With the YH-L700A, Yamaha presents a wireless noise-canceling headphone that takes the fight to the AirPods Max. A retro-futuristic design, surround sound, and head tracking should make the difference. If you’re looking for wireless headphones with a distinct identity, then you’re on the right track by examining this new Yamaha YH-L700A. Between the many futuristic headphones made of metal and plastic, this is a breath of fresh air.
| PROS | CONS |
| Good sound, passive or active | Higher price range |
| Capable ANC | 3D effect needs work |
| Excellent mic clarity | |
| Good battery with noise cancelling |
Specification
| Yamaha YH-L700A | |
| $ | CHECK PRICE |
| Brand | Yamaha Audio |
| Released | August 24, 2021 |
| Weight | 330 g |
| Dimension | 3.07 x 8.03 x 10.51 inches |
| Type | Over-Ear |
| Colors | Black |
| Driver | Dynamic / 40.0 mm |
| Frequency response | 8 Hz – 40 kHz |
| Microphone | Yes |
| Music Controls | Yes |
| Bluetooth | 5.0 |
| Codecs | aptX Adaptive and AAC |
Design
The Japanese electronics giant brings a new headphones design that has a slightly retro feel and at the same time is reminiscent of its devices for the pro-market. Mainly thanks to the rectangular ear pads, angled from the headband, and the matte finish makes it look like something you’d find in a music studio. Still, it’s not all function with these Bluetooth noise-canceling headphones.
The woven textile finish on the housing and headband gives the YH-L700A a premium look. The build quality also seems to be fine. The multifunctional hinges that serve to position the ear cushions in the right position for your ears and build the Yamaha headphones into something compact do their job without crackling, an important quality benchmark. Of course, we expect nothing less for wireless headphones from this higher price segment.
The wide and thick headband is quite solid, both visually and tactile. The brace covered by the woven mesh cloth retains a certain degree of elasticity in the hardness, and there will be no discomfort when wearing it.
Compared to the solid outside of the headband, the inside of the headband that fits the head contains a cushioning material with excellent Q degree. It is also covered with a woven mesh cloth to disperse the earphones when wearing them effectively. The body’s weight greatly improves comfort; even if worn for a long time, it will not cause fatigue.
When the adjustable headband is manually adjusted, you can feel the sense of good paragraphs. Since the interval of each paragraph is designed to be smaller, it can be more accurately adjusted to the length required by different head types.
The outside of the earmuffs is made of woven mesh and leather. The design is quite good, and the texture is also superior. Function keys for playing music and answering/hanging up are planned on the leather. The recessed design is very special, conducive to the accuracy and recognition of the control when wearing the headset.
The special joint mechanism allows the earmuffs to be manually folded to the most comfortable wearing angle. By bending and folding, the user can easily hang the YH-L700A on the neck or wear it.
The outer frame of the earmuffs can also be adjusted through the front and rear amplitudes so that the earmuffs can tightly cover the entire ears, achieving a certain degree of passive physical noise reduction effect, combined with advanced active noise reduction technology, bringing quietness to users An undisturbed listening experience.
Unlike the square design on the outside of the earmuffs, the inside adopts an oval shape that conforms to the curve of the human ear, and it can see that the thickness of the leather ear pads is sufficient. The inert material inside makes it comfortable to wear.
Features
Before talking about extras such as Listening Care or 3D Sound Field, let’s first zoom in on something that should not be missing on wireless headphones from the highest price range: noise canceling. Noise cancellation is one of the main reasons people opt for these types of headphones because eliminating that tiring background noise is nice when commuting and working (at home). An additional plus is that you can listen to your music at a lower volume due to the lack of disturbing sound. And that is also good for a relaxed feeling.
The YH-L700A does not have noise canceling that you can set variably. It is on or off, selectable via a button on the Yamaha itself or the Yamaha Headphones app. A handy app to install, by the way, because you can set more here than via the buttons on the headphones. You can choose an Ambient Sound mode on both the headphones and in the app, in which part of the sound around you is let through. This way, you can chat with a colleague without having to take the device off your head. Often functions like this amplify too much higher frequencies, and everything sounds fierce, but the Yamaha is more pleasant and lets very focused voices through.
The YH-L700A includes two unique features in NC headphones: 3D Sound Field and Head Tracking.
With a button on the headphones or with the help of the associated “Headphone Controller” app, the user can switch between the following room sound simulations:
- Cinema
- drama
- Music video
- Concert Hall
- Outdoor live
- Audio room
- Background music
In addition, a head tracking function is integrated, which shifts the sound center depending on the wearer’s head movements. In other words: the sound is localized (more or less) in front of the listener and always stays where it was when the headphones were put on.
In contrast to the Apple AirPods Max, this works with the Yamaha YH-L700A without specially mixed music with any stereo source. The only question is how well it works.
Sound & Connectivity
The main features of YH-L700A include the use of Bluetooth 5.0 specifications, with stable and low-latency wireless transmission performance; in terms of sound effects, wireless transmission supports up to aptX encoding, which can deliver effects equivalent to CD original sound quality, and wired transmission can reach Hi-Res Audio High-resolution music specifications, with a frequency response of 8Hz ~ 40kHz, through a 40mm large-diameter driver unit, the extremely low frequency to ultra high frequency range is completely transmitted to the listener’s ears; not only that, the YH-L700A with advanced active noise reduction technology.
In addition to being equipped with advanced active noise reduction technology, it also incorporates 3D Sound Field, Several exclusive acoustic technologies, including Listening Optimizer, Listening Care-Advanced, and have aptX wireless transmission sound effects and wired transmission Hi-Res Audio specifications, bringing better noise reduction and listening enjoyment to music fans.
- Bluetooth 5.0 with aptX Adaptive and AAC
- Advanced ANC (can be switched off by ANC button or app)
- Ambient sound (transparency mode)
- Listening Care (adaptive loudness, can be switched off via the app)
- Listening Optimizer (adaptation to the seat and the shape of the ear, can be switched off in the app)
- 3D Sound Field (spatial sound simulations)
- Head tracking (can be switched on and off via the app)
- Telephony and voice assistance
- Auto standby can be set via the app
- “Headphone Controller” app
- English voice prompts
- real passive mode
- DSP features can also be used via an analog signal
The 3D Sound Filed function can be quickly switched or closed through the buttons on the side of the earmuffs. The other channel’s earmuffs are equipped with a physical ANC button to switch the noise reduction function.
The charging terminal is YH-L700A with USB-C specification. It has good endurance. After the active noise reduction function is turned on, you can listen to music continuously for up to 34 hours. If you activate the noise reduction and 3D Sound Filed functions simultaneously, you can also have 11 hours.
YH-L700A is also equipped with a practical 3.5mm headphone jack. When the headset is out of power, you can listen to music through wired transmission. This is a major advantage of configuring a 3.5mm headphone jack.
YH-L700A comes with dual 3.5mm gold-plated headphone head cables. Another set of cables attached to the YH-L700A is a USB-C to USB-A charging cable.
The box of YH-L700A also comes with an adapter. When taking a plane, you can still easily switch to watching and listening to the audio-visual services provided on the plane. The key point is maintaining the noise reduction function and greatly reducing the flight. Noise interference at the time.
Battery Life
With noice cancellation enabled, the YH-L700A delivers excellent battery life: 34 hours. We noticed a lot if you don’t use the noise suppression, which we noticed during testing. The surround functions have the biggest impact on the battery life because you have to charge after 11 hours.
Conclusion!
The noise reduction is excellent; the battery life is excellent. This Yamaha YL-L700A scores well in terms of wearing comfort. It certainly sounds compelling even at a lower volume with Listening Care. Apart from 3D Sound Field, they are good noise-canceling headphones with a certain price tag.
