[savantacoustics]

Greetings folks! I'm new to the forum but excited to join the discussion.
 
I'm actually working on a noise canceling headphone design (startup), and one of the engineering/industrial design issues we're evaluating is what sort of battery life we need to be shooting for. Obviously the more the better, but at some point the headphone turns into a helmet...
 
So I thought I'd ask the question - what kinda battery life do you get with your current (AA, AAA battery powered) ANC headphones, and is improved battery life a significant issue for you? What duration are you comfortable with changing batteries or charging the headphones?

 

[SemperMalum]

 
I've used my Bose QC15 for 15 hours, off and on, without any issues. If I recall, the manual said 35 was the average life cycle per battery. Very reasonable, without even using rechargables.
 
That's a full day and a half of non-stop listening. I think at least 24 hours would be minimum to allow users to get what they needed them for out of the way and to get the next battery prepped/recharge them overnight.

 

[savantacoustics]

Thanks Semper - What about replaceable batteries Vs. a battery pack in the headphone that is charged over USB by the user? Is carrying extra batteries or recharging AA's or AAA's in a separate wall charger not really an issue? 
 

 

[SemperMalum]

 
I don't mind it, personally, but I would have preferred the QC15 to have a rechargeable battery that could be charged. Bose has two noise cancelling headphones, one on-ear that has the rechargeable, however the QC15 is just far superior even without having the same battery situation. If you can have the rechargeable in there, great. If you can't, though, I would suggest following looking into following in Sennheiser's footsteps. Their PXC450 is actually capable of still playing music even when the replaceable battery is drained. QC15 doesn't have that feature, and I think that benefits of having a feature like that would outweigh any cons.

 

[Canadian411]

My Sennheiser PXC450 with one single AAA battery last about 4 weeks, 5 hours of usage excluding the weekends.  So 5 hours x 20 days, about 100 hours.
 
Pretty good
 
And I use Panasonic Digital Power battery LR-03GA, pretty cheap battery at Home Depot, about $15 for a pack of 20.
 
Hope this helps.
 
Cheers,.

 

[savantacoustics]

 
Quote:

Their PXC450 is actually capable of still playing music even when the replaceable battery is drained. QC15 doesn't have that feature, and I think that benefits of having a feature like that would outweigh any cons.

That is definitely a pet peeve of mine too. If the battery is dead, you should still be able to listen to the headphones in a passive manner, rather than not at all...
 
Canadian411, it sounds like the PXC450 works pretty well for your use case. I'll have to check that one out.