I've switched across the board to wireless for the most part. I use a number of different headsets based on location, so here are my choices for various settings.
Work:
Bose QC35 -- sound quality is somewhat compromised but the NC and comfort levels are second to none. Bose customer service is also excellent, particularly if you buy (and therefore can return/exchange) through a branded store.
Out and about:
Airpods, with foam covers. Without the covers, these were very convenient headphones that wouldn't stay in my ears for the life of me and so sounded thin and leaked noise. Then I added old-school thin foam earbud covers; Amazon sells some that are donut-style with a hole that exposes the light sensors, and they still fit in the charger. They don't compare to my audiophile headphones, but they sound "pretty good"--about on the same level as my SoundMagic E10s, maybe a little better. More importantly, now I actually will use headphones for 20-30 minutes at a time on walks, whereas before it was too much of a hassle to carry a fat case around, wedge them in my ears, etc.
Home, in living room:
MDR-1ABTs. I don't actually like these as much as I should for what I paid for them. The pads are thin and hurt my ears. But they do connect to my Sony sound bar using their LDAC low-latency/high-def protocol, so I use them for late night viewing.
Console:
Playstation Gold or Platinums. I have both. The Golds are more reliable about connecting to the dongle. The Platinums fit over my PSVR headset. Neither sounds great for anything but games, but they integrate tightly into the OS.
PC/Mac:
SteelSeries Arctis 7. No blinkenlights, and they sound very good for pretty much everything. They're comparable to my wired Sennheiser PC360s (basically a 55x/59x with a mic) but even cheaper. That said, buy the add-on leatherette pads from Steelseries--they make a world of difference for isolation and sound quality. They shouldn't sell these without those pads TBH.
Audiophil(ish):
Keeping in mind I like "fun" headphones and not monitors, I oscillate between Plantronics Backbeat Pro (one of the best sounding BT headphones I've heard with a phenomenal range and hellaciously cheap, but fugly and with round pads that don't really fit anyone), V-Moda M100s (add the fat pads to these too for comfort and sound; they'll last forever--built like a tank), and Master and Dynamic MH40s. (by far the nicest pair aesthetically with real leather pads, and they sound great if you can get a good seal, but I'm not a huge fan of cables anymore).
Gadgets:
I do have a JDS labs O2 amp+DAC setup. I use it with the M&Ds and the M100s sometimes since those are the two cabled headphones still in rotation. However, Apple headphone outputs have historically been good enough to not really benefit that much since all my headphones have lowish power requirements. Planars or some other "need a bunch of juice" headphones would be different.
How would you compare the Bose QC35 to the Plantronics? I know Marco Arment has fantastic things to say about the Backbeat Pro series, but I've never seen or heard those in real life, or even seen them mentioned in most reviews. I've tried the Bose a couple of times: the ANC is excellent, and I like the sound (but I'm not blown away by it).
The Plantronics' main issue is around comfort and to a lesser extent, leakage. The earcups are round, and don't have a ton of swivel to them. Because of that, A) they compress my eartips or sit on my lobe, take your pick, and B) they don't tightly seal against my cheekbones. They're also rather comically wide on one's head, and reminded me for all the world of a cyberman on Doctor Who. I will say that your colleagues can't possibly miss them as far as headphone rules goes, so there's that.
The pros do outweigh the cons, IMO.
They sound almost exactly the same wired as wireless, which is to say very good assuming you don't mind a slightly dark and scooped profile. I listen primarily to industrial, rock, metal and heavier forms of EDM (brostep, drum'n'bass, hardstyle, etc.) and they sound wonderful for that. There isn't much hiss at all, which can be a real problem for bluetooth headphones due to the internal amp. I was impressed with the noise floor.
The bluetooth stack itself is another pro--handles multipoint seamlessly, which is actually kind of rare, and the range (with an iPhone transmitting) was at least 50 feet line of sight, and well over 30 feet with walls. At home I could roam anywhere, at the office I could get pretty far away.
While your mileage may vary according to source, I also found the BBP's latency perfectly acceptable even for light game playing (though it's not ~0, hence the Arctis). I think Crypt of the Necrodancer's calibration measured it around 150ms, which isn't bad for not being connected via a low-latency codec. I had no problem at all using them for movies.
One other point for the BBPs is the controls. One earcup has a ginormous volume dial as its inset and the other buttons are very tactile. While the dial does tend to stiffen some over time if you don't use them often enough, it's hands down the easiest set of controls to fumble to in a hurry. Plus there's a "talk through" button that pipes in exterior sound so you can answer colleague questions (or hear flight announcements) without removing them.
And, of course, the OG Backbeat Pros are around $200 cheaper street than Bose QC35s. If you have bluetooth you don't need the Pro+ with the dongle, and the Pro 2s [don't have a ton of improvements IIRC]*
In comparison, Bose doesn't sound as good. It does sound just like Bose, so if you know that sound, there you go. I find it acceptable but not phenomenal, and there's a little mud in the mid-bass I don't hear with the BBPs that unfortunately doesn't play as well with metal. EDM and industrial both sound fine. Bose does have just as good a BT stack in terms of seamless pair and switching behavior, but nowhere near the range. Latency is fine on Bose but I haven't tried them gaming.
Places where Bose clearly excels include the followup service--say what you want about the audio tech, but Bose's customer service is absolutely fantastic whereas Plantronics is average; the comfort--Bose headphones feel much lighter (without having weighed them both or checking specs) and comform to my face and ears better; and especially in the noise cancelling. Plantronics' noise cancelling just isn't great, whereas only the Sony M1000x have come near Bose in NC and they have some quality concerns.
* Edit: looking at Pro 2s, they do address the aesthetic and comfort issues, with ovular cups and plusher-looking pads, and are supposedly lighter. The really convenient controls aren't there anymore. They might be worth a shot buying from somewhere you can return them to if you don't like the audition, though if you're looking for great NC I'd skip right on to the Bose.
This was extremely helpful -- thanks so much for that detailed comparison. I just ordered the Backbeat Pro 2's from Amazon. Although it would be nice to have the Bose ANC, that's less important to me than sound quality -- and $349 just feels like too much to spend on headphones. I'll let you know how the 2nd gen looks and feels.
Please do! I'm always looking for more reasons to feed my addiction.
Sony is reportedly updating the MDR1000Xs, btw. If they can fix the headband-cracking issue they currently have, they should be a good combination of sound quality and ANC (for about twice as much as the BBP2s, so you're not missing out on anything by buying now!)
* The sound quality is excellent. Wired or wireless, the sound is sharp and crystal clear. But it's not particularly flat; there's a lot of midrange that makes it sound a little muddy. I've set up a custom configuration for the iTunes equalizer that helps with the (rock) music I listen to: punchy bass, clear treble, but less mud in the middle.
* The noise cancelling isn't bad. It does a great job on public transit but it's not as all-encompassing indoors as the Bose QC35 seemed to be, from the little I've tried them.
* The BB2Ps aren't nearly as ugly as the product photos make them look. They're not particularly brown in real life, just dark.
* They're pretty comfortable although I find it fatiguing to wear them for more than a couple of hours. The new over-ear shape looks like it made a big difference on the comfort level.
* The Bluetooth signal tends to cut out quite a bit from my iMac at home, which is pretty disappointing. It works better from my MacBook Pro at work -- not sure if there's some interference at home or what.
Overall I do like them, but I don't know if I like them enough to justify the $200 I spent. I haven't decided yet whether to keep them long-term. If I don't keep these, I might switch to the Beats Solo3 without ANC, or just bite the bullet and go for the Bose QC35...
Comments
I've switched across the board to wireless for the most part. I use a number of different headsets based on location, so here are my choices for various settings.
Work:
Bose QC35 -- sound quality is somewhat compromised but the NC and comfort levels are second to none. Bose customer service is also excellent, particularly if you buy (and therefore can return/exchange) through a branded store.
Out and about:
Airpods, with foam covers. Without the covers, these were very convenient headphones that wouldn't stay in my ears for the life of me and so sounded thin and leaked noise. Then I added old-school thin foam earbud covers; Amazon sells some that are donut-style with a hole that exposes the light sensors, and they still fit in the charger. They don't compare to my audiophile headphones, but they sound "pretty good"--about on the same level as my SoundMagic E10s, maybe a little better. More importantly, now I actually will use headphones for 20-30 minutes at a time on walks, whereas before it was too much of a hassle to carry a fat case around, wedge them in my ears, etc.
Home, in living room:
MDR-1ABTs. I don't actually like these as much as I should for what I paid for them. The pads are thin and hurt my ears. But they do connect to my Sony sound bar using their LDAC low-latency/high-def protocol, so I use them for late night viewing.
Console:
Playstation Gold or Platinums. I have both. The Golds are more reliable about connecting to the dongle. The Platinums fit over my PSVR headset. Neither sounds great for anything but games, but they integrate tightly into the OS.
PC/Mac:
SteelSeries Arctis 7. No blinkenlights, and they sound very good for pretty much everything. They're comparable to my wired Sennheiser PC360s (basically a 55x/59x with a mic) but even cheaper. That said, buy the add-on leatherette pads from Steelseries--they make a world of difference for isolation and sound quality. They shouldn't sell these without those pads TBH.
Audiophil(ish):
Keeping in mind I like "fun" headphones and not monitors, I oscillate between Plantronics Backbeat Pro (one of the best sounding BT headphones I've heard with a phenomenal range and hellaciously cheap, but fugly and with round pads that don't really fit anyone), V-Moda M100s (add the fat pads to these too for comfort and sound; they'll last forever--built like a tank), and Master and Dynamic MH40s. (by far the nicest pair aesthetically with real leather pads, and they sound great if you can get a good seal, but I'm not a huge fan of cables anymore).
Gadgets:
I do have a JDS labs O2 amp+DAC setup. I use it with the M&Ds and the M100s sometimes since those are the two cabled headphones still in rotation. However, Apple headphone outputs have historically been good enough to not really benefit that much since all my headphones have lowish power requirements. Planars or some other "need a bunch of juice" headphones would be different.
How would you compare the Bose QC35 to the Plantronics? I know Marco Arment has fantastic things to say about the Backbeat Pro series, but I've never seen or heard those in real life, or even seen them mentioned in most reviews. I've tried the Bose a couple of times: the ANC is excellent, and I like the sound (but I'm not blown away by it).
The Plantronics' main issue is around comfort and to a lesser extent, leakage. The earcups are round, and don't have a ton of swivel to them. Because of that, A) they compress my eartips or sit on my lobe, take your pick, and B) they don't tightly seal against my cheekbones. They're also rather comically wide on one's head, and reminded me for all the world of a cyberman on Doctor Who. I will say that your colleagues can't possibly miss them as far as headphone rules goes, so there's that.
The pros do outweigh the cons, IMO.
They sound almost exactly the same wired as wireless, which is to say very good assuming you don't mind a slightly dark and scooped profile. I listen primarily to industrial, rock, metal and heavier forms of EDM (brostep, drum'n'bass, hardstyle, etc.) and they sound wonderful for that. There isn't much hiss at all, which can be a real problem for bluetooth headphones due to the internal amp. I was impressed with the noise floor.
The bluetooth stack itself is another pro--handles multipoint seamlessly, which is actually kind of rare, and the range (with an iPhone transmitting) was at least 50 feet line of sight, and well over 30 feet with walls. At home I could roam anywhere, at the office I could get pretty far away.
While your mileage may vary according to source, I also found the BBP's latency perfectly acceptable even for light game playing (though it's not ~0, hence the Arctis). I think Crypt of the Necrodancer's calibration measured it around 150ms, which isn't bad for not being connected via a low-latency codec. I had no problem at all using them for movies.
One other point for the BBPs is the controls. One earcup has a ginormous volume dial as its inset and the other buttons are very tactile. While the dial does tend to stiffen some over time if you don't use them often enough, it's hands down the easiest set of controls to fumble to in a hurry. Plus there's a "talk through" button that pipes in exterior sound so you can answer colleague questions (or hear flight announcements) without removing them.
And, of course, the OG Backbeat Pros are around $200 cheaper street than Bose QC35s. If you have bluetooth you don't need the Pro+ with the dongle, and the Pro 2s [don't have a ton of improvements IIRC]*
In comparison, Bose doesn't sound as good. It does sound just like Bose, so if you know that sound, there you go. I find it acceptable but not phenomenal, and there's a little mud in the mid-bass I don't hear with the BBPs that unfortunately doesn't play as well with metal. EDM and industrial both sound fine. Bose does have just as good a BT stack in terms of seamless pair and switching behavior, but nowhere near the range. Latency is fine on Bose but I haven't tried them gaming.
Places where Bose clearly excels include the followup service--say what you want about the audio tech, but Bose's customer service is absolutely fantastic whereas Plantronics is average; the comfort--Bose headphones feel much lighter (without having weighed them both or checking specs) and comform to my face and ears better; and especially in the noise cancelling. Plantronics' noise cancelling just isn't great, whereas only the Sony M1000x have come near Bose in NC and they have some quality concerns.
* Edit: looking at Pro 2s, they do address the aesthetic and comfort issues, with ovular cups and plusher-looking pads, and are supposedly lighter. The really convenient controls aren't there anymore. They might be worth a shot buying from somewhere you can return them to if you don't like the audition, though if you're looking for great NC I'd skip right on to the Bose.
This was extremely helpful -- thanks so much for that detailed comparison. I just ordered the Backbeat Pro 2's from Amazon. Although it would be nice to have the Bose ANC, that's less important to me than sound quality -- and $349 just feels like too much to spend on headphones. I'll let you know how the 2nd gen looks and feels.
Please do! I'm always looking for more reasons to feed my addiction.
Sony is reportedly updating the MDR1000Xs, btw. If they can fix the headband-cracking issue they currently have, they should be a good combination of sound quality and ANC (for about twice as much as the BBP2s, so you're not missing out on anything by buying now!)
Quick notes on the BBP2's after about a week:
* The sound quality is excellent. Wired or wireless, the sound is sharp and crystal clear. But it's not particularly flat; there's a lot of midrange that makes it sound a little muddy. I've set up a custom configuration for the iTunes equalizer that helps with the (rock) music I listen to: punchy bass, clear treble, but less mud in the middle.
* The noise cancelling isn't bad. It does a great job on public transit but it's not as all-encompassing indoors as the Bose QC35 seemed to be, from the little I've tried them.
* The BB2Ps aren't nearly as ugly as the product photos make them look. They're not particularly brown in real life, just dark.
* They're pretty comfortable although I find it fatiguing to wear them for more than a couple of hours. The new over-ear shape looks like it made a big difference on the comfort level.
* The Bluetooth signal tends to cut out quite a bit from my iMac at home, which is pretty disappointing. It works better from my MacBook Pro at work -- not sure if there's some interference at home or what.
Overall I do like them, but I don't know if I like them enough to justify the $200 I spent. I haven't decided yet whether to keep them long-term. If I don't keep these, I might switch to the Beats Solo3 without ANC, or just bite the bullet and go for the Bose QC35...