Looking for a pair with great audio skills.
Probably outside the quality of a separate portable Dac with boutique phones hitting high costs, but recently some have got very popular with buyers. Thinking along the likes of Sony wh1000xm4/5. Sennheiser momentum wireless and others.
Are these sort of tech kit any good ?
Going on a long holiday soon. Noise cancelling will be nice on the flight and hopefully, once at my designation some time spent listening to a streaming subscription.
Or am I better off going for a small dac and something middling in the audiophile range of phones ?
I’ve been pretty impressed with original Apple AirPods and AirPods Pro, though they are a consumable once the batteries die after a few years.
Never liked the design of AirPods Max and the bra-like carry case though they might be very good.
I’ve bought these for my daughter twice (hinge broke on one side of originals, they’d been flogged to death), very comfortable to be honest I’d love a pair myself.
The H1 chip in the AirPods line really help with ease of connectivity, though I suspect you’ll get more bang for your buck with non-Apple offerings.
I really wouldn’t want the faff of carting a small DAC and Apple iPad adapter around as well as wired headphones on a long trip. I’d keep it simple these days.
2 Likes
That won’t help on wireless headphones but as a side note, when I used to travel, my best ratio of SQ with simplicity was a Dragonfly DAC. It’s a small simple USB key who can be plug on any device like phones (with adapter so you still can charge at same time), laptops, etc. Useful in aircrafts. No pilot installation required. In hotel rooms I was pluging small active speakers with 3.5mm. (The setup saved many boring evenings in hotel rooms 
)
That DAC provided impressive SQ improvement for is price (and simplicity)
But maybe todays wireless headphones and cells provide enough SQ…. I can’t help on that part. I’m still an old wired type of guy 
1 Like
I’ve used the B&W PX over ears with an iPhone & iPad playing Tidal & Qobuz for a few years.
I bought it for business travel and holidays. Very good and comfortable NC headphones with a great sound. Much better than I thought possible from AAC via Bluetooth. On longer flights, hooking them up to the in flight system watching movies with NC makes all the difference too. The only downside is that over ears are quite large to carry around your neck, keep in a backpack etc.
We’re going on a long holiday to Asia soon and I didn’t like the idea too carry around the PXs all the time travelling about for weeks so I bought a pair of these.
The B&W Pi7 in ears. Only a few years on, it’s amazing how quick technology improved. These tiny earbuds easily sound as good - if not better - than the large PX over ears. And you barely feel them in your ears and even less in your pocket. The case is really small.
The charge & carry case can be hooked up to in flight systems with a small cable (included) and the case becomes a wireless relay to the earbuds. Love this! 
4 Likes
I had these. Unfortunately, I was using them for the conference calls. They are weak at that.
However, when I was listening to music, they were great with their noise cancellation.
Long story short - during some conference call the headphones had been unable to connect to the voice channel. I went mad and tore them apart.
Some of my colleagues have been experiencining the same issues, however, unlike me they did keep their instances. Probably, they have some sort of cooldown.
So, if you are planning to from time to time to speak to your laptop, I’d suggest something different. However, for the listening to music/cinema they are a steal.
2 Likes
I know it kinda misses the point of wireless headphones, but for conference calls you’re sat at your desk for, you can always plug 'em in
2 Likes
I have some old P7’s and they sound fairly good, but if ever I wore them on the go or at the gym they made horrendous clunking/clanking noises (also if I moved my jaw). Design looks similar, did you experience anything like that? Thinking about it, the P7’s were on-ear rather than over which I think was the issue.
Those Pi7 look lovely, the ability to hook the case up with a lead is very neat.
I was just going to mention that some Beats wireless noise cancelling headphones I bought my daughter in the past also allow them to be used wired if needed, I guess the individual headphone design may determine if the headphones are then driven passively or if the signal is modified by the in-built circuitry?
2 Likes
I just this week got a pair of Sennheiser CX True Wireless Plus for Mrs. FZ. Bit pricey but the sound quality was excellent and what’s more, they were specifically bought for work and despite using a mic in the earphone. in tests voice was crystal clear with no background noise.
I was tempted to get a pair myself to replace my work Plantronics headset but I hate things going in my ears.
1 Like
I have a pair of those and they are wonderful. ANC works a charm and the sound quality is pretty damned good! And they are very comfortable.
The box they came in also has a cable as well as the special plug needed to connect it to the plane’s offerings. Hard to beat (apart from the bulk that was previously mentioned)
1 Like
That’s a great question, no idea how their functionality is affected when the wired connection is used.
FWIW to the OP, I use mine (Sony) a lot for casual listening, never for conference calls, and never wired. They are perfectly fine, and battery life seems more than reasonable!
I also have a Chord Mojo, and wired Shure SRH 1540 headphones. Better than the Sony, and the original Mojo now a bit more affordable since the MK2 was released - 2nd hand I think you could buy a good setup for £350-400, I’m not sure if that’s in budget. The setup is a faff though, I wouldn’t travel with it. I use it when listening at home when listening via speakers would disturb others.
3 Likes
Yes the P7s were indeed smaller on-ear. The PX is completely over ear and I never had an issue with them. Excellent headphones imo. That said, I never come near anything that even looks like a gym. 
1 Like
I find the AirPod Max superb at what they do with great integration with Apple devices as you’d expect. Don’t under estimate the importance of that. They are good fidelity… no bloat, and rather good extension with good detail/ambience and even accurate sub bass (although they don’t support lossless being Buetooth, albeit it is Bluetooth 5)
Noise cancelling is superb, with great transparency option and good microphone pickup for phone and Teams calls. They are soooooo much more comfortable and better fit than the various in ear AirPods Apple have come up with… and they stay on whilst travelling and briskly moving about… however on very hot days, being a closed back system your ears can get a little hot.
Finally the battery life on their rechargeable cells is good. However they do require a fair amount of run in to tighten bass and to breath a little , which obviously is more of an audiophile product trait. Although lossless connection, they do seem to benefit from lossless audio encodings.
4 Likes
Here’s the two side by side, again, if it helps
That’s very helpfull thank you.
I’m guessing your wireless phones can’t fit in wired up with the Mojo?
Would be super if the latest tech would allow both…
They can’t unfortunately. You could lose a cable and hook the phone up to the DAC wirelessly if you went to something like a Hugo mk1 (and I’m sure others). Also, the Bluetooth connection limits things with the Sony’s (I cannot recall the figures!) so I don’t think there’d be much benefit of the DAC in the case you could connect then anyway.
The Mojo battery life isn’t wonderful, even with a replacement cell. The Hugo mk1 battery life is excellent, I use mine in my main system, couldn’t tell you how long I get, but the Mojo is up to 4 hours, no more. The Hugo is a pretty flexible thing.
1 Like
This topic was automatically closed 60 days after the last reply. New replies are no longer allowed.