For iPhone users - can anyone compare the real-world usage of some if not all of these:
Bose QC35
Sony MDR-1000X
Sennheiser Momentum 2 NC Wireless Over-ear
Sennheiser PXC-550 Wireless
B&W P7 Wireless
Any other wireless over-ears (NC optional)?
Comfort, sound quality, build quality, wireless connection, battery life, interoperability with multiple devices, etc.
I've only had experience with the Bose QC35 and the Sony MDRXB950BT (I know it's not the 1000X, but it's the closest I've used).
Spent about a week with both, and the Bose is the clear winner, although it is not a perfect headset.
Comfort: Bose wins, slightly. Both get really hot (your ears get so hot that you will have to take them off every now and then to take a break and cool down). Other than that, I feel like the Sony pinched a little more out of the box, but after both broke in, they were similar. With the Bose, you could sleep on your side relatively comfortably, whereas you could not with the sony.
Sound quality: Bose wins. The Sony was just all BASS, even with the XB turned off. Everything was channeled to the low end, and sounded boomy. Mids were almost missing at times, and it was hard to hear conversations for TV. Movies however, had a very Dolby THX sound where everything was just over-the-top movie theater, like when they do that THX demo before the movie starts. So if you want movie sound all the time, the Sonys are great. Bose was a great all-around, with good mids that allowed everything to be heard clearly, although nothing was exceptional. Never was blown away by any of the sound, except for the noise cancelling which I'll address next:
Noise Cancelling: BOSE BOSE BOSE. These things are amazing. I was at Frys next to the TV section where they blast movies over their speakers, and once I put the QC35 on, I could not hear a thing. To clarify, you can't hear anything with music playing. Without music, but with NC on, you can hear an attenuated signal which is all shifted to the mids and highs. the low end is cancelled out. So a fan whirl will sound muffled and higher pitched than normal. With the headphones on, and NC off (headphones on the head, but the unit is turned off so no NC), it's just muffled noise with low end.
Build Quality: Sony wins here. Felt more solid, metal was beautiful, and everything felt like a quality build. Bose felt delicate, although it had better ergonomics. Bose shaped the ear pieces like real ears; Sony just made round ear pieces. Bose had a canted interior chamber; Sony did not. Bose clearly spent more time on ergonomics and the human form.
Wireless Connection: Both were the same in terms of reliability in connecting, range, and stability. And both were equally bad switching between two devices (say if you connected to both your iphone and your TV). There was no smart switching between signals, and there was even no easy way to switch between sources in a dumb way (selecting manually). Often times I would want to hear my TV, and I was connected to my iphone and vice versa.
Battery life: TIE. BOTH ARE EXCELLENT. You get around 4-5 days on moderate to heavy use. Probably a week or more on light use. I was amazed.
In the end, if money were not an issue, I would go Bose hands down, but only if I wasn't expecting some studio quality sound. But to save money, I would go XB950 at a $100 or under price point. At $350+, I could not justify the Bose either despite the NC.
I have a $6 pair of QY8 from Amazon on Amazon Prime Day, and to be honest, they are pretty comparable to the Bose. I won't say they are better, but in some cases, they were pretty much equal, with better lows. For the price, they blow the bose out of the water, with the only downside being battery life (4-5 hours at best, charge every night).
