Best wireless over ear headphones

bartman100

Bit confused about all this noise cancelling nonsense. What I want are headphones that don't leak the sound out thus disturbing my colleagues. I like noisy, I like high volume.

Any recommendations?

slowmart

Bowers & Wilkins PX

Frank Wilson

Why don't you just concentrate on your work?

ayjaycee

I've got a pair of Sony MDR 1000X which are fantastic. They have bluetooth, active noise cancelling and are rechargeable and the sound quality, whether wired or wireless, is superb. A mate has got a pair of Bose QC35s and after side by side comparison, we agreed that my Sonys are better than his Bose. The down side is that they are quite expensive (but nowadays cheaper than they were when I bought mine and also cheaper than the Bose QC35s). If you're looking for a budget option, I've also got a pair of Lindy BNX60 which are pretty good - they're not as good as the Sonys in any department but you wouldn't expect them to be at a fraction of the price. They are also bluetooth, active noise cancelling and rechargeable but can be had for under £80. For the money, I reckon they're unbeatable - I sometimes think that HiFi is worse than bikes when it comes to diminishing returns for your money. As to sound leakage, I've never had any complaints (or dirty looks) at home or on flights which is when noise cancelling really starts to pay you back.

Ignore Frank Wilson. He can be a bit of a dick.

bartman100

Frank Wilson wrote:

Why don't you just concentrate on your work?

I work for Spotify. Thanks for your helpful reply.

bartman100

thanks for all the responses. I opted for Bose QuietComfort 35 II

mamil314

How the hell did you manage to both display your ignorance and insult noise cancelling in your request for closed back headphone recommendations?

There is version two of Bose QC 35 which is more compact and cheaper than Sony, although they are both pretty affordable at the low midrange price bracket. They are good in airplanes where passive sound blocking is not sufficient.

As for specific headphones, there are so many, catering to different tastes. You could check out reviews on Wirecutter or Head-fi.org. I, personally, like ZMF classic, but those have to be imported. There is London Jan Cam in July, you could go and try out loads and see which ones you like because fit is important for both comfort and sound dealing due to different shapes of heads and ears. There's sound preferences to consider, too.

To be honest, you would have to listen to stupidly loud volume levels to bother office even with open backed headphones. Remember that loud noise for any duration = permanent hear loss. It is slow and gradual, but irreversible.


Edit - I see you made your choice, but above stands in case you are not happy

P.S. when will Spotify grace Garmin watches with streaming?

Frank Wilson

bartman100 wrote:

Frank Wilson wrote:

Why don't you just concentrate on your work?

I work for Spotify. Thanks for your helpful reply.

Perhaps you should have stated that in your original post. Me I'll stick with vinyl and a good needle thanks.

webboo

Frank Wilson wrote:

bartman100 wrote:

Frank Wilson wrote:

Why don't you just concentrate on your work?

I work for Spotify. Thanks for your helpful reply.

Perhaps you should have stated that in your original post. Me I'll stick with vinyl and a good needle thanks.

Smack or Crack.

Frank Wilson

Webboo wrote:

Frank Wilson wrote:

bartman100 wrote:

Frank Wilson wrote:

Why don't you just concentrate on your work?

I work for Spotify. Thanks for your helpful reply.

Perhaps you should have stated that in your original post. Me I'll stick with vinyl and a good needle thanks.

Smack or Crack.

Don't mention crack webboo it will only lead back to hedgehogs!!

webboo

Do you wax or shave Frank. I wouldn’t have had you down as a back, sack and crack man.

mamil314

I just envy people with space to store thousands of 'records'

pblakeney

mamil314 wrote:

To be honest, you would have to listen to stupidly loud volume levels to bother office even with open backed headphones.

Not true. I got a pair of Grados for using in the office. A big mistake as their are noisy enough that anyone nearby can hear the music at normal levels as to be useless, and I can't even use them at home with my wife in the same room. Open backed, the clue is in the name.

ayjaycee

mamil314 wrote:

How the hell did you manage to both display your ignorance and insult noise cancelling in your request for closed back headphone recommendations?

There is version two of Bose QC 35 which is more compact and cheaper than Sony, although they are both pretty affordable at the low midrange price bracket. They are good in airplanes where passive sound blocking is not sufficient.

As for specific headphones, there are so many, catering to different tastes. You could check out reviews on Wirecutter or Head-fi.org. I, personally, like ZMF classic, but those have to be imported. There is London Jan Cam in July, you could go and try out loads and see which ones you like because fit is important for both comfort and sound dealing due to different shapes of heads and ears. There's sound preferences to consider, too.

To be honest, you would have to listen to stupidly loud volume levels to bother office even with open backed headphones. Remember that loud noise for any duration = permanent hear loss. It is slow and gradual, but irreversible.


Edit - I see you made your choice, but above stands in case you are not happy

P.S. when will Spotify grace Garmin watches with streaming?

Congratulations on providing a fairly useless response to the OP. Firstly you appear to be slagging him off for even asking what appears to be a reasonable question (although I appreciate that I might have misunderstood if English isn't your first language in which case, my apologies) and then you recommend a set of cans that do not seem to meet the stated requirement of noise cancelling and are not easily available in the UK. Also, the Bose QC35 V2 are more expensive by some way than the Sonys that I mentioned and what is a "London Jan Cam'?

Having got that off my chest, although I've not actually heard the new QC35s, I'm sure the OP will like them and, as the old crusader said, 'you have chosen wisely'

mamil314

What volume levels are we talking, PBlakeney? Having in mind how shrieky and poorly constructed most Grados are, you must have lost sensitivity to higher freq., if you can listen to them loudly. I can barely hear above 17khz with my ruined ears and they drive me up the wall.

mamil314

Thanks ayjaycee, it was a typo and should be CanJam.

pblakeney

mamil314 wrote:

What volume levels are we talking, PBlakeney? Having in mind how shrieky and poorly constructed most Grados are, you must have lost sensitivity to higher freq., if you can listen to them loudly. I can barely hear above 17khz with my ruined ears and they drive me up the wall.

I am talking normal listening levels in an office where you want to hear background conversations should you need to be involved. Certainly not loud enough to drown anything out, and not applicable to N/C in my office.

bartman100

mamil314 wrote:

How the hell did you manage to both display your ignorance and insult noise cancelling in your request for closed back headphone recommendations?

There is version two of Bose QC 35 which is more compact and cheaper than Sony, although they are both pretty affordable at the low midrange price bracket. They are good in airplanes where passive sound blocking is not sufficient.

As for specific headphones, there are so many, catering to different tastes. You could check out reviews on Wirecutter or Head-fi.org. I, personally, like ZMF classic, but those have to be imported. There is London Jan Cam in July, you could go and try out loads and see which ones you like because fit is important for both comfort and sound dealing due to different shapes of heads and ears. There's sound preferences to consider, too.

To be honest, you would have to listen to stupidly loud volume levels to bother office even with open backed headphones. Remember that loud noise for any duration = permanent hear loss. It is slow and gradual, but irreversible.


Edit - I see you made your choice, but above stands in case you are not happy

P.S. when will Spotify grace Garmin watches with streaming?

Thanks for the pompous and unhelpful response. You seem to have a comprehension issue. I am not interested in noise 'leaking in' and am more concerned with noise 'leaking out' - Capiche? I like my music LOUD so yes, colleague annoyance is a high priority issue for me. I'm aware of the risks, cheers - see also smoking and drinking.

bartman100

Frank Wilson wrote:

bartman100 wrote:

Frank Wilson wrote:

Why don't you just concentrate on your work?

I work for Spotify. Thanks for your helpful reply.

Perhaps you should have stated that in your original post. Me I'll stick with vinyl and a good needle thanks.

What relevance did it have fucko? I also have a Turntable and vinyl collection.

Have a nice evening.

bartman100

I went for the BOSE 35 II. Not f****ng loud enough.

slowmart

Did you try the B&W PX's prior to buying?

BTW if you ordered online within the last 14 days you should be able to cancel the transaction.

https://www.which.co.uk/consumer-rights ... line-order

Most personal devices are capped at 105 decibels so it may not be your headphones? Unless your using another source for your music?

mamil314

Either OP is half deaf already, or it's the headphone throttling to preserve battery life. Also, it might be worth trying out in Active Wired mode, maybe its your source.

Tyll does mention that for 90dB you need 121mV, so not super easily driven:

https://www.innerfidelity.com/content/o ... asurements


Edited for bad spells

ayjaycee

My Sony MDR 1000X are plenty loud enough for me and I am partially deaf in my right ear (although that really limits the frequency range that I hear rather than the volume per se) - in my case, deafness was probably caused by living through the 1970s/80s and attending a lot of very, very loud gigs together with a lifetime of firing guns. I have no reason to believe that my Sonys volume is any louder or quieter than others and would strongly counsel against subjecting your ears to a sustained bombardment of high volume music (or, indeed, anything else). Trust me, you think it's all OK now but you will pay for it in the future and deafness is no fun at all.

tlw1

mamil314 wrote:

I just envy people with space to store thousands of 'records'

Live up north - it’s easy then

mouth

Slowmart wrote:

Bowers & Wilkins PX

This. I've been a Bose-ist for a number of years - sound docks, wired ear buds, audio system and steered my mrs into john lewis to have a look for her next birthday present. We left with B&W, which are now on my Xmas list. Sure, Bose have some products that are better than other brands but B&W are now my first port of call and everything must compare to that.

Bose seem to have a slightly limited sound range (I don't know the technical terms) but they can't hit high end or low end bass, which is important to my preferred genres of audible pleasure.