Panasonic RP-BTD10 Premium Bluetooth On-Ear Headphones Review

By on April 17, 2015

Overall Grade

7 /10

Pros

  • -Sharp-looking headphones
  • -Wired listening option
  • -Natural, neutral sound
  • -Strong signal

Cons

  • -Mostly plastic
  • -Bluetooth sound is worse than wired sound
  • -No carrying case or charger
  • -Expensive

Like Bluetooth speakers, Bluetooth headphones are a very crowded product category. Wireless is popular because of convenience but at the sacrifice of sound quality. Despite incremental improvements in Bluetooth technology, that hasn’t changed much. So if you favor sound quality over convenience, stick with wires.

But, you know, wireless is cooler.

Panasonic BTD10

The Panasonic RP-BTD10 Premium Bluetooth On-Ear Headphones are a pair of $200 open wireless cans that also allow for wired listening. $200 is a pretty high price tag, but you can find them for around $130 on sites like Amazon, Overstock, BuyDig.com and Walmart.com. If you’re considering trying these headphones, I’d recommend buying from Walmart because you can return it in store if you don’t like them.

Rating headphones is a more subjective experience than just about any other tech product, but I gave them a whirl. Read on to see how they fared.

Unboxing

When you slide the headphones out of the box on its standard issue blister tray, you’ll find a 5 ft. USB charging cord and a 3.5mm cable with one right-angle tip included in the contents. Disappointingly, there’s no travel pouch or carrying case. There’s also no USB charger, but those are fairly ubiquitous, or you can just plug it into your laptop.

These black on-ear (aka supra-aural) closed-back headphones are handsome-looking with brushed aluminum rings on the outside of the earcups and dark green on the inside of the earcups. Otherwise, like the popular Beats headphones, the RP-BTD10 is still a mostly plastic affair with leatherette foam ear cushions and light padding under the headband. With plastic, you get a lighter pair of headphones, but the tradeoff is they feel cheaper.

The earcups swivel 90 degrees, which is suitable for lying flat but not if you want to use them as DJ headphones. For on-ear headphones, they get a pretty good seal, but that also means they’re somewhat uncomfortable for extended use. If you’re looking for hours of listening, you’re probably better off finding an over-the-ear, circumaural style.

The left earcup has the power / pairing button, USB port, 3.5mm input, pinhole microphone and NFC touch area, while the right earcup has the volume and play controls. There’s no real tactile difference between various controls — you just have to memorize their placement.

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Setup

Setup is easy. The hardest part is waiting 4 to 5 hours for the initial charge. You get up to 30 hours on one charge, depending on your usage and volume. After you turn on the headphones the first time, your phone, laptop or Bluetooth device will discover them. No other button presses required.

You can pair up to eight devices. After eight, it rolls over the oldest paired device. Like most Bluetooth products, you cannot simultaneously connect (i.e. use) two devices .

The trickiest part is pairing up subsequent devices. First, the headphones have to be in the off position and other paired devices cannot be connected, then you need to hold the power button for 5 seconds (2 seconds to power on, plus 3 additional seconds). After that, you can pair with the new device.

Sound

Not surprisingly, the wired sound beats the wireless sound.

Like most stereo Bluetooth headphones, the RP-BTD10 uses the aptX codec for improved sound fidelity, but the sound was still better when I plugged in the 3.5mm cable. Overall, the 40mm drivers favor midrange and high frequencies and are good for listening to vocal-heavy music, TV shows and movies. The sound is fairly natural and neutral. The flip side is, they’re somewhat lacking in the low end, so if you’re looking for heavy bass, I would suggest other headphones.

I also found the Bluetooth (v 3.0) sound to be dependent on the device. I heard better soundstage with my laptop than with my iPhone.

The wired sound was more pleasing to my ears, filled out the low end more and sounded less compressed, as expected. You can’t make or receive phone calls in wired mode, but you do save on the battery life.

Speaking of phone calls, I was pleasantly surprised by the quality of the sound on my end, and the sound on the other end wasn’t bad, considering it’s a pinhole mic.

Once you get past the standard 30-foot Bluetooth range, the signal starts to break up, but you should freely walk around in your house or apartment without any connection issues.

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Conclusion

Overall, I thought the Panasonic RP-BTD10 Bluetooth Headphones provided a clear, natural sound favoring vocals, making them more ideal for pop music, movies, TV or phone calls. I liked the wired listening option, although it’s not audiophile quality. They also seem to be priced a bit on the high side, although if you poke around a bit, you can find some good deals.

See the Panasonic RP-BTD10 on Amazon

About Joe Warner

I'm the senior editor of The CheckOut. I am an aficionado of shiny gadgets and classic Hollywood movies and can also tell you the names of the late '80s Swedish Davis Cup team members.