Hed Unity Wi-Fi wireless headphones offer the first lossless music streaming experience. The headhpones uses Wi-Fi and Bluetooth, and can also store tracks in high resolution in the built-in memory of 16 GB, which allows you to listen to music in the best quality even when you are not at home and do not have access to a Wi-Fi network.
Unity is the first over-ear headphone model from the Swiss brand Hed. The manufacturer calls the sound of Unity Wi-Fi headphones Full-Fidelity. “We believe that everyone should be able to listen to audiophile-quality sound anytime, anywhere, simply and without compromise ,” said Tim Degraye , co-founder of HED.
The Hed Unity Wi-Fi wireless headphones let you listen to lossless high-resolution tracks up to 24bit/96kHz over Wi-Fi, including peer-to-peer connections when a Wi-Fi hotspot is unavailable. While the most advanced Bluetooth wireless headphones can only offer to minimize compression loss using LDAC, aptX HD and aptX Adaptive codecs. At the same time, when working via Bluetooth, Hed Unity Wi-Fi headphones support only SBC and AAC codecs.
The Hed Unity Wi-Fi headphones are capable of receiving high-resolution audio directly from Qobuz, while standard definition support includes both Soundcloud and Spotify. Support for Tidal is expected, the company says, but no word yet on Amazon Music or Apple Music.
Together with Hed Unity Wi-Fi headphones, you can use the Hed Multisource Music Player in the Unity app for iOS and Android mobile gadgets. Through the app, you can access your library directories and sync your favorites across multiple music streaming provider accounts, or connect directly to your local media server via DLNA or UPnP network protocols.
If you want to take your favorite tracks with you, Unity’s 16GB Wi-Fi built-in memory is enough for approximately 100 to 250 medium-length songs encoded in 24-bit/96kHz lossless FLAC, or approximately 600 lossless tracks in CD quality.
The Hed Unity Wi-Fi headphones also feature active noise cancellation (ANC) with an array of 12 microphones. Four of them support ANC operation, while the remaining eight are used for beamforming and suppression of background noise during phone calls. Thanks to the use of dense materials from which the ear cushions are made, it is possible to effectively suppress external noise even with the ANC system turned off.
The manufacturer also equipped Unity Wi-Fi headphones with a 9-axis motion sensor (accelerometer, gyroscope, magnetometer), which will be used to track the movements of the user’s head and for augmented reality tasks. At first, this functionality, as well as the proprietary implementation of the surround sound system, will not be available, but the company says it will implement them in future firmware updates.
The Hed Unity Wi-Fi ear cups are machined from a single piece of aluminum and finished with vibration-reducing carbon fiber. The battery of the headpones are quickly gaining charge – the battery is fully charged in 1.5 hours. And this charge is enough for six to eight hours of continuous music playback.
Hed Unity Wi – Fi wireless on-ear headphones are already on sale. The suggested retail price of the headphones are 2199 US dollars , which makes them one of the most expensive wireless headphones. On the other hand, while there are no other options to listen to high-resolution audio without wires and without loss, and the unique opportunity is expensive.
