Despite its large form and price point, the $499 Yamaha YH-L700A is a worthy spatial audio competitor to the AirPods Max.

If spatial audio is your thing, then Yamaha has some big, bold headphones that will show you a good time. The performance-to-price ratio could be better though.

The Yamaha YH-L700 will float your boat and rock your world if it’s 3D spatial audio you crave. But a pair of headphones this expensive should be just a sharp with every knife in its rack, and some elements don't cut it quite as well.

Reasons to recommend the Yamaha headphones include a big, energetic performance, plus they’re full of character and brio. Another is to sample the fluency of their 3D audio, a confident and intriguing implementation, although not quite something you’d say is essential just yet.

Yamaha has crafted an interesting proposition with its YH-L700A headphones. The company attempted to equally cater to both cinephiles and music nerds with features that work for both movies and television alongside options for casual listening. Battery life with the most attractive tools enabled is disappointing for a set of $500 headphones and the presets would benefit from some restraint. A fully customizable EQ and a slight bump in the battery department would go a long way to justifying the high price here, but for now, Yamaha has a solid set of headphones in need of some fine tuning.

With a price of over 500 euros, Yamaha confidently places the YH-L700A alongside established products from their competitors. In terms of sound, these distinctively designed headphones deliver a thoroughly convincing performance, which you would expect in view of the price. After all, the product is significantly above the Sony WH-1000XM4, which is far superior to the Yamaha product in terms of noise cancelling.

Yamaha's YH-L700A headphones offer decent sound quality, but their noise cancellation capabilities aren't impressive and they're simply too expensive for what you get.