Noise Cancelling Headphones

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#2873620 24-Feb-2022 08:58

IronH:

How often does everyone use their ANC? Personally I find there is an increased pressure on my ears with it on that is slightly uncomfortable so I have it off 99% of the time, mowing the lawns or flying are the exceptions.

I use Airpods Pro on my commute and I use ANC all the time to kill the engine noise from the bus, and the traffic noise when I am walking to and from the bus stop.

At home I use the Airpods Max, so ANC isn't as important, but it's still useful if I have the washing machine going or if I open the ranch slider on hot days. I don't notice any unpleasant effects with ANC turned on.

raytaylor

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#2874405 24-Feb-2022 22:12

I use the Sony wh1000-xm4 and quite like them. I often like to drive long distance out of town with the road noise silenced and they do really good with that. Also good for sleeping in the afternoon while flatmates are still playing music or watching tv in their bedrooms/lounge. They work well for flying too.

Sound is excellent when playing via bluetooth, battery lasts a long time and they are very comfortable.

The super interesting thing about them is they dont have a boom mic but have two microphones on the bottom of the earmuffs which have some directional beamforming to perfectly pick up on your voice and will cancel background noise so are awesome for having a bluetooth phone call while in a noisy space and the other person can hear you more clearly.

One thing I dont recommend is the Beats Studio wireless headphones. I bought a pair of those and although they sound great and feel comfortable - almost as good as the sonys, the background hiss is a little bit louder than the sony. But the real problem is the ear muff padding broke down and is crumbling after only 2 years. Each time i wear them i get little bits of vinyl on the side of my face and shoulders like large pieces of glitter everywhere.

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#2874406 24-Feb-2022 22:16

Technofreak:

many desktop computers don't have Bluetooth

And getting most computers to simply play a video in sync with the bluetooth can be a problem in itself so bluetooth is not preferred with desktops/laptops.

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#2874758 25-Feb-2022 14:01

stu28:
I am looking at getting some Noise cancelling headphones,

Can anyone recommend me a good brand?

The Bose Quiet Comfort range are pretty much the gold standard.

Now that I've mentioned what are also some of the most expensive noise cancelling headphones around, what sort of price were you looking at paying, and what did you intend to use them for? And the easiest way to do this, as I mentioned in the other headphone thread, is to go to Amazon, rank by user rating, and then go down them until you find the first set whose price doesn't make your eyes water.

danepak

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#2898433 8-Apr-2022 08:26

OK, going on a long trip in July (Denmark) and keen on noise canceling headphones, especially for the kids.
Never owned a pair before. Bought some cheap ones from Kogan (EC-65). ANC is rubbish, so returning them.
I’m on a budget (under $100). Someone is selling the Bose X15 for $100. They’re obviously old. No Bluetooth.
But are they still better than a pair of these fellas?

https://www.pbtech.co.nz/product/HSTSNY691165/Sony-MDR-ZX110NC-Wired-Noise-Cancelling-Headphones

Or these

https://www.pbtech.co.nz/product/HSTAUK0012/Aukey-Wireless-Over-Ear-Noise-Cancelling-Headphone

raytaylor

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#2898439 8-Apr-2022 08:34

I suggest going to somewhere like harvey norman where you can test them.

The ANC will be trash on anything under $200.

Even in the best models you will always hear some white noise. I find the best ones have proper muffs unlike the sony ones you linked to which i dont think enclose the full ear, as physical noise cancelling also does much of the work.

I have noisy flatmates and sometimes want to go to sleep at 9pm so I buy bulk packs of plain orange foam ear plugs from mitre 10 - 3M brand are the best, which I wear under my sony XM4 headphones and means i cant even hear the white noise of the ANC.

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#2898443 8-Apr-2022 08:42

If you have the budget I can highly recommend the Panasonic Technics A800. They are Brilliant with the exception of the controls, for which the Sony is far superior. Sound quality is the best I've come across, ANC is as good as any flagship and comfort is excellent. Not cheap, but a worth while investment.

Sound quality from the Microphone is the best of recent flagships I've tried though I haven't tried the very latest Bose.

Handles multiple device pairing fine as best I have been able to test.

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#2898444 8-Apr-2022 08:45

This may be a silly question - but are any of these particularly adept at handling pairing and use with multiple devices?

I have several sources I use for calling - iphone, pc for skype/teams/zoom and two cisco desktop ip phones, so looking for NC headphones, most likely over ear that can deal with being permanently paired with multiple devices.

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#2898448 8-Apr-2022 09:05

dimsim:
This may be a silly question - but are any of these particularly adept at handling pairing and use with multiple devices?

I have several sources I use for calling - iphone, pc for skype/teams/zoom and two cisco desktop ip phones, so looking for NC headphones, most likely over ear that can deal with being permanently paired with multiple devices.

The Sony xm4 can do multiple devices and 2 simultaneously. I believe it remembers more than 2 and you can just hit connect on the device to reconnect it if you need to but I don't have more than 2 devices to really use it like that.

I hate the simultaneous connection though. First it reduces audio quality blocking ldac entirely which while annoying isn't a deal breaker for me. However, when you are on a call on one device and someone calls on the other device it just hangs up the call you are on without warning and the other one rings over the top. I only had it once when it booted me out of a meeting so I just turned it off and haven't used it since.

danepak

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#2898451 8-Apr-2022 09:15

raytaylor:
I suggest going to somewhere like harvey norman where you can test them.

The ANC will be trash on anything under $200.

Even in the best models you will always hear some white noise. I find the best ones have proper muffs unlike the sony ones you linked to which i dont think enclose the full ear, as physical noise cancelling also does much of the work.

I have noisy flatmates and sometimes want to go to sleep at 9pm so I buy bulk packs of plain orange foam ear plugs from mitre 10 - 3M brand are the best, which I wear under my sony XM4 headphones and means i cant even hear the white noise of the ANC.

Thanks. Harvey Norman has some JBL (JBL Tune 750btnc) that I’ll check out for $129.

dt

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#2898455 8-Apr-2022 09:25

danepak: OK, going on a long trip in July (Denmark) and keen on noise canceling headphones, especially for the kids.
Never owned a pair before. Bought some cheap ones from Kogan (EC-65). ANC is rubbish, so returning them.
I’m on a budget (under $100).

hard to get decent performing anc for under $100, if you can stretch the budget a little for the kids the Anker q20 and even better Anker q30 are good value ANC headphones for kids, the q30 come with a decent hard case as well only downside to them is they dont support the aptx low latency codec which is preferable if the source also supports it - you'll have to get these from trademe as well

Anker Q30 also have usb-c fast charging which is bloody good for kids! 5 mins of charge will get 4 hours of play time and 40 hours on a full charge

Another option decentish option are the Sennheiser HD 450BT's, which usually have a ton of margin in them so you could always see noel leeming could do you a deal if you're buying multiple

Treat yourself to a decent pair though, you'll find you'll end up using a decent pair quite a lot more than just when you're travelling! Sony's XM4's are awesome on planes and general use, I haven't personally used Bose but they always come highly recommended too

ANC headphones are a straight YOLO purchase to be truly happy with them!

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#2898458 8-Apr-2022 09:30

danepak:
Thanks. Harvey Norman has some JBL (JBL Tune 750btnc) that I’ll check out for $129.

These are pretty similar to the JBLs my wife has. TBH, in terms of noise cancellation you do get what you pay for, and these are cheap for noise-cancelling headphones - and it shows. I'd say they're about as noisy (ie, background hiss) as my very old Blackbox headphones, and the noise cancellation isn't probably as effective as those.

Have you thought about going s/h? You can probably pick up a pair of older Sony, Bose or other similar high-end-for-the-time models for not too much more but have better sound and noise cancellation.

nitro

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#2898459 8-Apr-2022 09:31

dimsim:

This may be a silly question - but are any of these particularly adept at handling pairing and use with multiple devices?

I have several sources I use for calling - iphone, pc for skype/teams/zoom and two cisco desktop ip phones, so looking for NC headphones, most likely over ear that can deal with being permanently paired with multiple devices.

maintaining a bluetooth connection to 4 devices simultaneously is a tough ask. i don't know of any headphone/headset that does that.

the Technics EAH-A800 can be paired with multiple devices, but have only 2 active links simultaneously. i have it connected to both my phone and work laptop and it just restores both connections (the last 2 connections get restored automatically).

controls are not as fancy as the xm4, but anc is just as good and to my ears the sound is better (you may have different preferences). i'd love to try feeding this with a headphone dac/amp to see what it can really do, but i don't have one.

i don't use it much at home (unless i get one of those meetings with people in different time zones), but it's switched on and connected to 2 devices all day and i've only been charging it once a week. this makes it an unassailable winner for me.

now, what does sony make the xm5 be?!

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#2898461 8-Apr-2022 09:45

I used to have the Bose QC35. I now have the Huawei Studio and the Technics A800. The Technics has the best sound of all my devices.

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#2898462 8-Apr-2022 09:47

@danepak, I suggest that for a long trip, comfort is more important than ANR quality. And, for budget headphones, the best thing to do is to buy secondhand. Headphones pretty much don't wear out, and people who like the latest will often sell headphones in excellent condition at reasonable prices.

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