The level of competition in the personal audio space is flabbergasting. While the biggest companies – Sony, Bose, et al – manage to stay at the top of the pack, the middle ground and the budget brands continue to rise ever closer to them, as technology improves and components become cheaper and more readily available. Amongst those building a head of steam, Edifier have become one of the most reliable names in audio, and with the snappily-named ES850NB, they’ve taken another step closer to those at the top of the category.
The ES850NB – seriously, can’t we have sensible names in the headphone space? – is an over-ear, wireless headset that brings a suite of desirable features to bear, starting with Hi-Res audio certification, active noise cancellation, and a mammoth 92-hour battery life (53hrs with ANC). That’s good enough to see you all around the world, and thankfully, the audio is good enough to take you all the way there too.
In the box you’re getting the ES850NB itself, a very nice hard case with the Edifier logo proudly emblazoned on the front, and a USB-A to USB-C charging cable. The ES850NB fold down, which Sony and Bose seem to have forgotten about in recent years, and there’s a surety to popping them in the case and putting them in your bag knowing they’re perfectly protected. Thanks to that fold, the case isn’t going to take up all the room in your bag, either.
The headphones themselves come in black, brown, ivory and pink colourways, with our review unit appearing in the understated black. The sleek lines of the headband culminate in the rounded oblongs of each earpiece, connected via a single curved arm. There’s a debt here to the visual design of the Bowers and Wilkin Px8, but the ES850NB come away with enough visual identity of their own to stand apart.
Some of that comes down to the leather-like texture that covers the earpieces, lending the ES850NB a premium look beyond its mid-range price. It creates an interesting juxtaposition with the clean, smooth lines of the headband, and the understated Edifier logos help to make this a pair of headphones that retain a sense of class.
There are physical controls here, which are definitely preferable to some of the touch controls we often see at this price point. There’s a volume rocker, with a central raised point that provides a third button, and these provide every control you could want, whether power, call handling, volume, or music controls.
Beyond that, there’s a separate button for Bluetooth, which also controls mode switching for ANC, and changing between music and the low latency gaming mode. Unfortunately, you can’t combine the gaming mode with the LDAC codec, forcing a reset of the headset every time you switch, but if you’re serious about competitive mobile gaming, this is an excellent choice. That’s all quite a lot to remember, but the physical recognition of the buttons certainly helps to give you some surety when making changes, as does the voice assistant. Alternatively, you can switch between modes in the Edifier ConneX phone app.
At 265g, the ES850NB are a smidgen heavier than Sony’s XM6 and the Bose QuietComfort Ultra, but not enough to notice a difference in your hand or on your head. Soft leatherette covers both the memory foam of the earpads and the underside of the headband, making this an exceedingly comfortable headset that you can wear all day long.
There was a point where I wondered if the ES850NB sounded as good as my Sony XM5s. They don’t, but the fact that Edifier have made something that sounds good enough that I had to check, speaks volumes. There’s a pleasingly wide soundstage, especially wide for a closed-back pair of headphones, and when combined with Hi-Res music, the ES850NBs sound very good indeed.
I have a fairly horrible taste in music, and the Edifier ES850NB delivered all the loud, grinding Metalcore of Bad Omens and Starset with bags of energy. There’s plenty of bass here, but it’s not overwhelming, and with a Hi-Res source like Apple Music, you can pick out details in tracks you’ve listened to hundreds of times, and still find new elements that you’ve never heard before.
When you combine any input with the ANC – rated for -45db – the ES850NB do a great job of cutting out external noises and background sounds, and they provide a natural-feeling fit without any undue pressure. The ambient sound setting is less natural than the best headsets out there, sounding slightly muddied and subdued, but I did like the hold-to-chat function which allowed you to activate the ambient sound setting by holding the right earpiece.
You can dial in a moderate amount of difference via the customisable EQ in the app, and there’s a limited number of pre-made EQ settings as well, but this is currently where the ES850NB are at their weakest. There simply isn’t the level of control or ability to make incremental changes to the audio settings that you’ll find elsewhere. In the end, I opted for the Bass Boost EQ setting, and there was still plenty of top-end detail with this setup, but if you’re the kind of person who wants to dial in a very specific sound, Edifier have some work to do.
There’s the added oddity that the phone app won’t update your headset’s firmware. Instead, you have to use the Edifier Tempohub on your PC or Mac, which is an unnecessary extra layer of faff, and might even lock some owners out of updating their headphones. When everyone else’s phone app can perform that function, I don’t really understand why Edifier’s doesn’t.
At £149.99, the ES850NB are pretty much the epitome of the mid-range. As another option in this price range, the Skull Candy Crusher ANC offer some serious bass, but they lack the refinement of the ES850NB. If you’re lucky enough to catch them in a sale though, you might want to hold out for Sony’s older XM4’s, which remain one of the best pairs of headphones ever made. They also support that all-important LDAC codec.
