Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

I bought the Sony MDR XB950BT headphones at a discount for $98.00 during Black Friday. I've specifically been looking for Bluetooth wireless headphones to use for my daily commute to work by bus. Pros: --Over-ear. I wanted ear cups that rested around my ear instead of on-ear, and these do a great job. --Closed headphones with noise isolation. I didn't want my music to leak out and bother other bus passengers who would hear, and I wanted to keep out the traffic noise. The ear pads are thick and make the headphones bulky, but it's worth the slight inconvenience for nearly silencing the outside world and immersing yourself in your music. --Build quality. One of the issues with cheaper, no-name Bluetooth headphones is bad build quality, which was a turn-off in reviews of other headphones I looked at. I didn't want something that would break in a month. These are solidly constructed and very light considering how big they are. --Comfortable. The over-ear design and thick plush ear pads make these headphones very comfortable. The ear pads have pretty deep holes, compared to most headphones I've seen. Your ears probably won't touch the inside of the ear cup. --Audio quality. Wireless headphones sometimes lack bass, from the reviews I've read of other models. The XB950BT do not have the problem and can certainly rock the bass, which is great for hip-hop, rap, electronic dance music (EDM) and a lot of modern pop music. I also found the extra bass does not take away from the mids and highs, which are pretty crisp (if you follow the audio quality tips I'll go into later). I listen to a lot of female vocalists, and their voices come through loud and clear. I've listened to the new Adele single "Hello" multiple times with these headphones because I like the sound performance so much. The bass boost button is mostly unnecessary. That feature does negatively affect audio quality and can distort music because it's usually excessive. Overall, I think the audio quality is good. It can also give you the feeling of being at a nightclub, when listening at higher volumes to bass-heavy songs. For reference, I don't have a ton of headphones. My only other pair is the Sennheiser HD 598 SE (also bought this Black Friday). --On-board controls. This wasn't one of my main considerations with choosing headphones, but I'm glad to have it with the Sony. There are specific controls for volume, play/pause, track forward/backward, etc. I hate "multi-function" buttons that try to combine too many controls together. You end up pressing the button for too long or not long enough. The volume up button has a little peg that sticks out, which helps you figure out by touch when you're adjusting volume. The track control is a toggle switch you pull forward or push backward. The toggle switch is also a button that you can push for play/pause. That's a multi-function button done right. Not press quickly or hold for 3 seconds, which is confusing on other headphones. Thoughtful touches by the designers. --A brand name I recognized, Sony. A lot of the cheaper Bluetooth headphones are no-name brands I've never heard of. I suspect many of them are OEM manufacturers in China who make the same headphones for more famous brands. --Can be used for phone calls. Cons: --Price. These normally sell for $150-$200, according to CamelCamelCamel, an Amazon price-tracking website. Way beyond what I was comfortable spending on headphones I would carry around every day. Luckily, I got these on sale during Black Friday. Not cheap at $98, but certainly better than the normal price. Enough to induce me to buy. --Portability. This is likely to be the big deal-breaker if you're intending to travel or carry around headphones daily. They are bulky and do not fold. However, the ear cups do rotate to make the headphones flat. When I put these inside a headphone case, it takes up most of the inside of my backpack. I work full-time and am not a student, so fortunately the headphones are not sharing space with a bunch of textbooks. --Microphone. Callers have said my voice sounded distant, compared to when I talk straight into my iPhone. I would use these headphones primarily for music and podcasts, not for phone calls. Get a dedicated calling headset if you're going to be on the phone a lot. --Not "analytical." These are colored and have a fun sound signature. If you want really neutral, analytic sound, these are not the headphones for you. Aside from price, none of these were serious enough factors to make me hesitate to buy. None of them make me want to return the headphones for a refund. Audio tips: --These headphones have three modes of audio quality. 1 blue flash is energy-saving mode (lower audio quality). 2 blue flashes is standard mode. The headphones are like this out of the box. 3 blue flashes is high-quality mode. I discovered this on the Head-Fi audiophile forum, in a thread discussing these headphones. --When turning on the headset, hold down the Power button and Volume up (+) button. You should see alternating blue and red flashing lights, ending with blue lights. The second set of blue lights will tell you the audio quality. Holding the volume up button increases quality, the volume down button lowers quality. --I like to max out the headphone volume using the headphones' on-board volume button. When you hit max volume, there will be a short pause in the music and a few beeps, then the music comes back on. Then I adjust the volume using my iPhone volume control when I'm listening to music. Before I discovered this, it felt like the headphones were under-powered. Even max volume using my phone wasn't really ear-rattling. This confused me, since these headphones have a reputation for being head-rockers. Only later after playing around I realized the on-board volume vs. phone volume were related to each other, but not matching. Like on PCs, where the volume knob on external speakers are affected by the volume control in the computer settings. Even if you crank up the speakers, you won't hear much if the computer's internal volume is set low. Which is how these headphones were out of the box. Now, with maxed-out on-board volume, when I turn up the volume on my iPhone, the music can get really loud and full--without much distortion--which I think is the real sign of quality headphones. I suspect the other reviewers complaining about audio quality did not know about the different modes or the connection between the on-board and smartphone volume controls. Hope these help future customers.