4 ms·

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 headphon

by jjrh 8y ago

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.

fossuser 8y ago
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.
- wilsonnb3 8y ago
  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.
- snovv_crash 8y ago
  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.
- jjrh 8y ago
  > 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.
djrogers 8y ago
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.
- morsch 8y ago
  The Momentum Wireless with ANC is still being sold under that name at least over here: https://en-de.sennheiser.com/momentum-wireless-headphones-with-mic 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 https://en-de.sennheiser.com/music-headphones-portable Naturally, they don't call it ANC, it's NoiseGard™ [sic].
tachion 8y ago
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.

by jjrh 8y ago

fossuser 8y ago

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.

wilsonnb3 8y ago
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.
snovv_crash 8y ago
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.
jjrh 8y ago
> 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.

djrogers 8y ago

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.

morsch 8y ago
The Momentum Wireless with ANC is still being sold under that name at least over here: https://en-de.sennheiser.com/momentum-wireless-headphones-with-mic 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 https://en-de.sennheiser.com/music-headphones-portable Naturally, they don't call it ANC, it's NoiseGard™ [sic].

tachion 8y ago

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.