Looking for decent all purpose wireless headphones

[lehtv]

Requirements:
- comfortable to wear for 4+ hours at a time
- fairly good at reducing outside noise, fairly low noise bleed
- not too bulky for using on the go with smartphone
- low latency, suitable for fps gaming (e.g. uses aptX Low Latency over bluetooth)
- significantly better sound quality than that of ~$100 wired gaming headsets
- less than $300, preferably closer to $150-200

Do these exist, or should I just get two sets - one bulky circumaural closed cup set for gaming, another on-ear set for portable use?

 

[MushyNAT]

Pretty sure those don't exist, as most of the requirements contradict each other. You want something that's got low noise bleed and high noise cancellation but isn't bulky to the point of using it on the go with a smartphone? Low latency gaming features, but not "gaming" headphones and with significantly better sound quality than a gaming headset? And it all has to be wireless? Is it gonna make breakfast too?

Your best best is getting a nice gaming headset (I've had amazing luck with the Razer Characias, and I almost never buy into "gaming" branded stuff. Pretty sure they renamed it Tiamat or Man O War or something), and then a separate set of nice headphones. I don't think any of the high end audio-quality focused brands have any products that include low-latency tech for gaming, and studio quality really isn't a selling point for gaming sets. Throw wireless into the mix and you're on the hunt for a unicorn.

 

[lehtv]

I don't see how most those contradict each other.

• comfort doesn't contradict anything, any headphone "form factor" can be comfortable if designed right, regardless of other features
• the sound quality requirement doesn't contradict anything: my budget should be plenty to easily beat $100 gaming headphones, and wireless sound quality is great with aptX
• wirelessness contradicts the other requirements how...? wireless headphones may be a bit more expensive and ones with low latency may be less common, but at the same time, wireless improves portability and makes bulkiness less of an issue.
• the price requirement contradicts the other requirements how...? Can you point me to headphones that meet all the other requirements but are outside my budget?

The only question, really, is noise reduction/blocking vs. bulkiness. I'm willing to sacrifice on either requirement a little bit if all the others are met, but I'm just wondering if there are headphones that are closed cup but not massively big. Even circumaural headphones have a lot of variety in terms of size, and some can be folded for better portability. I was looking at B&O Beoplay H7 but they were a bit too expensive and open back design, otherwise they seemed perfect.

The last thing I'm going to get is a gaming headset. Here are the requirements again, this time in order of importance, so I start from the bottom if I have to make compromises:
1. wireless with low latency
2. <$300
3. tied: sound quality / comfort
4. tied: noise bleed and noise blocking / portability

 

[lehtv]

Sennheiser Momentum On-Ear Wireless might be it. Uses regular aptX, but according to some random redditors there's no noticeable delay. I don't intend to game competitively, I just want to avoid noticeable delays. I'm just unclear on the noise bleed / blocking aspect, need to research a bit more.

 

[Mr Evil]

I can't offer a definitive recommendation because I haven't tried many wireless headphones, but I have a pair of Avantree Audition Pros that meet some of your criteria:

• Very comfortable.
• Not noise cancelling. Average at blocking outside noises.
• Not small, being circumaural, but they fold up to a more portable size, and the weight is reasonable.
• They support AptX Low Latency. I can't use it because don't have a compatible transmitter, but standard AptX is fine for gaming.
• Sound quality is not as good as some of the more expensive headphones I've owned, but good enough that I don't feel that I should have paid more.
• Well below your budget.

Apart from that, and one of the reasons I got these, is that the battery life is specified at 40 hours, and they really do last that long.

 

[MushyNAT]

I don't see how most those contradict each other.

• comfort doesn't contradict anything, any headphone "form factor" can be comfortable if designed right, regardless of other features
• the sound quality requirement doesn't contradict anything: my budget should be plenty to easily beat $100 gaming headphones, and wireless sound quality is great with aptX
• wirelessness contradicts the other requirements how...? wireless headphones may be a bit more expensive and ones with low latency may be less common, but at the same time, wireless improves portability and makes bulkiness less of an issue.
• the price requirement contradicts the other requirements how...? Can you point me to headphones that meet all the other requirements but are outside my budget?

The only question, really, is noise reduction/blocking vs. bulkiness. I'm willing to sacrifice on either requirement a little bit if all the others are met, but I'm just wondering if there are headphones that are closed cup but not massively big. Even circumaural headphones have a lot of variety in terms of size, and some can be folded for better portability. I was looking at B&O Beoplay H7 but they were a bit too expensive and open back design, otherwise they seemed perfect.

The last thing I'm going to get is a gaming headset. Here are the requirements again, this time in order of importance, so I start from the bottom if I have to make compromises:
1. wireless with low latency
2. <$300
3. tied: sound quality / comfort
4. tied: noise bleed and noise blocking / portability

1) You want good noise cancelling, but want them to be slim enough to plug into your smartphone and wear around. Truly good noise cancelling can't be done without some bulk, certainly more than can be done with little clip-on ear headphones.

2) Gaming focused features like low latency don't get put into headphones with a focus on high end sound quality, there's just no reason to be that worried about a little latency if all you're doing is listening to music. Likewise high end sound quality isn't really paired with gaming features, it's not the design priority for that segment of products and needlessly drives up the price for people who don't care about it.

3) Anyone serious about audio quality is going to have trouble finding anything they would describe as "good" or "high end" audio quality in a sub-$300 set of cans.

The product you want, with all the features you want, in the price range you want simply does not exist. Unless you're compromising on certain aspects, or your bar for what qualifies as "good" sound quality is a lot lower than what most audio reviewers would describe it as, you're going to have a really hard time finding the product you're looking for.

 

[lehtv]

1) You want good noise cancelling, but want them to be slim enough to plug into your smartphone and wear around. Truly good noise cancelling can't be done without some bulk, certainly more than can be done with little clip-on ear headphones.

I don't want "truly good noise cancelling" or even "good noise cancelling". I want fairly good noise cancelling, and that's my last priority as I stated above. In other words, I'd like them to have better than average noise cancelling (passive, not ANC) and lower than average noise bleed, if possible.

I don't want "little clip on ear headphones". They don't have to be invisible, I just want to avoid the ones that are too bulky. I.e. bulky is fine, too bulky is not.

2) Gaming focused features like low latency don't get put into headphones with a focus on high end sound quality, there's just no reason to be that worried about a little latency if all you're doing is listening to music. Likewise high end sound quality isn't really paired with gaming features, it's not the design priority for that segment of products and needlessly drives up the price for people who don't care about it.

I'm not asking for any gaming specific features. I'm just asking for low latency. Plenty of headphones which focus on sound quality have aptX which improves sound quality, but also introduces much less delay than standard bluetooth protocols. They may not be designed for gaming - rather, the idea is to sync audio and video when watching movies and TV - but that doesn't mean gaming doesn't benefit from the same technology just as much. In addition, some headphones have aptX Low Latency which officially states gaming as one of the use cases, so any headphones that use aptX LL can be viewed as gaming headphones even if they're not marketed as such. Hence my original requirement for aptX LL, but it does seem that I'll be fine with regular aptX as well.

3) Anyone serious about audio quality is going to have trouble finding anything they would describe as "good" or "high end" audio quality in a sub-$300 set of cans.

Why do you assume I'm "serious" about audio quality? Unfortunately you seem to be misreading basically everything I say. All I've said is that I want headphones that sound significantly better than typical $100 gaming headsets. This is not much to ask with a $300 budget, and it certainly doesn't make me an audiophile. Even most $100 dedicated headphones should easily beat $100 gaming headsets in terms of sound quality.

The product you want, with all the features you want, in the price range you want simply does not exist.

Then can you please just get to the point and suggest the next best thing, in your opinion?

 

[lehtv]

I can't offer a definitive recommendation because I haven't tried many wireless headphones, but I have a pair of Avantree Audition Pros that meet some of your criteria:

• Very comfortable.
• Not noise cancelling. Average at blocking outside noises.
• Not small, being circumaural, but they fold up to a more portable size, and the weight is reasonable.
• They support AptX Low Latency. I can't use it because don't have a compatible transmitter, but standard AptX is fine for gaming.
• Sound quality is not as good as some of the more expensive headphones I've owned, but good enough that I don't feel that I should have paid more.
• Well below your budget.

Apart from that, and one of the reasons I got these, is that the battery life is specified at 40 hours, and they really do last that long.

Thanks, I think I missed these since they're so cheap and also not available here in Europe. It seems a pretty low risk purchase so I could very well give them a try if I don't find anything else, but I'd have to have them shipped for about $20 from Amazon.com.

 

[lehtv]

Got the help I needed from head-fi.org forums, it boiled down to two choices: Plantronics Backbeat Pro 2 for 204€ and Sony H.ear On Wireless AC (MDR-100ABN) for 149€. Normally, MDR-100ABN would've cost at least 200€ but I found them on sale, and their reviews were generally better than those of Backbeat Pro 2 so it was an easy choice to go with Sony, and I'm glad to have saved half of my budget. Both headphones had aptX (Backbeat Pro 2 also supported aptX Low Latency), ANC (can be switched off), decent enough sound quality, reliable bluetooth signal, and a fairly travel friendly size (for over-ear headphones, anyway). As a bonus, the Sony ones were foldable. Reviews deemed MDR-100ABN to be very comfortable to wear, while Backbeat Pro 2 was found to be an improvement over the original Backbeat Pro, which I assume means they were fairly comfortable too.

I'll report back with impressions on the MDR-100ABN when I get them in a few days.

EDIT: repost from head-fi.org forums.

I've had a day with the Sony H.ear On Wireless NC cans. First impressions:

Sound quality is way above that of that of the Kingston HyperX Headset I was using previously, particularly the bass is pleasantly full and smooth. Exactly what I was looking for. HyperX sounds lifeless in comparison. The difference is massive when listening to music, but when watching movies or playing games, there's a lot more to the experience than just the sound, so the difference (while still there) isn't so important. Scenes involving music will stand out a lot more though.

Everything's intuitive and easy. Pairing with my old Samsung S4 is super easy with NFC. The buttons on both sides are easy to distinguish from each other by touch.

ANC works fine but I doubt I'll be using it much, given that their passive noise blocking is much better than I expected. With ANC on, there's a slight white noise in the background that's easy to notice when there's a quiet moment in a song or in-game. Bass quality drops a little bit with ANC, but not enough to matter.

There are some minuses that come with the closed on-ear nature of the headphones: the sound doesn't feel as wide and open, and they're not quite as comfortable as around-ear headphones, and they make ears sweat a little bit. But I'll get used to all that. It's a fair enough trade for better portability.

 

[JeffMD]

I am quite happy with my mdr100abn. My current speaker set has me a bit spoiled now but I can still enjoy the sonys for hours. Comfort wise between all my headphones and earbuds they are probably the most comfortable thing I have owned, both in how the feel and how the sound fatigues my ears. Saddly I am one of those who get sick with active noise cancellation so I will never use it. :/

 

[itsallpoo]

I really like my corsair void, the battery life is phenomenal and I think they sound great. They do have some weight to them but I find them comfortable even after hours of use. Full price they're like 130 for the wireless but bestbuy often has them on sale for 99.00 they come in white and yellow. If you want a cheapo set that you won't kill the kid if they break them plantronics makes a sub fifty dollar wireless with a ten hour battery that sounds ok but it isn't dolby 7.1 like the corsair void is. I love my logitech g35 but that one is wired, I think there is a wireless version that is around 300.00 last time I looked. I think they maybe sound a little better than the void and have a hardware button for the surround sound which the void lacks but I don't like to spend that sort of money on a headset unless I have to, video cards more important lol.