World’s first truly wireless headphones unveiled

Onkyo is known for its strong tradition of audiophile-grade home theatre gear. But the Japanese electronics company Onkyo is branching out and just unveiled a massive-looking set of completely wireless earbuds. They probably sound great, but like home theatre components, you probably couldn’t go jogging with them.

But the new W800BT headphones seem pretty impressive. Without a single wire, the two earbuds communicate with each other and a smartphone (or tablet or whatever) completely wirelessly. The right one even includes a microphone, so you can do hands-free calling. Meanwhile, passive noise isolation is supposed to provide top notch sound and you can top up the 12-hour battery life on the go with a charger case. The right earbud even has a microphone, meaning calls can be taken and made using the earphones.

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This is all assuming, of course, that the dang things stay in your ears. The disc-shaped design certainly borrows from the knobs on Onkyo’s hifi equipment, but based on early press images, the e a rbud s look like they’re quite big as compared to other headphones. In a way, it’s a fitting analogy. High quality audio equipment and miniature-sized parts often don’t go hand-inhand. Onkyo is the latest company to bet heavy on Bluetooth audio and it’s pretty courageous for it to come out with wireless earbuds right off the bat. Onkyo will start selling them in Europe this November for a cool €300 — that’s about Rs 22,320.