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PotatoTM
220
Mar 1, 2018
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When it comes to portable audio, I will almost always prefer something that is wireless. Currently I'm looking for a nice sound cancelling Bluetooth headset, debating over the Bose QC35, Sennheiser PXC 550, Sony WH-1000X, and Bowers & Wilkins PX. Anyone have recommendations or preferences?
Mar 1, 2018
Tsiklon
148
Keyboard Club Member
Mar 1, 2018
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PotatoTMThese are headphones that you’ll likely be wearing for a very long time (be it commuting or in the office) and for me and this purpose - comfort is paramount.
Audition these headphones yourself see if the comfort is good for you. For me personally the QC35 beats out the PX for comfort, however I’ve not heard the Sony or Sennheiser
Mar 1, 2018
Nameistaken
3
Mar 1, 2018
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PotatoTMI have tested all of them and bought the PX's (great sound) , i dont recomend them for portability and due to some quirks they have. i would suggest the Sony's or the Bose.
Mar 1, 2018
Duncan
3731
Mar 1, 2018
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PotatoTMMy $0.02. My wife has the Bose QC35 (II)'s and they're pretty great. Biggest thing there is how well they do the noise-canceling. Hard for me to nail down truly amazing audio quality yet.. I was at the Sennheiser store downtown (SF) and tried the PXC550, and in comparison, I think the Bose beat them, however, I didn't get a chance to play with the equalizer app that comes with it so it was hard to say. The fit was great, and the functionality (touchpad on right ear) was cool, but I didn't make a purchase that day. Think I might just be cheap, but I reaaaaaally want a decent pair of headphones I can rip around with that I absolutely feel has great sound.
Mar 1, 2018
Oddlad
25
Mar 1, 2018
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PotatoTMI own and LOVE the Bose QC35s. However, I also own a set of FIIL Canvis (DIVA) on-ear cans and I love them maybe a little more, but for different reasons.
https://fiil.com/products/fiil-canviis?gclid=Cj0KCQiA5t7UBRDaARIsAOreQti9tB_wIochdpY3IKkFjrta3eRoNeAFJphGmqxJxWLfNPUxAjaEYOUaApKbEALw_wcB
I have no affiliation with the company. I paid full price for my headphones.
I like them because: the sound is great. But it's not as good as the QCs. You can't beat the QCs for sound quality. Don't get me wrong, the FIILs are close, but not as balanced - they are slightly warmer with a little more weight towards bass. They're not Beats. But the QCs are a tough act to follow.
However, the FIILs do a better job, for my purposes at active noise cancellation (ANC). On full ANC mode, I'd say the two are on par with each other - maybe a slight edge to the QCs - due more to them being over-ear as opposed to the on-ear FIILs, but for "open" mode where you want to hear your surroundings (which is important to me as I listen mostly while walking through Philadelphia), the FIILs are better. They amplify the ambient noise better and maintain the fidelity of sound better on that setting than the QCs. They also have a couple of features I really like for listening on the go. (1) touch controls - the right earcup is touch sensitive and can adjust volume or skip tracks - no hunting around for the button, (2) cycling through ANC modes is super easy with a little toggle switch (again on the right earcup) that round-robins through three levels of noise cancellation - it's really easy to switch on the go and the only button that protrudes so it's easy to find, (3), they pause when you take them off your head and rest them around your neck, resuming when you put them back. This is so much more useful than I expected. Walking home, I stop in a bodega for beer, put the FIILs around my neck, and the music pauses - it resumes when I put them back on my ears. This is brilliant and I love it. They don't fold flat. I love that the QCs fold flat so I can put them easily in my briefcase. The FIILs fold, but not flat. That might be a con for you. I think the FIILs are better looking. But that is totally subjective. They also (in my opinion) feel more premium. The QCs are amazing cans, no argument to be had, but they are super light plastic (not a bad thing) and the FIILs, while still light and comfortable for hours of wearing - they just feel nicer.
Here's the rub, the FIILs (if you don't care about on-board file storage or voice control - both of which are options) are at least $100 less expensive.
I own both. The QCs have a special place in my heart. But the FIILs have become my daily driver. If I could only own one, it would be the FIILs.
I'm happy to answer any questions you might have. Happy listening!
- Patrick
Mar 1, 2018
antdroid
371
Mar 2, 2018
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PotatoTMI've tried all of them. None of them are very comfortable to me and they all sound like $100 headphones. We (my fiance really) ended up keeping the B&O H9 since she really wants ANC. It was by far the most comfortable headphone and it sounded the best to me as well.
For portable, I'm using a bluetooth adapter and my normal IEMs/portable headphones with a shorter cable. It works very well, and sounds fantastic. In my case, it's currently the EarStudio ES100 with my DIY balanced short cables (~2 feet) for Audeze Sine headphones and iSine earphones. They sound fantastic using AptX HD.
Mar 2, 2018
The_Dentist
13
Mar 2, 2018
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PotatoTMSo I was tasked to try and compare QC35 and WH-1000XM2 for my organization since I fly quite a bit. Surely the sound quality can't compete with the Utopia I use at home and HD800s in my office but Bose and Sony both provide very good noise cancellation and sound quality when you plug them in on the plane and I also use them with my portal music player with Bluetooth. While the noise cancellation and the sound quality is on par for both of them, I ended up recommend the Sony WH-1000XM2 and I ended up bought one for myself too because of the convenience features. On the Sony one, you can touch control to allow ambient sound go through temporary, so like when the flight attendants talking to me, I do not need to take the headphone off to hear what they say. If you flying a lot like me, I think Sony one will work better for the convenience features (and then I haven't tried the other ones you listed). And so far after many hours of flights, I am very happy with my WH-1000MX2 with long battery life, great noise cancellation and the comfort of wearing it.
Hope this help.
Mar 2, 2018
IBJammin
17
Mar 2, 2018
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PotatoTMThe QC35 win on comfort and sound quite good with some of the best NC in the business. The Sony WH-1000xM2 has the longest battery life, maybe better NC and sound, but isn't quite as comfortable and lightweight feeling as the Bose for most folks. If you have an Android handset running 8.0 or later you can take advantage of the LDAC codec which gives you the best wireless performance of the bunch. The B&W PX look and feel more premium than the others and while I haven't tested the NC extensively just trying them in a few stores they were almost dead quiet in a noise factory like Best Buy. I haven't worn them long enough to comment on comfort.
Mar 2, 2018
RayF
22214
Mar 3, 2018
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PotatoTMWell I happen to have the Bose QC35s and I can tell you they ain't half-bad. I haven't taken them out and about just yet, but around the home, they're very nice (music and movies on my computer, protection from my girlfriend's sonic-boom TV programs, and the odd, interrupting phone call). People rave about their comfort (and I agree), thought the pads can produce a bit of perspiration during a long session. From an audiophile's point of view, I'm sure there are better. From my point of view, it was $350 well spent.
Mar 3, 2018
The_Dentist
13
Mar 3, 2018
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PotatoTMInterestingly Slickdeals have the WH-1000XM2 up now (and Massdrop has it on for $250 which is a good price) so people have some discussion about it and most people on the discussion like the Sony better than the QC35, you can go and read the comments there. I personally can't tell the sound quality between those 2 (as I mention on my previous post, I plug it into the plane and plane audio isn't that great anyway, so those headphones weren't the bottle neck, even I plug them into my flac player, since there will be constant background noise even with ANC on the plane, sound quality isn't a big deal).
Mar 3, 2018
IBJammin
17
Mar 3, 2018
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The_Dentist... whoops didn't scroll to the end. Thanks for the tip on the Sonys!
Mar 3, 2018
Banannaise
3
Mar 4, 2018
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PotatoTMIf you’re going to use Bluetooth, the audio quality of the headphones almost doesn’t matter. Bluetooth doesn’t have the bitrate to support quality audio.
Mar 4, 2018
RayF
22214
Mar 5, 2018
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BanannaisePeople say such unpleasant things about Bluetooth; as if it were a sexually transmitted disease or something. I'm willing to bet a lot of them actually own Bluetooth devices (and have sexually transmitted disease too).
Mar 5, 2018
bankrep
1
Mar 5, 2018
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BanannaiseWhile that statement is somewhat true, be aware there are two newer formats out. aptX HD and aptX.
Mar 5, 2018
IBJammin
17
Mar 5, 2018
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BanannaiseYeah, that's a super oversimplification. Having tried numerous Bluetooth headphones, there are good ones and bad ones like any other category of the headphone world. Are you going to get the best sound... no of course not but you're usually talking about on the go use when you're talking Bluetooth connections, in which case background noise and your actual ability to focus on critical listening are going to be as limiting as the gear. You can get some Bluetooth headphones that work quite well for those situations.
Mar 5, 2018
sleepybear83
6
Mar 14, 2018
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PotatoTMa little late to the party here but just want to give my two cents here. I've recently become a B&W fan and have the PX personally as well as some other B&W headphones and music speakers (no high end home audio stuff yet).
I've tried out Bose QC35 and Sony WH-1000x and can say that the QC35 is the by far the most comfortable I've ever tried around my head. I've worn the PX a lot over my head and I have a fairly large head (hat size is just shy of an 8) and there's definitely a strong clamping force which either has loosened up over time or my head has gotten used to the pressure or both. Sony's were more comfortable than PX but not like the Bose. Comfort is a big factor for long periods of listening and especially for use on long commutes and/or flights.
Bose is no stranger to high quality sound and they sounded great but B&W sound is simply amazing for me and my ears. Balance (in so many ways) is key for me a lot of times so the dynamic range on the B&W just seems more complete to me compared to the others. Sound is very subjective so your experiences will vary as will mine over time. A lot of the professional type reviews you see rate B&W PX as the best sounding between the three but take their (and my) opinions with a grain of salt.
Features outside of ANC I think Sony wins here just barely. The "hold hand over right ear cup" and "lower music/raise environment" is super nifty along with the touch panel swipe gestures. Bose's dedicated Google Assistant button doesn't do much for me since I'm in the Apple ecosystem. B&W smart sensors don't work for me which is a slight bummer but I have these for their sound and don't use ANC unless I'm on a long flight which happens once in a blue moon.
Overall, I would rate Bose high for comfort, Sony for features, and B&W for sound. All three don't slouch in the other categories but if you were to pick the headphones for one sole reason, those are how I would pick.
Mar 14, 2018
RayF
22214
Mar 14, 2018
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sleepybear83You're a brave man to speak up for Bose QCs on this page! Speaking of "features" the Bose comes with an App and one of the things you can do with it, is pair a second set of Bose headphones to the first; so two people can listen to the same source (music, video, etc..). Seems that might be handy for devices that don't allow multiple pairings? I only have one pair, so I've never tried it out. But hands down, my favorite feature is the ANC--I can completely block out whatever mind numbing BS my sig other is watching on TV. I can even block her out...that part is priceless!
Mar 14, 2018
PotatoTM
220
Mar 15, 2018
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sleepybear83Never too late, thanks for your opinion as well as everyone else that has given theirs. Your final conclusion seems to be the general consensus amongst all the reviews and feedback I have recieved. I’m probably going to hold off on buying a pair for now awaiting new releases or a good deal. But when I do finally get a pair, my use will probably be for long study or work periods and or travels so it looks like il be going with a pair of Bose’s.
Mar 15, 2018
RayF
22214
Mar 15, 2018
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PotatoTMAn excellent choice ;- )
Mar 15, 2018
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