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For anyone that spent time in clubs and around DJs any time between the 1970s and 2000s, the Technics brand is synonymous with its legendary SL-1200 line of pitch-shifting turntables. After a brief hiatus that ended thanks to the resurgence of vinyl, that heritage of bombproof direct-drive decks continues with the recently released SL-1300G—a turntable aimed more at audiophiles than festival headliners. In 2023, Technics released premium Bluetooth earbuds to extend its legacy from the LP bins into the streaming era. The company is back a year-and-a-half later with the flagship EAH-AZ100 (buy now for $299), a significant upgrade both inside and out. The earbuds are revealed today at the annual Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, but PopSci has been able to test them for a little under a month under embargo and we’ve walked away (and walked with them) impressed.
Disclosure: Our review sample was seeded during a press trip to Kyoto, Japan, paid for by Technics parent company Panasonic.
The build
Of the many changes Technics made to these earbuds, the one that immediately jumps out is their size. Whereas the EAH-AZ80 was somewhat teardrop/shaped, the AZH-100’s housing is more compact and cylindrical and trims a gram off the weight (down to 6g per earbud). These stemless earbuds are a lot smaller than the typical Bluetooth earbuds we’ve tested, which came with a big advantage: they’re a lot more comfortable to wear. Once we popped them in, we could listen to hours without pressure or fatigue setting in. Technics includes multiple sizes of eartips in the box—we stuck with the standard medium, which are installed by default, and we recommend trying out a couple of tip sets before deciding which ones work best.
Our assessment is entirely subjective, and if you don’t like stemless True Wireless (TWS) earbuds, the EAH-AZ100s may not be for you. We didn’t have any trouble with them falling out of our ears, even during exercises like jumping jacks, but your experience will vary based on the shape of your ear. We initially thought that the reduction in size would result in lower battery life, but that isn’t the case. Technics says these earbuds can get up to 10 hours of use with ANC (Active Noise Cancellation) enabled using the AAC codec; that’s up from seven hours on the EAH-AZ80.
If you enable LDAC (Lossless Digital Audio Codec) streaming on a compatible device (select Android smartphones or a dedicated digital audio player), the EAH-AZ100s offer the same battery life as their predecessor while offering better audio quality—up to 20 Hz – 40 kHz using a 96kHz/990kbps connection. Technics also shrunk the size of the EAH-AZ100s case while offering increased battery life (18 hours up from 14 hours) with AAC enabled or 11 additional hours when LDAC is enabled.
Technics’ biggest technical addition to these earbuds is technology called the “Magnetic Fluid Driver,” first introduced in the Technics EAH-TZ700—a set of $1,199 wired earphones. Typically when reproducing sound, the driver (the part of a speaker responsible for making sound) will move around in slightly random directions. This tumbling will ultimately create distortion. Technics took a 10mm ultra-thin free-edge aluminum diaphragm then backed it with an infrastructure injecting oil-type liquid filled with magnetic particles into the space between the driver magnet and voice coil, resulting in more consistent movement.
It’s hard to describe the difference this makes, but once you hear the low-distortion playback, it’s difficult to go back to even other high-end earbuds. You can see a blown-up example of this accurate, linear assembly below.
To improve ANC performance, Technics moved one of the EAH-AZ100s’ microphones onto the inside of the bud, which made a bigger difference than I initially expected. With ANC enabled and music at 60 percent, any typical low-level noises—fans, footsteps, keyboard typing, and even a microwave—were completely eliminated. Louder sounds like cars honking could still get through, but the ANC performance of the EAH-AZ100s was well above average, giving noise-cancellation earbud champs Bose and the excellent QuietComfort Ultra a run for their money. A setting in the Technics app allows you to have the ANC adjust to the sounds around you automatically, or manually lower its efficacy to let more outside noises in. The earbuds also feature a passthrough mode that uses microphones to filter sounds through the buds, which can be helpful when exercising in public, or in an environment where you’ll be speaking to people semi-frequently.
The setup
We paired the EAH-AZ100s to several devices over the course of our testing, and the earbuds’ Bluetooth 5.3 radio had no trouble connecting to any of them. The earbuds will automatically enter a pairing state the first time they’re taken out of their case, which is convenient, at which point you need to navigate to the Bluetooth settings on your device and tap on them to connect. Once connected, you may be prompted to download the Technics app, which is required if you’d like to adjust their EQ settings, download new firmware, and check the battery life of their case or buds themselves.
The EAH-AZ100s will automatically connect to the first device they’ve been paired to, but you can re-enable their pairing mode by holding your fingers on both buds shortly after removing them from their case and inserting them into your ears. You’ll hear a voice prompt letting you know pairing mode has been enabled, at which point you can navigate to the Bluetooth settings on a second (or third) device to make the connection. The EAH-AZ100s will automatically connect to the three most recently paired devices in Bluetooth range each time you pop them into your ears.
This triple multipoint pairing feature was available on the EAH-AZ80, but it’s as consistent and impressive as ever. The ability to reliably pause music on my phone to watch a YouTube video, or play a game on my Nintendo Switch without worrying about dropouts and interference is incredibly freeing. Some earbuds don’t even offer two-device pairing, but Technics continues to be best-in-class in this area.
The sound
To put it simply: Listening to music and podcasts on the EAH-AZ100s for the past few weeks has been a blast. It didn’t matter if I was listening to the 2024 remix of George Harrison’s Living In The Material World or Sabrina Carpenter’s Short n’ Sweet—these earbuds could handle it all. I exclusively streamed music using Apple Music (set to lossless but compressed via the AAC Bluetooth codec) and 256Kbps audio files from my personal music library. The biggest difference I heard throughout all my listening sessions was improved bass. I could hear instruments in the entire lower frequency range a lot more clearly when compared with both the EAH-AZ80, the Bose QuietComfort Ultras, and Apple’s AirPods Pro 2. None of those earbuds sound bad, but the EAH-AZ100s offer better low-end sound more consistently. If you listen to bass-heavy music, these are the earbuds to get.
We listened to a mix of rock, pop, hip-hop, jazz, and spoken word during our listening tests and found tracks from each genre to be pleasing to the ear. Instrument separation was uniformly great—this will come down to the quality of a track’s mix—and listening to songs with a lot of different sounds happening simultaneously was a special treat. A great example of this was The Flaming Lips’ “Ego Tripping at the Gates of Hell,” which features a pulsing bassline, several background sound effects, on top of echoey vocals. Each piece of the mix sounded clear and distinct when listening on the EAH-AZ100s, which was no small feat.
On the complete other end of the spectrum was Neil Young’s solo acoustic version of “Flying on the Ground Is Wrong” off his Live At The Cellar Door album. There’s an intimacy in both his voice and piano that you can pick up on immediately when listening on the EAH-AZ100s. The earbuds reward anyone who revisits tracks from deep in their music library to hear something extra in the background or a little more detail in a particular instrument.
The EAH-AZ100s offer support for Spatial Audio when listening to content with a Dolby Atmos mix, but the experience remains so-so. It’s no fault of Technics, I’m just not convinced yet by on-the-go immersive listening. While Spatial Audio tracks can sound more spacious—and enabling the head-turning mode, wherein the mix changes dynamically as you move your head, does mimic the experience of listening to music on speakers—I mostly stuck with listening in stereo. There’s no way to fully recreate the experience of listening to Dolby Atmos tracks on a true multi-speaker component system with forward and upward-firing drivers. However, if you’ve liked this feature on other earbuds, you’ll be pleased to find it here.
The conclusion
We’re only two weeks into 2025 and Technics has offered up a reference-grade pair of TWS earbuds. The EAH-AZ100s feel like a substantial leap over their predecessors in all of the ways that actually matter to consumers. They’re more comfortable, last longer, have better ANC, and have an all-new audio and microphone system. Rather than opting for a simple spec bump, Technics went back to the drawing board to offer actual results—proof that the venerable turntable brand is putting a new, well, spin on its identity and products.
You can pick up a pair of Technics EAH-AZ100 earbuds today for $299.99, while the EAH-AZ80 will remain available at $199.99.
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