Master & Dynamic just revealed a new pair of true wireless earbuds, and it may be the most luxurious-looking we’ve ever seen. The MW08 earbuds combine stainless steel, machined aluminum and ceramic plates in a design that arguably makes the AirPods Pro look cheap.
So does the price, as the MW08 will cost $299 when it releases on March 30. That’s $50 more than the MSRP of Apple’s buds, though Master & Dynamic has made some significant hardware upgrades.
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The MW08 is the long-awaited full successor to the Master & Dynamic MW07, which preceded the sporty MW07 Go and noise-cancelling MW07 Plus spinoffs but is only now getting a direct replacement.
Active noise cancellation (ANC) returns to the MW08, this time with two different modes. All Day ANC has a lighter effect, tuned for less noisy environments, whereas Max ANC is designed to cut out louder sounds on planes and trains.
Similarly, the MW08’s Ambient mode offers a choice between Voice or Awareness settings: Voice helps the microphones pick up speech specifically, while Awareness boosts the volume of general ambient sound like traffic noise.
The MW08’s IPX5 water resistance is also a step up from the MW07’s IPX4 rating, and Master & Dynamic is aiming to improve sound quality by swapping out the previous earbuds’ 10mm drivers for a new set of 11mm Beryllium drivers. Bluetooth 5.2 connectivity will also include support for the high-quality aptX codec.
Battery life is listed as an impressive-sounding 12 hours per charge, with 30 additional hours available from the shiny metal charging case. We got clarification that this is with ANC switched off, but enabling ANC will still apparently yield around 10 hours per charge. That comfortably beats the beats the AirPods Pro and its 4.5-hour lifespan.
Again, all this comes in an extremely striking pair of earbuds that updates the traditional Master & Dynamic ‘D’ shape with its most premium choice of materials yet. The MW08 will be available in black, white, blue or brown at the end of the month, and it’s probably worth noting that while the $299 price is a lot, it’s no higher than the MW07 Plus at launch.
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