Audio-Technica ATH-DSR9BT Bluetooth Headphones

The Audio-Technica ATH-DSR9BT is considered by many—including Head-Fi founder Jude Mansilla—to be one of the best-sounding wireless headsets on the market. It features the company’s Pure Digital Drive system, an exciting new development that allows the headphone to operate without the sound-degrading D/A converter that conventional wireless headphones rely on. Instead, the ATH-DSR9BT uses Trigence Semiconductor’s Dnote chipset to receive the digital audio signal from a Bluetooth wireless transmission, then process and transfer it to the 45-millimeter True Motion driver, where the digital pulses move the voice coil and diaphragm forward and backward to create the sound waves heard by the listener. The ATH-DSR9BT also overcomes the sonic limitations of typical Bluetooth transmissions by supporting 24-bit/48kHz high-resolution audio through the Qualcomm aptX HD codec.

Head-Fi’s Whitigir writes, “Bluetooth headphones have always pulled my interests, but regardless of how good they got rated, I could never ever enjoy any of them … including the newer Sony 1000X. Until now, most of the Bluetooth I had tried in the past had major faults, flat dead on the soundstage (boring), not enough treble retrieval details, veiled up presentations from the layering … all in all, horrible. Once again, aptX HD and Direct Digital Drive with its efficiency have pulled my interests, and let me say this: Welcome to my world, ATH-DSR9BT, as the first audiophile-worthy wireless headphones.”