SoundMagic’s new headphones aim to beat the award-winning Sony WH-CH720N with a novel trick

(Image credit: SoundMagic)

SoundMagic has unveiled new P58BT ANC wireless headphones, offering a fresh rival to the award-winning Sony WH-CH720N.

The SoundMagic P58BT ANC are available on Amazon in black and silver finishes now and retail for £79.99 / €79.99 – we’re waiting for confirmation on US pricing. In the UK and Europe this means the cost the same amount as the five-star, Sony WH-CH720N we gave a What Hi-Fi? Award to last year.

To help contend with the award winners SoundMagic has loaded the P58BT ANC with a fairly impressive set of features considering their low price. These include Bluetooth 5.3 connectivity with a low latency mode for gamers. The mode aims to reduce lag when users are playing games with the headphones connected via Bluetooth – a practice that usually leads to a delay between what’s playing on screen and the sound coming out of the headset.

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For music fans it features custom design 40mm drivers with a large neodymium iron boron magnet and "premium" magnet parts and a composite vibrating diaphragm. These reportedly will let it deliver “rich, full bodied audio” with a wide dynamic range.

Outside of this the only technical details we’ve been given are that the over-ears feature an oval-shaped ear cup with soft silicone pads designed for prolonged listening (and presumably gaming) sessions. As the name suggests, active noise cancellation (ANC) is included and they offer a quoted 60 hours of battery with ANC off and 35 hours with it on.

We haven’t had a chance to review, or even have an opening with the P58BT ANC yet. But, SoundMagic does have a pedigree in the affordable earbud and headphone space. The SoundMagic E11C are an affordable set of cabled headphones that earned a five star rating and What Hi-Fi? Award last year, thanks to their competitive price and entertaining sound.

But at this price they will have to dethrone the Sony WH-CH720N which are currently the affordable wireless headphones we recommend to most people, with our reviewers going so far as to report:

“Sony has done it again. With their pleasing build quality and punchy sound, the WH-CH720N justify their place in the market with consummate ease.”

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Alastair is What Hi-Fi?’s editor in chief. He has well over a decade’s experience as a journalist working in both B2C and B2B press. During this time he’s covered everything from the launch of the first Amazon Echo to government cyber security policy. Prior to joining What Hi-Fi? he served as Trusted Reviews’ editor-in-chief. Outside of tech, he has a Masters from King’s College London in Ethics and the Philosophy of Religion, is an enthusiastic, but untalented, guitar player and runs a webcomic in his spare time.