Following my review of the V80 headphones, Edifier was kind enough to provide me with a pair of their ES850NB headphones to try. Since I love the V80, I was excited to test these new and improved headphones. I’ve been using them pretty regularly for a few months now and have quite a few thoughts on them.
I mentioned in my V80 review that I’m on a budget, so price is often one of the first things I check to see if I paid for a product or received it as a gift. The Edifier ES850NB headphones are available on the Edifier website for $199.99. At the time of writing they are on sale on Amazon Canada for $129.99.
That’s a pretty significant price jump over the affordable V80 headphones, which normally cost $69.99 and are currently on sale for $39.99 on Edifier’s website and Amazon Canada. In theory, this should mean that the difference in quality is also significant if the price is considered fair. However, I’m not sure this is true for the ES850NB headphones.
Don’t get me wrong, they are excellent and improvements have definitely been made to them. Out of the box, the sound quality is noticeably higher than the V80 headphones. Where the V80 needed a bit of EQ to achieve a full, smooth sound, the ES850NB can make do with the default audio settings in the companion app EdifierConneX. If you’re picky, you might find the bass to be a little lacking, but that didn’t bother me. I think the average listener will be more than happy with the overall sound.
The active noise cancellation (ANC) in the ES850NB hasn’t improved much over the V80 headphones. The ES850NB headphones are described as -45 dB noise reduction, while the V80 headphones are -44 dB. A one decibel difference isn’t really noticeable to the human ear, but I think Edifier’s use of Passive Noise Canceling (PNC) makes a huge difference.
While ANC uses tiny microphones in a process called “phase cancellation” to monitor external noise and generate inverted sound waves to cancel it, PNC refers to the use of physical design to minimize external noise. The shape of the ear cups, the density of the ear pads, and the angle at which they sit above the ear are all part of passive noise cancellation.
With any headphones, I like to test noise cancellation in noisy and crowded environments. The V80 headphones did an impressive job of canceling out external noise. It was easy to drown out the chaos and lock myself away, even at my favorite coffee shop during my lunch break.
Even though the ANC on the ES850NB is only one decibel higher than the V80, it feels much stronger because they have a better PNC. In addition to improving external noise cancellation, it also effectively eliminated the sound leakage that I noticed with the V80.
I won’t pretend to know exactly how the ES850NB reduced sound leakage – the physics in general is largely a mystery to me – but the headphones leak far less sound than the V80. I managed to turn the volume up to almost 90% before my partner could hear what I was listening to.
This is great news if you like to listen loudly, but you should always be mindful of how loud and how long you listen unless you’re willing to damage your hearing.
The physical design of the ES850NB headphones is very different from the V80. The earcups are slightly less elongated. They have smoothly rounded corners, which creates a shape close to a “kwaval”. The ear cups protrude more sharply and have much sharper edges than the round V80 headphones. I didn’t notice much difference in the density of the ear pads or headband, but the shape of the ear pads is also more square than oval.
Aesthetically, the ES850NB headphones are great. I have them in brown, which looks very luxurious, especially with the faux leather face on the outside of the cups. I was secretly hoping for pink, but even brown could pass for dark purple. They go with everything and are extremely comfortable. They’re a little warm, but I think that’s common with almost all over-ear headphones.
The ES850NB headphones come with a nice travel case to keep your headphones in great condition. I’ve never been a fan of throwing any device into a bag without some sort of protection, so I appreciate this addition.
The button setup is the same as on the V80 headphones, the buttons can also be customized using the EdifierConneX app. The ES850NB headphones have a similar Bluetooth range of about 30 feet and also feature the same 40mm driver as the V80 headphones. These two headphones have the same listening modes: High Noise Canceling, Medium Noise Canceling, Ambient Sound, and Wind Cancellation.
Edifier has added support for the LDAC codec to the ES850NB headphones, allowing more audio information to be transmitted over a wireless Bluetooth connection, resulting in higher audio resolution for the listener. It’s worth noting that device compatibility with the LDAC codec is still quite limited. Most mid-range and flagship Android phones released in 2024 and newer support LDAC, but it still varies by brand and model. There are currently no iPhone models that support LDAC.
The ES850NB headphones have an interesting new feature called Touch-to-Chat. When using ANC, you can touch and hold the right ear cup to pause playback and switch to ambient sound mode, then release to resume playback. The idea is that if someone is trying to talk to you while you’re listening to something, this will be an easy way to quickly talk and then get back to listening.
I really like this idea, but you have to hold it for about two seconds before the playback stops. This two second delay is too long to be considered smooth. I find it easier to just move the cup away from my ear and then press the pause button. Touch-to-Chat is a great idea and this delay is the only downside for me.
Aside from the physical design, the biggest difference between the V80 and ES850NB headphones is the battery capacity. The ES850NB provide 53 hours of listening time with ANC and 92 hours without it. That’s a huge jump from the V80’s 26 hours with ANC and 45 hours without. You still can’t charge while listening, but fast charging makes up for that fact. With 15 minutes of charging, you’ll get 11.5 hours of playback without ANC on the ES850NB headphones, compared to 8 hours on the V80.
So, after all this, the question remains: “Are the ES850NB headphones worth their increased price?” Ultimately my answer is… sort of. Yes, these are amazing headphones. Yes, I really like using them. However, I don’t feel obligated to spend $129.99 on them since the V80 headphones can perform great for much less money.
I think if you’re in a tax bracket where $129.99 isn’t that much of a deal for you, you don’t want to bother with headphone EQ at all, and audio leakage is going to be a big problem for you, then the ES850NB headphones are a great option; perhaps even an ideal option. After all, for quality headphones, $129.99 is still quite inexpensive.
Otherwise, I’d probably recommend sticking with the V80 headphones. Edifier may have hurt themselves by making their budget headphones too good. I think that in the current economy this is something to be proud of. I am always for what is most accessible to the average person. I feel like I can trust a company to offer high quality products at reasonable prices, so Edifier will continue to be one of the first headphone brands I turn to.
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