Dolby Dimension Wireless Headphones

We have all seen the famous Dolby brand plastered on everything from speakers to movie theaters. But in 2018, more than 50 years after Ray Dolby became known for magnetic stripe technology, Dolby is finally ready to embark on a new consumer product.

Dolby Dimension, a pair of $ 600 luxury headphones (yes, $ 600) is unsurprisingly for Dolby, intended primarily for home use. They are designed to bounce between screens, enhance movies when you do not want to wake neighbors and moonlight like a pair of travel cans. Even if they are far from these great aspirations, these new cans are a promising step in buying products for Dolby. And if you're a certain type of listener, it may be the headphones you've been looking for. Say hello to Dolby Dimension.

Out of the box

Dolby makes you feel like you're waiting for a $ 600 headset with a chic, luxurious body. By opening the box, we do not discover plastic links or twisted links, there are only black and elegant headphones placed on a gray bed of woolly fabric, which also serves as a flexible travel bag.

And maybe it's the coolest wireless headsets we've ever met. Fitted with soft leather – which not only covers the large cushions, but also the ear cups themselves – the onyx frame is reminiscent of a minimalist and functional Nordic style. A column of four keys aboard the right atrium matches a bright LED blade along the disc-shaped outer cap.

Inside the box, you'll find a flat-wired charging cable, as well as a disc-shaped charger that connects to the headphone terminals. Dolby did not opt ​​for USB-C, which means there is no fast charge. This is less of a problem for home headphones, but at this price we expected the latest technology. A wall adapter and the aforementioned soft case complete the accessories.

Characteristics of wazoo

Dolby absolutely loaded the Feature Dimension. This includes Active Noise Suppression (ANC) to suppress crying babies in planes, transparency to let in the ambient sound (Dolby calls it LifeMix), as well as unique features like virtualization that mimic the surround sound of your favorite movies and TV shows.

There is also a head tracking feature, designed to keep your audio source stable when you turn your head, so that even if you are completely immersed in sound, if you hear something or someone typing in the door or scream when using the transparency function, you can turn your head and know that it does not come from the TV or the iPad.

Built-in buttons let you easily switch between three Bluetooth sources, but if your TV does not support Bluetooth, keep in mind that you'll need to rely on a streaming box or game console. A fourth circular button sleeps and wakes up the cans and turns them on and on with a three-second wait.

A touchpad on the right ear cap controls the volume with sweeps from top to bottom, reads and pauses with a key, and toggles between noise canceling mode and transparency mode with double press. Like most of the touch controls we've encountered, they can be sophisticated and we found ourselves setting up a wandering control about every four or five sweeps or taps.

Slick little app

Although built-in keys are convenient for quick changes, the application handles much of the Dimension experiment. Coupled in eye-catching animations, the application is the key to everything from setting up to connecting devices, to setting shortcut keys. Bluetooth LE – with which headphones complement traditional Bluetooth to communicate with the application – can be tricky, sometimes trying to connect your audio source. As such, you will want to make sure that the app is open and connected to your cans before pairing it with your source device.

Other key features of the application include enabling or disabling virtualization and head tracking, controlling transparency level, and monitoring battery life. Enabling low power mode here can also help save by disabling virtualization features. This is the key, because the Dimension offers an autonomy of 14 hours rather mediocre.

Dolby's design has an interesting advantage: Since the audio is fully controlled via the application, we have been able to do things impossible with many other Bluetooth headsets, like increasing the volume of our Macbook.

Another dimension

We have worn a lot of headphones, but the Dolby Dimension is the most comfortable pair we have ever worn. Even when you wear glasses for hours, these super-padded cans simply disappear on your head. This is the key to their charm if you plan to shoot your favorite show or watch a full movie.

Although we were sometimes frustrated with touch controls, we also marveled at the ease with which they are used. You can be completely immersed in your content and then, with a quick double tap, come back to the world to answer a question or simply say "hello". Two more tapping, and you're back in your own area.

It's also fun to pause the contents of your TV with your headphones – which we were able to do via the supplied 4K Dolby Apple TV monitor for our tests – and jump directly to a quick YouTube video on an iPad. It is not possible to pair the headset again – just click on the headset button and leave.

That said, there are some minor failures that stand out, especially when you consider the price to pay. First of all, unlike high-end headphones like Sony's 1000xm range, there is no touch sensor to stop the content when you pull an ear or put the headset on. We would like to see this added with the next pair. There is also no control over the equalization or suppression of noise.

Other features, such as head tracking, give the Dimension a boost, but they are just not as useful in everyday life. Moreover, it is really drain the battery. When we put the boxes in place for the first time, we marveled at the speed with which the sound reflected the sound to match our eyes. After about an hour, however, the battery went from 14 hours to 9.5 hours.

Speaking of battery, at this price, we would have liked to see at least 20, otherwise 30 hours in total, as The last 1000 mx3 of Sony. We are aware that a lot of things are happening here (the Dimension uses so many processes that it requires a Snapdragon processor), but we still expect the price to be higher with high-end features.

Can not cancel all

Dolby noise cancellation offers an excellent job in suppressing consistent sounds such as jet engines or bus engines, and with a remarkable lack of audible white noise. But the higher frequencies are still quite audible. You hear voices around you and we could even hear the bus speakers ringing stops on our return trip, making the Dimension less effective than noise cancellers such as the Bose QC35 II or the Sony 1000mx3.

Audio performance

We expected Dolby to deliver an impressive sound – the company helped invent an impressive sound. Although we are not completely stunned, we are rather satisfied with what the Dimension offers.

Virtualization is impressive, even with basic content like Office on Netflix. Watching the episode Fire (a personal favorite) we were amazed at the width of the sound stage, to the point that the fire trucks seemed stationed in our living room, and we were even deceived by police radio into believing that someone one spoke to us.

Better product content generates even better results. Watching Thor: Ragnarok, the Dimension has behaved well in the great moments as explosive as in the most subtle and the simplest. Thor's battle with Hulk was thrilling. Although they may not be really bass bumpers, the resounding resonance of the two titans was amply enough to speed up the pace, while the synthesizers and arpegged horns were treated with the same force, bringing everything back to the house with massive flash of Thor. .

Subtle nuances fascinated us: a helmet rolling on the floor and in front of our right ear, traces perfectly traced on a stone staircase and a tense and present dialogue, all combined for a fantastic experience. The comfort of the cans remains the icing on the cake, allowing us to simply float in the action and forget the world around us.

The Dimension also does a good job with music, with or (to our taste) without virtualization. We often use the word "accessible" as a somewhat mediocre experience, but this is a real compliment. The sound is remarkably balanced, with a slight shift in the midrange that manages to kill whistles, while retaining the papery touches and the smallest details. We thought we heard the boxes many times reach the edge of distortion, but they never went beyond.

The voices are always clear and well placed in the wide soundscape, while the instruments like the guitar, the percussions and in particular the horns are rendered with a sweet and clear touch which is very pretty. Even if you do not get the same level of clarity and proximity to the sound with wired headphones, even the cheapest, aptX and AAC help preserve the resolution.

guarantee

Dolby includes a one – year warranty, accessible by contacting Dolby Support.

Our take

Dolby's first steps in wireless headphones were worth the wait. Even if they are not embarrassed – and certainly not for the budget buyer – the Dimension is an extremely comfortable and unique pair of cans that excels at home and are not too shabby on the road. For a certain type of buyer, namely those who have resigned themselves to keeping their volume dial turned to the left, Dolby's Dimension should be a real draw.

Is there a better alternative?

If you are not associated with unique features such as virtualization, many headsets do almost as much as the Dimension for a much lower price. The two million Sony offered by Sony offer a ton of features, excellent sound and better noise cancellation, even if they do not offer virtualization and are not as comfortable.

There are also many specially designed headphones, such as the Sennheiser HDR 175, which also offer more connection options, although they do not have the same functionality as the Dimension and are not mobile.

How long will it last?

With an impressive design and, presumably, regular updates via the app, the Dimension should be ready to be used as a tin can for the foreseeable future.

Should you buy it?

If you're looking for the ultimate way to create a home theater sound, without waking children or missing the hustle and bustle of the home, Dimension may be your new favorite toy. However, if you're looking for headphones for your daily commute, you can get everything you need from Sony 1000mx3, or even Bose QC32 II, for a lot less money. Be that as it may, Dolby's first immersion in product design is exciting, and we can not wait to see what the company will offer next.