[Maukey]

aptX has more clarity in the treble which you may prefer, but I find SBC to be less fatiguing and not necessarily inferior in quality. One lesser-known tip is that you can listen to the HD1 via USB so you can get the same great signature with higher quality.

Well, after demoing the HD1 all weekend, I have come away impressed. First thing, I actually prefer wired to wireless, although both sound great. I actually did a comparison on Rtings between the wired momentum vs. wireless to see if it was similar to what I was hearing, and it was. When wired and powered down, there's slightly more bass push, especially mid bass, the mids are more forward and cleaner overall, and the treble is slightly cleaner although slightly pulled back overall when compared to wireless/powered on. The sound overall is cleaner to me. I hear details a little clearer. Powered on/Wireless is better balanced, and I can see why it's more appealing to some. It's more neutral and has a little more treble push. My only issue with wireless is that there's this slight harshness in the upper mids that becomes really fatiguing if I crank the volume too high. Both sound outstanding and have that magical mid forward sound I've always loved about Sennheiser. Sounds just like I remember from owning the Momentum 2.0 Wired a while back. Definitely sounds better than the B&W PX to my ears. Both wired and wireless. It's jumped up my rankings as one of the best sounding bluetooth wireless headphones. I'm having a tough time deciding which I prefer, the Crossfade II Wireless, Sony H.ear On 2, Beats Studio 3, and these. All sound different and have different advantages. H.ear On 2 = Warm, Balanced, and Musical. Crossfade II = Spacious, Detailed, and Exciting. Studio 3 = Energetic, Emotional, and Exciting. HD1 Wireless = Musical, Powerful, and Smooth. The best way I can describe them in short LOL. I'm going to give up one, jus haven't decided yet.

 

[MICHAELSD]

Well, after demoing the HD1 all weekend, I have come away impressed. First thing, I actually prefer wired to wireless, although both sound great. I actually did a comparison on Rtings between the wired momentum vs. wireless to see if it was similar to what I was hearing, and it was. When wired and powered down, there's slightly more bass push, especially mid bass, the mids are more forward and cleaner overall, and the treble is slightly cleaner although slightly pulled back overall when compared to wireless/powered on. The sound overall is cleaner to me. I hear details a little clearer. Powered on/Wireless is better balanced, and I can see why it's more appealing to some. It's more neutral and has a little more treble push. My only issue with wireless is that there's this slight harshness in the upper mids that becomes really fatiguing if I crank the volume too high. Both sound outstanding and have that magical mid forward sound I've always loved about Sennheiser. Sounds just like I remember from owning the Momentum 2.0 Wired a while back. Definitely sounds better than the B&W PX to my ears. Both wired and wireless. It's jumped up my rankings as one of the best sounding bluetooth wireless headphones. I'm having a tough time deciding which I prefer, the Crossfade II Wireless, Sony H.ear On 2, Beats Studio 3, and these. All sound different and have different advantages. H.ear On 2 = Warm, Balanced, and Musical. Crossfade II = Spacious, Detailed, and Exciting. Studio 3 = Energetic, Emotional, and Exciting. HD1 Wireless = Musical, Powerful, and Smooth. The best way I can describe them in short LOL. I'm going to give up one, jus haven't decided yet.

Not to make your decision more difficult, did you also pre-order Audeze’s Mobius headphones? lol I regularly face the same dilemma as you are, as it can be difficult to justify having too many headphones.

 

[Maukey]

Not to make your decision more difficult, did you also pre-order Audeze’s Mobius headphones? lol I regularly face the same dilemma as you are, as it can be difficult to justify having too many headphones.

I haven't yet LOL. Definitely paying attention to them.

 

[jhwang116]

Does the clamping force lessen over time on the PXs? My jaw / ears feel like they're in a vice.

 

[Maukey]

Does the clamping force lessen over time on the PXs? My jaw / ears feel like they're in a vice.

Yes it does. I actually thought they were comfortable because my ears fit inside the ear cups.

 

[jhwang116]

Yes it does. I actually thought they were comfortable because my ears fit inside the ear cups.

Thanks. That's interesting. My ears are in the cups too, but I definitely feel the clamping force on my jaws and my ears do get a bit raw.

 

[Tennessee]

I don't have absolutely any comfort issues with them, I did today 20km with my bike, they hold perfectly the position thanks to the clamping force and also isolates greatly. By far my favorite outdoor HP.

 

[dannydj]

I don't have absolutely any comfort issues with them, I did today 20km with my bike, they hold perfectly the position thanks to the clamping force and also isolates greatly. By far my favorite outdoor HP.

Are they sweat proof ?! If did 20km in London today on my bike they would have been dreanched !

 

[Tennessee]

Are they sweat proof ?! If did 20km in London today on my bike they would have been dreanched !

Their pads aren't so wide (and I think pleather), like let's say momentums (leather pads) where you get very hot. Besides I'm bald and drive quite fast (~35kmh) so wind is cooling. ^^ Anyway they are definietly not water/sweat proof, but they aren't so expensive so I don't care much.

 

[songoftime11]

Which settings you use to drive safely?

 

[mcook1970]

I have owned my pair of PX's now for 6 months.

FWIW, here are my observations which are based on my own experiences and are obviously subjective to my pair of ears!!!

Connectivity:
Initial problems with bluetooth connectivity have now been ironed with numerous firmware updates. I still encounter some very rare and occasional connectivity issues, especially in busy areas (such as walking down Oxford St in London) where it can be annoying. But I do think B&W have done a great job of resolving the earlier production issues pretty quickly (this is evidenced by the number of different firmware updates they have issues since I purchase them in October).

Comfort & Headphone placement:
Placebo has an effect in terms of how you wear them on your head and where you position the ear cups over your ears, as it can influence (e.g. either improve or degrade) audio quality and comfort.
I tend to have the headband placed more than halfway forward on my head towards my forehead whereas some other headphones I've worn more towards to the back of the head.
I would say have have slightly larger than average ears and did find some discomfort initially but after some use this does disappear as the pads get softer with natural wear. The headband if both flexible and sturdy which means you can flex it to reshape it, e.g. to "widen" the effect, without worrying about breaking them.

Noise Cancelling:
There have been many different comments about the ANC quality. IMHO, the PXs are not the best headphone for noise cancelling, for me Bose and Sony MX1000s trump them in this respect (Sennheiser Momentum and Beoplay H8i are about the same) as they seem to block out more external noise.

However, whilst I feel the PXs noise cancelling is slightly inferior to these headphones they still do a more than capable job of blocking most external noises. I also find this is dependent on the genre of music, for example for jazz and classical there is more background noise than with rock and EDM where there is typically more cacophony of sound with these genres. But for a typical, suburban journey these headphones do an effective job of blocking out external noise and allow me to enjoy the music without interuption.

Sound Quality:
These are the best sounding wireless headphones I have listened to, and have owned / tried a number of different models. I am pleased to say these headphones inherit some the same sound characteristics to the P9. In the different wireless sound modes, I find "Office" to be the most appealing whilst the others ("City" and "Flight") tend to be a bit too boxy for my liking but certainly are listenable. The other advantage is that in wired mode you get a different, more natural sounding signature, so in effect you get 4 different listening modes. In summary, I find sound quality is exceptional (my main sources are FLAC files although i do have a collection of mp3 and AAC files where they sound pretty decent).

Are the PXs's the final word when it comes to noise cancelling, wireless headphones? Absolutely not!

In terms of the technological advances in wireless headphones, i think the progress that has been made over the past 18 months or so has been incredible and this is evidenced by competition within this sector of the market. I also think expectations need to be set accordingly where it will come down to a personal choice and whether you want to sacrifice audio quality over active noise cancellation and wireless connectivity, e.g. either choose the PXs over the Bose or Sony or vice versa.

For the time being, I will continue enjoying the PXs and hope you find some of my feedback and observations useful

 

[dannydj]

I have owned my pair of PX's now for 6 months.

FWIW, here are my observations which are based on my own experiences and are obviously subjective to my pair of ears!!!

Thanks found this really helpful. I am trying to decide between the PX and the Sony's. Did you try the Sony's with an LDAC compatible device for flac files ? What were you impressions ?

 

[mcook1970]

No I did not, to be honest I thought the Sony's sounded pretty good, better than the Bose but didn't sound as refined and detailed as the PXs

 

[navdra]

It seems to me that I can't select codec other than SBC?!?

I bought S9+ recently. I enabled Developer options. In Bluetooth Audio Codec menu I can toggle it to Aptx, but once PX connects to phone the setting changes to Streaming: SBC and stay like that no matter what I do?!
Anyone else had this issue? Managed to overcome it? How?

 

[navdra]

It seems to me that I can't select codec other than SBC?!?

I bought S9+ recently. I enabled Developer options. In Bluetooth Audio Codec menu I can toggle it to Aptx, but once PX connects to phone the setting changes to Streaming: SBC and stay like that no matter what I do?!
Anyone else had this issue? Managed to overcome it? How?

Got it! Dual Audio was turned on. I disaabled it and voila, AptX active..