Technics continues to refine its flagship wireless earbuds, with their latest Technics EAH-AZ100, given improvements across the board vs its predecessor EAH-AZ80. Priced at S$469, the EAH-AZ100 bring forward meaningful improvements in sound, design, noise-cancelling, and usability — with price staying the same. On paper, they’ve got everything you’d expect from a premium pair of earbuds: ANC, customizable touch controls, Dolby Atmos with head tracking, three-device multipoint, wireless charging, and support for high-res codecs like LDAC and LC3.
Unboxing
Here’s what you’ll find in the box:
- Technics EAH-AZ100 earbuds
- Charging case
- Five pairs of silicone ear tips (XS, S, M, L, XL)
- USB-A to USB-C cable
- User manual
Build quality and features
Technics EAH-AZ100 comes in three colours — (1) Black, (2) Silver, and a recently added (3) Champagne Gold to mark the Technics’ 60th Anniversary. I’ve been using the Champagne Gold variant, and it’s got that familiar brushed-metal texture on the touch panels that Technics fans will recognize. The overall build feels premium and sleek, with the combination of matte finish and the brushed-metal. The earbuds have shed a bit of bulk compared to the predecessor, now featuring more ergonomic curves that help them sit better in the ear. Each earbud weighs just 5.9g, lighter than the previous generation.
The charging case is similarly compact, with a matte body and a brushed-metal lid. It is slim enough to fit in your jeans pocket without too much protrusion. It supports USB-C and Qi wireless charging. Though the magnetic pins holding the earbuds could be firmer, it hasn’t caused any issues during daily use. The earbuds are also IPX4-rated, so they’ll handle sweat or light rain, just don’t take them swimming.
Controls & Technics Audio Connect App
Touch controls on the Technics EAH-AZ100 are fully customizable via the Technics Audio Connect app. Out of the box, the default controls work fine, but I appreciated being able to remap controls to suit my preferences. The touch sensors are responsive and have audio feedback so you know that the touch have been registered.
Single, double, and triple taps, as well as long presses, can all be assigned independently for each bud, covering everything from playback and volume to ANC switching and voice assistant access. There are also wear sensors that enables the auto play/pause feature (which can be turned off if you don’t like it).
The Technics Audio Connect app remains fairly intuitive to use, with most of the important settings up front – toggle between ANC modes, adjust EQ, tweak touch controls. You can customise the home screen layout as well. There’s now support for Dolby Atmos with head tracking, which works with both Atmos-encoded content and regular stereo files.
The “Ambient” sound mode lets external sounds into the earbuds. There are two modes – (1) Transparency, and (2) Attention mode, with the latter meant to highlight voices but it sounded a little too unnatural to me. I preferred using the Transparency mode, which can be dialed from 0 to 100 in granularity. I mostly kept the dial at ’70’ to get the most natural sounding passthrough. Apple’s AirPods Pro still have the most natural transparency mode to date.
You can also fine tune the strength of the Noise Cancelling mode if you disable the Adaptive noise cancelling feature. Lastly, you also have customisable EQ – either go with one of the presets provided by Technics or create your own EQ with the 8-point chart.
Fit and comfort
The slightly smaller size and smoother curves continue to make Technics EAH-AZ100 a comfortable wear. The ergonomically curves do follow the shape of my ears well sitting comfortably and securely. The default ear tips help anchor the fit and create a proper seal.
The Technics EAH-AZ100 are still considered ‘large’ earbuds due to its thickness, so those with smaller ears may experience ear fatigue after prolonged use as the earbuds will constantly be rested against your ears. Those with medium to large sized ears should find the fit snug and well nestled.
Sound quality
The new 10mm Magnetic Fluid Drivers in the Technics EAH-AZ100 deliver a more clear, precise, and dynamic soundstage. Bass is tight and textured, with real depth that doesn’t overwhelm. You can feel the rumble in sub-bass heavy tracks, yet it never gets too boomy. Midrange is clear and crisp, with vocals carrying warmth and intimacy. If I’m nitpicking, then folks with preference for forward-bias mids might find vocals to have slight bloat especially on bass-heavy tracks. Treble is detailed and airy, with just the right amount of sparkle to give the sound some liveliness without introducing harshness.
Soundstage and instrument separation are also particularly impressive. Listening to tracks with more complex arrangements, the EAH-AZ100 handled layering well, keeping each element distinct. Soundstage feels more expansive compared to its predecessor. And if you like more openness, you can toggle on the Spatial Audio mode which gives an airier feel but bass and vocals will sound less intimate. It’s matter of personal preference and applicability to use cases eg. movies. It’s great that the implementation of Spatial Audio feels natural as well.
I personally found the default tuning on its “Direct” mode to be most balanced. If you prefer a bassier or brighter sound, you can adjust the EQ via the app’s fully customisable 8-band EQ, or with the several presets including Bass+ and Vocal.
ANC performance
ANC on Technics’ flagship earbuds has always been reliable and good, and with Technics EAH-AZ100 the story remains the same. I tested it on buses, MRT rides, and in crowded cafes – and the earbuds consistently performed well. Low-frequency rumbles from engines were mostly eliminated, and even higher-pitched environmental noises like clattering dishes and chatter were reduced to a faint presence. There is an Adaptive ANC mode, which dynamically adjusts the cancellation level based on your surroundings. It works silently in the background, and I never noticed any sudden shifts or dropouts.
Microphone quality
Technics ditched “JustMyVoice” from the EAH-AZ80 and introduced Voice Focus AI in the EAH-AZ100. This new system is better at noise filtering, and can work on both ends of a call. It works well in most scenarios — background sounds like wind and crowd chatter were impressively reduced almost to barely audible while keeping my voice centered. My voice was also really forward in the mix, like as though you’re speaking just 1cm away from a mic. That said, my voice can sound a bit artificial at times, but not a bad way.
If you prefer to sound more natural, you can disable Voice Focus AI in the app, which restores a more lifelike tone at the cost of some background noise intrusion. If you’re handling calls indoors, the mic quality without Voice Focus AI was perfectly acceptable for video calls and voice memos. But if you’re in a noisy environment and really need to cancel out background noise, the Voice Focus AI does the job really well.
Battery life
Battery life has been improved over the previous generation. With ANC on, you can expect up to 10 hours of use on a single charge, and up to 28 hours with the charging case. The case recharges via USB-C or Qi wireless charging, but there’s no mention of fast charge support.
Pairing, connectivity, and latency
The Bluetooth 5.3 connection was reliable and solid throughout my testing. I experienced no dropouts, even in crowded malls and MRT stations. Audio/video sync was perfect on my iPhone 16 Pro with zero lag when watching YouTube or Netflix.
Multipoint connectivity is a great quality-of-life feature, supports three devices simultaneously, and switching between them worked fine though it can sometimes take a second longer than expected. If you have a habit of using just a single earbud, you can use either the left or right earbud. It’s also worth mentioning that Technics EAH-AZ100 supports LE Audio, the LC3 codec for low-latency playback.
Conclusion
Technics has once again reached another high with the EAH-AZ100. These earbuds bring refined, detailed sound, strong ANC, and great quality-of-life features like spatial audio, three-way multipoint, and app-level customisation — all packed into a more compact and premium design. If sound quality is your top priority, the Technics EAH-AZ100 is worth considering if price isn’t that big of consideration factor given the retail price of S$469 – which is higher than other flagships such as Apple AirPods Pro 2, and Bose QuietComfort Ultra Earbuds to name a few. Occasional discounts do bring the price down ~S$389 but that is still on the high side.