Gadgetory

the company known for surround-sound has its first consumer electronics product meet Dolby dimension a headphone that's been designed first and foremost for the home entertainment experience with an emphasis on home yes the $600 headphone can be worn around the streets on-the-go but the idea behind it is to be able to get immersive sound from your TV and mobile devices in your home without bothering anybody around you well it's a little heavy at three hundred and thirty grams it's comfortable to wear and looks and feels swanky with a synthetic leather finish and sturdy aluminum frame it rinds be a little of parrot zeke headphones it comes with a charging stand that has a magnetic connection and there's a USB port for charging the headphone on-the-go but it's micro USB not USB see I also thought for the price it should have come with a more protective case than the simple cloth case that's included you're probably wondering whether this is a surround sound headphone and the answer is sort of but not really equipped with a Qualcomm Snapdragon quad-core processor the headphone has a digital processing feature called virtualization that Dolby says dramatically enhances the sound of all your movies shows and music and when you play content created in Dolby Atmos you automatically get the best sound for it over a Bluetooth connection while you shouldn't expect true surround sound I did think it created more of a theater sound than your typical premium bluetooth headphone does with everything sounding a little more amped up and open the mix was balanced and dialogue was clear and well-defined meanwhile the head tracking feature makes the sounds seem like it's always coming from your screen even when you turn your head it's supposed to create a more consistently realistic experience I thought it was a little weird at first but then I got used to it this is a noise cancelling headphone and the noise canceling is quite effective at the same time there's also a transparency mode Dobby calls it life mix that allows you to hear everything around you and talk to people while you're listening through the headphones the microphones are incredibly sensitive and with the transparency set to the highest level you can literally hear sounds that you normally wouldn't pick up such as your hand rubbing lightly against your clothing on the right ear cup there are touch controls for volume pausing and playing tracks and skipping tracks forward and back tap the ear cup twice and it toggles between transparency mode and noise canceling mode aside from the power button the only other buttons on the headphone are three source buttons designated by three dashes you pair the headphone to say your TV or an Apple TV connected to your TV a tablet and a smartphone and then you use the buttons to quickly toggle between the devices as you switch from one device to another but the life mix and virtualization turned on you can get up to ten hours of battery life and up to fifteen hours in a power conservation mode these wouldn't be good numbers if this was a mobile headphone but the ideas that you'd watch for a few hours at most then put the headphones back in their charging dock you can get two hours of battery life from a 15 minute charge and fully charge the headphones in two hours at its price point this is obviously not a headphone for the masses but it's a fun headphone to use for movie and music listening and will appeal the folks who want more of a home theater experience at least when it comes to sound without disturbing others around you or contrary tuning them out I'm David Carney for cnet.com thanks for watching