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6 out of 6 people found this review helpful
4.5 stars
"The New Gold Standard"
Pros: Excellent Sound Quality and Noise Hushing, Comfortable
Cons: Expensive, Larger than Other Cans
Summary: The Bose Quiet Comfort 2 and 3 have long been considered by many as the gold standard for active noise cancelling headphones. This is because the Bose phones offer a unique combination of good noise cancellation, comfort and sound quality.
Enter German heavyweight headphone juggernaut Sennheiser. Sennheiser clearly takes aim Bose with their new PXC 450 Noise Cancelling Phones. And when the dust settled, it's wasn't even close. There is a now a new leader of the pack and that leader hails from Germany. Let's take a look and see how these cans rate!
PRICE: Around $449.00 USD.
DESIGN:
Similar to Bose and other models, the PXC 450s have an attractive silver and black design. They are somewhat bigger than other similar noise hushing models but I like the thicker more substantial headphone cable. The cable is also replaceable in the event of failures which makes out of warranty repairs less expensive. The right earcup houses the power button, volume buttons and talk through buttons. Overall, I like the asthetical design (it's about as good as a large pair of cans can look) but the electronics buttons are a little difficut to access while wearing the headphones.
FEATURES:
The Senns come with a detachable cable, volume control, bypass switch and talk through control. The bypass switch is nice because it allows you to continue to enjoy your music even after the battery has died.
With other models, your music dies when your battery does. I also like the talk through feature which mutes the music and picks up outside sounds so you do not need to remove the headphones to interact with the outside world. I'm sure you can imagine when this feature would be useful such as when interacting with the fligh attendant.
OPERATION:
The headphones can be used in either active or passive mode. The headphones run on one (1) AAA battery in active mode. The manufacturer estimates 16-20 hours of battery life. I really like the fact that the 450s run on regular vs. rechargeable batteries. This is because you can simply pop in a new battery if the current one craps out while traveling. With a rechargeable battery (unless you purchase a spare, which can be expensive), when the battery dies you may be enjoying the silence and I don't mean listening to track 6 of Depeche Mode's Violator.
COMFORT AND CONSTRUCTION:
Build quality is sold with a thick solid well put together headband. These headphones should last awhile. I also found comfort to be very good while wearing the 450s over extended periods (of more than 2 hours) although not quite as plush as the Bose Quiet Comfort 3s.
PERFORMANCE
This is where the Sennheisers really steal the show. On my last routine flight I compared the 450s with my wife's Quiet Comfort 3s. I found each to be about equal in hushing lower frequencies however I found the Sennheisers to be more effective with higher frequencies. In transaltion this means I simply heard less of the plane engine and ambient noise with the 450s than with the Bose. Finally, sound quality wasn't even close. I played both Shower the People and Handyman by James Taylor on my IPOD. Both songs were encoded at a 320 kps bit rate to ensure good sound quality. On the 450's, percussion sounded clean and natural, bass was well defined and deep and James Taylor sounded like he was almost singing infront of my seat. I really liked the clean midrange, treble, and sonic detail of the 450s. I could hear nunances not heard before in my music. On the other hand, I next listened to the same songs on the Quiet Comfort 3s and the songs were almost unlistenable. Although bass was stronger than the 450s and the sound was fuller, that came at a price as percussion and voices sounded muffled, almost as if James Taylor was singing with towel over his mouth. The Senns definetly had a far cleaner and more natural sounding treble and midrange which made music listening a pleasure. For $449.00 list price the Sennheisers should sound incredible and they didn't disappoint.
SUMMARY
The 450s are now the new noise cancellation standard against which all others will be judged. Although more expensive and larger than the competiton the proof is in the pudding as other active noise cancellation headphones cannot compete when it comes to sound quality and noise hushing ability. One point I will make is that the noise cancelling circuit on any headphones usally adds or detracts from the sound quality. In the case of the 450s, effect is negligble. I notice slightly more bass in active mode then passive mode however I notice no effect on midrange or treble openess.
P.S. If using these or any high quality full sized headphones with an IPOD, MP3, or portable player, I recommend using a portable headphone AMP. Many high quality full sized headphones have imepdances that exceed 100 ohms and will hard to drive to pleasing volume levels with the puny output of your portable. The 450s are no execption with a passive 150 ohm and active 750 ohm rating. The headphone amp improves sound quality and increases sound output. For my tests, I used the inexpensive Pocket Amp Version 2. It's a great little sounding AMP that I use with all my portables and even with lower impedance headphones as I like the Amp's sound quality so much. The amp runs for many hours on AA rechargeable batteries. For more info on the amp please visit the manufactuer's website http://www.electric-avenues.com/.
Where to buy
Sennheiser PXC 450:
$254.88 - $449.95
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