It’s the season when a new pair of college students move into the apartment above mine–each year I wonder what sorts of noises my enthusiastic new neighbors will be thumping through my rather thin ceiling for the next 10 months. I just learned about this ANC thing and thought hm, maybe with this I’d no longer be fantasizing about renting that apartment as well as my own just to have nice quiet. ; D
I dipped my toes into the shallow end with the encouragingly-reviewed $44 Anker Q20i Hybrid Active Noise Cancelling Headphones
^ They didn’t work out for me: didn’t fit over my ears, didn’t sound better than my Pixel 10’s speaker, and the ANC made a constant hissing sound.
So I panic upgraded to the most stupidly expensive thing, Sony 1000X THE COLLEXION Wireless Noise Cancelling Headphones
So far–aside from frustrating minutes trying to get their Android app to realize it was allowed to connect during initial setup–amazing. Turn on the ANC and noises do fade away, with no hissing, just quiet. The very loudest boot stomps by early 20-somethings in their first apartment on the floor above still come through, but vaguely and distantly, even with no audio playing. And I can listen to podcasts while using the WaterPik on my darn tortured gums each morning without having to crank the volume up to a stupid level. ; )
The metal frame is appreciated. I hope they last last a good deal longer than the 1 year warranty. (I try not to think about this. They are going to stay in my apartment and never go outside. >_<)
I spent a fair amount of time looking at Bose’ top line model, the QuietComfort Ultra 2nd Gen, which consistently rates slightly higher than the “1000XX” for comfort–weighing nearly 20% less probably helps–and ANC in reviews, but Bose’ headphones apparently have been prone to a creaking issue
https://www.reddit.com/r/bose/comments/17gjuzu/quietcomfort_ultra_creaking_on_right_cup/
–seemingly due, according to people dissecting theirs, to wires coming loose inside and rubbing against the casing, or something–and creaking became a huge pet peeve of mine with headphones when I was trying to find a good youtubing headset.
Speaking of which, I missed this thread when I blabbered back in Jan about the headset I ended up going with
^ The wired Audio-Technica ATH-M50xSTS-USB StreamSet Streaming Headset has an actual dynamic mic, very unusually for a headset, and really does sound almost as good as a studio mic (and I can only use those rather painfully in my tiny, noise-reflective apartment).