Would You Dongle It Up for Hi-Fi Audio?

I love hi-fi audio. I’m not an audiophile per se, but when crisp, lossless, distortion-free audio is in my ears, I greatly appreciate it. I would say that I enjoy hi-fi audio about as much as I dislike dongles, which makes Sennheiser’s new $500 HDB 630 headphones a bit of a contradiction for me.

The HDB 630 wireless headphones emphasize “true audiophile sound.” Nice! There’s just one catch: to deliver sound that parallels wired headphones or wireless competitors like the Sony WH-1000XM6, Sennheiser is turning to the dreaded dongle. Included with the HDB 630 is a BTD 700 USB-C dongle, which you plug into your Android or iOS device to deliver songs with more digital information and higher fidelity than a standard Bluetooth connection.

According to Sennheiser, the dongle transmits songs in a hi-res Aptx codec at up to 24-bit with 96 kHz resolution, which is well above your typical MP3 sample rate, which tops out at about 44 kHz but can be as low as 32 kHz. For reference, that’s the same typical sample rate as a WAV file, which is standardized in lots of CDs. I could really go down a rabbit hole explaining why all that matters, but the crux of it is that a higher sample rate captures more frequencies, which should produce a wider soundstage and more nuanced playback.

I have no idea if all of that work on transmitting hi-fi sound actually pays off, but in theory, it should translate to better, more nuanced sound, though it will also depend on how you’re playing/streaming music. Tidal is known for catering to audiophiles with the option to stream FLAC files, and Spotify is finally, finally, on the hi-res train, but you have to want/know to stream in those hi-res formats to get the most out of your headphones.

Whether you’re willing to use a dongle to make that better sound work is another question entirely, though. I’ve seen gaming headsets like Sony’s Inzon H9 II and wireless earbuds resort to a dongle solution to help reduce latency, but I’ve not seen the same idea in the world of headphones, so it’s hard to say what the appetite is for a dongle-filled setup.

One of the most annoying parts of dongles isn’t using them (all you have to do is plug something in), but it’s keeping track of them when you’re done. What I’d love to see here is a way to store the dongle in the headphones (a slot or something) when you’re done. Sennheiser includes a spot in the case to store the dongle, but let’s be honest, not all of us are putting our headphones back in the case each and every time we’re done using them, nor is everyone taking their case with them everywhere. I speak from experience here.

Outside of the dongle of it all, the HDB 630 look like solid wireless headphones; they have active noise cancellation (ANC), 60 hours of battery life, though Sennheiser doesn’t specify if that’s with ANC on or off (my guess is off), and they come with a travel case, a 3.5mm cable for wired listening, and the aforementioned carrying case. Oh, and an adapter for listening on airplanes, which is a nice touch. If you’re down to dongle it up, you can preorder the HDB 630 now with an expected ship date of Oct. 21.