Dolby Dimension Headphones

Well, Dolby is now a player in the headphone game.

https://products.dolby.com/dimension/

Lots of hype in the press.
https://www.theverge.com/2018/11/14/18093348/dolby-dimension-headphone-review-price-specs-features
https://www.cnet.com/reviews/dolby-dimension-preview/
https://www.engadget.com/2018/11/14/dolby-dimension-wireless-headphones/
https://techcrunch.com/2018/11/14/__trashed-16/
plus more.

Sort of interesting product. Variable ANC Head Tracking. "Cinematic Sound". Touch controls. "Unique earcup design" for comfort.

I give it 8 months before the price falls to $299.

 

I said this in an earlier shoutbox thread, but while I see the value in their LifeMix feature it just seems silly to me if they're going to be hard-panning sounds L and R the way they did in this sound demo off @Vtory's profile post: . The head tracking is neat, I have trouble seeing a use for it; part of what I like about headphones v home theatres is the fact that I don't have to keep my head in a specific position to get the best sound!

If the sound were to match other $500-600 offerings it may pique my interest, though the reviewer's insistence that it seemed tuned more for cinema than music isn't encouraging. For now it seems like a novel first-gen toy that could stand to be refined a lot, but I think Dolby's got the money for it

 

If it's from Dolby, should be Noise Reduction rather than Noise Cancelling.

 

Some thoughts and speculations

1. Weight (330g or 11.6oz) is a bit disappointing. Effective competitors are much lighter: for example, qc35ii (8.3oz) and wh-1000xm3 (9.0oz).

2. I am 80% sure that lifemix is just an another marketing term. Companies just name simple signal process differently.. Sony's 'ambient control' does very similar things. Upcoming surface headphones will do exactly the same things. Underlying logic (adding or subtracting mic-recorded ambient signal) seems nearly identical, too.
Also concerned that most video reviews use "lifemix" only via app -- this might be quite inconvenient in real use. I think MS does this more elegantly (at least videos looked so).

3. Magnetic charging dock looks very cool.

4. Multiple pairing and easy switching is also cool.

5. Specially customized virtualization feature (something like "advanced" dolby headphone) is expected.. and I am half curious (for movie purpose) half skeptical (for music purpose).

Will not be my cup of tea.. but hope to find some chance to test them. Maybe can measure them relatively soon. Some of my non-audiophile IRL friends were interested with them. lol

 

This is marketed for binge watchers, not audiophiles.
This won’t compete with anything at $600.
This is a low volume production, too, compared to the likes of Bose and Sony.

 

Good that they have support for aptX LL for movies, but lack of any advanced BT codec(AptX HD, LDAC, LHDC) immediately put's them step back in music.