To anyone else reading this thread. SENNHEISERS.
I can't remember the last time a pair of headphones made me walk around the room randomly laughing like an idiot and alternately staring into space with an open mouth.
One you have dialled in 'cap com' on an iPod touch. Prepare for liftoff. JUST. INSANE.
It's even fuller on a mac pro workstation although sadly no 'cap com' support yet.
I cannot imagine what the sound would be like from a high quality DAC.
set fx to club, adjust the eq a little then play this and turn volume to max
AB ing with the HD2's with the aluminiums' memory foam pads and Jasons excellent bass mass loading mod and the 550's make the HD2's seem sibilant and totally lacking in midrange. They outclass the HD's everywhere and are much better balanced, the difference is night and day, I know they are circumaural, but still, they make the Beats cans seem like toys.
I don't have the finesse to comment on Jazz or Classical music but for EDM, whoosh.
The app can occasionally be glitchy but the fx and eq really make sound customisation really easy. I didn't buy them for the sound cancellation but they are better than the QX35 in that respect and have better sound I think and way more customisable and are £100 cheaper, would of been nice to have a hard case but whatever, compared to the Bose the Senns are a steal.
But remember to try on both, the Senns fit a little tight and you have to hook the pads around your lobes whereas for me the Bose felt like putting on a pair of small clouds, they are ridiculously comfortable, for my head and ear shape at least. So don't go ordering either until you have tried both, because no matter how awesome the Senns are if you can't wear them for more than an hour at a time you might be better off with the creamy, pillow soft Bose's.
How Bose can charge a third more for less functionality and neglect to offer an option to disable the sometimes intrusively overpowering noise cancellation is beyond me.
I guess Bose is like Apple in that respect, they can pretty much make anything and people will buy it because it's Bose. Try both.
Only other negative I can discern on initial testing, apart from the slightly snug fit is the over sensitivity of the otherwise brilliantly engineered gesture control which sometimes stops the music when you adjust the volume. I am guessing that one would 'learn' how to avoid that after extended use and possibly the dpi sensitivity could maybe (theoretically) be fine tuned with a firmware upgrade.
I might sell my HDR170's and my customised HD2's and just keep the Aluminium's for spare. The BT range of the PXC 550's is only about 3 to 4m less than the HDR170's.
I thought of another negative, not content with showing off with gesture control, the cans switch on and off by twisting one of the ear cups, all very good, but what if you want to pop them on your desk on a perspex block (like the one that I just ordered) or other such headphone rest? Would it really of hurt Sennheiser to fit a boring, old fashioned on/off switch? There is such a thing as being TOO clever you know...
