Panasonic RP-HTX90N

The relatively light over-ears fit loosely rather than tightly, meaning no high-contact pressure and no pressure discomfort even during prolonged use. Nevertheless, there is sufficient stability to prevent the headphones from slipping. The suspension of the oval-shaped shells offers sufficient flexibility so that the headphones can adapt to the head shape and the ears are completely enclosed by the artificial leather upholstery. On the one hand, this results in shielding from the outside world, but a certain amount of heat build-up must also be accepted due to the design and material.

On the energy side, in practice, the over-ears grant a runtime of more than 28 hours, but this is reduced to less than 15 hours when ANC is activated. If the battery is empty, charging takes almost four hours using the USB charging cable supplied. For spontaneous use, however, the quick charging function can also be utilised, which allows more than three and a half hours of use after only fifteen minutes of power supply. The battery capacity gained is sufficient for about two hours when noise suppression is switched on. Alternatively, there is also the option of using the headphones over the existing 3.5 mm jack. A corresponding mini jack cable with gold-plated plugs is also included with the accessories.

Device control

The wireless headphones support the Bluetooth standard 4.2 and, in combination with various Android and iOS devices, offered ranges of up to ten metres with high stability, which is a good result. Pairing is achieved by pressing and holding the power button on the right-hand earpiece, which turns the system on and puts it directly into pairing mode. The central remote button is then used to control the play/stop function and to accept and end telephone calls. Language assistants can also be called up by holding down the button. For volume control, separate plus and minus buttons are available, which also allow title selection by pressing and holding the plus button to jump forward and backward by pressing the minus button. Since the buttons have clear pressure points and the remote works without delay, the control works perfectly. When telephoning, there is also a good speech intelligibility, even if your own voice is accompanied by a slight background noise.

Sound

The sound of the over-ears is bright, characterised by present highs that do not drop noticeably and appear softly rounded. There is a tendency to slightly overdraw hissing sounds, but this does not have any unpleasant hardness. While vocals and lead-instruments are presented in an appealing way by the somewhat reserved mid-range, the basses appear quite slender and by no means full or overloaded. The bass foundation does not reach very low and primarily represents the middle and upper bass range. If the bass seems under-represented, you can raise it slightly with the “Bass” button. The effect is subtle and can’t be compared to a bass booster, but the sound gets more body. The low bass range also appears to a certain extent but has little precision, which is why the low frequencies can sound dull and queasy. Otherwise, the overall sound is clear, lively, and the rather compact stage has structure. However, the sound quality doesn’t meet higher demands, as the resolution of the headphones seems to be limited.

The Active Noise Cancelling, which can be (de-)activated via an additional switch, can reduce monotonous, low-frequency noise. This has a positive effect, for example, when commuting by train. However, in ANC mode, the stage narrows and the existing background noise makes the lower frequencies appear diffuse and dull, which has a negative effect on bass-driven music. Complex construction or street noise is barely reduced with noise suppression.