Help needed choosing a good pair of noise cancelling earphones

I'm still on the Sony XM4. No reason to upgrade really.

Here's my experience, this could get quite lengthy:

I was in the market for earphones a couple of week a ago. After reading and watching many reviews I still couldn't decide which to buy, so in the end I bought a couple.

My first priority at the time was sound quality. My choices of earphones ware the Sony WF-1000XM5, the Technics EAH-AZ80 and the Samsung Galaxy Buds FE which are a third of the price of the other two to make sure I could even "hear the difference".

The XM5's and the Galaxy Buds had a very similar sound profile, a "classic" earbud sound, something you would expect from normal earbuds if you've used any before.

The Galaxy Buds were good with adequate noise cancelling. Good for sporting with the wingtips.

The Sony XM5's sound was very good with a bass heavy profile but became very uncomfortable in my ear after half an hour of use, bringing comfort into the equation, something I never even considered before. Their noise cancelling is outstanding, even dangerous as passing cars on the street became almost inaudible.

However the sound of the AZ80's ABSOLUTELY BLEW ME AWAY! They sound so much better to my ears than the other two pairs. I suddenly understood what the reviews meant by "clear open soundstage" and "instrument separation". Before this experience I had no point of reference, so these subjective terms in the reviews didn't really mean anything to me. Their noise cancelling is also very good.

My take always from this experience are:

• earphones can sound vastly different depending on their construction and tuning
• comfort is way more important than I previously though
• active noise cancelling has gotten very good even on cheaper models
• sound profiles like "open" or "closed" sound completely change the listening experience
• unless you listen to high resolution FLAC, you won't notice a massive difference in sound reproduction quality especially over Bluetooth
• if you just want to "listen to something" and "block out outside noise" save you money and get lower to mid range ANC earphones

The only way to actually know which earphones you like the most, is to try them. If you are able to return purchased goods in the first few weeks, go and buy like 3 or 4 pairs and try them all.

TLDR; I stuck with the Technics EAH-AZ80 for sound enjoyment. I was very disappointed with the Sony XM5's comfort and would recommend the Galaxy Buds for casual listening and sporting activities.

Hope this is helpful.

I've got Bose QC35 ii or something. If you've got big ears or a big head, they're great.

I didn't do many tests myself comparing the noise cancellation, but they do a good enough job for me at cancelling our steady noise (like wind, engine noises, computer fans, etc).

I can wear them all day and not feel like I need to take a break for my ears or head.

Aha! I've had both of these types.

Got a set of the Sony ones. Comfort 10/10, sound quality 12/10, stupid fuckin touch sensors instead of physical buttons that trigger constantly when you put the headphones down round your neck and you can't switch them off and it drives you so fuckin mad you sell them on eBay at a massive loss 0/10

So I got the Bose QC 45, comfort 12/10, sound quality 10/10, physical buttons, was 5/10 because there was no way to check battery level but they updated them last week so now long-press on the left button does that 10/10

The Bose ones even feel more well-made than the Sony and were €100 less

The noise cancelling on the Sony was slightly better but the Bose ones aren't as tight so that could be why

I will never, ever buy a set of headphones with touch sensors ever again

sennheiser always makes good products. i have an old pair of BT 4.50 ANCs that have been kicking for more than 5 years. they’re great

I have both. The way Bose handles bluetooth with multiple devices is so awful that I gave up on them and bought the Sony's. They would probably be fine if you only intend to ever pair them to one device. However, for me, I just never figured out what they were trying to do. I'd turn them on and they'd wake up a sleeping iPad in another room, or closed laptop, and then refuse to connect to my phone (using the phone's built in Bluetooth menu) until I opened the Bose App to reconfigure them. The last straw was on video calls for work-- they'd randomly re-connect with a random device.

The Sony's just don't do that. They don't wake up random sleeping or idle devices, and if they do connect to the wrong device I can use the OS Bluetooth menus to manually connect them to a given device -- rather than opening the app in my phone.

I should also add that the gesture control on Sony is almost worthless. To turn the volume up or down a significant amount, you have to swipe up or down like 20 times. Half the time it ends up reading one of the swipes as forward or backward and skips to another song.

I had the 1000XM4 until recently and it was fantastic, too. My SO would often get mad at me for not paying attention when I was in the computer.

I have Bose and like them a lot. They’ll probably do exactly what you want, however, noise cancelling is not all noise cancelling. Mostly lower frequencies. It makes things quiet but if you’re in a loud environment with lots of mid to high frequency like talking, they’re not gonna help much. Haven’t used the Sony’s for a long time but I think the noice cancelling is the same.

I know you want to use them for sleep, but since these are big headphones already, I’d recommend a pair of noise protection earmuffs and use earbuds or shove some speakers from another set of headphones in there. This will be the best noise cancelling but least comfortable.

If you might also care about the socioeconomic manufacturing process and fair payment for these necessary resources, I can recommend the Fairbuds in-ears or Fairbuds XL for over ear.

https://shop.fairphone.com/fairbuds

Both have noise cancelling as an option and an equalizer via app.

What?? I can’t hear you sorry

I had QC 2s and liked them a lot. I tried out the Sony ones as well which are very good.

However these days I have Air Pod Pros which are easier lay down on a pillow with and also have excellent noise cancelling.

Full headphones can get hot and uncomfortable in warm weather, so I prefer earbuds these days.

I sleep with my AirPods Pro in every night. I can’t live without them.

Both the Bose and Sony are considered top but Sony is more expensive.I have the Bose and like them but a known defect is the earpad that will break very quickly (buy Chinese replacement for those)

Really wanted to love the WF-1000XM5, but I had issues with the left earbud constantly hissing and worse still, they have a habit of turning themselves on while in the case (cutting off any media playback and draining the battery if I didn't notice)

I have the QC 2 and they’re fantastic. I can’t imagine them being better.

I'm on Sony WH-1000XM3 and recently also bought WF-1000XM5 that are always with me whenever I go outside. Very satisfied with both.

Since you mentioned WF specifically:

• Very portable

• Great battery life

• Seamless switching between different devices

• Flush with (my) ears, you could easily lie down on your side with them in

• Fine noise cancelling. Not as powerful as in the over-ears, but good enough when you've got some sound going. I use them to prevent sensory overload by playing rain and thunder sounds with noise cancelling while I'm commuting with a full metro.

• Great sound quality. I find them to be very neutral, albeit a bit light on the bass when compared side-by-side to my over-ears. On their own (not side-by-side) there's nothing I can complain about and my music is very enjoyable.

• Wish the controls were more customizable or just better in general. You quickly end up tapping a LOT.

• I've seen another comment mention comfort. My ears get fatigued if I wear them for 3 or 4 hours straight, e.g. when I'm working from a library. For long periods of time I prefer to tag my over-ears along, which I'd normally leave at home due to bulky size. I understand buying two kinds of expensive headphones is not an option, but just be wary of prolonged usage on the WFs. You can definitely get more used to them though over time, so you can wear the for longer before discomfort/pain starts creeping in.

I'm using Jabras at the minute they have much worse NC than the Sonys they replaced. Their one plus point is range and waterproofness but yeah for NC avoid Jabra.

For what it’s worth, I’ve had both. When my Bose were stolen last year, I switched to Sony. The Sony sound great, but don’t work nearly as well. Between multiple devices I fairly constantly need to disable Bluetooth on my iPad so they work on my phone. Or vice versa. The Bose just always worked how I wanted them to.

I’d go Bose again all day.

Also have a look at Anker earphones. I had a pair of its headphones and it was awesome.

Sony has best in the world noise cancelling and better audio quality than Bose pretty much any day of the week. In fact, I wouldn't recommend Bose almost ever, for anything. Not for the price. They're like Monster cables (maybe not quite as evil though).

If you can get your doctor to prescribe noise cancelling earphones to help you sleep, they can be bought using money from an FSA or HSA.

I'm using Jabra Elite 7 Active for almost everything, and I love them.

Air travel: They have decent active noise canceling
Listening to music: Good sound quality
Showering: They're waterproof (I've even worn them while in the pool, swimming. Still works great, but bluetooth signal doesn't work very well under water.
Sleeping: If I leave one in the charging case, the other one automatically switches to mono.
Working: Works great as a handsfree headset for phone, teams, or any of the other VoIP methods in use
Driving: Simple controls to allow for volume, call control, next track, previous track.

I've had them for a little over a year, and despite using them in several ways not covered by warranty, they're still working great. Good battery life, and no issues. I take care to clean them (and the case) regularly, making sure that there's no gunk to block the charging contacts or the microphone.

Use earmuffs and in ear monitors. And, to mess with your noisy environment, play drums as well. And I mean genuine, acoustic drums. The earmuffs will certainly help.

Otherwise blast some loud sleeping music with some loudspeakers to potentially put you to sleep when you need it.

I've been using bose 700s for a long time. They do occasionally have goofy bluetooth behavior and the earcups have to be replaced if you use them heavily, but the bose sound profile I like a lot more than the sony.

I've tried XM5's recently for more codecs, and I love them except for one thing, which was that the band over the top had hard plastic parts and not enough soft padding, so the headphones with my head shape had a tendency to painfully squeeze. Wearing a hat or putting something on the band helped though. Headphones were light and breathed a bit better than the 700s anyway (haven't tried the QC 2).

Sennheiser always make good quality cans.

https://www.rtings.com/headphones/tools/table/137391

Sennheiser, jabber. You’ll need to buy into their up-market products though.