Morning Folks 👋 I’m planning to get a noise cancellation headphone but confused at the choices. It seems like Bose QC and Sony XM4 are popular. Would be great to hear your inputs and experiences. Thanks!

XM4 hands down!🙌🏼 Been using it for more than 2 years now

nothing beats XM4's imo, XM5's came out recently but I didn’t like the new design. I’d say go for XM4's hands down

Started with Bose QC15s, now on a Sennheiser PXC 550. The Sennheisers are unparalleled in sound quality, better than the Bose IMO and the ANC is the same on both.

+1 to the Sennheisers. I have a PXC 550 for quite a few years now. You should go to a Croma and try out the options. If you are looking for the best noise cancellation, Bose does a very good job and they are quite comfortable. Sonys have the most tech & features and if you prefer the Sennheiser's warm sound signature, they will be a good fit for you. Most of them are in the same price range and I actually got my Sennheisers for 5K cheaper at Croma than Amazon. (If you are trying out the headphones, play stuff from your phone. Bose usually has a desk with very high fidelity music (not found on most devices) which make their headphones sound really really good. But for a fair comparison, use the same audio source)

Sennheiser PXC 550 seems to be half-off today.

That's the regular price for the PXC 550 (since April). https://graph.keepa.com/pricehistory.png?asin=B07XYLPPSL&domain=in

Interesting... looks like a new version might be around the corner. I don't mind getting a spare one for the family at the price.

BTW, had this issue with XM4s and had to return. + a static noise issue

All nice suggestions by people over here. My two cents before you get any headphones. On bluetooth connection if you use mic your speaker sound quality will go down significantly on many products. Also some models, like sony xm4, have a wired mode but don't allow mic in wired mode. You can only use them for listening. So headphones instead of headset. You cannot use them for calls on pc. Need to use something else for mic. Make sure the product has the features you need.

Thanks for the inputs folks 🙏 For some more context, the problem i am trying to solve is to silence the external sounds while on the calls. I don’t play music or use it with mobile. It would be mostly with calls. But things can change 😅 XM4 looks like a choice here. Good to know about Sennheiser, it has better pricing, only thing is that the i didn’t like the design. @lemon-knife-94497 So you mean airpod would be better compared to headset? I’m planning to mostly use it along with a mac and my colleague who is using airpod with his mac always had some issue and it seems like a somewhat global issue? I am looking for following features • noise cancellation without compromising sound quality • no pain in ear while using it for some time • shouldn’t feel the weight in the head • i never hear music, watch films, or play games, so things like bass, ~~ etc is irrelevant. • move around while in meetings (hence the need for wireless)

silence the external sounds while on the calls.

If you want to filter out your/other person's background noise, krisp is an excellent solution. If you want to suppress your BG noise from reaching your ears, XM4/5 is good. But, with over ears, your ears will tend to heat up or sweat depending on your ambient temperature.

airpod with his mac always had some issue and it seems like a somewhat global issue

Latency and bad quality when enabling mic is a technical limitation of bluetooth bandwidth. Using your mac's mic + krisp is the best way to handle that (I've been doing this for a while now).

Yep. I agree with Sidharth. You are probably looking at krisp.ai Any noise cancellation headphones will be closed back -- which will cause the heating up - plus feeling of being under water. If you have a lot of background noise at your end -- you'd have to go with a noise cancellation headphone + krisp so that the bg noise does not reach the rest of the people.

@creamy-dawn-73235 No, I don't mean that at all. I've never used airpod so probably not the right person to comment on this. My main point is a lot of bluetooth products have bad sound quality once you start using mic. It's a bluetooth problem as @glamorous-mouse-696 mentioned. The link you shared is the exact problem shared by most if not all devices.

I wrote a hammerspoon script to auto switch to macbook mic once bluetooth is connected, because the difference in sound quality is extreme. https://github.com/sidharthv96/dotfiles/blob/master/.hammerspoon/Modules/BluetoothInput.lua

Gotcha! have been using Krisp + mac’s mic. When there is noise, the cancellation works really well for receivers end but i lose focus on the sounds near me. Oh, also i have hearing issue and i consult doctor for every 6 month to clean up the ear dust but its been 3+ years i haven’t done that 😅. so currently on calls i keep my ear very near to the mac in order to clearly hear the voice and becomes worst during the noises. So folks, I’m gonna settle with getting a headphone while continuing to use Krisp. Thanks a lot for your inputs, found really helpful and learned few things 😄 🙏

Oh. If you are not using a headphone as yet -- just get any headphone. It will increase your experience 10x. I got my daughter these Sony ones for 600 bucks: https://www.amazon.in/gp/product/B00KGZZ824/ and they are extremely good for the price point. You can just get these and see if they work well enough considering you are not listening to music / playing games. (Also, any headphones turned loud enough become noise cancelling 😉 )

folks who have wh-1000xm4, can you hear fan noise with ANC turned on? I got my headphones very recently (first noise cancelling headset) and I can hear, although at reduced intensity. Is it normal or something off?

Depends on how fast the fan is and if you're trying to hear the noise deliberately or not. Also, if the fan blows directly on your head, it sometimes causes issues with the mic.

Ahh, okay, thanks. I have it at 4 or 5 (max speed) and directly above my head