Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

My XB950BT headphones just broke on me so I decided to buy these first day as an upgrade. First off, the sound quality is very clear. I'm hearing details that I wasn't getting in the xb950bt headphones, especially in the mid to low frequencies. The XB950bt already have great quality audio so I was surprised by how noticeable of an upgrade these were. They managed to get a LOT of bass out of these without it effecting the mid at all. On the XB950bt, if you turned up the bass with the headphones app, the song would start to distort because the entire headphone would shake. Now the bass is much more solid and controllable while still sounding big. I listen to mostly EDM so the amount of bass is perfect. I did listen to some non EDM music and I can see why people who don't listen to bass music wouldn't like these. It's just a bit too in-your-face. You can turn the bass down in the app though. So if you're wanting a cheaper version of the Sony 1000xm3 but are afraid the bass will be too much, turning down the bass on the headphones app will make them sound more natural. Instruments sound as if they are really there in your head. The noise cancelling is nothing special. I don't have anything to compare to but it was only able to cancel the low frequencies while mowing the lawn. you can change how much cancellation there is and at one end it actually increases the noise around you. I like this feature because I want to be aware of my surroundings while in the house. I really like how you can cover the right ear to turn down the volume and it amplifies the sound around you so you can hear people talking to you. It's very fast and consistent but will look funny and rude to strangers if you try talking to them like this. The Google Assistant and Amazon Alexa button make these headphones feel modern. You hold it for the Assistant or you can fast click it to have your notifications read to you. Only problem is if you want to use it, you can't toggle noise cancelling because it uses the same button. You have to choose which one you want in the headphones app. I don't see why they couldn't add an extra button so there are no compromises; there's plenty of space for another. Or there could be a double click to toggle noise cancelling. There's an option called adaptive sound control that changes the noise cancelling intensity based on if you're sitting, walking, running, or in a moving vehicle. -This would be a very useful feature but every time you get up and move or sit down, it plays a bell notification and stops the music. You can't use adaptive sound control without it playing the sound and it makes it too annoying to use. Pretty unfortunate and hopefully they get rid of the notification with a software update or make it an option.- EDIT: there's a setting to turn off the bell notification and guides. You can change the spacial position of the sound with the headphones app. If that's useful to you, now you know. I've already accidently skipped the track a few times with the touch pad. You have to be careful touching the headphones on the right side since it doesn't use physical buttons, just swipe gestures. Hopefully I can get used to it and it not be a problem. The touch gestures seem to be pretty responsive so far, but it can be a little hard not to skip a track when you mean to turn the volume up. It also takes forever to adjust the volume any significant amount cause of how much motion each volume tick takes. If you need to quickly lower the volume, you'll have to use your phone. The main advantage to having swipe gestures is that it won't break. The volume up button stopped working on my xb950bt less than a year after I bought them and the track switch button was pretty finicky after two years. I'm only assuming these headphones will last longer because the touch screens on our phones don't just stop working out of nowhere. Also, I do like how easy it is to pause the music with a double tap on the right speaker. Just wish it was a little faster. EDIT: It's getting really frustrating how difficult it is to change the volume without skipping the track. Sometimes, even if I swipe directly up (which is for volume up) it STILL skips the track I'm playing. There's nothing more frustrating than getting into a song and wanting to turn it up only for it to skip the song you're jamming to. They really need to fix this in a software update and make it much more difficult to skip the track. At this point I only use my phone for volume changes which is annoying because the main reason I like the touch controls is because the volume button won't break like my last headphones. I've had some problems with the Bluetooth connection. It stopped working on me one time during a call and another time trying to play music. The call was on a Snapchat game with my music in the background. The other time it disconnected, there were two apps with audio playing at the same time. So I'm guessing it disconnects whenever there's an overload of input. My girlfriend told me the call quality was really good without me telling her I was using my new headphones so that's a plus. I'll update if it continues to disconnect. EDIT: I haven't had any more problems with this. I think it might have just been Snapchat calling that messed it up. They're not very comfortable for long periods of time. I've been wearing them all day today and honestly they're starting to hurt my head. I just put on the XB950BT and my head already feels better with them on. The xb900n presses around your ears a bit more and the cups aren't as big so the speaker touches my ears a little. They really just need bigger pads, even though it would ruin the thin look. Honestly, the best thing about these headphones are USB-C. I can finally charge my headphones with the same charger as my phone. This is a deal breaking feature and the biggest reason Id rather have these than the XB-950N1 despite its issues. These headphones feel very modern and stylish compared to the bulky and outdated XB950BT. The biggest problems can be fixed with software updates like the touch controls and double tapping Google Assistant to toggle noise cancelling. Hardware wise, these headphones are almost perfect with the biggest issues being the small ear pads and cheap plastic. I'm afraid these won't last longer than two years without cracking so I bought a 3 year protection plan with it.