I have had so much success working with my cheap Noise canceling (ANC) headphones that I went and tried every one I could find and finally bought the Sone MH-1000Xm3. Here’s some experiences so far:
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1. The Sony vs Bose latest really came down to the fact the new Bose are beautiful but heavier and couldn’t fold down as small. Also the bose sounds slightly better but doesn’t have as good ANC which is essential.
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2. My need is I found ANC increases focus, even in a totally quiet apartment at 6am and no music on. No idea why but I tested this a bunch and found if I have ANC on I’m a machine. Turn off. ADHD central. So I wanted ANC so good it was like a sensory deprivation chamber.
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3. The MH1000xm3 has ANC so good it’s creepy. The app will even measure the frequency response of your head shape to optimize the ANC and you can send photos of your ears to get a better sound profile. Sadly nothing uses this except Tidal which is dumb.
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4. The app is essential since it allows you to EQ the headphones correctly. Whatever default EQ they use sucks so if you try them at the store, add the app and adjust the EQ for your music.
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5. It has enhanced Bass but holy crap is it too hard core, like mind rattling at just 6 out of 20 and that’s with Jazz. Metal and rap I can’t even handle more than 3. It really is like someone is banging you in the head.
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6. The ANC can cut out an insanely loud coffee shop with two annoying tourist dudes yelling Dutch at each other over the blaring dance music the coffee shop dude needs to keep awake after his night out. In fact, other features tell me this is custom made for open plan offices.
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7. For example, the right side is touch capacitive and if you press your whole hand on the ANC cuts out, and it uses the ANC mics to then let you listen to people. No need to take your heaphones off to answer that annoying dude at the office who doesn’t know how to google shit.
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8. You can go into the app and move the sound around your head spacially. So lets say there’s an asshole at the open plan office who has phone calls so loud even ANC can’t stop him? Just move ths music to where he is and he’s blocked completely.
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9. The capacitive touch is great instead of fumbling for buttons. Swipe next song, two taps to paus, single finger hold for siri, swipe up/down for volume. It does confuse volume swipes with next/prec song swipes but you get used to it.
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10. You can hook the second button on the left up to Google Assistant or Amazon Alexa, then soeak commands to Siri or Alexa. It’s clunky though because of mic placement flaws (later) and because iOS is just bad at this.
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11. Bluetooth connection works insanely well with the greatest range I’ve ever had. It covers my entire apartment on the high bandwidth/quality mode. It also connects right away and stays connected. Some folks say it’s not so good at multi-device though.
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12. Bluetooth sound quality is good for bluetooth, but plugged in with a wire is insanely good. I’ve been meaning to get a dedicated music player and get off streaming services this year, so I’m get a sony walkman to load my collection on and cancel services.
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13. They are also very light and I can wear them mostly all day, and are easily folded up and transported. Again, lots of this is all aimed at open plan office workers who have to wear them all day.
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Now for the dumb stuff on these heaphones, and I mean hilariously dumb: If you need to make constant calls then you will NOT be able to use the built-in mics. You will need to get a cable for your phone with a mic built in. Sound quality is just better with a cable anyway, but:
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14. So the reason the mic quality is so bad-1and I mean bad to the point of might as well not even have them—is because they are placed on the sides and facing away from your mouth completely. They pick up everything BUT your voice.
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15. BUT, the dumbest part is when you hold your hand on the right side you let in the ambient noise, disabling the ANC, and *then* your voice sound damn good and clear with *less* ambient noise than the mic meant for your damn voice.
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16. To make it even dumber, you can fix the left side voice mic problem by simply cupping your hand on the left sice ear piece so that your hand channels your voice right into the mics like an old school tube phone.
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17. So what makes this design flaw EVEN DUMBER is they can easily fix all of this in software because they HAVE GREAT ANC MICS. They can use the ANC tech combined with the voice mics to select just your voice from both mic and cancel out the noise from the voice mic.
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18. So think about this. If you want to make a clear call with these, and listen to your environment, you basically have to cup your hands on both sides of your head and even then it pics up all the noise around you so you might as well just use a nice cable w/ a mic in it.
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19. Overall they’re excellent and very well designed. It’s been worth the cost given the insane productivity boost they’re giving me. Just don’t get them if you want to make phone calls with them, and if you do then get a mic cable (which sounds better anyway).
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So many typos. Phone sucks for these. Anyway that’s the review.
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End of conversation
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