I’ve found a good number of negative reviews of Bose QC 2 and quite a few good things said about Sony WF-1000XM5 so I’m leaning towards buying them but would love to hear the general recommendation on Lemmy first.
I live in a very noisy environment and need earphones for my sleep, when I work or relax, and for listening to podcasts as well as a bit of music. And since sleep is most important for me, I have in-ear comfort as the top priority.
I’m still on the Sony XM4. No reason to upgrade really.
I’ve got Bose QC35 ii or something. If you’ve got big ears or a big head, they’re great.
I didn’t do many tests myself comparing the noise cancellation, but they do a good enough job for me at cancelling our steady noise (like wind, engine noises, computer fans, etc).
I can wear them all day and not feel like I need to take a break for my ears or head.
Here’s my experience, this could get quite lengthy:
I was in the market for earphones a couple of week a ago. After reading and watching many reviews I still couldn’t decide which to buy, so in the end I bought a couple.
My first priority at the time was sound quality. My choices of earphones ware the Sony WF-1000XM5, the Technics EAH-AZ80 and the Samsung Galaxy Buds FE which are a third of the price of the other two to make sure I could even “hear the difference”.
The XM5’s and the Galaxy Buds had a very similar sound profile, a “classic” earbud sound, something you would expect from normal earbuds if you’ve used any before.
The Galaxy Buds were good with adequate noise cancelling. Good for sporting with the wingtips.
The Sony XM5’s sound was very good with a bass heavy profile but became very uncomfortable in my ear after half an hour of use, bringing comfort into the equation, something I never even considered before. Their noise cancelling is outstanding, even dangerous as passing cars on the street became almost inaudible.
However the sound of the AZ80’s ABSOLUTELY BLEW ME AWAY! They sound so much better to my ears than the other two pairs. I suddenly understood what the reviews meant by “clear open soundstage” and “instrument separation”. Before this experience I had no point of reference, so these subjective terms in the reviews didn’t really mean anything to me. Their noise cancelling is also very good.
My take always from this experience are:
- earphones can sound vastly different depending on their construction and tuning
- comfort is way more important than I previously though
- active noise cancelling has gotten very good even on cheaper models
- sound profiles like “open” or “closed” sound completely change the listening experience
- unless you listen to high resolution FLAC, you won’t notice a massive difference in sound reproduction quality especially over Bluetooth
- if you just want to “listen to something” and “block out outside noise” save you money and get lower to mid range ANC earphones
The only way to actually know which earphones you like the most, is to try them. If you are able to return purchased goods in the first few weeks, go and buy like 3 or 4 pairs and try them all.
TLDR; I stuck with the Technics EAH-AZ80 for sound enjoyment. I was very disappointed with the Sony XM5’s comfort and would recommend the Galaxy Buds for casual listening and sporting activities.
Hope this is helpful.
sennheiser always makes good products. i have an old pair of BT 4.50 ANCs that have been kicking for more than 5 years. they’re great
I would agree, but I would not want to sleep with them on as OP requested.
Aha! I’ve had both of these types.
Got a set of the Sony ones. Comfort 10/10, sound quality 12/10, stupid fuckin touch sensors instead of physical buttons that trigger constantly when you put the headphones down round your neck and you can’t switch them off and it drives you so fuckin mad you sell them on eBay at a massive loss 0/10
So I got the Bose QC 45, comfort 12/10, sound quality 10/10, physical buttons, was 5/10 because there was no way to check battery level but they updated them last week so now long-press on the left button does that 10/10
The Bose ones even feel more well-made than the Sony and were €100 less
The noise cancelling on the Sony was slightly better but the Bose ones aren’t as tight so that could be why
I will never, ever buy a set of headphones with touch sensors ever again
deleted by creator
Not sure why you got downvoted but you’re right 😅
I should also add that the gesture control on Sony is almost worthless. To turn the volume up or down a significant amount, you have to swipe up or down like 20 times. Half the time it ends up reading one of the swipes as forward or backward and skips to another song.
deleted by creator
The volume is slow but I use the play/pause, next features all the time without issue. I think you need to fix the direction you swipe your finger
Haha, could be. I just find it super annoying. I think I’ll probably go back to Bose, as it just worked without any real fuss. That’s more important to me than a marginal improvement in sound quality.
For me it works 80% of the time. It’s only if your hands are slightly moist when you’re in trouble.
deleted by creator
deleted by creator
To be fair, they can’t really expect you to be able to hear them with your tiny ears when you’re encased like that…
deleted by creator
I have both. The way Bose handles bluetooth with multiple devices is so awful that I gave up on them and bought the Sony’s. They would probably be fine if you only intend to ever pair them to one device. However, for me, I just never figured out what they were trying to do. I’d turn them on and they’d wake up a sleeping iPad in another room, or closed laptop, and then refuse to connect to my phone (using the phone’s built in Bluetooth menu) until I opened the Bose App to reconfigure them. The last straw was on video calls for work-- they’d randomly re-connect with a random device.
The Sony’s just don’t do that. They don’t wake up random sleeping or idle devices, and if they do connect to the wrong device I can use the OS Bluetooth menus to manually connect them to a given device – rather than opening the app in my phone.
Interesting, I’ve had the opposite experience. Bose worked pretty seamlessly for me between 3 devices. The Sony headphones constantly get confused on which device I’m trying to use and I have to manually fidget with my devices to get the correct one to play.
I have Bose and like them a lot. They’ll probably do exactly what you want, however, noise cancelling is not all noise cancelling. Mostly lower frequencies. It makes things quiet but if you’re in a loud environment with lots of mid to high frequency like talking, they’re not gonna help much. Haven’t used the Sony’s for a long time but I think the noice cancelling is the same.
I know you want to use them for sleep, but since these are big headphones already, I’d recommend a pair of noise protection earmuffs and use earbuds or shove some speakers from another set of headphones in there. This will be the best noise cancelling but least comfortable.
But the XM5 Im talking about are earphones not headphones
Unfortunately, I have both the headphones and the ear buds and I think the cans isolate noise better than the buds. It could be a problem due to a bad fit though. With the buds I could not get a decent fit with the foam tips so ended up getting some tips on Amazon so I lose a little noise isolation there. The size of the buds for the xm5 isn’t the greatest for me either so THAT doesn’t help - I get a little bit of slipping while eating for example. All said, I still think the xm5 does OKAY, but my link buds surpass it due to a better fit.
The bose might have an overall edge imo going by their reputation of having a good and comfortable fit. My brother has a pair and says they fit real well. I just can’t do the bose because the case is too large for me to carry in my pockets (even the newest model is rather large. The last generation was ridiculous - Bose is kind of crazy with their cases).
I would make sure you buy a pair from a store with a good return policy so if the fit does not work well for you you can exchange for something else. Everyone’s ears are different so there is no way to say how it will fit for you till you try them on.
My bad. Try the earbuds then. Gonna be the most comfortable with decent noise cancelling.
I had QC 2s and liked them a lot. I tried out the Sony ones as well which are very good.
However these days I have Air Pod Pros which are easier lay down on a pillow with and also have excellent noise cancelling.
Full headphones can get hot and uncomfortable in warm weather, so I prefer earbuds these days.
I sleep with my AirPods Pro in every night. I can’t live without them.
Both the Bose and Sony are considered top but Sony is more expensive.I have the Bose and like them but a known defect is the earpad that will break very quickly (buy Chinese replacement for those)
Removed by mod
If you might also care about the socioeconomic manufacturing process and fair payment for these necessary resources, I can recommend the Fairbuds in-ears or Fairbuds XL for over ear.
https://shop.fairphone.com/fairbuds
Both have noise cancelling as an option and an equalizer via app.
That’d be great but can you comment on the comfort and sound/ANC quality?
They’re underwhelming especially for the price. You trade performance for sustainability and repairability… But they do work.
Better than individual experiences I like to present some reviews, but there doesn’t seem to be that many technical reviews in english, at least I did not find them. https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2024/apr/11/fairphone-fairbuds-review-ethically-made-earbuds-with-replaceable-batteries
However, for in-ears, I find them comfortable, but I am more an over ears person. ANC is alright, I’d say. A bit annoying if I am using it on the train and keep hitting the wall or head rest. But either I adapt to these sounds or the hardware takes a bit more time to filter these vibrations out.
For the tradeoff of better sustainability and exchangability if something breaks or the batteries need replacing, I find the price fair.
Tbh fair phone really turned me off when they removed the headphone jack on their phones. All for sustainability but they force you to use wireless earbuds that never seem to last more than a few years, or buy their sustainable, overpriced mediocre headphones.
That’s fair to be annoyed about. I can understand their approach and their tradeoff for a bit of better water-/rain protection and having less components inside. With an USB-C adapter I am using my analog ear buds, even though I switch more and more to bluetooth as I find them more comfortable.
Mediocre headphones, I would not say. They are definitely not top of the line technology wise, but I find them sufficient and sometimes even more than I expected fairly produced hardware to be.
Really wanted to love the WF-1000XM5, but I had issues with the left earbud constantly hissing and worse still, they have a habit of turning themselves on while in the case (cutting off any media playback and draining the battery if I didn’t notice)
Clean the contacts inside the case or maybe adjust them with a pin. Make sure the buds fit snugly in the case. Had a pair of bluetooth buds that had a similar problem, and it was because one contact was barely touching when the buds were in the case. Any jiggling of the case would make the bud think it was being removed.
