Audio Video News

Audio-Technica today announced that the all-digital wireless headphones it previewed seven months ago at CES 2017 are now available.

The Bluetooth-enabled ATH-DSR9BT ($549) headphones are among the first to employ the company’s Pure Digital Drive technology, which replaces the traditional D/A converter and amplifier with a special chipset that keeps the audio signal in the digital domain from source to driver. Doing so is said to eliminate opportunities for disruption or distortion that occur in conventional digital to analog conversion systems.

Digital pulses generated by Trigence Semiconductor’s Dnote system excite the drivers’ voice coils, which moves the diaphragms forward and backward, creating the soundwaves heard by the listener.

The headphones are built around a custom 1.8-inch driver with a four-wire voice coil, which is said to improve signal accuracy by ensuring precise control of displacement, and a diaphragm made of a “light and responsive material coated with DLC (Diamond-Like Carbon).”

An acoustic damper inside the headphone housing controls the airflow in front of and behind the diaphragm to “further tailor the sound to achieve smoother, more natural audio reproduction across the entire frequency range.”

The Pure Digital Drive system is also said to overcome the sonic limitations of conventional Bluetooth transmissions by supporting the 48-kHz/24-bit aptX HD codec (aptX, AAC, and SBC are also supported). Hi-Res Audio playback is also possible when the headphones are connected to a computer or other digital playback device via the supplied USB cable.

Other highlights include soft formfitting foam earpads, a padded headband, a rechargeable battery rated for up to 15 hours of continuous use, NFC (Near Field Communication) for quick pairing with NFC-compatible devices, and a built-in mic and controller for answering calls and controlling volume and music playback.

All controls and indicators are mounted on one of the earcups for ready access. LEDs indicate pairing and charging status, battery level, and the codec in use.

For more information, visit audio-technica.com.