Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

I work out of an office in my home, have 4 children and have been needing a good pair of active noise cancelling headphones for quite some time. After 6 weeks of feverish research reading blogs, articles and watching YouTube videos; two things became abundantly clear: (1) Bose owns the market on active noise cancelling (ANC) at this time and (2) I was going to need to find something within my budget ($100-150). I chose 6 models off of Amazon and then narrowed the field down to these Bohm B-76's. THE GOOD NEWS... Style - 5/5: This is a VERY sharp-looking pair of headphones. Sleek and stylish with a brushed aluminum exterior. The padding might be faux leather but it smells and feels like real leather. Case/packaging - 5/5: They come in a very nice box with a very attractive, protective, nylon zipper case. Build quality - 5/5: Despite some of the hinge problems other reviewers have mentioned, these headphones felt very well built with solid construction. Comfort - 4/5: Some reviewers mentioned that they felt heavy, however, I found them to be very comfortable. I was able to wear them several hours a day and have no ear pain. They fit nicely over the ear and passively isolate ambient sound pretty well. I think the reports of these being heavy might be one of the tradeoffs of having a better build quality (heavier materials are needed so they don't feel "cheap" or "plastic" like other models). Sound quality - 3/5: This was one of the disappointing features I tried to deal with. For a pair of headphones in this price range I expected better. I'll admit that I am somewhat of an audiophile and an amateur musician so that could definitely be affecting my opinion here. The soundstage was rather flat but very clear. Meaning, I found the bass frequencies to be shallow, mids to be very good and treble frequencies to be above average. I was able to improve the sound quality quite a bit by purchasing the BOOM2 equalizer app for my MacBook Pro and the EQUALIZER+ app for my iPhone6s Plus. The apps really helped improve the sound quality but on certain bass-heavy songs in my library the drivers would distort. Noise-cancelling - 3/5: The ANC worked ok as long as I had music playing. It blocked out most of the noise from my kids playing in the living room just out side my office...but as other reviewers have already noted, Sony is probably the only company that has gotten close to Bose in this department. Also, I did find that the sound quality was better with the ANC turned on (as another reviewer already noted). THE BAD NEWS... As I mentioned at the beginning, I had searched 6 weeks for a good pair of headphones in my price range. I bought them the first of December but then had to wait until Christmas to open them (Christmas gift to myself). I SOOOO wanted these B-76's to work that I found myself cheering for them. I wanted to see a company offer a more affordable, good quality wireless pair of ANC headphones that could succeed at this price point. Let's face it, there are a lot of people that can't afford to spend $300-$400 on a pair of ANC headphones. Unfortunately, the B-76's worked great for 2 weeks and then the Bluetooth/Multi-function button suddenly stopped working (on the right ear cup). This baffled me because I NEVER took them out of my office and had always been very careful with them (I wanted them to last!). After contacting the seller, they kindly agreed to replace them. I waited 2 weeks of shipping back the first pair back and waiting for the second to arrive, eagerly opened the package, charged them up and connected them to my MacBook via Bluetooth. (insert a sigh here) Much to my disappointment, the soundstage on the replacement pair sounded even worse than the first pair and there was a faint buzzing in the right ear cup (NOT from the ANC). With great reluctance, I am re-packing this second pair up and returning them for a refund. And...with great reluctance I spent another hour reading reviews and pulled the trigger on the Sony MDR1000X/B's. I hate to spend this much $$ on headphones, but looks like that's what it is going to take to get solid sound quality, reliability and close-enough-to-Bose noise cancellation. If Bohm can address these issues, they could have a homerun product that sells very well. I hope this review is helpful in your own search. And if you do buy the B-76's, I hope you have better luck than I did.