a deep, grinding sound for the fuzzy rock guitars, but in addition choosing out the high-quality element of the ticking percussion that holds the monitor collectively.
Sennheiser’s Good Management app additionally gives a Bass Increase choice that lands the bass drop in the direction of the tip of the monitor with a satisfyingly weighty sound.
The headphones additionally boast as much as 60 hours of battery life, so that they’ll be a superb choice for a protracted flight or practice journey.
Utilizing the BTD 700 dongle does scale back the battery life to round 45 hours, however that’ll nonetheless see you proper world wide with no bother in any respect.
The BTD 700 dongle permits Apple gadgets to make use of the high-quality aptX Adaptive codec for Bluetooth audio.
Our solely criticism is that it wasn’t completely clear how you can swap between utilizing the built-in Bluetooth with AAC on my iPad Air, and the aptX Adaptive choice with the separate BTD 700 dongle plugged into the iPad.
It took a couple of minutes of random button-stabbing earlier than I managed to attach the headphones to the little dongle. As soon as that’s finished the Sennheiser app lists the BTD 700 and the iPad’s commonplace Bluetooth as separate connection choices, making it simple to change between them, however it could assist if the directions in Sennheiser’s PDF guide had been slightly clearer.
The Sennheiser app has additionally been up to date for the HDB 630, with a brand new parametric equaliser that gives extra high-quality management over particular person frequency bands, and improved controls for the noise-cancellation options. The noise cancellation works effectively too, offering fast preset choices on the faucet of a button, in addition to a slider management throughout the app that allows you to manually alter the extent of noise cancellation to fit your environment.
With noise-cancellation set to full the HDB 630 was in a position to stamp proper down on the low-frequency rumble of an plane engine in our simulated checks (courtesy of mynoise.internet). It did let in some larger frequency sounds in our second check, which simulates the noise of a busy airport, so Apple’s AirPods Max and Bose’s QuietComfort Extremely nonetheless have a slight edge with the general effectiveness of their noise-cancellation options.
Nevertheless, the AirPods Max and Bose QC Extremely are dearer – and, in fact, the HDB 630 has the added bonus of its BTD 700 dongle, which gives improved sound high quality for Apple gadgets when listening to lossless and hi-res music.
Sennheiser throws in another helpful equipment too, together with a sturdy carrying case, airline adaptor, USB-C cable and three.5mm cable for gadgets that also have an quaint 3.5mm headphone socket, offering wonderful all-round worth for cash.
Helpful equipment for travellers embody a carrying case and airline adaptor.
Ought to You Purchase The Sennheiser HDB 630?
In the event you’re simply in search of an inexpensive set of Bluetooth headphones then there are definitely inexpensive choices accessible. Nevertheless, the HDB 630 will earn its preserve for audiophiles who need the easiest audio high quality, because of its versatile connectivity options that embody commonplace Bluetooth together with the BTD 700 adaptor for aptX Adaptive, and wired connectivity as effectively. And, with spectacular battery life and helpful equipment, the HDB 630 actually does present wonderful worth for cash.
