Product test

Pioneer Rayz at IFA: Finally a good pair of headphones for iPhones

5.9.2017

Translation: machine translated

Rejoice, Apple users. Because I rejoice with you. Pioneer is taking the first step towards personalised sound with the Pioneer Rayz. I tested the in-ear headphones for you in Berlin.

The moment that I get really excited about a new technology after the initial reaction of "Let's take a look at this". It's usually a specific realisation or implementation that impresses me, but not the underlying technology.

I then received the HTC U 11 as a test device. I've been carrying it around with me for a few weeks now and one of my favourite features is the headphones. Just like Apple, HTC has done away with the 3.5 millimetre jack connection and retired it after more than 100 years. Unlike Apple, however, the Chinese manufacturer has offered an alternative to the obsolete technology. I like to remember the video I made about the phone back then.

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In the end, I would like to see other manufacturers also launch headphones with ear-measuring active noise cancelling technology on the market. Because the headphones that come with them, no matter how revolutionary they may be, are generally not the best. They cut corners here and there and in the end, the headphones supplied are not bad, but they are not good either. Based on this, I am convinced that much more can be made of the technology.

Commitment to the cable

Pioneer is taking the first step. The Japanese company presented the Rayz in Hall 1.2 at the IFA in Berlin. Even if the name sounds like a hellish spawn of the 1990s, where English plurals with Z instead of S at the end were cool, they have a lot going for them, even if they look inconspicuous. Visually, they can't keep up with the other novelties in the hall. Other stands have wireless everything, so a Bluetooth scan of my smartphone shows dozens of devices from all kinds of manufacturers and new devices are added every second.

The Pioneer Rayz are proudly designed with cables

In contrast, the Rayz hang on a cable. Old fashioned. But where the headphone jack used to hang at the end of the cable, there is now a Lightning connector. This brings with it some nice features, but above all the fact that data can not only flow from the iPhone to the headphones and then into your ear canal as sound, but that data can also flow back. The Rayz use this feature to measure your ear and adapt the sound and active noise cancelling to your ear.

Measuring an ear sounds super complex and complicated. It probably is, but if Apple's iOS and Google's Android have taught us anything, it's that complicated complexities can be handled quite easily if the user is allowed minimal interaction with the process. I remember the glorious 1990s, when installing a video game under Windows 95 felt like a 12-hour process in which you had to answer all kinds of questions, enter keys and data and install separate drivers and DirectX. Today, measuring the sound resistance in a human ear goes like this:

Open the app, which is called something like the headphones or their manufacturer
Press the button
Put the headphones in your ear
Press the button

A smiling face appears and the headphones tell you that the calibration is now complete and that you can now adjust the equalisers as you like. Well. Quite unspectacular, but so simple that anyone who can follow instructions on a screen can do it.

The sound check

The Rayz do a lot of things right and raise hopes. Because HTC is still a bit on the outside. Many are fighting for supremacy in the headphone market and HTC stands there and says "Hey, we've got something cool here" and nobody seems to be listening. With Pioneer, HTC has finally found a companion, because the two are not yet competitors. Frustratingly, HTC's headphones only work on the HTC U 11, regardless of where else a USB C-type connector is installed. Laptops, for example.

Pioneer's Rayz only work in Apple's ecosystem, which is marginally better. At least it has more than one device. The headphones can also function as a hands-free system and as a direct line to Apple's Siri assistant. There are also two plastic boxes embedded in the cable. One is a remote control with an extra button that can be freely defined. Samsung, take a cue from the Bixby button. Users like freedom. Really. Believe me. The other box allows the iPhone to be charged while listening to music. Because Apple forgot to build wireless charging into the iPhone 7. So until now, it was "either music or charging", unless you invest in AirPods.

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Now, enough of the headphone philosophy. On to the sound check. Michael Jackson with his classic "Bad" to show what the Rayz are capable of.

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The loud Hall 1.2 stops being loud. All I can hear is Michael Jackson. I set the profile of the Rayz to bass-heavy, because I don't want to venture into manually setting the equalisers in the hall. Because, to be honest, I'm not so comfortable with the receivers in my ears. I understand that it's difficult to demonstrate a device close to a hygiene product to the masses. At the Sony stand, there's someone with a bowl full of attachments and hygienic wipes. At Bang and Olufsen, we are given a sealed bag with attachments inside. At Pioneer, the headphones are just lying around. Some of them seem to be overgrown. Wow. If the attachments at the Pioneer stand are ever cleaned or replaced, then it didn't happen in the 30 minutes we spent at the stand.

Dear reader, I'm doing this for you. Really. And I didn't regret testing it. Because the sound is great. Throbbing bass, clear highs and the centre fits perfectly. The noise cancelling is even so good that I can no longer hear myself talking. I regret having accepted video producer Stephanie Tresch's suggestion "Why don't you make the announcement with the Rayz in your ears? Because I can't even hear my inner voice any more. That has rarely happened to me. A remarkable feeling, all in all.

Headphones

Pioneer Rayz

ANC, Cable

Headphones

Pioneer Rayz Plus

ANC, Cable

Headphones

CHF58.13

Pioneer Rayz

ANC, Cable

Headphones

Pioneer Rayz Plus

ANC, Cable

The Rayz don't have to be loud to block out the whole environment and internal noises from my body. Now that's what I call quality work.

In the end, I only have one wish for the Japanese company: please make a version of the Rayz that is compatible with Android devices. Because we all deserve this sound. <p

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Dominik Bärlocher

Senior Editor

dominik.baerlocher@digitecgalaxus.ch

Journalist. Author. Hacker. A storyteller searching for boundaries, secrets and taboos – putting the world to paper. Not because I can but because I can’t not.

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