Few manufacturers have really mastered combining noise cancellation with Bluetooth audio like Bose has with the QuietComfort 35 II. At $499, the circumaural (over-ear) B&O Play Beoplay H9i headphones are significantly more expensive than the Bose model, not to mention B&O Play's own Beoplay H8i, an on-ear version that costs $100 less. From an audio standpoint, the H9i headphones are excellent, with adjustable EQ to fine-tune the sound signature to your taste. In terms of noise cancellation, however, there's room for improvement.

Design

Available in black or gray-and-tan models, the Beoplay H9i are some seriously beautiful, stylish headphones that blend Scandinavian cool and luxury. The top of the headband is covered with stitched leather with some lovely grain, the earpads are a much softer leather, and there are matte gray and silver highlights on the outer panels. The underside of the headband doesn't look like it would be nearly as comfortable as the heavily cushioned memory foam earpads, but it feels good on the scalp. The earcups swivel at the base of the headband, allowing for an exceptionally comfortable fit. Inside each earcup, a 40mm driver delivers the audio.

The side panel of the right earcup houses the power/pairing switch, a USB-C port for the charging cable, an audio cable jack (an audio cable is included), status LEDs, and pinhole mics. Connecting the included cable doesn't automatically power the headphones down, but it breaks the Bluetooth connection. In wired mode, the headphones can be used actively (so you can employ the noise cancellation) or passively (to preserve battery life). The outer panel of the right earcup is, like the left earcup, emblazoned with the B&O Play logo, as well as subtle markings that indicate the control pad.

The controls are operated by a series of swipes and taps—tap the center to play or pause a song, or answer or end a call. You adjust the volume by tracing your finger up or down the outer edge of the circular panel, and you skip tracks by swiping forward or backward. To activate noise cancellation, it's a downward swipe, and another downward swipe turns it off. An upward swipe turns the transparency mode on or off—this mode allows you to hear your surroundings, and works quite effectively.

Typically, when we see on-ear capacitive touch or swipe-based controls, we gird ourselves for mishaps, or at least the need to repeat a swipe multiple times before having the desired effect. B&O Play nails it, however. It's impressively easy to accurately operate all of the above-described controls.

A proximity sensor will auto-pause music when you remove the earcups, and resume playback when you put them back on. What we like about it is the short delay—it waits until it's obvious the headphones aren't on your head, which isn't the case with some trigger-happy pairs we've tested. (We're looking at you, Bowers & Wilkins PX.)

The headphones ship with an ultra-soft felt drawstring bag in gray, and an airline jack adapter, in addition to the included charging cable and audio cable. They're compatible with the Beoplay mobile app, which lets you tinker with the EQ. B&O Play's take on the traditional bands or faders is perhaps a little goofy—you choose between Warm, Excited, Relaxed, or Bright, or combinations of various levels of these adjectives, by dragging a dot closer or farther to each word, positioned near the four corners of the screen—but it does a nice job of subtly adjusting lows, highs, and balance to taste.

The mic offers solid intelligibility. Using the Voice Memos app on an iPhone 6s, we could easily understand every word we recorded. There's no distortion, and the mic doesn't sound too far from the mouth—but there are some typically swishy Bluetooth artifacts—those familiar with the sound of cymbals on low-quality MP3s will understand what we mean. However, this is more or less par for the course with Bluetooth headphone mics.

B&O Play battery life to be roughly 18 hours, but your results will vary with your use of noise cancellation, your mix of wired active and wireless playback, and your volume levels.

Performance

Let's start with noise cancellation. You cannot adjust the level of cancellation, or the style of cancellation, in the app. There are competing models that do this with varying degrees of success, and we'd certainly like to see it at this price. There's also the issue of hiss. We typically associate high-frequency hiss with lower-tier noise cancellation. It's not entirely unplesant, but the goal is to eliminate noise, not create it. Additionally, while the noise cancellation is quite effective, it's not as powerful as the Bose QuietComfort 35 II's, which costs $150 less. It also affects the audio performance—music sounds different, and not in a positive way, when you engage the circuitry.

All of that said, this noise cancellation is in the top tier of what we've tested. It eliminates wide swaths of ambient noise. Your AC unit whir will disappear. Your coworker's chatter will be tamped down, though not eliminated. So don't confuse our gripes with total disapproval—it's just that $500 should buy you top-of-the-line noise cancellation. And in no way should noise cancellation affect audio playback, while here, audio can sound like it's going through an unpleasant filter that makes certain sounds pinched and nasally. Surprisingly, the less expensive Beoplay H8i has fewer issues in this regard.

See How We Test Headphones

With the noise cancellation and EQ off, on tracks with intense sub-bass content, like The Knife's "Silent Shout," the headphones deliver some serious thump. This sound signature will appeal to fans of big bass, but there's also plenty of higher frequency presence to keep things balanced. At top volumes, the deep bass doesn't distort, and at more moderate levels, the bass is still powerful without overwhelming the mix.

Bill Callahan's "Drover," a track with far less deep bass in the mix, gives us a better sense of the overall sound signature. The drums on this track can sound too thunderous on bass-heavy headphones, but through the Beoplay H9i, they sound round and lively, with a solid depth that isn't overly exaggerated. Callahan's baritone vocals are delivered with an ideal mix of low-mid richness and high-mid crispness, and there's plenty of high frequency presence to push the guitar strumming and higher register percussive attack forward. This is a bright, vibrant sound with plenty of low frequency presence to anchor it.

On Jay-Z and Kanye West's "No Church in the Wild," the kick drum loop's attack gets plenty of high-mid presence, allowing it to remain punchy and cut through the layers of the mix. The sub-bass synth hits that punctuate the beat are delivered with gusto—plenty of sub-bass presence, but nothing that overwhelms the balance of the mix. The vocals on this track are clear and crisp, and never veer into overly sibilant territory.

Orchestral tracks, like the opening scene from John Adams' The Gospel According to the Other Mary, sound excellent through the Beoplay H9i. The lower register instrumentation gets a little added oomph, but nothing obscene. The stage still belongs to the higher register brass, strings, and vocals, which are bright and clear, but never harsh, nor is the overall mix ever brittle.

Conclusions

From an audio standpoint, the Beoplay H9i headphones are terrific, if a bit pricey. From a noise cancellation standpoint, they're not up to par with Bose, which sells the Bose QuietComfort 35 II for $150 less. So if you're looking for the best active noise-canceling wireless headphones, Bose is still your best bet. But we're also fans of the Sennheiser PXC 550 Wireless and AKG N60 NC Wireless. For $500, we expect more, and although B&O Play's luxurious design does justify some of the price gap between the H9i and other models, we'd like to see it backed up by flawless noise cancellation performance.

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