Nice headphones - I’ve used them a bit myself. But Sennheiser aptly describes their design as “minimalist”. Now the Sennheiser HD 458BT headphones have been released. Their difference? They feature “bold red accents that lift the minimalist design to new heights”.

“Bold red accents” may give pause to those with conservative tastes, but do look at the picture. The near-copper-red makes them look rather delicious to me.

As for their functionality, the Sennheiser HD 458BT headphones are right up to date. They use Bluetooth 5.0 to connect to your phone (it’s backwards compatible with earlier Bluetooth versions). In addition to the standard Bluetooth stereo music codec, SBC, the headphones also support higher quality sound with AAC, aptX and aptX Low Latency. AAC is supported by iPhones, and iPads and iPod Touches, while aptX is supported by many Android phones. The LL version of aptX is good for keeping sound and video in sync.

The headphones are a closed-back design and employ active noise cancellation. In short, ANC captures noise from the outside, inverts the waveform, processes it to match the noise that would have penetrated the earcups, and feeds it back into the signal. That simply cancels out a great deal of the noise. And that makes these excellent travel headphones … for when we’re again able to fly.

A 3.5mm audio cable is included so that you can use the headphones with an in-flight entertainment system (you’ll have to pay a few bucks for the two-prong adaptor still used on most planes). This cable also lets the headphones be used if the battery runs down.

The battery is good for thirty hours of run time. The earcups swivel, and the headphones are supplied with a soft travel case.

The Sennheiser Smart Control app keeps the headphones’ firmware up-to-date, and you can also use it to tweak their EQ.

The Sennheiser HD 458BT headphones are available in Australia and New Zealand now and sell for AUD $299.95 / NZD $329.95 RRP.

For more information, visit Sennheiser.