[fizzafarian]

Hello All!

Am in the market for a wireless set I can use at the office (pair with laptop) and for travel (pair with iPhone). My current set is a PSB M4U 2 - love the sound, but suffered from the build quality (already cracked) and the comfort wasn't the best. I thought I had narrowed down my selection to the phones below, and tried some out but it was hard to get a good feel at the store.

Budget is up to $400, stretched to $500 if it really makes a difference


- Sony WH-1000XM2: Very comfortable, but sound was not as detailed as current set. Did not try EQ settings. Concerned about cracking issues as I have a larger cranium and my PSB's cracked.

- B&W PX

: Seemed more detailed than the Sony's, but less comfortable. Hoping they would become more comfortable over time.

- PSB M4U 8

: Not on sale in store anywhere, have to order online. Assuming they would be close to my current setup but hopefully better build quality

- Other?

: Am now reading about the PXC, HD 4.4, Audeze Mobius - are there any other cans I'm missing that may be a better fit than the above?

Thanks!

 

[serman005]

AKG K845BT is worth a read. No ANC, though--not sure if that matters.

 

[EddHarbin]

Sennheiser 550

 

[fizzafarian]

AKG K845BT is worth a read. No ANC, though--not sure if that matters.

After trying the B&W PX and the Sony, am leaning towards forgoing NC at this point and buying a pair of in-ears for flight instead. The sound on the Sony was too muddy to my taste after comparing against my M4U2. The PX was better, but the NX turned the audio quality into a pair of low quality buds. I do like wide sound stages and would like an over-earn can with emphasis on detail / clarity / vocals for use at the office (so still needs to be closed back). Will check-out the AKG. Any other recommendations given the change in strategy? They can be wired now.

 

[st0nefish]

so I can weigh in here. I actually own a pair of the PX (have had them since they released) and used them almost daily at work for about a year (software dev, open office). I love how they sound, but was unable to wear them for longer than a couple hours at a time before the pressure points at the crown of the head and behind the ears got unbearable. I'd even have neck pain at the end of some days from the noticeable extra torque on the neck from how heavy they were. this was unfortunate because they sound fantastic and I even liked the gimmicky features like the wear sensor auto-pause.
so I kept reading reviews and when the Sony WH 1000 xm3 came out at the beginning of this month the reviews immediately praised its comfort and noted a sound improvement over the mark2 due presumably to a switch to analog amplification. I pulled the trigger on a set of those and was immediately impressed. they're miles more comfortable than the B&W pair with ~95% of the sound quality and *significantly* better noise cancelling. I've only had the Sony pair for a couple days now but my mind was basically made up the first time I put them on, and my first day with them at work I wore them nearly the entire day.
it's one opinion, and obviously everyone's different, but my vote goes for the Sonys - however I will say this is specific to the mk3 version, as some of the noted changes since mk2 were explicitly for comfort and sound quality.

 

[fizzafarian]

so I can weigh in here. I actually own a pair of the PX (have had them since they released) and used them almost daily at work for about a year (software dev, open office). I love how they sound, but was unable to wear them for longer than a couple hours at a time before the pressure points at the crown of the head and behind the ears got unbearable. I'd even have neck pain at the end of some days from the noticeable extra torque on the neck from how heavy they were. this was unfortunate because they sound fantastic and I even liked the gimmicky features like the wear sensor auto-pause.
so I kept reading reviews and when the Sony WH 1000 xm3 came out at the beginning of this month the reviews immediately praised its comfort and noted a sound improvement over the mark2 due presumably to a switch to analog amplification. I pulled the trigger on a set of those and was immediately impressed. they're miles more comfortable than the B&W pair with ~95% of the sound quality and *significantly* better noise cancelling. I've only had the Sony pair for a couple days now but my mind was basically made up the first time I put them on, and my first day with them at work I wore them nearly the entire day.
it's one opinion, and obviously everyone's different, but my vote goes for the Sonys - however I will say this is specific to the mk3 version, as some of the noted changes since mk2 were explicitly for comfort and sound quality.

Thanks for your input! I ended up purchasing both the PX and the MK2 and returned both. While I appreciated the PX audio quality, comfort and NC were very big downsides. The MK2 was very comfortable at the time, but the audio quality to me was not quite there (particularly sound stage, vocals, separation). Am seriously considering the MK3 as I heard this has been improved. Comfort and NC have been bumped up in my priority list.

 

[st0nefish]

Thanks for your input! I ended up purchasing both the PX and the MK2 and returned both. While I appreciated the PX audio quality, comfort and NC were very big downsides. The MK2 was very comfortable at the time, but the audio quality to me was not quite there (particularly sound stage, vocals, separation). Am seriously considering the MK3 as I heard this has been improved. Comfort and NC have been bumped up in my priority list.

So, I can't speak from personal experience on the mk2 as I've never used a pair, but the mk3 are so far an easy winner over my PX in nearly every category. They only lose out marginally in the sound quality category, and really only because they seem to have followed the Beats train with a (slightly) V-Shaped response curve, which is a bit of a letdown after the fantastic mids of the PX. that being said, the Sony headphone connect app has a lot of tuning options, including EQ support, so I'll likely try playing with that soon to see if I can flatten out the response curve and undo the Beats-effect and get those mids back.

The real decider for me choosing the Sonys as my daily-driver pair is comfort, where the Sony pair wins in a landslide over the PX. I also have a moderate selection of wired headphones to compare to (Sennheiser HD700, Sennheiser HD6XX, AKG K7XX, Oppo PM-3, Audio Technica M50x) and while those are all quite comfortable headphones the only one that can even try to compete with the Sonys is the HD700, and only because of the improved ventilation/heat dissipation provided by the open-back design.

 

[keroro0071]

I would say XM3 has the most comfort among all these. Put this into consideration if you will wear them for a long time.