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Comment by pathartl | Hacker News Reader

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.

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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.

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