I've been looking around a little while now for a decent pair of noise cancelling headphones for some upcoming flights and couldn't decide between the Bose QC35 and Sony MDR-1000x. Both get really good reviews, especially for noise cancelling.
Having read many articles and comparing prices I've decided to go for the Sony pair which are currently on offer for €249 from Amazon.de.
Cheapest price I could find from a reputable UK dealer was £299 so when purchasing on Clarity Card at todays exchange rate its a good £70+ saving.
26 comments
nickydude20
4 Oct 17#1
Many buyers have complained about the plastic cracking at the hinge. Just to warn you...
chutuk to nickydude20
4 Oct 17#2
Thanks - I did see a report of that. I'll be keeping an eye on these and taking up with Sony if I have any issues. Hopefully they'll be ok though - I would expect better for that price!
fort
4 Oct 17#3
Good price but it's worth noting a new version is out or out soon
rhinopaul
4 Oct 17#4
These will be coming down in price as the MK2 are on pre order. The MK1 are very prone to cracking, I wouldnt take the risk even with a warranty, not worth the hassle.
daBluone
4 Oct 17#5
New version has come in and out of stock at John Lewis. Keep an eye on it.
morrig
4 Oct 17#6
Looking at the new model seems very much same to this model , so wonder if they have improved plastic or design to stop cracking problem? Found out they have not... reddit.com/r/h…ny/
garryallen
4 Oct 17#7
I’ve had both sets and the M2 use different material for the headband. Only had them two weeks so can’t speak as to long term durability. Not sure I’d pay £100 more for the new ones. They are better but not 100 notes better.
ianbeany to garryallen
4 Oct 17#9
How does the noise-cancelling compare? Is it a bit better or just about the same?
CampGareth to ianbeany
4 Oct 17#10
This is the £100 question. It was supposed to be adaptive or something?
I bought my MDR-1000Xes a while back from amazon.es. No headband cracking but they are lovely headphones and I'm still finding features like pressing the power button once while they're on to hear a voice say "Battery level: High". They're a great help to me while programming, I get distracted by noise pretty easily but these cut out pretty much everything. If you're linking them with an Android phone I strongly recommend using ReadItToMe on the phone to get notifications read to you.
notatestuser to garryallen
5 Oct 17#25
Would you say the sound quality has improved?
garryallen to notatestuser
5 Oct 17#26
Yep. Not £100 better but definitely improved.
rovingman
4 Oct 17#8
Mine broke within a week of use, but Sony support was excellent, they replaced it without any effort. Free shipping back and forth. They did not have a replacement available immediately though, took them 2 weeks to replace. As per some Reddit posts, Sony has admitted there were some units in a particular serial number range which had the defect. Mine was within that range, the replacement I got was out of that range so should be better than the first. But to be honest, they do appear to be delicate. My V-Moda Crosfade Wireless(no nc) are far stronger than these.
fiqqer
4 Oct 17#11
A very good price for a very good headset
garryallen
4 Oct 17#12
I found it better on airplanes but you won’t notice much difference in normal use.Sony claim it detects change in pressure but whatever it did it was improved in the air. Doubling the battery life is welcome though.
jinjur
4 Oct 17#13
I looked at these but it was the build that honestly got me..............yes, sound was thicc compared to Bose (which are quite neutral, nice in their own way) but the Bose feel pure solid in comparison tbh.
I still found NC better on the Bose too...........it is their thing i guess.
FunkiestMonkey
4 Oct 17#14
Cold. High resolution? Come on Sony
rev6 to FunkiestMonkey
4 Oct 17#15
Hmm? Hi-res is an official certificate for audio.
FunkiestMonkey to rev6
4 Oct 17#18
What does it mean then for headphones?
rev6 to FunkiestMonkey
4 Oct 17#19
I think when they can reproduce over 40kHz
FlappyPappy
4 Oct 17#16
For anyone with these i have a question.
If i have a bluetooth connection to my phone what exactly happens when i put another device (not the same phone) in the 3.5mm input.
What i mean is, does the bluetooth connection cut-off automatically or does it stay connected & you can hear both inputs at the same time?
You see i want to have a permanent bluetooth connection to my phone and then have a sneaky way of also hearing my PC sound through the 3.5mm input. Is this possible?
CampGareth to FlappyPappy
4 Oct 17#17
When you connect a 3.5mm jack the bluetooth connection gets dropped. You cannot hear both at once. I know you can mix two analog audio inputs together so using a 3.5mm from your phone and a 3.5mm from your PC into a device that connects them both together and has a 3.5mm output would be fine. Not sure if you can do a similar mixing thing with bluetooth.
garryallen to FlappyPappy
4 Oct 17#21
You can connect two separate bluetooth sources, but only one for calls and one for music. e.g. android phone and iPhone or 2 android phones together. As mentioned, connecting the cable disallows bluetooth.
CampGareth to garryallen
4 Oct 17#22
Oh can you? I never knew that! Thought you had to re-pair for each device you connected them to. Could I for instance pair with my laptop and phone, laptop takes music duties most of the time while phone is around for calls, then when I'm away from a desk have a phone supply music and calls?
garryallen to CampGareth
5 Oct 17#24
The way they instructions explain it, is it's only two phones you can use - one for calls, one for music. not entirely sure how useful that is to be honest. Bluetooth pairing could be better in general though eg. if I wish to listen to music on my iPhone after listening to music on my Mac, then I have to disconnect before the other connects unlike something like AirPods, which automatically disconnects and connects.
I believe it is related to the different bluetooth protocols - voice and music use different bands?
David23
4 Oct 17#20
High Resolution Audio is Sony's nonsense marketing speak for is compatible with FLAC which nearly everything is! Having said that I am in the market for the new version of these headphones and will see how the prices go.
Opening post
Having read many articles and comparing prices I've decided to go for the Sony pair which are currently on offer for €249 from Amazon.de.
Cheapest price I could find from a reputable UK dealer was £299 so when purchasing on Clarity Card at todays exchange rate its a good £70+ saving.
26 comments
Found out they have not... reddit.com/r/h…ny/
I bought my MDR-1000Xes a while back from amazon.es. No headband cracking but they are lovely headphones and I'm still finding features like pressing the power button once while they're on to hear a voice say "Battery level: High". They're a great help to me while programming, I get distracted by noise pretty easily but these cut out pretty much everything. If you're linking them with an Android phone I strongly recommend using ReadItToMe on the phone to get notifications read to you.
I still found NC better on the Bose too...........it is their thing i guess.
If i have a bluetooth connection to my phone what exactly happens when i put another device (not the same phone) in the 3.5mm input.
What i mean is, does the bluetooth connection cut-off automatically or does it stay connected & you can hear both inputs at the same time?
You see i want to have a permanent bluetooth connection to my phone and then have a sneaky way of also hearing my PC sound through the 3.5mm input. Is this possible?
I believe it is related to the different bluetooth protocols - voice and music use different bands?