AKG N700NC vs Bang & Olufsen Beoplay H8 (2018)

The AKG N700NC M2 makes for a good, if unremarkable, Closed-Back Headphone for people with a $120 budget.

The Bang & Olufsen Beoplay H8i (2018), however, is merely mediocre at its $302 asking price, when compared to similarly priced products, and won't satisfy the needs of most people.

In either case, we suggest that you first take a look at some other options at the $120 and $220 price points before committing to one of these - it's likely that you'll be able to find some better alternatives.

If you're still interested in learning more about the AKG N700NC M2 and Bang & Olufsen Beoplay H8i (2018), however, we wrote a summary of what we could find about them:

The AKG N700NC M2 was loved by reviewers at SoundGuys, a highly trusted source that performs reliable in-depth testing. It did great in its "Best over-ear headphones" roundup where it was named its "Best on-the-go", which, in itself, makes it a product worth considering.

As for the Bang & Olufsen Beoplay H8i (2018), it wasn't able to earn a top spot in any roundups from trusted sources that conduct their own hands-on testing. Nevertheless, it managed to impress reviewers at Techradar, PCmag, and Wirecutter (NYTimes) enough to make it onto their respective shortlists.

We examined all of the review data that we could find and first took a look at sources that reviewed both of them, like PCmag, and found that they haven't shown a preference for either product.

Then we checked which sources liked these two Closed-Back Headphones best and found that the AKG N700NC M2 got its highest, 8, review score from reviewers at What Hi-Fi?, whereas the Bang & Olufsen Beoplay H8i (2018) earned its best score of 9.4 from Lifewire.

Lastly, we averaged out all of the reviews scores that we could find on these two products and compared them to other Closed-Back Headphones on the market. We learned that both of them performed far better than most of their competitors - the overall review average earned by Closed-Back Headphones being 7.4 out of 10, whereas the AKG N700NC M2 and Bang & Olufsen Beoplay H8i (2018) managed averages of 8.0 and 8.5 points, respectively.

Due to the difference in their prices, however, it's important to keep in mind that a direct AKG N700NC M2 vs. Bang & Olufsen Beoplay H8i (2018) comparison might not be entirely fair - some sources don't take value for money into account when assigning their scores and therefore have a tendency to rate more premium products better.