Denon AH-C830NCW True Wireless In-Ear Headphones with Active Noise Cancelling, Water Resistant Earbuds with Crystal Clear Call Quality

Product Information

Supplied with a charging case, the Denon True 830 earphones have a total of up 24 hours charge. Enjoy up to 6 hours charge from the earphones without ANC activated and up to 4.8 hours with it switched on. Most of my streaming was done through Apple Music and Spotify, and to get this type of sound quality over Bluetooth 5.0 via AAC is impressive. SBC is the other supported codec, while aptX, aptX HD, and LDAC are unsupported for enabling the best audio quality over Bluetooth. I was content with their active noise cancelling capabilities, too. With ANC enabled, the whoosh of passing traffic when walking beside a busy road was reduced to a quieter grumble and the ANC system did a solid job attenuating low and mid-range noise. Higher-pitched squeals made by a police siren, my washing machine and the clinking of kitchen utensils weren’t attenuated as well but that’s not unusual for earbuds at this price point. I’ve got no complaints about their Ambient mode either – it allowed me to hold conversations effectively and piped in sound from the outside world in a natural manner. However, every pro is negated by a con: superb audio quality vs. poor comfort levels. Useful Bluetooth support vs. mediocre battery life. Reliable touch controls vs. poorly integrated digital assistant support. You get the picture.

In 2022, releasing your earbuds without an app to control them is quite the own-goal. Denon AH-C830NCW: Battery lifeWhat you don't get is any way to change or customize how they work. No equalizer to adjust sound, no way to change the touch-sensitive controls, nor any way to personalize them. What you see and hear is what you get. For those reasons alone, sound quality has to make a statement, and in that regard, the AH-C830NCW come out sounding great. I'm not talking a stunning fidelity, I'm referring to a crisp and defined audio profile coming from the 11mm drivers that you can appreciate out of the box. Mind you, they won't blow away the competition, where the best wireless earbuds stand out for a variety of reasons. They sound as good, or better than a lot of comparable pairs, and most importantly, are easily on par with the AirPods Pro. Stavinsky’s The Rite of Spring as played by the Royal Liverpool Philarmonic orchestra shows a calmer, more delicate side to the little buds. Overall, calling on the Denon Noise Cancelling Earbuds is very good. External sounds are largely cancelled, and your voice will sound full, not thin and tinny, like it can with some earbuds. There were the occasional wobbles, as can happen with any earbuds, but I don’t think your callers will be bothered by it. Denon has even managed to bring a tiny touch of individuality to the ‘stem’ design, too - it finishes at an angle and is capped in contrasting silver. The active noise cancellation is facilitated by a couple of mics in each earbud, while call quality is handled by another three. Wireless connectivity is via Bluetooth 5 and codec support extends to SBC and AAC - that means there’s no hi-res audio support. Audio is delivered to your ears by a couple of oval (11mm x 10mm) full-range dynamic drivers.

Soundcore Liberty 3 Pro: Better battery life, wireless charging, customizations, and hi-res audio on Android devices, but ANC isn’t as good. This performance is typical of similarly priced competitors, but to Denon's credit, we didn't notice obvious changes to the sound signature when we turned on any of the ANC modes, which is a plus. In any case, it's easy to switch between the three ANC modes, and the transparent listening mode works reliably when you need to hear your surroundings. Controlled, Detailed Audio Here’s the problem, and it’s a weird one. Normally, I will be spending some time telling you about the additional features and customization potential granted by a companion app. But Denon does not have a companion app for its AH-C830NCWs.

What should you get instead of the Denon AH-C830NCW?

The digital assistant was the only function that gave me trouble. Firing up Google Assistant became frustrating at times due to the assigned input gesture not always working. When it did pop up, certain words were misinterpreted and minor inquiries like “what is my next event” lead to different actions (why it pulled up my alarm screen was baffling). Siri was more difficult to activate, and it stopped working on my MacBook Pro after one try.