Technics EAH-AZ100 Wireless Earbuds: The buds to beat

Every once in a while, something comes along that blows your mind. This was the case with Technics EAH-AZ100 wireless earbuds. Putting it simply, they’re astonishing. Sony was my firm favourite for wireless ear-gear until now, but Technics has knocked them clean off their throne with these wee beauts.

My expectations were not high. Wireless earbuds are tiny, and their ultra-petite form factor entails compromises when it comes to audio. Bass is usually the first casualty, often followed by accuracy and the ability to deliver clean, distortion-free sound into one’s noggin.

Design-wise, the EAH-AZ100s are fairly ordinary-looking earbuds. That said, Technics has put quite a bit of effort into their build, as is evident with their super compact charging case. In addition to supporting both USB C and Qi wireless charging, the case has a solid, premium feel that is a refreshing change over the bulky, creaky Tupperware cases typically bundled by most ear gear makers.

The actual buds are quite compact and offer a sufficiently comfortable fit that I often forget I was wearing them. They include a good number of silicone tips, and their fit was snug enough to provide plenty of passive noise isolation and for the buds to stay put regardless of what I was up to. The buds are generic-looking, with only a Technics-branded alloy outer control surface hinting at the sonic bliss to reveal itself once I stuffed them into my ears.

The big news is that these are the first buds to use a proprietary magnetic fluid driver that Technics says offers clean, high-res, low-distortion audio. In practice, this translates into them going as low as 3Hz to deliver nuanced bass. They also sport an aluminium diaphragm for highs, offering a superb audio range and a surprising amount of sonic detail.

The ferrofluid drivers use a magnetic liquid between the driver, magnet and voice coil. I was initially sceptical of the marketing hype, but as the saying goes, hearing is believing.

In addition to their audio, a few other bells and whistles make the EAH-AZ100’s the buds to beat. First up is Voice Focus AI. Custom AI silicon and three mics in each bud intelligently filter out background noise, boosting the wearer’s voice for clear phone calls. Making a call near Wellington’s civic square (which at the moment is an incredibly noisy construction war zone), the person on the other end didn’t believe I was on the street, and I also had no difficulty hearing them even with the ear-splittingly loud hydraulic pile driver operating on the other side of the fence from where I was standing.

Then there’s Adaptive Noise Cancelling. When you fire up the adaptive setting, noise cancelling adjusts in real-time based on ambient noise and the shape of your ears. Testing the buds on a noisy bus, on busy streets and at home enveloped me in a cone of blissful near silence. While a small amount of loud noise was faintly noticeable, their Adaptive noise cancelling worked well.

The buds support three-device multipoint connectivity, which is a marked improvement whic made using my phone on the go and then my PC, followed by my TV, seamless and hassle-free. I also liked the One-Touch Conversation Mode. When someone spoke to me, the buds paused music and switched to ambient mode, allowing me to participate in the conversation without pulling the buds out of my ears. Whenever I removed the buds, the music paused and their control surfaces were disabled. Plunking them back into my ears saw their audio seamlessly resume.

On the connectivity front, the EAH-AZ100s are among the first buds I’ve tested that support Bluetooth LE Audio and Auracast for sharing an audio experience. They also play nice with the LDAC and the new LC3 codec for hi-res audio and low latency, making them a great addition to any gaming set-up and for consuming media. Getting them connected to the Galaxy Fold Z5 was almost instantaneous, as they’re compatible with Google Fast Pair.

So far, these goodies have been fairly generic checkbox items that most manufacturers offer. Technics up the ante by adding what they call Immersive Audio, which equates to spatial audio optimised for Dolby Atmos. For Atmos-optimised music and movies, the soundstage developed extra depth. Dolby Head Tracking added to their overall feeling of immersiveness.

On average, I get around 10 hours of use with adaptive noise cancelling enabled, and Technics says up to 28 hours are possible with the charging case, making the EAH-AZ100 an ideal luggage space-saving long-haul travel companion.

After pairing and installing the Technics Audio Control app (iOS/Android) on my Samsung Galaxy Fold Z5, I ran Samsung’s Adapt hear setting, which put me through a brief hearing test and customised my phone’s audio to ensure I could get as much of the sound on offer as possible. From there, I tweaked their equalisation, enabled location tracking (which could prove very useful if the earbuds are ever misplaced), and was good to go.

Listening to the Quincy Jones album Walking In Space, I was stunned by their ability to deliver bass that went so low I could feel it. Mids and highs sounded super crisp and vividly detailed, and there were no noticeable holes in the audio spectrum. It felt like I was in the studio with Quincy. I was super engaged when I fired up Le Quattro di Stagioni’s rendition of Vivaldi’s Summer Storm. Likewise, listening to a recording of Hilary Hahn’s violin playing in Sibelius’s concert with the NZSO showcased the buds’ ability to accurately deliver detailed classical music. This is usually where the flaws of most buds quickly become apparent as they struggle to recreate the intricacies of orchestral music with the resulting audio descending into a mess of distorted din. However, the EAH-AZ100 made me feel like I was back in the Michael Fowler Centre. Trinity Roots album All We Can Be delivered beautifully layered percussion and silky warm vocals.

In short, the EAH-AZ100s are easily the best wireless buds I’ve listened to.

If you think I’m impressed, you’d be dead right. Technics has put its competitors on notice with the EAH-AZ100s. They are a solid example of what a brand that knows what it’s doing in the audio space can achieve using innovative driver tech. When it comes to presence and sheer musicality, these wee buds are right out there in a class of their own.

https://www.technics.com/nz/products/headphones/true-wireless-earbuds/eah-az100.html