Hi there,
I'm a long time headphone user. I have always been partial to using headphones in all situations. In the last 15-ish years I've used the following headphones (in order):
Logitech G35
Sennheiser HD 595
Sennheiser PC 363D
Sennheiser GSP 600
Sennheiser PC 363D (same one as before, but with new cushions)
Sennheiser RS 175
I was ok with the G35. I really loved the HD 595 because of its open backed nature. I went PC 363D because the HD 595 had started going iffy in one ear and because it had a good mic. I liked how it was similarly open. After a while the cushions got disgusting and the mic boom started drooping which often resulted in my breathing directly down the mic, so I bought the GSP 600. I fucking hated that thing. I didn't last for more than two weeks with it. I couldn't stand how it tried to close me off from the environment. Felt like I was sitting around with a vice on my head. I ordered replacement cushions for my PC 363D, messed about with the mic boom and went back to that set of headphones.
The one thing I had hated all this time, was the wires. This got worse and worse over the years, and after the hundredth time getting my headphones yanked off of my head because the wire got caught behind my rolling office chair enough was enough: I was buying a wireless set of head phones. A welcome addition was the fact that this was during the early days of Covid and I wanted to buy a good condenser microphone anyway, so it no longer had to come with a mic. I bought the Sennheiser RS 175. It has been.. serviceable. I have no complaints about sound quality (I am not that discerning an audio listener, to be honest) and, despite not being marketed as such, it is reasonably open (I understand openness isn't as easily achieved in wireless headphones due to the need for a lot more additional electronics related to the wirelessness). However the quality/comfort is not great. The ear cups have bad faux-leather cushions that I've already had to replace once because they started disintegrating - flecks of fake leather everywhere. The head band's cushions are paper thin and only cover a small part of the head band because of the presence of a contact-charging point on the head band. Another thing it does that I don't like, is that I have to crank the headphones and put Windows volume to 10% or any loud sound will result in the headset doing some volume normalization thing where the whole volume is lowered significantly for a while. I'm guessing it is doing this to avoid clipping, but I have no idea why this is the first and only pair of headphones I've ever owned that I've heard do that.
So I've been looking for a new pair, and I have the following criteria:
Good sound quality
Comfortable
RF Wireless - not bluetooth
No microphone, or one that can be completely removed
A reasonably open design
Preferred: Regular 3.5mm jack connection, not USB
This, apparently, is impossible to find. The headphones that seem to come closest are Audeze's Maxwell. They are USB-only, sadly, and I am not entirely sure how open they are, but they do seem to satisfy the other requirements. Am I just being way too picky here? Do you guys know of any headphones that satisfy all of those requirements? I'd love to hear from you guys.