Topic: Noise Canceling Headphones; is there a cheap version thats good?

[micah]

Believe it or not, until today I had never tried noise canceling headphones before. I got the gist, didn't see the appeal.  Honestly, I've always just worn $20-$30 headphones (I have a wireless pair I got on amazon once for $40) they've all seemed "fine."

Then today while walking around Target I tried on a demo pair.  Holy wow. I was just blown away. I kinda feel like I have to have them.  The pair I tried even has Google Assistant built in, so you just push the button on the side and its the same as saying "ok google" and playing whatever you want.

I took them off and looked at the price $350.  So I put them down and went backing to normal people shopping.

Now as I sit at home tonight, wearing my beatup $20 sony cans I bought 7 years ago, I can't help but wish I had the ones I tried on. The comfort, the sound quality, the complete obliteration of background noise.  So whats a cheap guy to do?  It looks like Amazon has several $30 to $100 headphones that are noise canceling... do you think those are just junk?  Was I just oversold by the demo pair and willingness to be amazed?

What do you audio nerds have?

[Mike]

Not an audio nerd.  But I do own the QC30 and I LOVE THEM*.  I had the QC15 for many years until a battery corroded in it and killed it.  In my office we have 3 QC30s being used.

But the price is tough to shallow.  Sales and the like help for sure.


*: I currently have trouble reliably connecting my QC30 to my macbook.  Other BT devices are fine.  My coworkers don't seem to have a problem.  That is the only thing I don't love.

[KnuckleBuckett]

I have a fair amount of experience with the Bose QC series headphones.  The noise cancelling is great and the sound is decent.  The durability is just awful.  Even under ideal circumstances they tend to fall apart.  Further the battery is non-replaceable, so when it starts wearing out there goes a ton of cash. 

Due to the need for noise cancelling cans at work, I went on a mission to find something that matches the Bose.  Not easy, but I think we have a winner.  The Sennheiser PCX 550 is a win in every category.  More durable, far superior option set, replaceable (factory) batteries, nice built in microphone (omni), and sound cancelling that we cannot tell from the Bose in a side by side.  Audio quality is on a par though a small step up.    Comfort for both sets is about even for my big 'ol punkin.  Price generally favors the Senns, however both are fairly expensive and you are really paying for the patents covering the noise cancelling, not the audio quality.  For headphones of pure audio quality look elsewhere.

[ober]

I have a QC15 that my sister bought me for my 30th birthday (not sure what I did to deserve it but she is loaded so... eh?).  I loved them.  I wore them almost every day and even had to replace the pads due to wear.  I don't use them in my current office because I talk to people pretty frequently throughout the day and at home I just use my gaming headset.  My wife still uses them now.  The 2 things that suck about them is that they are wired and we always forget to turn them off and the battery only lasts about 40 hrs... maybe a little more.  But the sound quality is great, they're really comfortable, and the noise cancelling is awesome.  My wife tried to replace them at christmas with a pair of wireless Beats (got em on sale for 200) but they were too tight on her head and the pads were white and she was afraid they'd get dirty.

I realize none of that really helps you Micah.  I still use my iphone headphones plugged into my laptop at work and I miss my nice headphones.  So all I can say is that they are worth it.  It's just not an easy purchase to swallow. 

[hans]

Ear buds and sound reducing ear muffs?

[Rob]

>> is there a cheap version thats good?

In short, truthfully probably not. I bought Sennheiser Momentum Wireless, got them on offer from Amazon. Amazing comfort & sound quality, but the price is north of $300.