Best over-ear noise-cancelling headphones?

I find AirPods Max uncomfortable.

🕯️They/them. Scaled cos from 0-$300k in arr, 7-35 employees, 0-100k users. Now I make candles that give people love, joy, and delight at humankind.place

there’s no perfect recco, headphones (and speakers) are quite personal and always involve compromises.

AirPods Max (APM for short) are actually very good headphones overall with relatively neutral tuning and decent detail retrieval. I like their low-end response quite a bit. the only downside for me is that they’re heavy as hell and uncomfortable for 3hr+ sessions.

a bit generic but I would give the Sony XM5 and Bose QuietComfort Ultra a try and see how you feel vs. APM. my guess is that you’ll find both more comfortable (mainly less heavy) and you might prefer the sound of one or the other. doubtful either will be higher performance, just different.

I’d recommend choosing a set of tracks that you’ve heard a million times, and listening to the same tracks on whichever models you compare. if you listen to random tracks on each, you might confuse yourself rather than drawing useful conclusions. taking notes is also helpful rather than relying on memory.

on the “consumer” side, I’m personally not a fan of headphones like Beats since they are tuned with a strong “smiley” EQ, tipped up at both the low and high end of their frequency response. that said, some people really dig it, so worth a try.

on the “hi-fi” side, my personal favs are Focal Bathys wireless headphones. they are a notable notch above APM in sound quality and quite a bit more comfortable. the main downside is that they’re even more expensive than APM ($1000?). there’s a new Bathys Mg model that is a notch higher ($1500?) and allegedly better still.

anyway, hope this helps a bit 💜

I wrote a little bit about headphones over at @samantha's thread, could go deeper though if needed:

writing about products & protocols on Farcaster | prev. Juicebox, Nouns, RAW DAO | casting about coffee, hi-fi, and other rabbit holes

I wrote a little bit about headphones over at @samantha's thread, could go deeper though if needed:

https://farcaster.xyz/matthewb/0xe291c57a

I recommend the Sony WH-1000XM5s for comfort, sound quality, and mouth feel.

/new-york 🗽 • /untzuntz 😈 • /tastebuds 🍕 Fan of eating tacos and bringing people together, often at the same time 🌮

I think the most popular and technically "best" are the Sony WH-1000XM6s but I find the Bose QuietComforts the most comfortable, been using them for years

same my airpods max are uncomfortable had to switch

i switched to bose qc ultra which are way lighter/more comfortable but sometimes iphone phone quality isn't great

I love Sony WH-1000xmh5

https://a.co/d/hw9UOCJ

Best to snag now given its Prime day :)

Audiotechnica and then buy super comfy/padded muffs on amazon to make them even comfier

DX Engineer | DevRel at OpenZeppelin | Building orbiter.host | stevedylan.dev/links | opinions are my own

Longtime Bose quiet comfort user. Each one gets better. Solid connection with multiple Apple devices.

I'm a Bose Quiet comfort fan

This is an area where recommendations tend to be quite tribal

Go to a store where they let you try a few different ones

Sony WMX has been my go to for a few years now. Decent price, perfect sound and noise cancelling.

Not sure if they’re noise canceling (but some models might be) but these Marshall Major IV’s have been my favorite headphones

i’ve got the sony WH-1000XM5 (or simply m5) after trying a bunch, including the airpods max. it’s amazing and super light, including for extensive use - i do it for editing. I was sure the airpods max would feel heavy after some time. 

the m6 was released recently, mkbhd also reviewed it.

Sony WH-1000XM6 a good comparable option that are generally way more comfy; Bowers & Wilkins Px7 S3 a step up in build quality and comfort and sound

Ended up at AirPod Max because the software/connectivity with all my devices was better, but agree they’re less comfortable than others

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PSA my favorite pair of headphones ever is on sale https://t.co/2BWRxpQqWV

(best combo of battery life + sound + weight I've found)

frolic

https://x.com/frolic/status/1942951432191451464