- Magnetic fluid drivers taken from Technics’ high-end niche IEMs
- Improved active ANC and even clearer voice calls
- £259 / €299 / $299 (to be confirmed)
It’s a big day at CES 2025: Technics has announced a follow-up to its gorgeous EAH-AZ80 headphones. They are called EAH-AZ100 and they promise to maintain all the impressive advantages of their predecessors, but also improve sound quality and noise cancellation.
There are three key updates here. The first is a proprietary magnetic fluid driver that Technics says delivers “ultra-low distortion, high-resolution audio, and rich, accurate bass.”
The second big improvement is called Voice Focus AI and, as the name suggests, it’s designed to make your voice sound better on calls. It uses multiple microphones and a new intelligent algorithm to eliminate wind noise and other unwanted audio in real time.
And the third is improved active noise cancellation, with talk mode so you can hear people without removing the headphones. Oh, and the units are also 10% smaller and 16% lighter, as a quick look at the image below shows (AZ80 on the left; new AZ100 on the right). This reduction has been helped by the fact that the feedback microphone that can be seen on the older teardrop-shaped button is now located on the side of the sound tube, allowing Technics to make the top plate of the AZ100 is truly spherical.
Technics EAH-AZ100: Key specifications, pricing and availability
The new driver is a miniaturized version of the one in the company’s 2019 EAH-TZ700 wired IEMs (highly praised, but only released in Europe), which have a recommended retail price of $1,200. Don’t worry, Technics has miniaturized the price and the controller.
Interestingly, the “magnetic fluid” in that magnetic fluid driver is actually “an oil-like liquid filled with magnetic particles that is injected into the space between the driver magnet and the voice coil”, but again there is no cause for concern: Technics headphones Project manager Ryan Yu assures us that there is absolutely no chance of liquid leaking from the headphones.
The new driver (which is still 10mm in size) promises rich, powerful bass with an aluminum diaphragm that takes care of the details. The headphones support Dolby Atmos and Dolby Audio, and this time there’s also Bluetooth LE with Auracast, LDAC, LC3 Low Latency, and Google Fast Pair. Battery life is 10 hours out of the case and 28 with it; that’s with ANC enabled, so it’s a big improvement over its predecessors.
This is no small update considering the EAH-AZ80 burst onto the scene as the only product to feature a triple multipoint device and Technics’ own ‘clamshell-fit’ design that wowed us under intense review, occupying quickly the first place. in our buying guide for the best headphones. Suffice to say, we really liked the EAH-AZ80 headphones and, at least on paper, the EAH-AZ100 are even better. So it will be really interesting to see how they compare to their direct competitors, the Bose QuietComfort Earbuds 2024.
And luckily, we have a pair of Technics EAH-AZ100s and have been testing them for you. Normally at this point we’d have to tell you to check back for a full review very soon, but luckily our Technics EAH-AZ100 review was allowed to be published at the same time as this missive. (Spoiler alert: this is very good news.)
The new Technics EAH-AZ100 have an MSRP of $299 / £259 / €299 (which would make them around AU$519).
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