Yamaha YH-E700A Wireless Headphones Review: Over-the-Ear Comfort with Excellent Sound

Yamaha continues to impress with their Bluetooth headset lineup with the YH-E700A Wireless Noise-Cancelling Headphones. Yamaha fits a ton of tech in these large headphones, including Yamaha True Sound, Advanced Active Noise-Cancelling, Listening Optimizer, Ambient Sound, Listening Care, Bluetooth 5 with aptX Adaptive, and more. Retailing at $349.95, the Yamaha YH-E700A are over-the-ear wireless headphones for serious audiophiles.

The Yamaha YH-E700A Wireless Noise-Cancelling Headphones sound excellent, as you’d hope a large pair of over-the-ear headphones would. They come with a nice hard travel case that they swivel and fold to fit inside.

The internal battery is rated to last about 35 hours with active noise-canceling on and takes about 3.5 hours to charge.

The headphones are compatible with Siri and Google Assistant and have simple controls for phone calls and controlling your music.

The Yamaha YH-E700A headphones have dynamic 40mm drivers with a frequency response of 8 Hz- 40 kHz and can offer hi-res listening with the wired connection only.

They weigh about 11.46 ounces, which isn’t light, but that’s a trade-off you’ll have to make for truly great-sounding headphones.

Supported profiles include A2DP, AVRCP, HFP, and HSP; supported codecs include SBC, AAC, and Qualcomm aptX Adaptive. There is an included  3.5mm to 3.5mm audio cable.

Yamaha says they’ve created headphones that adapt to you and your environment, and I’d agree. Yamaha’s Listening Optimizer utilizes microphones to make constant measurements, about every 20 seconds, with advanced processing to analyze factors like the seal and air leakage because everyone’s ears and heads are shaped differently.

Playback is optimized in real-time to adjust for the difference between source audio and the listening conditions.

Coupled with Listening Optimizer, Advanced Active Noise-Cancelling uses internal microphones paired with a unique algorithm by Yamaha to separate signal processing of background noise and music.

The Yamaha YH-E700A headphones will then analyze the noise using the internal microphones and calculate what should be removed from the playback music signal, erasing the outside noise, and making the music as pure as it can be.

The Yamaha YH-E700A fold up neatly inside the included hard travel case, so you can take them with you while traveling, but just know that even folded, they ain’t tiny! But they’re absolutely worth bringing if audio quality is important to you.

Commuting via bus into NYC, these are a great option since I don’t really have to pack them into a small bag or lug them around with me when they’re not on my head too much, but I could see it potentially being a pain to pack them in a suitcase if you’re taking a long trip.

Throughout my testing, I was impressed at how well the Yamaha YH-E700A truly replicated the music I was listening to, the way it was meant to be heard.

Highs were crisp, and lows were deep and could almost be felt. Thanks to the 3D sound field, it felt like I was listening to music in an auditorium rather than just sitting on a bus with headphones on.

Part of the reason I could suspend my disbelief was that they’re just so comfortable that you’ll sometimes forget you’re wearing them.

If you’re in the market for a pair of excellent-sounding headphones and don’t mind some bulk, the Yamaha YH-E700A are a great choice. They sound amazing, feel really comfortable on your head, and fold up in a nice carrying case.

The Yamaha YH-E700A Wireless Noise-Cancelling Headphones sell for $349.99; they are available directly from the manufacturer and other retailers, including Amazon.

Source: Manufacturer Supplied review sample

What I Like: Excellent sound quality; Comfortable over-the-ear fit; Includes a hard-shell carrying case; Great adaptive sound

What Needs Improvement: Nothing