The first Wi-Fi lossless headphones are here and they’re exactly what Sonos didn’t do

HED Unity are the world’s first wireless lossless audio headphones

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It’s been overfour years since the rumor mill started churningregardingSonos' first-ever headphones, but afterSonos' CEO confirmed that the company wasfocusing on its current product categoriesin February last year, those rumors promptly, er… stopped.

Despite continued speculation thatSonos' first-ever headphones would come bearing Wi-Fi, we’d all but given up hope of a set of lossless, high-end Wi-Fi enabled over-ear headphones in 2023.

But here they are! And they come with a premium price tag befitting onlySonostoo! Thing is, they’re not made by Sonos.

They’re called HED Unity and they are actually made by a virtually-unknown Swiss audio startup called HED Technologies. At the time of writing, the company’sInstagram accountfor the launch boasts just 207 followers. And the craziest part? These cans do something even thebest over-ear headphoneson the market cannot do – not even theSony WH-1000XM4or theApple Airpods Max.

HED Technologies calls it ‘Full-Fidelity’ wireless audio, and essentially it means bypassing the lossy and bandwidth-blighted constraints of Bluetooth and leveraging your local Wi-Fi network to deliver high-resolution audio streaming of up to 24bit/96kHz. And these are the first ever headphones capable of doing that.

Before we get too excited, that’s notquitethe full hi-res ticket, you understand.Apple Music’s Hi-Res Lossless offering goes up to a maximum resolution of 24-bit/192 kHz – and for that, you still need wired headphones and one of thebest portable DACs(neither of whichApplemakes, which is just weird).

But HED Unitywilltackle Apple’s regular Lossless audio streams which run at 24-bit/48 kHz – and until now, Apple recommends wired earphones to get at those.

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Opinion: truly lossless wi-fi headphones have landed – and Sonos and Apple should really be taking notes

You’d also be forgiven for thinking you were looking at the hotly-anticipatedAirPods Max 2, but again, that’s another product thatseems woefully far from release. HED Technologies has trounced them all with this particular world-first.

For me, the sculpted earcups, milled from a single block of architectural-grade aluminum around 40mm titanium-coated drivers, with Wi-Fi squirreled under the hood, are simply begging for some Sonos branding, no? But you won’t find any.

HED Technologies' HED Unity cans have a frequency response range of 20Hz-22kHz (i.e., beyond what the human ear is capable of hearing at the top end), and remember, that lossless audio is delivered thanks to Wi-Fi streaming.

Curiously, when not hooked up to a Wi-Fi network, the cans tote Bluetooth 5.3 but only SBC and AAC codec support is listed – no aptX or aptX Adaptive. Battery life is a claimed eighy hours, whichever way you’re streaming.

To get onboard with your Wi-Fi, the headphones boast their own dual-core processor, storage, and memory, as well as a gyroscope and other trackers to deliver head-tracking motion detection for truly immersive three-dimensional surround sound.

Oh, and there’s active noise cancelation, helped along by 12 microphones. (Just the 12, then; four to support active noise-canceling and eight for beamforming and background noise nixing).

And as you might expect, they don’t come cheap. The price is an eye-watering$2,199,  (which works out at around £1,759 or AU$3,249). Suffice to say, we’d absolutely love to hear what they can do.

Becky became Audio Editor at TechRadar in 2024, but joined the team in 2022 as Senior Staff Writer, focusing on all things hi-fi. Before this, she spent three years at What Hi-Fi? testing and reviewing everything from wallet-friendly wireless earbuds to huge high-end sound systems. Prior to gaining her MA in Journalism in 2018, Becky freelanced as an arts critic alongside a 22-year career as a professional dancer and aerialist – any love of dance starts with a love of music. Becky has previously contributed to Stuff, FourFourTwo and The Stage. When not writing, she can still be found throwing shapes in a dance studio, these days with varying degrees of success.

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