Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

I love Sennheiser. I have owned quite a few of them, even their esoteric HE90. I still have HD650 for my home reference headphone. When I started looking for a noise cancelling headphones a year ago, I picked Sennheiser Momentum 2 blind. The ear cup of M2 is too small too shallow, can't wear them even for short period of time. So I give it away and pick Definitive Technology Symphony 1, which has good sound quality and huge ear cup. The DT Symphony 1 is not perfect -- a bit mid-bass boom, a tad grainy mid-range. But the biggest problem is the headband: it presses on the top of my head which make it also impossible to wear for too long. So I started to look for a new pair of BTNC headphones. I don't like BOSE brand but I tried the QC35 at BestBuy and their are extremely comfortable! SONY 1000X is not that comfortable for me and doesn't sound very impressive either. But I couldn't find any Sennheiser 4.50BTNC at store to try on so I bought them on Amazon and hope Sennheiser has fixed the ear cup design flaw. Boy was I wrong! the ear cup is still the same small/shallow design as in M2. I can't wear them for too long. Yeah I admit people have different anatomy so maybe mine is a bit off but my ear is certainly on the mid/small side for sure. I am so disappointed. I give 4.50BTNC one stars for sound quality which is ok. but not as expected from Sennheiser. sound stage is hollow, frequency response is not balanced. Also the max sound volume is quite low, which could be an issue for some recordings. As a comparison, Bose QC35 is better in EVERY aspects! My advise for people consider buying 4.50BTNC: TRY THEM ON before you buy! They may work for you but don't assume so. Also try Bose QC35 if you can! I posted the side-by-side photos of 4.50BTNC, HD650, and BOSE QC35 for reference.