Anyone tried the Sony 1000xm3 playing in a loud pinball setting? I love my Sennheiser’s. But I have heard the last 2 generations of Sony’s have made significant improvement to noise cancelling. Having the best noise cancelling has never been a priority for me, but my Momentum2 are getting a little beat up these days.
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Sony would have to do some miracle work to get to senn and Bose but I guess anything’s possible.
Have you tried the Bose QC30? They are spot on for me. Battery life is really long and they’ve improved the NC with a few updates.
Neil
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I bought them for my wife. They’re pretty good. Even testing them at BBY the surrounding craziness of Black Friday was a low mumble. Not dead silent but I think they’re a bit better than the Bose, maybe 10%?. I plan on getting a pair for myself but haven’t tried them out in the wild to play pinball yet but I’m guessing they’ll do pretty well. I like the feel and sound of them a bit better than the Bose too and they have an EQ app to customize them. I tried the lower end Sony ones that were $99 on BF and those were meh in comparison, so I’d stay away from those.
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Bose easily trumps all others in this category I would say. Not just my opinion, but also that of my sister in-law whose company makes the paper cones used by most of the major speaker manufacturers (including Sony, Bose, B&O etc etc) and has spent most of her life comparing these things.
Worth mentioning too that in-ear style earphones would give better results than over the ear style headphones.
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This has been what I have believed since the first QC started appearing in SkyMall. But I am reading mixed opinion of QC35 II vs WH-1000xm3. Both subjective and quantitative tests seem to be split on which is better, and most think the sound quality of the Sony’s is better.
As for in ear vs over ear. I have never warn a pair of in ear noise isolation headphones I found comfortable. Maybe there exists one out there, but I guess my ears are weird. Not really interesting in spending $400 on something i am not confident I can use.
Further reading is probably scaring me off the Sony’s because of the touch controls. Apparently issues below freezing, and I live in a place with winter.
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Another newcomer perhaps to throw into the mix is the Microsoft ones. They seem to be getting good reviews as well. I say head down to your local electronics shop and listen for yourself. It’s highly likely they’ll have at least the Sony and Bose on display to test out.
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bose stores will let you try…
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I have had the M2s from Sony for about a year and I am relatively happy with them. Based on IFPA stats, I have used them at 56 tournaments in the past year. I also use them for work and travel, so I have put a lot of hours on these.
+noise canceling works well
+great battery life
+ambient sound feature works well when walking around in traffic or among people
+Letting in outside sound when cupping the right side works well to hear what someone is saying, but it doesn’t actually pause the audio
-baffling feature that turns off the headphones after a few minutes if no Bluetooth or 3.5mm source connected. This was never patched, but was fixed on the M3 model. As a frequent traveler, this is a terrible feature for long flights and should have been patched by Sony.
-touch controls work fine, but are simply not as exact as actual buttons. Occasionally, I have to press several times for them to do what they should do even after a year of use. I have also had some issues with the hood of a shell jacket/windbreaker triggering the touch controls.
-a little chintzy and plasticky feeling. The plastic joints don’t inspire confidence and the paint is coming off the metal parts.
-Very wind sensitive.
-Work poorly for movies as they add a delay in the audio.
-Not as light or comfortable in general as the Bose, particularly around the neck.
-Boring looking. I wish they offered the custom options that Bose offers.
My previous headphones (2014 Plantronics something or other) automatically paused whatever was playing when they were removed and I miss that feature for pinball tournaments, so when these go in another year or two, that is a feature I will be looking for (and physical buttons).
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