Avantree HT5009 Wireless  Headphones Review

The Avantree HT5009, on their own, are somewhat retro-looking headphones. They have a mostly black design with brown accents on the ear cup and stitching on the headband. The manufacturer's logo is on both ear cups. They come in only one color variant: 'Black'.

These headphones also come with a wireless transmitter. It has one antenna and a glossy interface that lights up to tell you which codec you're using.

The Avantree HT5009 are fairly comfortable. They're very lightweight and don't clamp tightly on your head. However, the ear cup padding isn't very wide or deep, so your ears can touch the driver housing. If you have a small head, it can also be hard to achieve a good seal as there can be gaps that form on the top and bottom of the ear cups.

The Avantree HT5009 have fair controls. There are only three physical buttons that provide clicky feedback: volume up, volume down, and a power button. You can also hold the volume up button to skip a track forward, while holding the volume down skips your track backward. Pressing the power button when on allows you to play and pause audio. Unfortunately, only the default volume and power controls work when connected to the dock, so you can't skip tracks or play and pause audio if you're listening to audio from your smartphone. There are chimes when you've reached min and max volumes and voice prompts for turning the headphones on and off and connecting them to devices.

The Avantree HT5009 aren't designed to be portable. Their design can't swivel or fold to save space. However, their footprint won't be too much of an issue if you're placing them on your console or coffee table when not in use.

These headphones are fairly well-built. They're mostly made of plastic, with aluminum hinges and faux leather padding. You can remove the ear cup padding, but it can be hard to put it back in place. Unfortunately, they feel like somewhat cheap headphones and don't seem very sturdy or durable.

If you tend to move your head around while watching TV, these headphones can move around or even fall off your head. However, they're not designed for use during physical activity, so this won't be an issue if you're relaxing on your couch or armchair.

• Avantree BTHS-AS9S headphones
• Bluetooth Wireless transmitter
• 1/8" TRS to RCA cable
• 1/8" TRS to 1/8" TRS cable
• 2x Micro-USB to USB-A charging cables
• Optical cable
• Manuals

The Avantree HT5009 have a very unique sound profile optimized for TV and movie content, not music. They have extra thump, punch, and boom, which can help make sound effects like explosions sound more exciting. While this can bloat dialogue and instruments, the steep dip in the low-mid is meant to reduce overall muddiness. Since the rest of the mid and treble ranges are also overemphasized to help balance the extra bass, vocals and instruments are very crisp, but sibilants like S and T sounds are whistle-like and piercing. Unfortunately, they lack sound customization features.

The Avantree HT5009's frequency response consistency is disappointing. These headphones are very prone to inconsistencies in bass and treble delivery, depending on fit, positioning, and seal. If you have thick hair or wear glasses, these elements can rupture the ear cups' seal, resulting in a lack of bass.

The Avantree HT5009's bass accuracy is passable. It's overemphasized across the range, so mixes have intense thump, rumble, and boom. It's especially beneficial if you like to watch action flicks like Die Hard, as scenes with gunfire and explosions sound especially prominent.

These headphones have poor mid accuracy. Following the overemphasis in the bass range, the low-mid takes a deep dip in an effort to reduce bass bloat and clutter affecting the mids. However, this also means that dialogue and instruments are a bit thin and nudged to the back of your mix. The overemphasized high-mid makes these same sounds pretty harsh though.

The Avantree HT5009's treble accuracy is disappointing. There's overemphasis from the mid-range that enters the treble range. As a result, vocals and lead instruments are harsh. Sibilants are also piercing, so if you're watching dialogue-centric content like the news, speech with S and T sounds is piercing.

The Avantree HT5009's peaks and dips performance is poor. A peak in the high-bass adds extra boom to mixes, while a severe dip in the low-mid thins out the muddiness as well as vocals and instruments. Another peak in the high-mid makes these sounds harsh. A big peak in the mid-treble turns sibilants like cymbals piercing.

The Avantree HT5009's imaging performance is okay. This brand isn't very well-known in the headphones landscape, but it's not surprising that this product has mismatched drivers due to their cheap build quality. While our unit's L/R drivers are matched in amplitude and group delay, they display high mismatch in phase response. Audio from the low-mid onwards skews to the right, and sound objects like voices aren't placed correctly in the stereo image. Imaging can vary between units, though, as it can indicate a manufacturer's quality control and ergonomics.

These headphones have a disappointing passive soundstage. They have a closed-back design, and while it doesn't feel spacious, it still feels somewhat open. It also feels unnatural and as if sound is coming from inside your head rather than from speakers placed in the room around you.

The Avantree HT5009 have a satisfactory weighted harmonic distortion performance. There's a peak from the high-bass to the low-mid at high volumes, which can be a bit distracting. However, it can be hard to hear in real-life content.

These are the settings used to test the Avantree HT5009. Our results are only valid when used in this configuration.

These headphones have a poor noise isolation performance. They're not designed to block out background noise, so you'll hear ambient chatter as well as traffic if you have your window open. That said, they can cut down some of the whirs of standing fans.

The Avantree HT5009's leakage performance is mediocre at best. Audio bleed is mostly concentrated in the low-mid to mid-treble, which sounds somewhat full. If you like to listen to your favorite shows at a high volume, others around you will hear it, even if there's a lot of background sound present.

The integrated mic has a disappointing recording quality. Your voice sounds thin and dark, making it challenging for others to hear you clearly.

The integrated mic has a disappointing noise handling performance. If you're taking a call with a lot of ambient noise around you, speech can easily be drowned out. Background sound can also become distorted.

The Avantree HT5009 have an excellent battery performance. The manufacturer advertises them to last 40 hours continuously when used at 60% volume. However, we measured over 34 hours at a much higher volume. That said, battery life can vary depending on usage. Luckily, they go into standby mode to help conserve battery life when not in use.

The Avantree HT5009 have satisfactory Bluetooth connectivity. The manufacturer advertises them to support SBC codec as well as FastStream, which is a proprietary codec that allows you to use the mic while still receiving audio. However, the included transmitter supports SBC, aptX, aptX-LL, and FastStream. You can also connect these headphones and another pair of Bluetooth headphones to the transmitter to share the same audio source.

They have fairly low latency via PC, iOS, and Android. However, keep in mind that they're intended for use with a TV. Latency can also vary depending on the device.

When using the wireless transmitter with your TV via optical, these headphones have a great latency performance. They have somewhat low audio lag, so your audio and visuals will stay in sync while streaming video. However, keep in mind that while the transmitter supports multiple codecs, the headphones support only SBC and FastStream codecs.

If you want to use the transmitter via AUX connection, their latency is slightly higher, but it still falls within good levels, reducing the risk of lipsync issues. If you're looking for TV headphones with even lower latency, it's worth considering the Insignia Digital Wireless Headphones instead.

The Avantree HT5009 come with several audio cables that you can use to connect the wireless transmitter to your TV. The optical cable is the best way to hook them up with your TV, but you can also use the 1/8" TRS to RCA cable, AUX cable, or even one of the micro-USB to USB-A charging cables if your TV supports it.

These headphones are fully compatible with PCs via Bluetooth. However, if you want to use them with their wireless transmitter, you'll only receive audio.

The Avantree HT5009 can only receive audio when connected to your PlayStation console via analog. You can connect the headphones to your PS4 via optical and only receive audio. However, the PS5 doesn't support an optical connection.

The Avantree HT5009 are compatible with Xbox consoles via analog, but you can only receive audio. However, you can only use the wireless transmitter on Xbox One as the Xbox Series X/S doesn't support optical.

The Avantree HT5009 come with a wireless transmitter. It allows you to connect up to two pairs of Bluetooth headphones to your TV and receive audio simultaneously. Depending on what codec your headphones support, the transmitter will switch to their default codec. The included Avantree headphones will use SBC or FastStream, which is a codec adapted from SBC codec. However, if you want to use headphones like the Sennheiser Momentum 4 Wireless, which support aptX, those headphones will connect to the transmitter using that codec. You can also connect the wireless transmitter to your TV via optical or use the 1/8" TRS to RCA cable.