SoundMagic’s new headphones aim to beat the award-winning Sony WH-CH720N with a novel trick

And it has nothing to do with battery life or audio quality

SoundMagic has unveiled new P58BT ANC wireless headphones, offering a fresh rival to the award-winning Sony WH-CH720N.

The SoundMagic P58BT ANC are available on Amazon in black and silver finishes now and retail for £79.99 / €79.99 – we’re waiting for confirmation on US pricing. In the UK and Europe this means the cost the same amount as the five-star, Sony WH-CH720N we gave a What Hi-Fi? Award to last year.

To help contend with the award winners SoundMagic has loaded the P58BT ANC with a fairly impressive set of features considering their low price. These include Bluetooth 5.3 connectivity with a low latency mode for gamers. The mode aims to reduce lag when users are playing games with the headphones connected via Bluetooth – a practice that usually leads to a delay between what’s playing on screen and the sound coming out of the headset.

For music fans it features custom design 40mm drivers with a large neodymium iron boron magnet and "premium" magnet parts and a composite vibrating diaphragm. These reportedly will let it deliver “rich, full bodied audio” with a wide dynamic range. 

Outside of this the only technical details we’ve been given are that the over-ears feature an oval-shaped ear cup with soft silicone pads designed for prolonged listening (and presumably gaming) sessions. As the name suggests, active noise cancellation (ANC) is included and they offer a quoted 60 hours of battery with ANC off and 35 hours with it on.

We haven’t had a chance to review, or even have an opening with the P58BT ANC yet. But, SoundMagic does have a pedigree in the affordable earbud and headphone space. The SoundMagic E11C are an affordable set of cabled headphones that earned a five star rating and What Hi-Fi? Award last year, thanks to their competitive price and entertaining sound.

But at this price they will have to dethrone the Sony WH-CH720N which are currently the affordable wireless headphones we recommend to most people, with our reviewers going so far as to report:

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“Sony has done it again. With their pleasing build quality and punchy sound, the WH-CH720N justify their place in the market with consummate ease.”

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