Gotta buy new headphones.... WTM?

[Stickbug]

Usually, I'm a little strapped for cash when buying headphones, I've dabbled in Chi-Fi IEM's, wires, no wires, in ears, over ears, etc. but i haven't been paying attention to the audio game recently. I had a pair of Sony WF-C500's, and they have served me very very well, but I recently lost one of my earbuds while sleeping on a flight, just fell out of my ear.

 

So, I'm in search of a new pair of commuter/student/everyday listening headphones. Earbuds and over ears are welcome, ideally wireless since i have an iPhone and I HATE the DAC.

 

I have a budget of around $200, mainly because of Christmas money, but willing to go up if its worth it

[Blackjack1336]

19 minutes ago, Stickbug said:

Usually, I'm a little strapped for cash when buying headphones, I've dabbled in Chi-Fi IEM's, wires, no wires, in ears, over ears, etc. but i haven't been paying attention to the audio game recently. I had a pair of Sony WF-C500's, and they have served me very very well, but I recently lost one of my earbuds while sleeping on a flight, just fell out of my ear.

 

So, I'm in search of a new pair of commuter/student/everyday listening headphones. Earbuds and over ears are welcome, ideally wireless since i have an iPhone and I HATE the DAC.

 

I have a budget of around $200, mainly because of Christmas money, but willing to go up if its worth it

Honestly, I have been looking a a lot for new headphones recently and I got two over ear models that just take the cake over the competition. 
 

the Bose 700 ANC are a good option. They are light weight, have superb noice cancelling and good mic quality. They pair easy with iPhone and have a companion app that lets you play with the settings a bit more (haven’t tested that however) over all a good pair of you get them for a solid deal. 
 

what I got for myself are the Sony XM5, and I ducking love them to the moon and back, they tick ALL the same boxes as the Bose 700 what sound and noice cancelling are concerned, super lightweight, feel just premium as hell and they’re battery last a lot longer than the Bose 700. the companion app is pretty good and people have been complaining about the (lack luster bass) however, in the app you can manually set the bass a lot more powerful and I can’t get enough of them. Just making me smile every time the bass drops. However what I didn’t smile at was the price because I can give you a Linus Teck tips Garantie that you won’t find them for 200$, what you might find are the predecessor Sony xm4 for that price wich are also a solid pair of headphones. Whatever information I can give you here is very subjective to me and my personal taste so if you want to give away that sweet sweet Christmas Mooney, go to a Best Buy or similar store and test the headphones there. Maybe you can get a discount if you buy the display model? 
 

hope it helped! 

[Stickbug]

59 minutes ago, Blackjack1336 said:

Honestly, I have been looking a a lot for new headphones recently and I got two over ear models that just take the cake over the competition. 
 

the Bose 700 ANC are a good option. They are light weight, have superb noice cancelling and good mic quality. They pair easy with iPhone and have a companion app that lets you play with the settings a bit more (haven’t tested that however) over all a good pair of you get them for a solid deal. 
 

what I got for myself are the Sony XM5, and I ducking love them to the moon and back, they tick ALL the same boxes as the Bose 700 what sound and noice cancelling are concerned, super lightweight, feel just premium as hell and they’re battery last a lot longer than the Bose 700. the companion app is pretty good and people have been complaining about the (lack luster bass) however, in the app you can manually set the bass a lot more powerful and I can’t get enough of them. Just making me smile every time the bass drops. However what I didn’t smile at was the price because I can give you a Linus Teck tips Garantie that you won’t find them for 200$, what you might find are the predecessor Sony xm4 for that price wich are also a solid pair of headphones. Whatever information I can give you here is very subjective to me and my personal taste so if you want to give away that sweet sweet Christmas Mooney, go to a Best Buy or similar store and test the headphones there. Maybe you can get a discount if you buy the display model? 
 

hope it helped! 

It did! I was thinking about the XM4's, and usually i don't do this but i might buy them refurbished or something. I've known that they were the top of their class but If there's a deal ill try to snag them.

 

[Blackjack1336]

1 minute ago, Stickbug said:

It did! I was thinking about the XM4's, and usually i don't do this but i might buy them refurbished or something. I've known that they were the top of their class but If there's a deal ill try to snag them.

 

Good for you! They are solid and still a premium product. Don’t stress yourself too much on such things like sound because if you are not one of those audiophile fanatics every headphone will at some point become your :“this is normal audio quality“ standard 

[Psittac]

Rode NTH-100, sounds great on anything