Andreuha
New Head-Fier
- Joined
- May 20, 2015
- Posts
- 2
- Likes
- 11
This is after about a day and a half of wearing them almost non-stop including commuting and around the office. I pre-ordered these after buying the Bose QC35 (and falling in love with them). For what it's worth the last time I've shopped around wireless headphones was a few years ago, so I've continued to stick to IEMs until I decided to give portable cans another shot recently.
It's hard not to compare these to the Bose QC35 (especially since I own both), and I'll to a head-to-head review later.
First the setup, which just means pairing and installing the Sennheiser app. No hiccups, which means amazing job by the developers. The parametric EQ is what I've always wanted from an Android music player, but if you want to use it you're stuck with the in-app music player or integration with Tidal. The limitation is somewhat nonsensical because the DSP is on the hardware side and the modes are controllable even without the mobile app.
In a noisy environment these sound excellent. Commuting via the subways in New York, lower listening levels are very well accommodated for by the coloring of the sound modes.
It's unfair to compare them to gear designed for audio imaging over other things, particularly by me as I generally don't even pay attention to the equipment unless I'm messing with settings, trying out other peoples' gear, or in places like the B&H showroom. I can say with a good deal of certainty, though, that they sound great. If you're shopping these against QC35's, these sound better (I'll save this for a future post).
With that said, the active noise cancellation lets a bit more sound through than I'd like for ANC.
Bluetooth reception is excellent. I get close to no interrupts during normal listening, and range is better than other units I've tried. Noticeably (but not very much) better than my QC35, but if you're looking to use these while moving around the house with a static source like a PC, then they're still a long shot from a good RF wireless set (I still use a Plantronics Savi W720 around the office for this reason).
Human interaction is a disappointment:
COMFORT. This is a huge one. There's a hemispheric cage covering the driver, which is designed in a way that puts a focused pressure point any way you touch it. My ears make some contact with this cage, and due to it's design the contact point hurts quite a bit after wearing them for probably 15 minutes. Now, if your ears are absolutely average then it's a total non-issue. Mine are proportionate to my head which is a size "large", but I can't fault Sennheiser too much because when I looked into it this is actually the 97th percentile (58cm).
Touch pad: if you're moving around, which these are made for, you'll invariably end up grazing it every so often. Unfortunately that graze will do something annoying every time.
If you double-tap the pad (which I first did by accident, without knowing it) you pause whatever's playing and sound is actively pumped in from the outside. After having a few conversations in this mode, voices come through as loud if not louder than without the headphones. Big plus, but it would be nice if they did more to subdue non-vocal frequencies (basically the inverse of a Karaoke filter).
The switches/button are small and while that's pretty they don't locate as easily as I'd like from something meant to be used on the move.
Speaking of things happening while you're moving around (which you should be doing a lot if you're buying these), during a full day of wearing these they interpreted my movement as removing them from my head and paused the music with seeming randomness at least a handful of times. Something comparable to a car's Seat Occupancy Sensor in the ear pads would make more sense.
Also you can use these as usual while charging over USB. It should go without mentioning, but the Bose QC35 will NOT let you do this and are 100% passive while charging.
It's hard not to compare these to the Bose QC35 (especially since I own both), and I'll to a head-to-head review later.
First the setup, which just means pairing and installing the Sennheiser app. No hiccups, which means amazing job by the developers. The parametric EQ is what I've always wanted from an Android music player, but if you want to use it you're stuck with the in-app music player or integration with Tidal. The limitation is somewhat nonsensical because the DSP is on the hardware side and the modes are controllable even without the mobile app.
In a noisy environment these sound excellent. Commuting via the subways in New York, lower listening levels are very well accommodated for by the coloring of the sound modes.
It's unfair to compare them to gear designed for audio imaging over other things, particularly by me as I generally don't even pay attention to the equipment unless I'm messing with settings, trying out other peoples' gear, or in places like the B&H showroom. I can say with a good deal of certainty, though, that they sound great. If you're shopping these against QC35's, these sound better (I'll save this for a future post).
With that said, the active noise cancellation lets a bit more sound through than I'd like for ANC.
Bluetooth reception is excellent. I get close to no interrupts during normal listening, and range is better than other units I've tried. Noticeably (but not very much) better than my QC35, but if you're looking to use these while moving around the house with a static source like a PC, then they're still a long shot from a good RF wireless set (I still use a Plantronics Savi W720 around the office for this reason).
Human interaction is a disappointment:
COMFORT. This is a huge one. There's a hemispheric cage covering the driver, which is designed in a way that puts a focused pressure point any way you touch it. My ears make some contact with this cage, and due to it's design the contact point hurts quite a bit after wearing them for probably 15 minutes. Now, if your ears are absolutely average then it's a total non-issue. Mine are proportionate to my head which is a size "large", but I can't fault Sennheiser too much because when I looked into it this is actually the 97th percentile (58cm).
Touch pad: if you're moving around, which these are made for, you'll invariably end up grazing it every so often. Unfortunately that graze will do something annoying every time.
If you double-tap the pad (which I first did by accident, without knowing it) you pause whatever's playing and sound is actively pumped in from the outside. After having a few conversations in this mode, voices come through as loud if not louder than without the headphones. Big plus, but it would be nice if they did more to subdue non-vocal frequencies (basically the inverse of a Karaoke filter).
The switches/button are small and while that's pretty they don't locate as easily as I'd like from something meant to be used on the move.
Speaking of things happening while you're moving around (which you should be doing a lot if you're buying these), during a full day of wearing these they interpreted my movement as removing them from my head and paused the music with seeming randomness at least a handful of times. Something comparable to a car's Seat Occupancy Sensor in the ear pads would make more sense.
Also you can use these as usual while charging over USB. It should go without mentioning, but the Bose QC35 will NOT let you do this and are 100% passive while charging.
