Audio-Technica, often considered a pro-audio brand, has launched various consumer-oriented products in India. Whether a home office or a multimedia studio, the Japanese brand’s latest product - ATH-M20xBT - seems a good way to lure fans of their wired headphones to a Bluetooth variant. Here’s a look at the pair of headphones and how it performs.
Experience
Out of the box, the ATH-M20xBT feels sturdy, and the headband feels soft during wear, , for long hours. The earcups are crafted with faux leather, are a snug fit and are quite comfortable during my podcast or video editing sessions. I could control the audio using the on-earcup physical buttons - volume up /down as well as pause and play.
The only detractor in this well-designed set is the wired connection between the clearly visible earcups, which is likely to get snagged and frayed in the longer run.
Sound Quality
The acoustics on the ATH-M20xBT is excellent, and I could easily use this as my daily driver, dealing with multimedia. The combination of sound quality and comfort makes for an excellent choice for content creators looking for entry-level wireless headphones. The headphone had a vivid bass-tuned signature and I could easily hear the nuances in low-end and high-end frequency in songs like Go(Mixed) by Protoculture and podcasts I edited. The 40mm drivers deliver great performance at the lower end of the frequency and also work well to deliver a balanced focus on the mids and the highs in certain songs like Post Malone’s Sunflower.
Connectivity
Sadly while the headphones have a great sound profile, there is no app support for this specific headset in the Audio-Technica Connect App. This is a bit of a damp squib, especially if you’re someone like me who likes to tweak equaliser profiles to their liking to get the perfect sound stage.
The headphones feature a 3.5 mm headphone jack and ship a cable in the box, which can be used when the battery is exhausted. And, it delivers well the same quality both wired and wirelessly.
Being an entry-level headphone, the ATH-M20xBT only supports basic codecs like AAC (Advanced Audio Coding) and SBC (Sub-band Coding). There is also support for multi-point connections. While switching seamlessly between computers wasn’t a problem, I occasionally had to disconnect and reconnect while switching usage between a phone and a laptop.
The headphones have a built-in mic for taking calls, but without active noise cancellation and only one microphone, the audio quality of the headphones is average at best.
Battery life
I was impressed that the actual use case was very close to the rated battery life of 60 hours. During my usage, the headphones delivered through an entire week with about 5-6 hours of use daily editing podcasts, videos and more with still about a 30 per cent charge remaining at the end.
The ATH-M20xBT has a USB-C port which can be used to charge the headphones in around 4 hours, which is a fairly long time for charging. Although it has a quick charge feature, the headphones can be plugged in for 10 minutes to provide 3 hours of playback.
While the device is said to have an auto-off feature within 5 minutes, there’s no visual cue to indicate whether it’s in standby mode or switched off completely.
Conclusion
The Audio Technica ATH-M20xBT delivers well, even by a purist’s acoustic standards. The lack of ANC and app support is disappointing, especially given all its competitors in a similar price range - Sony WH-720N, JBL Live 650BTNC - include these features.
Having said that, the headphones are still a great companion for long audio/video sessions. In addition, the overall acoustic experience offered by the headphones out of the box makes it a worthwhile purchase if you’re looking for budget headphones from a premium audio company.