Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

Oh. Goodness. tl;dr These are too tight if your head is large, and too heavy if you are on the small side. Stay away, they can only be worn for about 2 hours a day with acceptable discomfort. Additionally: just realised that amazon.com won't mark these as bought even though I got them from the amazon.co.uk site. Oh well. Check that site for this same review if you want. Where to begin? Well, these really are dreamy headphones. They sound wonderful, they really really do. There is some quote about using these like being in a great room listening to great speakers... and it is correct. My parents have the QC 15 by Bose, and I also have some Sennheiser 380HD Pros, so let me do some comparing! Noise Cancelling: Bose QC 15: Ok, so you've got some extra money in your hand and maybe you work in a sort of noisy environment, or maybe you do some flying? Straight up - if you are buying headphones for, and solely for, noise cancelling, close this review and buy the Bose 15. You don't even have to waste time reading other reviews or thinking about music quality etc - They have superlative noise cancelling. They are also just incredibly comfortable. Some people complain about "ear pressure" - I haven't noticed it. My friend with tinnitus doesn't notice it, but he loves the fact that it drowns out any sounds that might set the tinnitus off. M4U 2: Decent noise cancelling, and would work fine for flight etc. I don't have a flight, but they almost completely drowned out the extractor fan in my bathroom. With music playing it was gone. Definitely not as good as Bose though, but unless you have some hard-core drilling etc happening near you, the ramp up in quality the Bose gives you doesn't swing it to Bose. Sennheiser 380HD Pro: These aren't marketed as noise cancelling (they have none), but they do block out a lot of sounds. It is weird - human voices just dither into the nether with them on, but other sounds - extractor fans and the like - can take prominence and mean you have to up your volume. Even weirder, at the local coffee shop, the *background* music they played took on such a special prominence that it drowned out the music *i* was playing. But that's been a one off. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Sound: If you want the best sound experience, and you only listen to a few minutes of music a day, then get the M4U 2. Music is so... so crisp! So delightful with this. If I could, I would sit with these on all day and listen to music, they are just that good. All the reviews are saying it, and they're right. Good, no - great, music. With the "acoustic whatsis" on (or even with plain noise cancelling on), the sound bumps up a notch or two ~ great for using with your mobile phone! Sennheiser 380HD Pro: My gf took these on a flight with her just the other day, so i don't have them on hand. I've only had them a week but I think they're quite ace. They don't have the fancy "acoustic whatsis" mode that the M4U 2 have, so it can be a bit hard using them in public - some noises get a bit loud, you end up upping the volume, worrying about what you're doing to your poor ears. For a quiet office or home use though, they are fantastic. Bose QC 15: All the reviews are saying it, and they're right ~ the sound can be a little... *damp*. It absolutely isn't something you'll notice if you don't have good headphones already (ie upgrading from whatever tinny headphones came with your mobile, or from sub $100 headphones). It just sounds like the music is covered - softly, and lightly - by some felt. It isn't a major nuisance, and for extended listening wouldn't cause any real issues. You won't notice it unless you're the kind of psychopath who writes poetry when describing headphone sound quality. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Comfort: Bose QC 15: Like buttery chocolate, gently whisked. Mmmm-mmm. Some people have complained that they aren't "rugged" or they "look cheap". These people are idiots. Pillows, for example, are not rugged and generally look cheap - I'm sure some enterprising sort has made a waterproof pillow that can be used in the wilderness, trampled by lions and stabbed by knives, and flaked with diamonds and gold, but I sure as hell wouldn't want to sleep on one at home. The same with the Bose. Unless you are an Israeli commando, or a Himilayan sherpa, or perhaps a lobster fisherman, these headphones are perfectly well built. And so, so comfortable. You won't notice they're on - and that isn't marketing flak. Sennheiser 380HD Pro: I thought these were incredibly comfortable until I tried the Bose. Then I realised what comfort really is. However, these are still really comfy headphones - I've worn them pretty much all day (so probably 6 hours on over 8 hours) and then come home and listened to more music with them. The jump to Bose levels of comfort is massive, true, but also unnecessary. You won't notice what you're missing with these. If you wanted sound and comfort and are in a mostly quiet environment, go for these. M4U 2: Oh. My. Goodness. What happened? This is why I can only give them 2 stars, and this alone. They hurt. They hurt my ears, and after a while - 3-4 hours? - they them hurt a lot. I've stopped enjoying listening to how good they sound *because* they hurt. I really really wanted to like them - when I first put them on the comfort thing was a niggle. "I'll get used to it" I thought, like how you find great shoes and man they look so fine and yes, they pinch a bit but *everybody* knows that shoes can expand when the moon is right and goodness, don't they look so fine? But like the shoes (in a cupboard, unwearable sadly) these just cannot continue to be worn. If you are only going to listen to an hour - maybe two - of music a day, then you're in the clear. Probably. But if you want to listen to stuff at work for most of the day, then forget about it. They are heavy - much heavier than the Bose - which is probably going to be an issue if you're on the smaller side, but isn't the issue I have. They're tight. I think they're designed for people with small skulls - mine is on the "helmet is large" (not XL mind) side of things, and for whatever reason, the guys at PSB decided to go with headphones that really *grip* your ears. Were they inspired by the Beats design? Me thinks so. Then then they went and made them rugged with undue amounts of plastic, and then finally put the actual earbuds in some sort of weird "gyro" thingy. Because as everybody knows, the heavier and more rugged the headphones - like an all-weather pillow - the better. Summary: If you don't want to spend 300+ bucks and noise cancelling is but a fancy term for you, then get the Sennheiser 380HD Pros. Great music, great comfort. You can wear them all day long. If you absolutely need to get noise cancelling, get the Bose QC 15 and don't bother looking back. If you need great sound get... something else. The M4U 2's sound soooooo good that even as I write this, ears sore, teeth ready to clench in pain when the headphones go on, I *still* want to listen to music on the headphones again. I wrote a lot about the rubbish comfort levels of these, and that's just because I want you to know, dear reader, how unwearable they are. Wait a while - wait a year - and let the guys at PSB realise that comfort always trumps sound quality. But don't waste your time buying only to return. (I came across the M4U 2s from a review given by sound+vision magazine that was v. convincing. I don't know how long they used them for, however, because I suspect someone working at that kind of place has an ace speaker system at home) Sigh sigh sigh. If anybody knows of headphones with *superlative* music that provide *decent* noise cancelling and are *highly* comfortable, let me know. I don't care about the price but I do care (now, anyway. Before I thought comfort was a stupid idea. Boy was I wrong) about the comfort and sound.