I happened to be in the market for a new ANC headphone/earbud when I saw your review. I was intrigued by HDB630, but having past experience with Sennheiser TWS, I could only assume the HDB630’s ANC is decent but still nowhere near the level of Bose.
I’ve owned Technic AZ80 for a couple of years and while they are top rate in sound quality, they lack in ANC. Technics’s ANC isn’t bad, but it isn’t anywhere near on par with the Bose QC earbuds I had a few years ago. Living in NYC, my use case for portable audio is typically riding the noisy subway or walking around the noisy city streets where even the sound quality of the best IEMs money can buy doesn’t outweigh active noise cancelling (who cares about perfect sound quality when the ambient noise floor is +70dB?).
And so, having seen Resolve’s glowing review, I pulled the trigger and bought QC Ultra gen 2 (could Bose please fix their naming convention?? lol). Anyway, I’ve also been quite impressed with this generation. Bose ANC is as world-class as ever, and now the sound quality is also well beyond what my OG Bose QC earbuds had to offer. It has been a while since I last heard Bathys, but from memory I don’t recall being any more impressed than I am by the new Bose (whose ANC is in a whole other league).
I think we’re getting closer and closer to the point where ANC headphones/earbuds are actually competitive with wired alternatives. We aren’t quite there yet, but the year-over-year progress is noticeable.
If only Technics or Sennheiser could raise up their ANC game (or Bose could buy Technics or Sennheiser…). A Technics AZxxx (or Sennheiser HDB6xx) w/ Bose ANC would be GAME OVER.