The Search for the Perfect Headphones
I'm really fussy about headphones. Well, I'm really fussy about most things, but I'm particularly fussy about headphones. This post started as a quick look at why the Bose NC 700 are my headphones of choice but instead it has turned into a riveting history of my headphones ownership, so I have given each section a heading.
The Early Years
As a kid my biggest criteria for headphones was that they had a long cord so that I could watch TV in my room without disturbing my parents. I can recall having two pairs of very 90s styled Goodmans on-ear headphones and then a Philips over-ear set.
The first I can recall caring about headphone quality was when I started using a CD player regularly as a young teenager. I had an ice blue Sony Discman and when using it outside the house I would use the included earphones which must have been pretty awful. The bass enhancement function on Discman probably compensated for their default crapness.
At one point I decided to spend some pocket money on better headphones, choosing a Philips over ear set. They were gold with rotating cups and I think they probably cost around £45 in 2004. I was amazed by their sound, they were the best thing I had ever heard. I can recall listening to The Sunshine Underground and feeling enveloped by deep, smooth bass.
They didn't last very long though which was very frustrating to me as someone without their first job. The rotating cups were held in place by plastic grooves inside the headband which wore down to dust due to their movement while on your head, resulting in the cups falling out of the headband! Repair was attempted with two jubilee clips but without the rotation function the headphones were very uncomfortable. I can still recall my upset as I threw them in the bin.
The Commute Begins
The headphones I used for the longest stretch were the standard Apple EarPods. Yes, the pack in earphones that came with iPhones. Prior to these I used a lot of standard 'in-ear' earphones - the type with the rubber buds - for their sound blocking qualities and deep bass compared to other earphone styles. I remember buying a pair of Sonys for this and I thought the bass was amazing, but they were a very extravagant £30 which was a lot of money for me at the time.
They sounded great, but during any physical activity, such as my walk to work, they would need constant re-adjustment maintain a proper seal in my ears. Not only this but the cable transmitted any contact sound up to my ears, with each brush against my clothing making a loud bass sound - and heaven forbid if the touched a zip. The cable was also strange U shape where one side was shorter than the other. Initially this seemed impractical until a friend explained that it was supposed to drape behind your neck rather than your under your chin. A great design idea, but ruined as the cable was only about 20cm long which I can only imagine was for compatiblity with in-line remotes as were common on Sony Discmans (or is it Discmen?) It came with an absurdly long extension cable where the weight of the connector would pull the cable down away from your ears, eventually causing the cable to pull against your neck and then inevitably the earbud from your ear.
Enter the EarPods. I can't recall why I first tried a pair as I wasn't buying iPhones back then but they were a revelation. The ear fit was spectacular; I could plop them straight in with no need for constant re-adjustment. The sound quality was on the better side of adequate but surprisingly, unlike most non in-ear buds, there was actually some bass! Nothing earth shattering but they were a very good baseline sound profile, which is also true of the first generation AirPods. I still think it's very good especially if you lack comparison to other sets.
Noise Cancellation Desires
Despite my satisfaction with AirPods there was a technology that I was quite desperate for - noise cancellation! I bought some Sony h.ear WH-H900n over ear headphones after trying everything on display in various electronic stores.
My first impressions were very positive. They were premium feeling with nice supple cushioning and a convenient folding mechanism, and they looked great too, but something wasn't right. I found their sound really.. fatiguing. Tiring to listen to. I messed with various settings but nothing solved this specific issue. It's difficult to describe my subjective perception of their sound profile, but they felt 'artificial', 'clinical'; overly sharp and precise. It was as if the headphones were always applying some sort of 'sound enhancement' profile, the type you used to get back in the MP3 player days where 'sound enhancer' modes to purported to 'restore the clarity of your MP3s'. It felt like the sound was being re-interpreted by the headphones instead of serving it to me in its raw form.
Unlike wired headphones which take the audio 'as is' from the headphone socket, Bluetooth headphones have their own DAC inside to convert the digital signal to an analog waveform for the speakers, so there is a level of 're-interpretation' of the sound, giving manufacturers of these devices the ability to adjust the sound profile in software/firmware. There is only so much fighting against this, so I gave the h.ears to my Dad. I simply could not enjoy music with them. They turned it into a chore. Of course he thinks they sound great!
Lockdown
During lockdown I largely worked from home so the search for some better sounding headphones started up again, as to not pollute the house with music while my partner was also working, taking various phone calls and conducting meetings. I'm that annoying person that returns 60% of their purchases and in this period I really made use of every retailer's returns policy in my endeavour to find headphones that suited me.
I tried
- JVC XTreme Xplosives (HAMR60XB) - Not particularly explosive. Sounded like listening to music over a telephone line.
- Bose QuietComfort 25 - Flat and weak sound, very 'mid-range' heavy'.
- Sony XHXMDCHDMCMAMMA-XM3 - Awful name. They had that same 'artificial' and 'clinical' sound of the other first Sony pair I tried, so I figure this is a characteristic of all their headphones.
- Beats Studio 3 - Bad build quality and uncomfortable as the earcups do not rotate.
- Beats EP - I actually thought these sounded great. A warm sound profile - which is actually probably 'muffled' to anyone else - but they were painful to wear. I was apprehensive about the 'on-ear' style and I was right to be, they were like a torture implement. I found that my ears were in agony after wearing them for an hour.
- Jabra Elite 85t - I can't recall much about these. I think their sound quality was pretty average and they were uncomfortable as they were quite big and heavy.
In the end I settled on the Creative Zen Aurvana SE. The build quality is a little flimsy, but this lightness means that I can wear them for hours and hours without any discomfort. They sound great too, bright without any harshness and plenty of bass.
Settling for Bose
Despite my satisfaction with the Creative headphones I still longed for some noise cancelling headphones to isolate myself fully from the outside world. Bose had an offer on their NC 700 headphones and a 90 day money back guarantee. With my love of sending stuff back I couldn't resist, but it worked out well and I've actually kept them. I think they're 'pretty good'. They feel nice, look smart, the noise cancellation is fantastic and they sound.. well, whenever I put them on I have a five minute adjustment period where I think they sound a little bit flat and 'mid-rangey' but I find that after five minutes I adjust to it. They have nice smooth, controlled bass, they're sharp and price sounding without feeling shrill or harsh, and I find myself hearing details in music that I never noticed before.
My criticisms of them are -
- There is no labeling on the three identical buttons which is the total opposite of good user interface design. You need to try the buttons to find out what they do and then memorise it. Don't wear them for a while? Better press them again to remind yourself what they do.
- The battery life in my usage is no way near the stated 20 hours. They estimate about 12 hours when powered on but about 10 is more likely, though I've never tried them with NC off.
- The build is quite creaky, with lots of rubbing plastic sounds as you move.
- Sometimes they make my ears hurt. I think this is dependent on how I have them adjusted.
- The audio passthrough function is very poor. I think it only passes through a small portion of the frequency spectrum with latency. It's uncanny and unpleasant, unlike the AirPod Pros where the passthrough mode feels truly 'transparent' - you could forget that you we wearing them.
Despite this they are the best I've tried in terms of sound profile. A lot of reviews slated the 'touchpad' controls on the right ear cup but surprisingly I quite like them. Unlike the unlabelled buttons it is very intuitive. Swipe up or down to adjust the volume, swipe forward or back for skip tracks and double tap for play/pause. One time out of ten I might fail on the double tap but the rest has been spot on.
The Future
I'd really like to love the Sonys but can't bear the sound. One day when I'm feeling flush I'd like to try the AirPods Max as Apple seem to design their sound profile to be very balanced and natural and I bet they're very easy to live with.