Sennheiser HD 450BT, hands on: Good-value over-the-ear Bluetooth headset Review

These days £159 (inc. VAT, or $199.ninety five) is not a massive price to shell out for a fantastic established of around-the-ear headphones, and that is what you are going to shell out for the new Sennheiser Hd 450BT. Without a doubt, when faced with a option among this headset and the £250 Sennheiser MB 660 UC which I reviewed past yr, you may perhaps sense the Hd 450BT features better value for income.

The headset comes in black or white — I examined the black variation, while the white looks cooler. In possibly scenario, the headset folds down to a remarkably small sizing and stows in a offered smooth carrying pouch which involves a small mesh pocket for the charge cable and wired audio cable.

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Sennheiser’s Hd 450BT fees by means of USB-C in about two hours, and delivers music playback for a claimed thirty hours with Bluetooth and ANC activated.


Image: Sandra Vogel/ZDNet

These are alternatively huge cans, which fully address the ear. They are pretty light-weight to use, while as is normally the scenario I uncovered the band a alternatively restricted match, with the effect that the cups pushed down on my eyeglasses. It’s always a fantastic plan to attempt just before you obtain as there are always nuances of match that suggest some headsets will accommodate you better than other individuals.

All of the critical controls and interfaces are on bottom of the ideal-hand cup. There is a connector for the wired cable, for those who would alternatively not use — or cannot use — Bluetooth. Notice that the headset end of the cable is a two.5mm round-pin jack, so your favorite present cable could possibly not be usable. The charging port is also in the ideal cup: it really is a USB-C connector, so you can use your telephone charger for the headset also.

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The Hd 450BT, which weighs about 238g, folds down to match in the offered have scenario.


Image: Sennheiser

There are four regulate buttons/sliders. A single doubles up for voice and music regulate. It’s a slider that will pause/perform and act as a future/preceding tune selector when you’re on a voice get in touch with it will acknowledge, end and maintain a get in touch with, or can be utilised to reject a person. There’s also a quantity rocker and a button that phone calls up your voice assistant — it performs with equally Google Assistant and Siri.

When the Hd 450BT is paired with a telephone, a controller app will hold you knowledgeable about battery everyday living and permit you established up the equaliser. The skill to fiddle with an equaliser from an app is probable to charm most if you swap among music, film and spoken term often. Even if you don’t swap audio modes a lot, the skill to check battery everyday living at a look is well worth the download on its possess. Battery everyday living is rated at thirty hours, which is a great deal for the commute and working working day, and probably more than enough for two or even a few days for many people today.

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I was similarly delighted listening to radio as film observing, and I didn’t spot any latency issues. Top quantity is pleasant and loud, and I was frequently content with the audio quality. That stated, I uncovered some of the classical orchestral music I listened to lacked a bit of definition, so if this is your thing, you could possibly want to seem somewhere else.

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Noise cancelling cannot be toggled by means of the app, but only on the headset itself — by applying a person of those buttons on the ideal cup. I am not the most significant admirer of sounds cancelling — I like to hear what is actually going on about me when I am out and about, so I managed with out it. But for those who do want it, it does a fantastic work of blocking external seems.

The Sennheiser Hd 450BT is not excellent: some eyeglasses wearers could possibly locate the band a minimal restricted and the cups a minimal also shut fitting, for illustration, and there are headsets with top-quality audio quality. On the other hand, fantastic battery everyday living, a polished companion app and a acceptable price make this around-the-ear headset nicely well worth thinking of.

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