Review: Technics EAH-AZ70W wireless stereo earphones deliver great sound

Quality earbuds have come to market under a brand name we associate with the 60s vinyl era.

Technics EAH-AZ70W wireless stereo earphones.

High quality earbuds have been released under a brand name from the 1960s. Technics is a Panasonic premium brand associated with the hi-fi and the vinyl era. It went the way of the Dodo in 2010 until Panasonic surprisingly revived it in 2019 with Technics branded vinyl turntables.

The Technics label now adorns quality wireless stereo earbuds, the Technics EAH-AZ70W. The metallic earbuds are lightweight and come in black or silver in a stylish aluminium case. They are rated IPX4 which means they can survive a splash of water. The feel is definitely premium.

The best attribute of the EAH-AZ70W is what matters most – superb sound. It’s very clear, strong and configurable. Like earbuds generally, sound can be configured using a companions smartphone app, in this case the Audio Connect app.

The app includes a sound enhancement section where you choose between the bass enhancer for a boomier sound, a clear voice (treble) option which brings out vocal quality, or the equaliser for more granular sound control. The sound has a rounded spatial feel, there’s a real sense of depth.

You can choose to activate noise cancelling and it works as well as you could expect from earbuds. It uses a dual cancelling mechanism. Microphones detect the noise levels both inside and outside the ear and use analog and digital processing to cancel it.

The earbuds have one feature that I’d like to see more of – an ability to find them if you happen to lose them. Earbuds and their cases are easily lost, a bud can fall out of your ear and a case can quickly spill out of your pocket.

As long as you have the phone connected, the app will register the last known position of the left and right buds so that you can return to find them. This system isn’t foolproof – the “last known connection” may not be where the buds are, but it’s a start.

You can have the buds play a tune if they are connected by Bluetooth to your phone and nearby, however the sound is faint. These are earbuds, not speakers. This will be useful where the earbuds might have fallen underneath the couch at home, rather than somewhere on a noisy street.

It’s good to know at least one manufacturer now realises losing or mislaying earbuds is a problem.

The buds don’t quite offer the instant phone connectivity you get with Apple AirPods and Google Pixel Buds but if you follow the procedure, it’s simple enough. The earbuds need to be in the case prior to connection. They switch on when you take them out. You sometimes need to check that the Bluetooth is connected through the phone.

Panasonic gives you five sets of ear-tips so that you can get a decent fit. That’s important for me as my ear cavities are different sizes and I need a different sized ear-tip for each for a snug fit.

The technics buds offer the standard fare of controls by tapping the left or right buds. You can play/pause, adjust the volume, select the next/previous track, take or reject incoming calls, or change the level of ambient sound.

These functions are pre-configured and seemingly can’t be adjusted as you can with say, Sony buds, but they work okay.

The Technics buds offer direct Amazon Alexa support through the app, or you can invoke the personal assistant of your smartphone.

At $449 the EAH-AZ70W earbuds are not cheap; they are more expensive than the Pro version of Apple AirPods which cost $399. Google Pixel Buds are $279.

However I can vouch for the excellent sound quality; that and the premium metallic design rather than plastic might convince you to pay more.