Sennheiser PXC 550-II Wireless Headphone with Alexa Built-In, Noise Cancellation and Smart Pause - Black

These are very comfortable headphones for long journeys or for lounging around and not being too intrusive. The battery life is amazing and the sound quality is up to Sennheiser standards. Noise cancellation isn’t the best but it’s sufficient.I use them for meditation and they’re amazing with Binaural Beats and I can get into a meditative state very quickly which I can’t do with other headphones which is a testament to the sound quality.

Excellent noise cancellation. Big-ear compatible. Sound lacks deep bass outright but is otherwise well balanced - their app needs some work. Settings can be adjusted with iPhone’s equaliser in Music so above is not a massive negative. Case is a bit flimsy but is compact - not hard shell. Includes mini USB charging cable and plane cable connector/adaptor. Ear cups feel premium. Light on ears. The extendable arms could have been 2-3 notches longer but personally ok.

Good quality. Sit over ear for comfort and cutting out external noise.Functional styling.Setting up with multiple devices via blue tooth could be easier.

In this price bracket you're essentially choosing between Sony and Sennheiser. Both are good products, and if you read around, you might find slightly more love for the Sony. BUT...Sennheiser often have v good price offers, and if you can find it, you'll be getting yourself a good deal and a good product that you'll be happy with.Sound: Good balanced range. Slightly light on the base, but I listen to a lot of classical, so that fine.Comfort: Pretty good. Trade up for more comfort I think. The ear cups could be slightly bigger, but maybe I have massive ears.Bluetooth: Meh. Very good with my Chrome Box, slightly longer to connect to iPhone. Very low latency, so no need to worry about that.Noise Cancellation: Pretty good. Techs seem to think Sony is better (see comment on price). I'd say it blocks natural conversation/background quite well. No ear-drum pressure you sometimes get with noise cancellation.App/Settings: Sennheiser have a rather poor phone app that was recently updated & now requires a login to harvest your data. This is frustrating. The app is rather threadbare in terms of what it actually does, and the speed in which it talks to the headphones. It does give you adaptive noise cancelling and some very basic EQ options.Battery: Pretty good - charging and listening hrs. Charges v fast on my Chrome Box, lasts a good few hrs, and comes with a USB cable & and old-school cable in case.Size/carry: Doesn't fold small, but comes with a nice case that it "hinges" into. Not a pocket/convenience product.

Really difficult to know what overall rating to give these headphones! They're a mixed bag, and whether they're a good choice really depends on your priorities.Starting with the best features, then moving to the more disappointing...1) The excellentPut simply: voice quality. This was the priority for me (like so many of us in 2020/1 who want the best possible experience on phone and video calls). I researched extensively and was surprised how many manufacturers (and reviewers) don't treat voice quality as a priority. When you listen specifically to microphone samples (try the DHRME channel on YouTube), you realise how many 'highly rated' headphones have a microphone that simply is not fit for purpose.These Sennheisers are excellent in that respect. Everyone I talk to can hear me very clearly, and vice versa. As long as you have access to a Windows PC, you can also adjust the level of "side tone", i.e. how much of your voice is fed back into the earphones. (Without this, it's a bit disconcerting not to be able to properly hear your own voice while you talk.) A shame though that you can't do this from a phone or a Linux device - the only way to do it is by connecting a USB cable to a Windows device.2) The decentThe active noise cancellation is not bad. It acceptably cuts out annoying noise in my environment, although it isn't the noisiest. There definitely are headphones on the market with better ANC, but as I say, this comes at the cost of poor voice quality. (If I was buying now though, I might check out the Sony XM4s again with their newest firmware which seems to have improved voice quality.)Comfort is pretty good. You might feel a bit warm after extended use, but not really sore, even with glasses.Battery life is good - no problem using them all day. The charging port is Micro USB rather than USB-C: an issue which motivates some people to a burning fervour, but not me.3) The badThe headphones can connect to two devices at once, but Sennheiser has really messed up the implementation of this. Rather than mixing the sound between the two devices, it tries to actively switch, something which is jarring and slow. Let's say you're listening to music on your phone, and your PC makes a ping sound when an email sound comes in. My cheap Taotronics headphones handled this fine: you simply hear the ping over the top of the music, which goes on playing.So surely this will work just fine on the far more expensive Sennheisers, right? Wrong. What, in fact, happens in this scenario? The music stops. The ping sound is played. 10-15 seconds pass in silence. And finally the music starts again. It's maddening. So you'll either end up disabling most of the sounds on Windows, or just keeping the headphones connected to one device at once.With that off my chest, I'm still overall not unhappy I bought these - but I would recommend them only if your #1 requirement is call quality.

Good flat frequency response. Just had to add a little bass boost in the MP3 app to get the depth of kick drum I like to go with transparency everywhere else. Telephone callers report good audio from the mics. Noise cancellation works best on steady audio noises like whine from motors. Reduces but not completely eliminates annoying on train announcements. Cancellation effectiveness also depends on the angle of the noise source to the headset. I prefer the good audio quality so roll with these cans that are noise reducing rather than noise cancelling.

I use these for film editing and occasionally for watching some programmes online. I have poor hearing and often have difficulty in comprehending the audio on a radio or TV in a room. However, these have perfect sound. My exasperated wife could confirm that the external noise cancellation is superb. I’ve had cheaper headphones in the past, but the quality of these are vastly superior.