I just got a pair of PXC 550’s to review. Have been wearing them for about two hours. Here are my initial impressions:
They take up a small footprint and fold well. They are well-built for travel
The auto-pause feature works really well (when you take them off they pause)
The built-in microphone is amazing, particularly for something all the way up on your ears
The adaptive noise-canceling is very good. I haven’t used these on a plain yet, but they do a great job with a fan as background noise. I still get a bit of that “ear in a vacuum” feeling that I get from most noise-canceling headphones
They are very well-made and well-designed.
Good resolution with a small-ish soundstage. They are tunned to be a little bassy and the bass is a little muddy
Pairing with my iPhone X was instant
Sennheiser provides an app for Android and iOS called “Captune.” It’s not bad. It has some cool functionality that includes a great EQ. It integrates with Tidal (Not google, apple, amazon or Spotify for the time-being) and the UI takes some getting used-to. I had a really hard time trying to change the Tidal album I was listening to.
I’ll be posting a full review on Headphone.com in the near future.
I’ve been using these for a few days now and I’m doing a direct comparison with the Bose QC 35 ii for a future review.
I’ve been spoiled with a lot of high-end headphones over the past few months, so my ears are really tuned to the loss in sound quality when testing consumer bluetooth headphones. That being said, I’ve been pleasantly surprised by the PXC 550. The sound is awesome, particularly for a bluetooth ANC headphone.
One thing I don’t like about these headphones are its “Effect Modes”
Club Mode emphasizes bass more than the headphones already do which, in my opinion, sounds awful.
A cool thing, though is that through the Captune App you can edit each effect mode.
Sadly you can only use your custom EQ through the Captune App, which means you NEED to use Tidal or system music.
The most I can use these headphones is about an hour and a half. By then the heat and the clenching starts getting uncomfortable. I mainly use these headphones in class or in a bus so I can attest to its great noise canceling. However, in bumpy rides the noise cancelling backfires and tries to cancel out the noise of hitting the bumps and creates a loud rumble which is distracting and annoying. I’m not sure but that’s probably the case for other active noise cancelling headphones as well.
One of the coolest features is that you can use them on your computer though the USB cable and charge them simultaneously.
I just got a pair of these a couple weeks ago. At first, I was a little disappointed in the sound. They seemed very low to me even at max volume. I compared them to my momentum via blue tooth, and the momemtum’s were a lot louder and clearer.
My momentum headphones are what I use when I really want to listen to music so I listen to them wired to a headroom portable amp and my iPhone. I hardly use them through blue tooth.
These were a little cheaper, by about $100. After a while of listening, I really like them. They connected to my iPad and iPhone very easily and quickly. They sound a lot better to me than when I first listened to them. I like the slick touchpad on the outside of the ear pad. I haven’t fully immersed myself in all the extra controls it has and can do.
The noise cancellation work really well, but I haven’t really used them in a crowded area yet.
For blue tooth, they sound really good. The other blue tooth phones I use are the Bose sound sport in ear and the sennheiser hd-1.
These are definitely better than the in ear ones. Are portable enough, even though the case is still kind of big.
I give these a big thumbs up if you’re looking for a good pair of blue tooth headphones.
Hey guys, I was looking at some wireless over ears and I’m a little biased towards Sennheiser. The main thing j was wondering about the 550’s is the sound quality. I don’t exactly have the ability to just test em out and see for myself so I’m coming to you guys for your two cents. My three main audio sources are the discontinued M-Audio A40 studio monitors, Shure se-215’s and HD 598’s. The only amp I have is a Fiio Q1 that I have hooked to my PC.
If you could let me know how the 550’s compare to any or all of those, that’d be great. Thanks!
Sorry not a wireless headphone user myself so I can’t really help you. Though I thought I would stop by and say hi. I too am a Sennheiser fan and there are lots of us about. You’ll fit right in. I am sure someone will stop by and give you some advice. Have you thought about maybe using a Bluetooth cable on you’re Shure Se215’s. I’m also a big iem fan and Shure are amongst my favourite companies too. Anyhow I hope you get your answer.
Hey thanks! I do have some jaybird X3’s that I use for the gym and such. The shures are for long rides when I don’t really move much so the wire isn’t an issue. Was just wanting headphones to be able to take on the plane or car rides as the shures can only deliver so much of sound stage with the size. Noise canceling helps as well
Ah, yes I get it. I don’t fly myself and so don’t require noise cancelling headphones. There are some users on here though that do. I know @TylersEclectic flies regularly. Hope you get some help soon. I am sure you will. Enjoy your evening.
The Sony WH1000XM3 get a lot of praise for both sound quality and ANC quality… I’m partial to IEMs while flying currently and the CA Cascade with a portable setup. My buddy has the WH1000XM2 and he uses it to commute and he loves it.
So where is the closed-back ANC, travel-friendly headphone shootout review? You’re coming up on 10 months now, and one of my fellow financial advisors at lunch was quizzing me if he should get Bose QC or Sony. I need to send him some pointers and links. “Enquiring Minds Want to Know”
Which does he value more? “Looking cool” to “people he doesn’t know and that don’t know better” on a plane, or enjoying what he’s hearing?
If the former, the QC35ii, if the latter WH-1000XM3.
Which is not to say the QC35ii sound bad, they don’t. Much better than what I would have expected from Bose and quite enjoyable. But the Sony’s sound better AND have better ANC, with better battery life to boot.
I say this as someone that tends to favor the Bose QC20i for ANC while traveling (because it’s good enough, and packs small).
I would say the 550XII while they sounded decent, for their cost @pennstac the ANC just wasn’t good enough for me. Maybe a pair of version 1 deeply discounted. The Sony’s seem to be everyone’s favorite currently in the ANC department with the caveat of not being able to pair to multiple devices at the same time. I think Sony will be dropping a new ANC flagship in March or April. Pure speculation but knowing Sony they can’t go much more than a year without updating something lol.
