[waifnstray]

Hi everyone,

I'm composing/producing music on a Dell XPS with an RME Babyface. I do this at home, on the train, and in hotels.

At home I have iLoud MTM desk speakers. But I need to choose headphones for the train and hotel. I will leave dedicated mixing tasks for home, but want the headphones to give as accurate a representation of the mix as possible, for composition tasks.

The key requirement for the train is good ANC. It's not just the background noise of the train that I have to deal with: the incessant announcements (listing every station on the route, at every station) are driving me crazy. I've read that the best ANC comes from Bose QuietComfort Ultra - but these are wireless only, so I would need to get a little Bluetooth transmitter plugged into my Babyface. I can't bypass the Babyface without getting jittery playback. If I wanted wired ANC, it seems the options are severely limited these days. (I used to have a pair of Sennheiser PXC 350, but they died)

The Mark Levinson 5909s almost tick the box but only if you use the digital USB connection; I would be using the analogue connection into one of the Babyface headphone ports, and according to the 5909 manual: "The № 5909 can be connected passively to any product that has an analog 3.5mm or 6.3mm (1/4") audio connection using the included 1.25m or 4m to USB-C proprietary audio cables included. NOTE: When connecting passively, none of the electronic or app functions are operational." - which I take to mean that wired implies passive, and passive implies no ANC.

The T+A Solitaire T seem to offer ANC over analogue wired, from my reading of the manual, and an email from their support team confirms this: "If you operate the headphones in passive mode, i.e. the headphones are switched off, ANC mode is also deactivated. However, you can also connect the headphones to a source device / headphone amplifier by cable in active mode. ANC is also active in active mode. In active mode, it must then be ensured that Bluetooth is deactivated." However, reviews suggest the ANC is not in the same league as Bose. (The Solitaire manual claims that "The headphones’ passive damping completely eliminates unwanted noise in the mid / high-frequency range without any electronic intervention", which sounds promising for dealing with the announcements, at least).

I'm prepared to consider different headphones for train and hotel - but obviously it would be more convenient if I didn't have to.

So far it seems my options are:
1) T+A Solitaire T, or
2) Bose QuietComfort Ultra PLUS Bluetooth transmitter PLUS a decent set of passive headphones for the hotel

I'm leaning towards the Solitaire T but I don't want to find myself regretting not going for better ANC. However I am sure on the Bose over Bluetooth, the sound quality will suffer in comparison.

The music styles vary. Current piece is a traditional blues remix with a dash of reggae thrown in. Other works have a Tom Waits feel, some classical sections, some EDM.

Any advice greatly appreciated. Are there other options I haven't identified?

Thank you!

 

[msing539]

Have you considered wired iems for the train, headphones for the hotel?

 

[waifnstray]

Have you considered wired iems for the train, headphones for the hotel?

I hadn't thought of that - that's a really interesting suggestion, thank you - will look into it!

 

[Lou Erickson]

Have you used ANC before? It's not a magic bullet and often doesn't filter out voices - it's good at long,repetive sounds like jet engines and air conditioners, and may help with background noise on the train, but will let the station announcements right through.

IEMs to give you physical isolation are a good idea, and very portable.

 

[Thieme]

From my understanding the ANC is done digitally. So I don't think there are any headphones that have 3.5 mm + ANC? Because it would have to go analogue -> digital -> add ANC -> analogue. That is why in general only USB and Bluetooth headsets have it. So not sure how the solitaire does it?

Anyways at work I use some cheap Artti T10's with Penon liqueur tips and my boss is like calling out for me and I can't hear him, he asked me how loud I had the music so I let him listen and he was like "this is not loud at all, this blocks sound well". So IEMs with good passive insulation may be enough?

 

[HipHopScribe]

I hadn't thought of that - that's a really interesting suggestion, thank you - will look into it!

Go with IEMs. Most modern ANC headphones that support ANC on the analog input are going to sound worse doing it that way than using Bluetooth or Digital, because there's going to be an extra conversion to digital then back to analog to process the audio. On models where the analog input doesn't get processed digitally, you're just not gonna have ANC on that input.

Also, ANC is not going to do as good job with voices and announcements as a good, high isolation IEMs like the Etymotic E4XR or something along those lines. That's where I'd be looking for isolation when traveling.

From my understanding the ANC is done digitally. So I don't think there are any headphones that have 3.5 mm + ANC? Because it would have to go analogue -> digital -> add ANC -> analogue. That is why in general only USB and Bluetooth headsets have it. So not sure how the solitaire does it?

Haha you must be young. Back in the days before Bluetooth took over everything, all ANC headphones were analog input only (with digital input coming in briefly for a few models before the full transition to Bluetooth), but ANC wasn't nearly as good back then as it is now, so it would be pointless to track down an older model for this task.

 

[waifnstray]

Have you used ANC before? It's not a magic bullet and often doesn't filter out voices - it's good at long,repetive sounds like jet engines and air conditioners, and may help with background noise on the train, but will let the station announcements right through.

IEMs to give you physical isolation are a good idea, and very portable.

Go with IEMs. Most modern ANC headphones that support ANC on the analog input are going to sound worse doing it that way than using Bluetooth or Digital, because there's going to be an extra conversion to digital then back to analog to process the audio. On models where the analog input doesn't get processed digitally, you're just not gonna have ANC on that input.

Also, ANC is not going to do as good job with voices and announcements as a good, high isolation IEMs like the Etymotic E4XR or something along those lines. That's where I'd be looking for isolation when traveling.



Haha you must be young. Back in the days before Bluetooth took over everything, all ANC headphones were analog input only (with digital input coming in briefly for a few models before the full transition to Bluetooth), but ANC wasn't nearly as good back then as it is now, so it would be pointless to track down an older model for this task.

Yes, basically the *only* headphones I can find today that do ANC on analogue are the Solitaire T's, but as you say, wired analogue was the standard when I bought my Sennheiser PXC 350's (3.5mm jack). Given the price and reputation of the Solitaire's I wonder if they might still sound good even through that route, but I take your point. To Lou Erikson's point - yes, I have used ANC, but it was on these Sennheisers, which are many years old, and I had hopes the ANC tech may have improved in the intervening years.

Still, sounds like IEM's are the way to go. I have a slight aversion to stuffing things in my ears but perhaps I should give them a try. Thanks everyone.