[U6astik]

Bose are well known for their headphones' noise-cancelling abilities, rather than sound quality.
Vice versa for B&W. If I'm not mistaken, the wireless P7 doesn't not have such feature, although the sound qualiy of the wired model is pretty high.
 
If you're not too bothred with NC, probably you'll like B&W.
If you're really bothered with the sound quality - buy the wired headphones and ideally a dedicated player fto power them.

 

[GrussGott]

  Bose are well known for their headphones' noise-cancelling abilities, rather than sound quality.
Vice versa for B&W. If I'm not mistaken, the wireless P7 doesn't not have such feature, although the sound qualiy of the wired model is pretty high.
 
If you're not too bothred with NC, probably you'll like B&W.
If you're really bothered with the sound quality - buy the wired headphones and ideally a dedicated player fto power them.

 
I think I'm just a bit spoiled by the PSBs - back to back with the Bose QC35s was no contest; PSBs sounded "there" and Bose sounded "over there".
 
On the noise cancelling, yes it was really great, but I started wondering how much I need ...
 
The QC35s don't block out voices or, say, the motor whine of my vacuum cleaner.  They DO block the intake/outtake vacuum noise, most aircraft background noise, city din, etc.  With all that said, it's not total isolation, so if it's not total isolation then I'm making a trade off, and there's an equation there, and that's what got me wondering.
 
I love the PSBs, but their ANC isn't up to the Bose, but it turns out I don't care.  Anyway, I'm betting - hoping - the P7s are going to blow me away awesome soundwise.  Good enough that I decide to start experimenting with sound society files.
 
Anyway, maybe the hot setup is P7s for daily use and a portable set of QC20s if I'm in some situation where I REALLY need the ANC.

 

[BLacklWf]

I had Momentum 2.0 and I have B&W P7. They are both wired. I also heard QC35 for maybe 5 mins, but it was an easy conclusion for me that I did not like the sound signature.

Anyway, for my ears, P7 sounded best. It has very good engaging sound that suits with many different sources in my opinion. I actually really like P7 sounds, which I found to be addictive. However, the comfort wise, I would rank QC35 > Momentum 2.0 > P7.

 

[GrussGott]

I wrote this up in the P7 Wireless thread, but here's a snippet from there with my 2 cents on the comparo:
 
* Sound Isolation
Pretty Stellar - they shut things out when you just put them on (no sound/power).  The PSBs aren't even close in this regard, but the Bose QC35s were noticeably better still - again, just putting them on, no power.  They definitely block out a lot of background noise ... a word about that.  I live in a downtown apartment with a balcony 12 flights up from dance clubs on the approach to an international airport; in short it's really easy for me to test sound isolation for all kinds of different dins.  harleys.  airplanes.  diesel trucks.  traffic noise.  club noise.  city din, etc, more on that in a bit.
 
* Do I need ANC?
I was really looking for a "do everything" set of headphones which, for me, is movies/shows, airplane travel, some music.  With my PSBs, they do everything pretty good and I thought, given my Bose OE Soundlink experience, that the QC35s would be everything my PSBs were but with way better ANC.  No so.  The SQ was not horrible but not great - not even close to my PSBs; yes, the QC35 ANC was better, but after trying them out I started to wonder if I cared which is why I got the P7s
 
In testing the isolation of P7s, of course it's not as good as the QC35s with the ANC on, but when the music or show was playing I could barely tell.  With both, I could hear loud trucks, planes, or clinking/clanking and voices - the Bose QC35s were slightly better at those things, but not much.  Of course where the Bose excel is the whoosh / droning lower frequency isolation.  There's no doubt it's nice to have that gone, but I really had a hard time remembering it was there with the P7s - only if I thought about it.  When I put on the PSBs with ANC and thought about it, I did notice it wasn't there but I kinda didn't care.  On the QC35s, eliminating that lower frequency stuff certainly isn't worth the heavily compromised sound quality for me.  If I prized complete silence (of those frequencies) over all other factors like SQ, then the QCs win, but I don't.
 
On an airplane, there are really two places I notice a big difference over ANC: taking off and landing.  At cruise there's not much of a difference - again, it's there if I look but I forget to even look.
 
When I add it all up: there's a few instances where I definitely would want the ANC, but overall the B&W are so good passively I don't really care.  This isn't true with the PSBs (ANC off obviously) or the Bose OE Soundlinks - with those I definitely want the ANC, but with the P7s the background noise that would be blocked by the QC35s just isn't there enough to justify the SQ tradeoff for me.

 

[Roen]

  I wrote this up in the P7 Wireless thread, but here's a snippet from there with my 2 cents on the comparo:
 
* Sound Isolation
Pretty Stellar - they shut things out when you just put them on (no sound/power).  The PSBs aren't even close in this regard, but the Bose QC35s were noticeably better still - again, just putting them on, no power.  They definitely block out a lot of background noise ... a word about that.  I live in a downtown apartment with a balcony 12 flights up from dance clubs on the approach to an international airport; in short it's really easy for me to test sound isolation for all kinds of different dins.  harleys.  airplanes.  diesel trucks.  traffic noise.  club noise.  city din, etc, more on that in a bit.
 
* Do I need ANC?
I was really looking for a "do everything" set of headphones which, for me, is movies/shows, airplane travel, some music.  With my PSBs, they do everything pretty good and I thought, given my Bose OE Soundlink experience, that the QC35s would be everything my PSBs were but with way better ANC.  No so.  The SQ was not horrible but not great - not even close to my PSBs; yes, the QC35 ANC was better, but after trying them out I started to wonder if I cared which is why I got the P7s
 
In testing the isolation of P7s, of course it's not as good as the QC35s with the ANC on, but when the music or show was playing I could barely tell.  With both, I could hear loud trucks, planes, or clinking/clanking and voices - the Bose QC35s were slightly better at those things, but not much.  Of course where the Bose excel is the whoosh / droning lower frequency isolation.  There's no doubt it's nice to have that gone, but I really had a hard time remembering it was there with the P7s - only if I thought about it.  When I put on the PSBs with ANC and thought about it, I did notice it wasn't there but I kinda didn't care.  On the QC35s, eliminating that lower frequency stuff certainly isn't worth the heavily compromised sound quality for me.  If I prized complete silence (of those frequencies) over all other factors like SQ, then the QCs win, but I don't.
 
On an airplane, there are really two places I notice a big difference over ANC: taking off and landing.  At cruise there's not much of a difference - again, it's there if I look but I forget to even look.
 
When I add it all up: there's a few instances where I definitely would want the ANC, but overall the B&W are so good passively I don't really care.  This isn't true with the PSBs (ANC off obviously) or the Bose OE Soundlinks - with those I definitely want the ANC, but with the P7s the background noise that would be blocked by the QC35s just isn't there enough to justify the SQ tradeoff for me.

Now, what happens if the Sony 1000x has the same SQ as the P7, but the ANC and passive noise isolation of the QC35?
 
For me, the passive isolation of the QC35 was better than the QC25 and the ANC is slightly better.

 

[GrussGott]

 
Now, what happens if the Sony 1000x has the same SQ as the P7, but the ANC and passive noise isolation of the QC35?
 
For me, the passive isolation of the QC35 was better than the QC25 and the ANC is slightly better.

 
Then I'll sure miss the P7s, because they are an absolute treat to put on and use.  It sounds weird but the overall experience of the P7 is really stellar: the materials, the quality, the feeling of device - it's got that solid-block-of-steel feel, without any of the weight.
 
Speaking of that, over all I"m sure the Bose are lighter, and they definitely pack up smaller ... but, again, not THAT much smaller that it's relevant to me, and the weight is already light enough that lighter is irrelevant to me.
 
But, yes, if the Sony's equal the Bose in ANC and the P7s in SQ - or are close - then it's a no brainer to get the MDR-1000x ... unfortunately that's 3 weeks away.

 

[Roen]

   
Then I'll sure miss the P7s, because they are an absolute treat to put on and use.  It sounds weird but the overall experience of the P7 is really stellar: the materials, the quality, the feeling of device - it's got that solid-block-of-steel feel, without any of the weight.
 
Speaking of that, over all I"m sure the Bose are lighter, and they definitely pack up smaller ... but, again, not THAT much smaller that it's relevant to me, and the weight is already light enough that lighter is irrelevant to me.
 
But, yes, if the Sony's equal the Bose in ANC and the P7s in SQ - or are close - then it's a no brainer to get the MDR-1000x ... unfortunately that's 3 weeks away.

Let us know what you do, I'm willing to swap out my QC35 for a 1000x in the name of SQ.

 

[Soundizer]

The device you use is important. With P7 they support AptX and if your mobile device does then i would recommend them. iPhone has AAC not AptX and works better with Bose QC35.

 

[synthgirl]

Thanks everyone for the insightful comments. I returned the Q35 although my ears stopped hurting after a week. The sound quality when comparing in-store to P7 was not awesome. I must say though that Q35 felt comfier to me. I am a woman, and in the design world, and certainly appreciate Bose lightness and design better than B&W bulky masculine looks. But sound quality is still the most important to me and I will not settle for a sound that doesn't sound right to me.
 
I think I want to try both B&W P7 and the Sony MDR-1000x everyone is talking about. Release is exactly 2 weeks away so might be worth waiting.
 
I might purchase P7 this week to test it in the two weeks return window I have, and then compare it to Sony when it releases the new one - I'd love to have great SQ with the option of NC (with a button, to be used only when needed) as I do travel abroad quite a bit as well as commute daily by subway in the city.
 
Any other good suggestions headphones that might have an awesome, better sound quality up to US$600? I might be willing to pay more if SQ is worth it.
 
I have iPhone and MacBook Pro for personal use, and sometimes obliged to use Windows/PCs at work.

 

[Roen]

Have you thought about noise isolating IEMs?

In that price range a Shure SE535 might fit your needs.

 

[synthgirl]

Have you thought about noise isolating IEMs?

In that price range a Shure SE535 might fit your needs.

Thanks Roen but I prefer around ear... any suggestions?

 

[GrussGott]

  I might purchase P7 this week to test it in the two weeks return window I have,
 
 

 
If you buy from the B&W site they have a 60 day in-home trial, and if you get them be sure to try the B&W music selected at this site I had no idea I even liked Erykah Badu until I tried these P7s.  Apple Tree, On & On ... wow.
 
You also get a free 3 month trial to B&W's Society of Sound where you can download FLAC24 music from Peter Gabriel, Bell X1, 9Bach and some others.  The word of caution here is to listen to the FLACs via VLC and via the wire - IMO the best reason to try the FLACs is you'll see the best SQ your B&Ws are capable of (via the soundcard on you laptop or phone).
 
As to your $600 question, wirelessly, I'd think you're going to be limited by bluetooth, thus you could try the B&W P7s wired with AudioQuest's Black DragonFly which is an all-in-one USB DAC+Pre-Amp+Headphone Amp.  This would be your top sound quality for a reasonable price out of your B&Ws (especially if you play the FLAC24s), then, of course, you can go wireless on the B&Ws too.
 
In my tests with the P7s, the passive sound isolation and sound quality is so good with music, movies, and shows I don't even notice there should be ANC (and this is with airplanes flying overhead).  I'm still going to try the Sonys, but I'm starting to wonder if I'm willing to compromise at all on the SQ.  There's no doubt the ANC is nice sometimes, but the ability to go wired and get primo SQ, and then go wireless with great SQ, is awesome ... just not sure the Sonys can do that, but we'll see.
 
Here's the black DragonFly ~$100
 

 
They have a better one, the red version which is ~$200
 

 

[Roen]

I'll be getting my Encore mDSD soon which is similar to the Dragonfly, but plays 32/384 and DSD256 files out of the box. But that's for a separate thread.

As for ANC enabled headphones, there's not much worth getting besides the ones that have been discussed and I don't know much about non ANC headphones as I prefer IEMs for sound quality.

 

[Music Is Life]

re: bluetooth compression, a lot of people don't realize that the spec for Bluetooth allows for *uncompressed* audio, as long as both the source and the destination support the same codec. The Bowers & Wilkins P5 and P7 wireless supports AAC so any audio streamed from an Apple device will be superior to a device that simply chooses to go w/ AptX (presumably any Android phone).

BTW I own both the P5 and P7 wireless and listened to the QC 35's yesterday in a Bose store. The QC 35 signature is much better than previous versions as it was harder to just hear the "hiss" that is apparent with noise cancellation. They're excellent when you want to drown out everything, loud sounds that an over ear headphone may not. That said, I still prefer the Bowers & Wilkins products. Their sound signature is warmer & livelier than Bose's and it's hard not to compare build quality. Bose always has a crappy plastic look, whereas Bowers & Wilkins has finesse.

 

[GrussGott]

re: bluetooth compression, a lot of people don't realize that the spec for Bluetooth allows for *uncompressed* audio, as long as both the source and the destination support the same codec. The Bowers & Wilkins P5 and P7 wireless supports AAC so any audio streamed from an Apple device will be superior to a device that simply chooses to go w/ AptX (presumably any Android phone).

BTW I own both the P5 and P7 wireless and listened to the QC 35's yesterday in a Bose store. The QC 35 signature is much better than previous versions as it was harder to just hear the "hiss" that is apparent with noise cancellation. They're excellent when you want to drown out everything, loud sounds that an over ear headphone may not. That said, I still prefer the Bowers & Wilkins products. Their sound signature is warmer & livelier than Bose's and it's hard not to compare build quality. Bose always has a crappy plastic look, whereas Bowers & Wilkins has finesse.

 
My 2015 MacBook Pro said the Bose QC35 codec was "undefined" and the B&W P7 wireless is aptX - I'm not sure what I need to do to get them to stream AAC ... I suppose open iTunes?  I haven't seen that app in 4 years.