Heavys H1H — the headphones built for metal.

What they are

The Heavys H1H is a closed-back wireless over-ear from a company called Heavys, founded on a single premise: that mainstream headphones aren't tuned for heavy music, and metal listeners deserve a pair built specifically for them. They Kickstarted in 2022, shipped to backers in 2023, and have been on general sale since. As of mid-2026 they retail around $269, often discounted to $239 or below.

Two things make them stand out from the crowd of $300 wireless ANC cans. First: they were designed by Axel Grell, the engineer behind some of Sennheiser's most respected headphones, including the HD 800 — a reference can that's been on serious mixing desks (including a few I've worked on) for years. Second: they pack eight drivers — four per ear cup — instead of the usual one or two. Both claims deserve a closer look, and I'll get to both.

The pitch — and the pedigree

The marketing premise is bold: traditional headphones, the argument goes, smear the dense, fast, harmonically complex content of heavy metal into mud. Double-kick drums lose definition. Down-tuned guitars turn into a wall of low-mid sludge. Cymbals turn harsh because the tweeters are doing too much work. A purpose-built headphone fixes all of that.

There's something to this — but also something convenient about it as marketing. Most modern V-shaped consumer headphones (boosted bass, recessed mids, sparkly highs) already handle heavy music reasonably well. What metal listeners often actually need is more separation in dense mixes — the ability to hear the kick and bass guitar as distinct events when they're locked tight together at 220 BPM. That's a different engineering problem than "metal tuning."

The Axel Grell name is the part I take seriously. He ran Sennheiser's headphone engineering for decades and is credited as lead designer on the HD 800. The man knows what he's doing. The question is whether the engineering on this product matches the marketing around it — and that's where things get more nuanced.

What "eight drivers" actually means

This is where the spec sheet needs honest translation. "Eight drivers" counts four drivers per ear cup, which sounds revolutionary until you look at what those drivers are. According to teardowns and Heavys's own specs, each ear cup contains two 38mm dynamic drivers stacked vertically (doing most of the frequency-range work) and two smaller tweeters positioned in the front of the cup, angled across the ear rather than firing directly into it.

So it isn't eight independent full-range drivers. It's a two-way design — woofers and tweeters — with the woofers doubled up. That's still unusual for a wireless headphone, since most use a single full-range driver per ear, and dedicated tweeters can genuinely help upper-mid and treble clarity. But it's worth understanding what you're buying. The "eight drivers" headline is closer to "two sets of stereo speakers per ear" than to "an array of eight independently-driven elements." Both are technically true. One is more marketing-friendly.

The angled tweeter placement is the engineering choice I find genuinely interesting. Aiming high frequencies across the ear rather than into it is a trick used in some high-end studio monitors to widen the perceived soundstage — sounds appear to come from in front of you rather than from inside your skull. Reports back this up: the soundstage on the H1H comes across as unusually wide for a closed-back wireless headphone, which is exactly what you'd expect from that kind of driver geometry.

How they sound

Out of the box, the tuning is exactly what you'd expect from a headphone marketed at metal listeners: heavily boosted sub-bass and low-bass, slightly scooped low-mids, prominent upper-mids and lower-treble, restrained extreme highs. A classic aggressive V-shape, tuned to make kick drums hit and snare drums crack.

The most consistent complaint across coverage is that the headphones underwhelm on first listen and only come alive after you open the companion app and adjust the EQ. That's a yellow flag worth flagging. Out-of-box tuning is what most users will judge a headphone on, and "great after you fix them" is a meaningfully different proposition from "great out of the box."

What they do well is bass response on dense, fast metal — tight and articulate rather than bloated or smeared. Kick drum patterns at high tempo stay readable; double-kick passages don't turn into a continuous rumble. From an engineering standpoint that tracks: doubled woofers move more air per cycle, which improves transient response on bass content, and a closed-back design naturally tightens up the low end. The behaviour matches what the design should produce.

Where they're less impressive: the mids feel recessed in a way that hurts anything outside dense, guitar-heavy music. Vocal-forward genres — pop, jazz, singer-songwriter, acoustic — come across thin and distant. Classical and orchestral material loses body. One reviewer put it bluntly: "If you listen to pop, jazz, or classical, stop reading. Go buy a Sony or a Bose and be happy." That's a strong statement from someone who otherwise liked the product, and it captures the trade-off honestly.

ANC, battery, and features

The active noise cancellation is branded "Hell Blocker" — on-brand to the point of self-parody — and lands as solid but not class-leading. Effective at low-end rumble (jet engines, subway noise, AC hum), adequate at conversational mid-range. The Bose QuietComfort Ultra and Sony WH-1000XM6 both do this better. Transparency mode is included.

Battery life is the genuine standout: 50 hours with ANC engaged. That's substantially longer than Sony's 30 or Bose's 24, and approaches the marathon battery life of the Cambridge Audio Melomania P100. For long-haul travel or week-without-charging use, that's a real advantage.

Connectivity is comprehensive — Bluetooth 5.1 with SBC, AAC, and aptX Adaptive support; USB-C for wired digital; and a 2.5mm-to-3.5mm analog cable for plugging into anything with a headphone jack. Multipoint pairing works. The companion app has a parametric EQ that, per the reviews, most users end up living in.

The honest pros and cons

What they do well:

• Genuine bass authority on dense, fast, low-tuned music — tight and articulate, not bloated
• Wide perceived soundstage from the forward-angled tweeters
• Excellent 50-hour battery life
• Multiple input options including wired digital and analog
• Effective if not class-leading ANC
• Solid build quality for the price — plush ear cushions, robust hinges

Where they fall short:

• Heavy. At 410g, they're nearly twice the weight of a Sony WH-1000XM6 (250g). Comfortable for short sessions; fatiguing over multiple hours.
• Genre-specific tuning is exactly what they say it is. Recessed mids make non-heavy music sound thin. The app EQ helps but only so far.
• "Eight drivers" is a marketing flourish for what is really a doubled-woofer two-way design. The engineering is reasonable, but the claim oversells what's inside.
• Out-of-box tuning underwhelms a lot of users. The consistent message: the headphones only sound right after EQ adjustment in the app.
• The Facebook ad blitz makes them feel hype-driven. The product is genuinely interesting; the marketing posture undercuts the credibility it's trying to build.
• No LDAC or LC3 support, which limits hi-res streaming on Android and over BLE Audio.

Who they're actually for

The H1H is a sharply targeted product — genuinely good at one job, less good at others. My honest take on who it makes sense for:

Probably a good fit if at least 70% of your listening is heavy music — metal of any subgenre, hardcore, prog, doom, industrial, aggressive rock — and you want a single wireless ANC pair that handles that material with authority. You don't mind a heavier headphone. You're willing to live in the EQ app for non-heavy material.

Probably the wrong choice if you listen across many genres and need a do-everything pair — the Sony WH-1000XM6 or Bose QuietComfort Ultra 2 are far better all-rounders at similar money. You prioritize light weight and all-day comfort (anything around 250g will serve you better). You want neutral, reference-leaning sound for critical listening or production work — the Sennheiser HD 650 is roughly half the price and a vastly more accurate tool. (Incidentally, the HD 650 is what's on most of the mastering desks I've worked at.)

Consider with caveats: gamers who play a lot of bass-heavy or atmospheric titles may find the soundstage and bass response useful. The 50-hour battery is also attractive for travel-heavy users who specifically want metal-friendly tuning rather than neutral reference.

The bottom line

The Heavys H1H is a more honest product than the marketing around it makes it seem. Strip away the "eight drivers" hype and the aggressive Facebook ads and what's left is a reasonably well-engineered, genre-specialized wireless ANC headphone with real design pedigree, strong bass control, excellent battery life, and a tuning that suits heavy music better than most generalist options in the price range.

They're not for everyone. They're not even for most people. They're for the listener who knows what they want — aggressive, bass-forward sound built for music that other headphones struggle with — and who is willing to accept the trade-offs that specialization brings. For that listener, $269 (or less on sale) is a fair price for a genuinely differentiated product. For anyone else, the all-rounder flagships from Sony, Bose, and Sennheiser will serve better.

The Axel Grell name on the box isn't smoke and mirrors — he really did design these, and the wide soundstage and tight bass control are consistent with what his engineering instincts would produce. But it's also not the HD 800. Calibrate your expectations to "specialized tool" rather than "Sennheiser flagship at a third the price," and the H1H is a legitimate option in a specific lane.

If you're a metal listener who already has a comfortable everyday pair and wants a dedicated headphone for the genre, these are worth trying — the long return windows from both Heavys directly and Amazon make that a low-risk test. If you're looking for one pair to do everything, look elsewhere.