The best open-ear headphones have been really taking off recently, as people look for sound options that don't cut you off from the rest of the world. But these headphones work by blasting noise towards your ears, and this can mean sound leaks out to those around you. NTT Sonority reckons it has the answer: an over-ear design (already unusual in the world of open-ear headphones) that use noise suppression tech not to stop you from hearing the outside world, but to stop the outside world from hearing you. (via Notebookcheck)
NTT Sonority calls its system Personalized Sound Zone, and it's achieved by using a second driver in addition to the main 35mm driver. This second driver, a 12mm tweeter, uses phase cancelling to create a wave that reduces the audio leakage from your soundtrack, in theory making you a much more pleasant person to sit next to in the office while you blast out techno tracks to work to.
And as an added bonus, they look futuristic as hell.
nwm ONE: key features, pricing and availability
The big advantage of open-ear headphones such as these is that you can hear the world around you, and as a result these headphones don't come with active noise cancelling to remove external audio for you. They're often positioned as fitness headphones or headphones for commuters, enabling you to enjoy music or podcasts without missing crucial sounds such as oncoming vehicles while running or transit announcements on your commute.
In addition to the usual SBC and AAC Bluetooth codecs the nwm ONE headphones also support the better-quality Bluetooth LE Audio LC3 codec, and the higher-quality mSBC voice codec. There's support for Auracast, the Bluetooth multi-listener broadcast standard, and there are dual mics and voice separation for clearer speech in calls. Bluetooth is 5.3, and the frequency range is 40Hz to 20kHz, so if you're looking for bass monsters these might not be the best wireless headphones for you. But the headphones do support Sony 360 Reality Audio for immersive spatial audio from compatible apps.
Battery life is a claimed 20 hours, which isn't exactly huge for over-head headphones, and recharging from flat takes 1.5 hours; as with other headphones you can quickly top-up the battery from flat, in this case for five minutes to get an hour of listening time.
The nwm ONE have just launched in Japan with a price tag of 39,600 yen, which is roughly $250 / £195 / AU$380; there's no indication of a wider launch as yet. For now, the best open-ear listening options in the US and other countries are Sony's LinkBuds and the Bose Ultra Open Earbuds – but those are earbuds. We're very interested to see how well this headband design works in practice.
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