Closer Examination, Build Quality and Comfort

The Audeara A-01 sports a simple, unassuming black-on-black design. There's nothing about the exterior of this pair of headphones that makes it stick out in a crowd, and there's absolutely nothing wrong with that. The company name and logo are etched into the headband and outer side of both ear cups.


The ear cups are encased in plastic, but the entire frame of the Audeara A-01, including the hangers that hold the ear cups in place, is crafted from anodized aluminium. I guess you might argue that you don't want to see any traces of plastic on a $400 pair of headphones, but plastic is light and very sturdy when done properly, which is definitely the case here. I took the Audeara A-01 on a couple of flights across Europe, and they spent a lot of time crammed into my backpack. After a few months of regular use, they still look like new.


My weighing scale shows a weight of 254 grams, but the Audeara A-01 feels even lighter. It's also extremely flexible, which is always a good sign, as flexibility translates into the ability to easily adjust to various head sizes. The ear cups can be pivoted by 90° outward to make it easier to wear the headphones around the neck, although they won't feel very comfortable in that position if you have a fairly large head. I do and they kept choking me when I wore them like that. Unfortunately, it's not possible to completely fold them, which is a clear design drawback for any set of headphones primarily meant to be used on the go.


Adding to the excellent wearing comfort are the ear cushions. They're filled with extremely soft foam and covered in pleather. The inner side of the headband is filled with a thin layer of foam as well. It's covered in mesh fabric and causes no hot spots or areas of notable pressure to the top of the head.


The "height" of these headphones can be adjusted simply by pulling the ear cup holders along the inner metal frame. The range of motion isn't very wide, although I didn't have any issues finding an ideal fit for my largeish head. I can't really say that the ear cups holders slide smoothly down the frame, which is somewhat disappointing considering the price of the Audeara A-01. They also seem to leave an unidentified sticky residue on the right side of the metal frame—no idea what's up with that.


The inner sides of the ear cups are marked with either a large "R" and "L" to clearly indicate which headphone goes with which ear. Many hi-fi and monitoring headphone manufacturers use this approach as it's much more practical than having to look for tiny markings on the frame.


On the lower outer side of the left ear cup, you'll find a small switch that's used to turn the headphones on. Above it are three equally small buttons. The first and third one adjust the volume, while the middle one has several of the usual functions assigned to it. Pressing it once plays or pauses the music and answers/drops incoming phone calls. A double-click will switch you to the next song, while clicking it three times will take you to the previous song. The buttons should be larger and a bit easier to press than they are. There's no getting around the fact that most wireless headphones in this price category come with nicer, more refined controls.


The left ear cup also contains the built-in microphone, as well as the 3.5-mm audio port, which can be used in case the battery runs out or when you simply want to connect the Audeara A-01 to a different DAC/amp than the ones built into its headphones. I love the fact that Audeara built a secondary microphone into the supplied cable. Many manufacturers don't do that, so when you're running their headphones in wired mode, you can no longer use them to answer phone calls. The Audeara A-01 keeps its full functionality both with and without the battery; not including the active noise-canceling feature, of course—that one needs juice to work.


Active noise canceling can be turned on and off by using the switch on the right ear cup. Audeara doesn't offer a way to fine-tune it through the app, like we've seen on the Sony WH-1000MX2 or Bowers & Wilkins PX, for example, where you can manually adjust the level of aggressiveness. With the Audeara A-01, the ANC can be either on or off. The right ear cup also has a Micro-USB charging port. I would be happier with a USB-C charging port as many of us are at a point where we're mostly surrounded by USB-C devices, which makes keeping a Micro-USB cable around an annoyance.

Battery Life

The Audeara A-01 has the best battery life I ever got from a pair of wireless headphones, and I've tested over a hundred. While using this pair of headphones for several months, I only had to charge them a few times. Thanks to the 1,000 mAh battery, they can last for over 30 hours in wireless mode with ANC turned on. If you turn ANC off, they'll last even longer. The battery takes around 6 hours to fully recharge if empty, and the Audeara A-01 reports its current battery level to the smartphone, so you'll be able to check on it in your phone's Bluetooth settings.

Microphone Performance

The pinhole microphone(s) do a solid job of transferring voice coherently during phone calls, which is pretty much the only job they set out to do anyway. There is no way to use them to control your smartphone's voice assistant, however, which is somewhat of a missed opportunity and yet another feature that's usually offered by wireless headphones in this price range.