Which wireless headphones?

Hey guys - I've been looking at purchasing some wireless headphones with a budget of maybe $500. As this is a lot of money for me, I only want one pair of expensive headphones so the must have features include bluetooth & active noise cancellation.

I've seen quite a few reviews online but I'm struggling a little as I won't get chance to hear them before jumping in with my hard earned cash - there are no decent audio shops anywhere near me unfortunately.

I think I am leaning towards the Sennheiser PXC 550 which I saw at Sennheiser PXC 550 Wireless Bluetooth Headphones Review - ReviewFlux

But what about the Sony MDR-1000x? Is there anything else worthy of consideration?

I'm itching to jump in & get something I will love for at least a couple of years, just worried I'm missing something - what do you guys recommend?

 

Just to add - I'm 50 years old, and pretty old fashioned in my tastes with listening to mostly piano / guitar / vocals rather than pop music.

 

I've bought the Sony mdr 1000x about a month ago and I love them. Also my roommate has some bose qc35, while the bose are definitely more comfortable (the Sony are a bit tight on the head and a bit heavier) when it comes to sound quality I prefer the Sony, though I'm not a seasoned audiophile so I couldn't be able to tell you exactly why. I found the bose to be "smoothing" the sound too much.

I could not compare the NC of the two but the Sony are amazing, and they have all sorts of features that I didn't think I would have found that useful but I do.

I cannot speak for the Sennheiser because I haven't tried them but when I did some research it looked like they were slightly worse overall so I excluded them for my choice.

If you go to head-fi I am sure you will find plenty of reviews and comparison of both.

 

Thanks for that Tad - I will check out head-fi today

One other thing - I've always thought that the wireless stuff was a million miles behind a good wired set of headphones for sound quality - has this really changed like people say in the reviews?

I mean, are the wireless headphones comparable now (as opposed to rubbish in comparison).

 

I am no expert in this but from what I have understood when it come to wireless the problem is mostly the trasmission.
You can now play mp3 without problems. However, when it comes to higher quality bluetooth is the bottleneck. Things have gotten better with AptX and other codecs. If I am not mistaken aptX can transmit cd quality.
Also, the sony are enabled for aptX and they also have sony proprietary LDAC which is even higher quality, however in order to make use of LDAC you need an enabled transmitter (which are mostly, if not only, other sony devices). AptX is more common to come through though.

If your main point is sound quality and you do not care too much about NC then you can get much better headphones at the same price: NC is an extra for which you pay substantial money so face a trade-off between NC and audio quality at the same price.
There are also headphones that have built-in DACs and wireless transmission is therefore much better but I don't know much about them.

 

I'm no expert either, but about a year ago I purchased the sennheiser RS175 wireless headphones, I own various sennheiser models including the HD 600 . I have been pleasantly supprised how good these headphones are. They reproduce a very detailed and smooth sound .I bought them for watching movies to please my wife, but when I recently got back into listening to music again and tried them I have been very impressed , its great to be able to sit in the garden and enjoy . of course the HD600 is superior, in every detail, but I use the 175's far more often, they are very comfortable the only thing I changed where the ear cushions to the softer version from the RS 185 for £17 from Sennheiser. Technicly they use a digital RF transmitter not bluetooth, I can't hear any loss in detail to the HD600 ,

 

What about wireless noise-canceling headphones for TV? I'd like to be able to walk around my apartment and hear the TV with minimal exterior noise.

 

I think for the watching TV you need a pair of headphones that either support 'aptX low latency' which is pretty rare, or get a set that transmit over RF.... but then they cannot be used with your phone. Normal bluetooth headphones that work great with an audio player / phone have horrible lag which you don't notice unless you have video playing at the same time - the lip sync is noticeably out.

It's not a priority for me TBH - I'm just using them for audio only.

I ended up getting a set of the Sennheiser PXC 550, used but new in box for a great price, so happy days They sound great & I'm very happy with them (but no good for TV obviously).

 

I've got the Sennheiser Momentums - convenient, great sound quality and comfortable.

I generally only use wireless for the TV - when wife and rugmunchers are in bed - so quality over Bluetooth isn't such an issue.

The active NC is very good for plane travel / commutes as well.

A good all round set of cans that ticked all the boxes for me.

 

I have Bose noise-cancelling headphones. With music, I just hook them up to my iPod and put the iPod in my pocket. I'm OK with that. I'd just like to have similar TV capability, even it's merely adding some sort of transmitter to the TV and plugging my headphones into a pocket receiver.

Does my TV need to have a particular capability (e.g., Bluetooth)?

 

If the TV doesn't have native Bluetooth, there are some add ons.

How to Add Bluetooth Headphones to Your HDTV

 

I'm also looking at picking up a set of PXC 550's myself. Funnily enough, I do own a set of Momentum Wireless 2.0's which I love, but like those who upgrade to newer phones etc, I'm very likely to upgrade myself. I'll always pass down my Momentum's to somebody else in the house though...

 

I have a pair of Sennheiser RF headphones I use with my TV, and if you can feed your audio through your TV receiver (I do it with an Apple Airport Express) you can just select that source and listen on your RF headphones. To my ears, this sounds better than Bluetooth.