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Comment by tachion | Hacker News Reader

I've tried many and I must agree with the OP - Bose headphones are terrible in terms of build quality and materials, bad in terms of sound quality, average when it comes to noise cancelation, poor in terms of features and absolutely bad at this price tag. I've settled for Sennheiser's Momementum and can't recommend them more - made of metal and leather, build to last, superb sound quality, very good noise cancelation and nice features and amazing support. I'm really surprised they're not discovered by people spending such amount of money on headphones.

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Some empirical results seem to contradict your claim "average when it comes to noise cancelling":

https://www.rtings.com/headphones/tests/isolation/noise-isol...

This gives Bose QuietComfort 35 overall attenuation -27.08 dB, which is only beaten by the Sony wh-1000xm3, and some Etymotic in-ear buds.

Notably that number is more than 2x the attenuation of the Momentum, at -12.35 dB.

That's more like 30x better, since dB is log scale. Each +/- 3dB is about double/half as loud.

It's important to differentiate between power and perceived volume.

Usually a person won't notice an increase in volume unless it has a 3-5dB (3dB = double in power) increase. And won't perceive a double in volume without a 10dB (10dB = 10x increase in power) increase and even then it depends on the specific frequency.

Some things to check out would be: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stevens%27s_power_law https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Weber%E2%80%93Fechner_law (and thus Just Noticable Difference [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Just-noticeable_difference])

Those Sennheiser are not active noise cancelling which is the defining feature of Bose QC headphones - and why people are paying the money. Closed back headphones do work great for blocking noise, but are usually heavier and less comfortable.

That's been my experience with people who go on about how terrible the Bose headphones are. You can get passive noise cancelling with Shure in ear phones (basically ear plugs) that is pretty good, but Bose is by far the best for active noise cancelling.

Their build quality and sound is also pretty good. I have a decent music background and also have Sennheiser HD650s which the audiophile crowd loves, but I think their build quality is cheap plastic (they're also open, require an amp, and cost $400).

I think the Bose hate is mostly tribal nonsense - it's cool to signal audiophile virtue by hating a dominant brand that lay people like.

For the record, many people think that Sony’s new WH-1000XM3 have better ANC than Bose. Bose hasn’t been the clear leader in at least a few years.

I have Momentums with ANC. They were rebranded as HD1, and now the Momentum is just closed back. But as far as I am aware Sennheiser makes the only headphones with both ANC _and_ premium materials, built to last.

> I think the Bose hate is mostly tribal nonsense - it's cool to signal audiophile virtue by hating a dominant brand that lay people like.

I think most of the Bose hate comes from their speakers which cost quite a bit for the sound quality. Much of that might be historical.

These days though I don't think anyone buys Bose products solely for their sound quality, they buy them for specific use cases like noise cancelling, or filling a room with a very small speaker (those Bose sound docks were pretty incredible when they came out). Bose has done a good job at doing something unique while offering sound quality that is mostly good enough.

Sennheiser did sell an ANC Momentum for short while, before rebranding the ANC version as the HD1, so I assume that's what GP is talking about.

I happen to have a pair of those, which I chose over the QC35s, however I would disagree with GP that their ANC is superior in any way - at best it's almost as good as the QC35s.

I bought them because they were more comfortable on me, the ANC was good enough for my occasional use, and I liked the way they look.

The Momentum Wireless with ANC is still being sold under that name at least over here: https://en-de.sennheiser.com/momentum-wireless-headphones-wi...

But there's half a dozen other Momentum headphones, some with, some without ANC. Sennheiser's naming schemes are aggressively unhelpful. Just look at this small subset of their overall headphone selection (hit Show all): https://en-de.sennheiser.com/music-headphones-portable

Naturally, they don't call it ANC, it's NoiseGard™ [sic].

Sennheiser Momentum Wireless are absolutely with active noise canceling, and that's the model I was talking about when comparing to Bose of course. I wouldn't compare non-anc headphones with anc ones, even though I own non-anc Momentum's too and they're so great that they've even survived being sucked into airport x-ray machine rolls, something I couldn't say about Bose or Sony, that are falling apart on their own.

I'm going to go against you and agree with the person your commenting on. I really only bought my QC35's because I was backed into a corner with my iPhone 7. I wanted bluetooth over-the-ear headphones that could also do wired, had good battery life, and sounded okay. After plonking down the $350 I was pleasantly surprised by the build quality, 20+ hr battery life, and the comfort. The noise reduction is pretty incredible and I've heard things in songs that I've never heard before.

They are not the 100% best sounding headphones. However, the clarity and imaging they provide is pretty astounding and I think they compete with any similarly priced competitor. I'm the kind of guy that will take speakers over headphones any day, and I find myself using the QC35's more than my speakers these days.

Are there ANY noise cancelling headphones that could be said to have REALLY high quality sound? I didn't full appreciate the difference until I got HD280Pros for at home (I don't need noise cancelling in my house) and realized how much better they sound then my QC 25s I use at work.

Depending on where your cutoff for "REALLY high quality sound" is, the Bowers & Wilkins PX are pretty solid, and people on /r/headphones seem to like the Sony WH1000XM line.

I can also recommend the Sony WH-1000XM line. I have the XM2, though the model 3 is out now. Some of the only headphones out there that beat Bose in active noise-cancelling. The sound quality is top notch; the one complaint people tend to have when I show them off is that the earcups are on the small side and they touch some people's ears. Doesn't really bother me though.

Have you tried using your HD280Pros at work? They are closed back recording studio headphones, explicitly designed to not let a lot of sound out, so that backing track isn't picked up by vocal mic etc. So passive noise isolation should be O(20dB), which should be sufficient unless your workplace is very noisy.

I have a pair of AKG K271 mk2 at work (same category as your HD280), as well as the Bose QC35s. The AKGs give a bit less isolation, but for extended use (6-10h) wearing comfort as well as audio quality, they blow the Bose right out of the water. The QC35s have been relegated to travelling only.

I think it's a balancing act... for the most part the differences in sound will come down to preference. There are also variances in price, comfort, etc. I think the Bose QCs strike a really good balance. I find them to physically be the most comfortable for around-ear headphones on my head. They don't weigh too much, they don't squeeze my head like a vice...

It just depends.

Huh, weird how much opinions differ. My current main headphones are HD650s but my work headphones are qc25s, and I have no complaints about the Bose build quality, noise canceling, or comfort. Sure they could sound better, but music at work is a background thing, not a foreground thing.

I've had similar conversations with people about headphones. My theory is that there are alot of fakes in the channel.

Barring subjective things like sound quality that I'm really not comfortable weighing in on, I just haven't found the Bose products to be fundamentally flawed in terms of build quality or noise cancellation.

It may vary based on your office -- I don't have some crazy person simulating machine guns on a mechanical keyboard 3 feet away or a super loud, pure open office space with warehouse ceilings either.

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