Lab – The hands-free kit and the JustMyVoice technology of the EAH-AZ60 put to the test

Well aware of the need for earphone users true-wireless, to have a quality call experience, Technics placed particular emphasis on its JustMyVoice technology during the presentation of its latest flagships, the EAH-AZ60. The manufacturer’s R&D team has in fact developed a specific system in order to maximize the intelligibility of the voice in all circumstances: each earphone thus has three microphones (each devoted to a specific task), the signals received then being processed by dedicated in-house algorithms. Although the exercise of capturing the voice is very delicate, especially on headphones of this type, the manufacturer is very confident, as evidenced by its marketing speech and its various advertising spots.

This confidence is even taken to the extreme since a menu is entirely devoted to testing this JustMyVoice system within the headphones’ companion application. Very brief parameters thus allow the user to hear live — or almost live — the result of recordings obtained with or without this system. Although its interest is quite limited in practice, this is a new option which has the merit of being fun and which the most tech-savvy will appreciate.

The moment of truth: particularly convincing field trials

Curious about the result, we wanted to test the EAH-AZ60 hands-free kit as soon as they were received in our editorial office. In order to gauge the effectiveness of the system, we have set up our usual protocol in order to be able to analyze how the algorithm reacts in different situations (quiet environments, with or without discussions nearby, noisier environments such as public places, busy streets with heavy traffic, windy environments, etc.), how and to what intensity these different sources of noise are attenuated, observe whether the action of the algorithm is not to the detriment of naturalness and, above all, intelligibility of the voice, if the signal remains sufficiently powerful, precise and clean…

In a quiet environment, but inside a room with poor acoustics, the JustMyVoice system already brings a very clear improvement in the intelligibility of our voice: the attenuation of the reverberation of the room causes an alteration of the timbre of the voice (less natural, less warm, loss of precision in the treble) which remains marginal in absolute terms, given the gain in presence and clarity. The observation becomes even more meaningful in a noisy street (relatively dense traffic, reverberation caused by buildings and the narrowness of the street, passers-by chatting a few meters away, etc.). The action of the system makes it possible to isolate the voice very effectively, our subject then becomes clear and limpid, and this without too much tainting the quality of the signal. Under these conditions, many products are already far from achieving such a result.

To detect the limits of the system, we continue our series of usual tests near a boulevard there also frequented, with heavy traffic, and subjected to a light breeze. Even in these very unfavorable conditions, the microphones of the EAH-AZ60 work efficiently and properly preserve the intelligibility of the voice. Rare syllables are chewed up, it is true, but it is still quite possible to be understood by our interlocutor without having to repeat constantly – especially if we are able to raise our voice a little.

The headphones’ integrated system begins to show signs of weakness in a noisy, reverberant and busy indoor environment, such as a large train station in Paris during rush hour. It happens more regularly that certain syllables, even half a sentence, are drowned out by the action of the noise reduction algorithm, which can no longer perfectly distinguish between discussions, or certain noises nearby, and our voice — we can hear the problematic artifacts very clearly at the very end of our clip. Very rare are headphones true-wireless to do better at this level, but the few tenors show all the same a little more skill in these conditions.

We finally had “fun” pushing the Technics headphones to their limits by taking them to a location extremely unfavorable to voice capture, namely on line 3 of the Paris metro, once again at rush hour. As you can see, the hands-free kit of the EAH-AZ60 has great difficulty in getting our voice to emerge from the hubbub caused by the noise of the cars, the rails, the conversations around us, but we are nevertheless surprised to still being able to detect a few snippets of sentences, what’s more with the wearing of a mask: a small feat, if one can say so.

This concludes our focus on the quality of the Technics EAH-AZ60 integrated hands-free kit. It turns out to be very satisfying overall. As for the full test, we’ll give you an appointment in a few days to find out in detail!