Leaf&Core

Bang & Olufsen Beoplay EX Review

Danielle from Leaf and Core
Reading Time: 17 minutes.

Closeup of the Beoplay EX headphones showing their surprising depth. They don't look or feel like they're this large in your ear. After returning two pairs of Master & Dynamic MW08 Sport headphones, one pair that was defective and one that simply had problems by design, I still wanted to fill that hole. I wanted great sounding noise cancelling headphones that would blow my buggy AirPods Pro out of the water. My original research had landed me squarely between two headphones that looked both comfortable and reportedly sounded wonderful. These were the Master & Dynamic MW08 and the Bang & Olufsen Beoplay EX headphones. Obviously the MW08 headphones didn’t work out. The Beoplay EX headphones, on the other hand, have succeeded where the MW08 headphones failed. In fact, they even surpassed the MW08 headphones in sound quality too.

I still don’t have my “perfect” headphones, but these came closer in the ways that matter than any other truly wireless headphones I’ve used.

Update June 2023

Bang & Olufsen has issued a number of firmware updates that have made Bluetooth connectivity, specifically multipoint, worse. It has also become unreliable in groups of people with many devices. Furthermore, it overheats while wirelessly charging with a mere 5W charger. These flaws lead me to believe you’d be better off sacrificing sound quality and going with a brand that has made connectivity and reliability more important, perhaps… Apple? Review updated below.

Specs

Sound Quality 10/10

Good god, these sound good. Forget what you know about Bluetooth headphones or earbuds in general. Seriously, these outclassed my wired dual armature IEMs from Audio Technica. These dethroned my previous best in-ear headphones, and they do it without wires! I’m almost heartbroken.

Bass can be heavy, if it wants to. I mostly have the EQ set up to allow for some lively bass and highs, what would be a bit of a ‘V’ pattern on a normal equalizer (more on that later). On one electronic track I was listening to, the deep rumbling bass was almost too much at times. It’s easy to tone down if you want though. Same with treble. Too much? Just tone it down. The sound feels so balanced and customizable, it responds well to the equalizer, becoming exactly what you want it to sound like. You hate bass? Fine. Bass is gone. You want a muffled, warm sound? You can make that too. Whatever you like. Small tweaks to one part of the audio spectrum won’t damage the others. There’s great separation here, almost analytically so.

The detail in the bass is where it’s really at. Drums have that initial slap and then resonant bass. You can really feel every bit of detail in the bass. Sub-bass is represented better than I expected as well. Deep rumbles that echo and fade like you’d expect if you were in the room during a live recording.

There’s great detail in the mids and highs too. I noticed vocal details that I had missed from songs. I often struggle to hear people talking over music, and that translates to not always hearing all the lyrics in songs. And yet, I could hear, clear as day, a line I never could make out before in Billie Eilish’s You Should See Me in a Crown. It was “watch me make them bow,” if you’re curious. The detail and separation is stunning.

You can hear the press of piano keys, the way the key resists then plunges and springs back. You feel atmosphere in songs. Close your eyes and you’re in a smokey bar, sipping whisky with the regulars when you hear Billy Joel’s Piano Man. There’s just so much feeling in these earbuds. The Master and Dynamic MW08 had their own sound signature, a warm one that reflected live performances. These feel more, well, dynamic. They just feel at home with whatever genre I throw at them. Rock and roll that gets you out of your seat, dance beats that get you jamming, punchy rap and hip hop, smooth notes that make you sit back and sip your soothing green tea. Whatever you throw at them, they excel.

The one setback? These are in-ear headphones. You’re going to have a bit of a narrow soundstage. But they fill in with detail that can really complete the feeling of live music. I doubt we’re going to get close to this sound quality with an over-ear, open-back feel in an IEM for a long time. For now, this is as good as it gets.It’s such a small drawback against the rest of the sound quality that I almost didn’t want to mention it.

vs AirPods Pro

It wouldn’t be very professional of me to just write “Hahahahahaha” here. But… hahahahahahaha! That’s like comparing the oven in your apartment to your first Easy Bake Oven. Sure, both make brownies, but I’ll take the ones from my big one, thank you very much.

There were some songs that I had only heard on either my over-ear HiFiman planar magnetic headphones or my Bang and Olufsen Beoplay Ex headphones. So when I first heard them on my AirPods Pro, I was blown away… at just how bad the AirPods Pro really are in comparison. The Beoplay Ex just have so much more bass, range, feeling, oomph to them. Honestly, between the two, I feel like I’d be insulting the artists who make the music I love if I chose to listen to their art with AirPods Pro. I’ve always avoided becoming a headphone snob, believing the best headphones for listening to music are the ones you have on you, but these finally broke me. In-ear Bluetooth headphones can go toe-to-toe with nice over-ear headphones. Now I expect more. Now I’m going to become one of those jerks who’s like, “You never really listened to music until you try these $400 headphones that cost as much as your rent should be.”

Active Noise Cancellation & Transparency 6/10

One of the reasons I went with the Master and Dynamic MW08 Sport headphones over these initially was a number of reports that claimed the noise cancellation was disappointing. With that in mind, I was pleasantly surprised when I tried these. The active noise cancellation isn’t as good as Apple’s AirPods Pro, and is slightly worse off than the MW08 Sport headphones, but it’s not bad. It still does quite a bit of cancellation. I can easily hear my music while on the train, and it’s a lot more comfortable to be on a loud platform with these in than without. As far as noise cancellation, if the AirPods Pro were rated as a 10 (they’re not), then the Beoplay EX would be a 7. Although, give it a few more firmware updates from Apple, and the AirPods Pro will be worse than these anyway.

I haven’t heard a good transparency mode outside of Apple’s yet. Apple is still the reigning champion when it comes to their passthrough audio. It’s not good enough for outdoor activities, like cycling, but they can make you forget you have headphones in. These don’t have the same effect. If the AirPods Pro are a 10 on the transparency scale (they are), then the Beoplay EX come in with a 6, maybe a 5. They make your surroundings much quieter, and that can be pretty distracting. I could still hear things like people walking through my hallway, but couldn’t leave them in to watch TV without turning the volume up. I also found that they mess with the volume in a way that makes it harder to hear where sounds are coming from exactly. They get sort of tricked in loud environments, making everything the same volume. I had to take them out because the music in a shop was playing too loudly for me to hear the people working there clearly.

I’d say active noise cancellation is better than average, while transparency mode is only slightly better than mediocre. Both need some work, but neither are bad.

Mic Quality 7/10

When it comes to microphones, headphones have an important task these days. With the move to online work, more than half of my conversations throughout the day are over Zoom or the phone. You know, not including conversations with myself. My headphones have to be capable. This was a big reason I returned my MW08 headphones. They sounded great, but completely deafened you to the sound of your own voice while talking. The Bang and Olufsen Beoplay EX headphones, however, understand the importance of hearing yourself. They have a unique mode that makes conversations a breeze. It’s so cool, I’m surprised they’re the only manufacturer I’ve encountered doing something like this.

The Beoplay EX headphones have a special “own voice” mode for calls and microphone usage. These aren’t just a passthrough mode, but so much more. They block out external sounds with noise cancellation, only allowing your own voice through. It cuts down on wind noise in the background or anything else you’re doing. Walking down a busy city street in the rain, pitter-patter sound on your umbrella? Well, with these in, you just hear your friend and yourself. It creates a little soundproof bubble for your communication, and it works surprisingly well.

They work well, not perfect. Because, as noted in the active noise cancellation and transparency portion, these are not the strongest features of these headphones. You can still head a bit of your own voice in your head because these don’t pass through enough external sound from your voice on transparency mode either. Still, it enables you to have a normal conversation with your headphones in, and for that, I’m happy.

As for the mic quality itself, it’s decent. People on the other end can hear you well. It’s not garbled or messy. The quality is what you’d expect from decent headphones like these or the AirPods Pro. The AirPods Pro do have them beat with background noise cancellation though. The Beoplay EX headphones always use the right headphone for the microphone, if it’s available. AirPods Pro use both so they can better cancel background sounds. The mic itself is good, but it doesn’t have the clever software backing it up like Apple’s headphones.

Battery Life 7/10

Battery life is an interesting topic on these. I had some issues with early firmware that limited me to about 16 hours of combined headphone and case battery life. This was because, on the final charge of the headphones, they wouldn’t recognize when they were removed from the case because the case wasn’t charging them. This seems to have been fixed and I can consistently get around 20 hours of battery life.

That’s not very much.

The competition is doing 24-30 hours of battery life, with some pushing 40 hours of battery life.

The headphones themselves can consistently get over 5 hours of battery life on their own. I recently took them on a trip and had music and movies playing for a little over 4 hours, with not even a low battery warning. In my testing, I could get anywhere between 5.5 and 6 hours from one charge. Most headphones will be around the 5 hour mark, so these are doing a good job with five to six hours. But that case is a huge disappointment. It’s larger than the AirPods Pro case and about the same size as the MW08 case, yet has half the battery life of the latter.

Charging 4/10 Update: 2/10

On the same wireless pad, these will take far longer to charge than my AirPods Pro. Those AirPods Pro have a larger capacity battery too, they should take longer. Even when I’m limiting the charger to the slow 5W maximum the Beoplay EX use for wireless charging, these are still slower than my AirPods Pro. They take about three hours to charge from 0 to 100% on a wireless charger. I also recommend using something with more than 5W, just to ensure the maximum 5W of power is making it over the coil into the battery.

Actually, I recommend charging via USB-C. It’s still slow, but a full charge will be closer to 2 hours, rather than 3. I found it took about 45 minutes longer, or more, to charge with wireless instead of USB-C.

Wirelessly, these charge so slowly I actually found the case could run out of battery while charging. They’d pass along all of their battery life to the headphones, which meant they were depleting to charge the headphones faster than they could charge via the wireless pad. If you’re charging your headphones with the case, you either have to set aside three hours before taking your headphones with you, or just use USB-C. In a wireless world, it just feels like a kick in the shins to have to break out a cable for “truly wireless” headphones.

I’m really disappointed in the battery life and charging. While I don’t run into issues in everyday use, because I can charge the case throughout the day while I’m listening to music on my headphones, I do hate that I need to charge up the case after about 10 hours of playback, otherwise I could find myself without headphones at some point.

UPDATE: As previously mentioned above, wireless charging from a low percentage, even on the incredibly low wattage 5W charger that Beoplay requires, will overheat the case. It will begin to flash red on the case, something not even described in the app’s documentation (but available online), which means it has overheated. You’ll have to plug these in to charge, and it’s slow charging.

Connectivity 5/10 – Update 2/10

These have were one of the better multipoint connections I’ve used (update below). Better, but still quite flawed. The multipoint can remember up to six devices, and two can be connected at any time. The way this is decided is the last two devices you connected to will automatically connect when you pull your headphones out. You may have to enter Bluetooth pairing mode and connect to previously connected devices quite often. It kind of defeats the purpose of “remembering” those other connections. These refuse to drop a connection to form a new one, and there’s no way to customize it.

I find multipoint is usually annoying. Yes, it can work well when you get a call on your phone, but it’s frustrating when you’re listening to a video on your Mac, get a text on your iPhone, and it pauses your Mac’s video to play your iPhone’s notification sound. You tap play on your headphones and you’d expect to go back to what you were listening to, right? Wrong. You instead just get music from your iPhone now. It’s so annoying. Proper multipoint would allow you to prioritize sounds. These just allow one device to constantly interrupt the other.

Another multipoint issue is when one of those connections drops. For example, I’m listening to music on my iPhone in my apartment, then I go to walk to the store, or the train, wherever. I eventually get out of even the range of Bluetooth LE for my apartment. That’s when my music mutes as it disconnects from the other device. Why isn’t it just seamless? Why does it have to mute as I walk away? I don’t know.

The phone calls are exceptionally difficult. Sure, you can tap to answer, but answer where? I had a friend calling me once, went to answer by tapping my headphones, and it “picked up” on my Mac. Did the audio for the call go through my headphones? Nope. The audio didn’t even go through my headphones. This happens when I only have one device connected too. I’m walking somewhere and answer a call and I still have to pull out my iPhone and select my headphones as the audio, even though I had been listening to music with them and had picked up the phone with them. It’s ridiculous. I hope this is a firmware bug they can fix, because it is laughably terrible.

Sometimes, multipoint is great, like when I pause a video on my Mac to watch a video my friend sent me on my iPhone. It’s seamless. However, most of the time, it’s extremely obnoxious. Like usual, I find myself just wishing I could easily hop between one device at a time, rather than having them perpetually connected to multiple devices at once. This is how my Skullcandy Dime headphones work and it’s the smoothest Bluetooth device I have. Unfortunately, they don’t let you turn multipoint off. At home, I just have to turn Bluetooth off on my other devices.

Like I said, it’s ridiculous.

Update:

Bang and Olufsen released firmware updates since I’ve reviewed these. Every single one seems to have made bluetooth connections worse. Now if I’m playing audio on my Mac and my iPhone might make a noise, like there’s a muted video on a news story I’m reading, it’ll stop the audio from my Mac in just one ear until I can navigate away from whatever is causing the disturbance. Multipoint has gotten so bad on these, I just want to turn it off. I hate that these can’t do that. Hell, it’s made me hate these headphones. On top of that, I’ve found they break up a lot now when I’m in a crowded area, like a packed train. Fun! Because when I’m on a packed train is exactly when I need another annoyance.

Thanks, Bang & Olufsen!

But, no, really, fix your firmware, B&O.

Controls 6/10

You know what I really love? Touch screens you can’t see. I’m always like, wow, we really created the most accessible product for all people, especially for those who can’t see, when we invented the touch screen.

I’m being sarcastic.

I’ll go over this again, for product designers everywhere. I cannot go into third person in real life. That’s just in video games. So, I really can’t see my ears very well without the use of mirrors or moving my head really quickly (that’s also a joke).

You probably see where this is going, unlike me, who cannot see my ears clearly enough to know exactly where my headphone touch targets are. Don’t get me wrong, I can tap around the area that the button is within 3mm of accuracy… but that’s only enough to net me a 70% accuracy reading from my headphones (I made that up on the spot, but you get the point).

The touch targets on these headphones are too small. I often find that I have to hold the stem between my middle finger and thumb when I’m running up stairs or otherwise moving quickly to steady my hand and head enough to tap the touch target I cannot see.

For the love of god, all headphone designers, we have buttons for a reason. At least use a large touch target or perhaps an accelerometer to detect a tap near your ear, thanks, Sony.

Crazy Combos

Okay, let’s pretend you are actually a video game character, have a third person view of your noggin, and can tap a small target on the side of your head within the 2mm required for a perfect tap. Nicely done, you. Now memorize the controls. A tap on the right side will play or pause, but won’t pick up calls. It’s supposed to, it just won’t work. Two taps on the right side will skip forward. Three taps will. Wait, no, I already forgot the controls. Here, let me start again.

I’m convinced these were designed by aliens who knew how human ears looked, and little else. It’s not terrible, you do eventually memorize all of those commands. But you’re going to want a quick reference guide in the first few days. The worst part is definitely how difficult it is to hit those touch targets reliably. Did I tap and hold or am I doing nothing, according to the headphones? Was that a double or triple tap? The controls wouldn’t be so difficult if they weren’t so unreliable.

Appearance 10/10

These looked a bit simple online, but it turned out to be a classy design in the flesh. The design is credited to one designer, Thomas Bentzen. The headphones themselves have nice aluminum and glass accents on the touch area, surrounded by a ring of metal. I do wish they came in more colors, but, other than that, these look more high-end than other headphones. They certainly look more “pro” than the AirPods Pro headphones. Most headphones look like cheap plastic ear dongles. It’s nice to see something that was created to look good and fit nicely in your ears. It’s not hard to have nicer headphones than those on the market, but Bang and Olufsen knocked it out of the park with these understated yet classy designs.

Fit and Comfort 8.5/10

When I first got these, I could not find ear tips that felt comfortable. They fit in my ear canal okay enough, but they felt like they pushed my headphones back into the rear part of my ear too much. Then I swapped the tips out for some SpinFit ear tips, specifically their CP360 model. That really made a difference. These have a flexible top that allows them to stay seated in your ear canal better, not pushing your headphones out against your ear constantly. I can get them in my ear further, create a better seal, and they don’t shove my headphones out of my ears constantly. Great job, SpinFit!

The MW08 headphones were more comfortable out of the box, as were the AirPods Pro. But I could never get a great seal with any of the AirPods Pro ear tips or even third party tips. Out of all of them, the Bang & Olufsen headphones were the best balance between seal, comfort, and being large enough for good sound quality. While I personally couldn’t find the most comfortable fit with the provided ear tips, it’s not difficult to find more comfortable headphone ear tips from third parties.

Charging Case 6/10 Update: 2/10

The charging case is unfortunately a bit of a downside with these. As previously mentioned, the battery life and charging features aren’t very good. The case itself is a bit large, but it is at least grippy. The textured aluminum has a nice feel to it. However, the ergonomics are just off. It can be hard to find the “front” of the case to flip it open without feeling around or looking. Then it’s a bit awkward to get the headphones out, as you pretty much have to use two hands to open the case and pull out the headphones. This case made me realize I definitely prefer flip top cases in general, like the AirPods Pro and MW08 headphones.

In a drop, they will stay closed well enough to keep your headphones from falling out. I didn’t test this much, but I did drop them once and found that the case just tumbled around, without damage and without ejecting my headphones (hey, Apple).

One of its largest problems again comes back to charging. The flashing lights aren’t completely explained in the manual. However, I found that a slow flashing light indicates the case is charging without charging the headphones, and a more rapid flash indicates the headphone charge. A blinking red light, however, could be an error? The case battery dying while charging? It’s hard to say without it being in their documentation anywhere.

Update

Everything from opening the case to charging is more difficult than it should be. They fail to wirelessly charge, it can be hard to tell which part of the case is the front by feel, and it’s difficult to open with one hand. On top of it, the case provides very little additional battery life. It’s a huge case and yet has less battery life than others. It’s really disappointing.

Sustainability 5/10

The packaging was all cardboard, which is definitely a nice step. However, it also had a plastic wrap, which kind of defeats the purpose. I’d far rather see the box sealed with paper stickers.

I noted it earlier, but battery life plays into stability. You can’t easily replace these batteries, you’ll have to replace the entire case or headphones at some point. That’s certainly not cost efficient, but it’s also not sustainable. That’s wasting electronics parts that would otherwise be in use for much longer if it started with more battery life. I loved that the MW08 Sport headphones had such long battery life, enough to last an entire weekend of listening, or even most of your work week. These? You can’t trust them to last more than a few days of use. I almost have to passively charge them at all times. That’s also not good for long term battery life.

I can’t believe they made a case that’s larger than Apple’s, but has far less battery life. It’s really sad to see something that’s otherwise so well made brought down by a simple issue. The reduction of plastic and use of recyclable materials like aluminum is great. But why’d they make the battery life so lousy?

Value 6.5/10 Update: 3/10

These are $400 headphones.

These are $400 headphones.

I would feel like a real tool suggesting $400 headphones to anyone. People can’t afford eggs right now, and $400 headphones? That’s insane. Still, they are the best in-ear headphones I’ve heard. They’re fantastic. They sound incredible. Active noise cancellation is good, transparency mode is okay enough, and battery life is disappointing. Are they worth the $400? Probably not. There are just too many things that other truly wireless earbuds do better. But if you only want the best sound out of your truly wireless headphones, there’s nothing better. These sound like “pro” headphones in a way that others just don’t.

Update

Like the other categories, the value here is lost. Poor case battery life and usability design means you’ll grow frustrated with them quickly. The headphones themselves would be worth the price… if the firmware and case didn’t bring them down.

App Quality, Odds & Ends

The packaging didn’t feel like a $400 product. Or, at least, it didn’t look like it was a $400 product. If you knew nothing about headphones and saw this package on a shelf, you’d probably assume they aren’t very good. It’s just weirdly framed with a product photo on the box. I’d celebrate the all-cardboard packaging if not for the fact that they then put it in a plastic overwrap! Anyway, packaging doesn’t matter, but I thought I’d mention it because it’s kind of silly to make such great headphones and then fail to market the product right on the box.

Now, the app. I may have to have a separate section for apps in the future. It’s actually a pretty great app. I know, right? After what I previously said about firmware, you’d expect something lousy. It’s a clean design, shows you battery levels, lets you choose your surrounding sound mode and even turn up or down the level of transparency or noise cancellation. You can do firmware updates in the app (which they actually do pretty frequently). You can find product manuals and support here too. It’s a good app.

The equalizer is a bit odd, as it’s not the standard slider-based UI you’re probably used to. You instead select the “sound mode” on a circular selector. It’s odd, I’d rather the equalizer sliders, but with some effort, you can dial in the right sound with this, and then you can set it and forget it or easily switch between presets.

My only real ask for the app would be something about connectivity settings. These have multipoint, and that’s sometimes annoying. I just wish the app let you control which devices you were connected to. If I were to get one improvement, it would be that.

Firmware updates are more frequent than I was expecting and they actually add features. They added the ability to pause your music when you take your headphones off and added additional wind cancellation through firmware updates just since I’ve had these. It’s really awesome to see that the company is still working to improve their headphones after release.

Overall 8/10 Update: 4/10: Just Avoid Them

Updated score due to increasingly bad Bluetooth connections, frustrations with case, poor customer service.

At the end of the day, these are my favorite headphones thanks solely to their sound quality. Everything else about them is worse than my other headphones. Less reliability than my Skullcandy Dime (a $25 pair of headphones), and worse noise cancellation than my AirPods Pro. Still, I have my AirPods Pro and these on the same desk and I reach for these every time. The sound quality is so fantastic that I can’t imagine the massive downgrade I’d have to undergo to use anything else. Sure, the active noise cancellation and transparency modes are only “good,” not “great.” And, yeah, the multipoint firmware could use some serious work, as Bluetooth connections are so frustrating it has made me want to return these. The case charges slowly and doesn’t have much battery life. But my god, the sound. The sound is so great. These wouldn’t be considered very good headphones without that sound quality, but it saves them. They’re the top of the top in sound quality for truly wireless headphones.

If you’ve wanted truly wireless headphones, but couldn’t pick them up because they sound terrible, these will be the headphones that win you over. If you’re the kind of person who would consider spending $400 on headphones, these are the right truly wireless headphones for you. But if sound quality isn’t your main concern, they’re lacking in ways that other headphones aren’t. If you just want a good transparency mode, you may want to try AirPods, and if you want great noise cancellation, Sony’s got you covered. But if you want the best sound in a portable container, the Bang and Olufsen Beoplay EX headphones should be your top pick. You just have to put up with lousy multipoint connections and firmware updates that seem to make things worse.

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