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I have been using Bose QuietControl 30 earphones for the last couple of weeks, and while I think the noise-cancellation is good, and the earphones are comfortable in my ears, I am on the verge of taking them back because the collar thing is driving me nuts - it's like wearing a tie 🙁
On the other hand, with a looser fit and longer wires such as in the similar Sony 'phones you get noise and discomfort from the wires flapping around.
I looked at Sony earbuds but they get mixed reviews. The Apple earbuds seem to be made for ears of a different shape from mine.
On-ear are ... well .. on-ear - too bulky for my needs.
Any other candidates?
The Shure SE range of earphones have excellent noise isolation-not noise cancelling however -and fit very securely in the ears with the wires looping over the top of the ear for extra support. They also have the advantage of sounding superb as well.
moulded earplugs in the ear and aftershocks bone conductors 😀
Shure 215 are excellent, not noise cancelling but they block out most of the background, and vice versa they don't bleed much to those around you.
Another vote for Shure. My sound engineer bother bought me a pair (he uses some really fancy moulded jobbies but for "domestic" use, he thinks that you can't get better quality / price ratio than Shure).
Hated my Shure 215s - weak sauce. Glad when they died. Just got me some RHA MA750 Wireless which are excellent, but have the same form factor as the Bose.
If you're discounting that form factor, don't want on ear/over ear jobs, then you're left with wired - (*ugh ain't ever going back for portable 'phones), true wireless a la Air Pod or the not quite true wireless 'phones dominated by the Chinee no brands, which have the advantage at least of being cheap.
Hated my Shure 215s – weak sauce
I'm assuming you mean bass instead of sauce, you really need to choose the right size buds to get a good fit in your ear canals, and then the bass is actually alarmingly good, almost scary on some tunes at decent volume. If you've not got a good snug fit then like most ear buds there'll be no bass. It took me a lot of fiddling with different ear bud sizes to get the right set up, but I do have very small lugs.
Bose QC20. The battery is in a little (not so little) block near the headphone jack and the remote is a small thing near the Y-split for the ear buds.
All the comfort and performance, none of the neck thing.
I’m assuming you mean bass instead of sauce, you really need to choose the right size buds to get a good fit in your ear canals, and then the bass is actually alarmingly good, almost scary on some tunes at decent volume. If you’ve not got a good snug fit then like most ear buds there’ll be no bass. It took me a lot of fiddling with different ear bud sizes to get the right set up, but I do have very small lugs.
Nah, meant weak sauce, sounded "soft" and a tad "slow" to me, mainly listen to rock and metal and found the presentation of the Shures lifeless. Went through the whole Comply catalogue to try and capture the "amazing" sound that everyone raves about, in the end I think they just weren't for me, even replaced the cable £45(!) when it died such was my desire to really like them but when one of the buds died I just binned them off. Plus in 6 months of ownership I had one cable and one bud die on me.
The RHA's are much, much better imo.
Thanks for the ideas. To be clear, the QC30 have a neckband like this:
Unlike the guy in the picture I have a proper manly neck, so it's a bit uncomfortable. May be the price you have to pay to avoid flappy wires, though 🙁
If you decide to sell on the QC30s, I might be interested - I have a small and girly neck.
"If you decide to sell on the QC30s, I might be interested – I have a small and girly neck."
I can still return them to the shop for full refund - sorry 🙂
See what you mean about the neck band on those Bose. When I bought the MA 750's I was ready to send them back if I didn't get on with the neckband but the RHA bands are totally flexible (some sort of rubberised plastic thing) , and not hard plastic, not ANC though
Get a pair of MeeAudio M6 Pro canalphones. They’re almost indistinguishable from Shure SE215’s, which I’ve got a pair of, and which have been problematic, due to the expensive remote cable falling apart, and intermittent cutting out which I blamed on the replacement UE 900 cables, but seems to be a fault in the earpiece.
I’ve got MeeAudio Pinnacle P1 IEM’s, which have a cast zinc case, and are superb, but expensive, the M6Pro have replaceable cables, like the Shures, but are around £27, and come with triple-flange eartips which are as good as anything out there for noise-blocking, at around -26dB, the same as industrial noise protection.
https://www.amazon.co.uk/MEE-Earphone-Replaceable-Universal-Microphone/dp/B00SLVB71Q/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1516904184&sr=8-1&keywords=mee+audio+m6+pro
Shures with the old style foam buds for noise-isolating (not active cancelling). The foam seals off the ear pretty well for me and bass is good.
That said, I've got blocked ears now apparently and wouldn't be surprised if shoving buds in the ear hasn't been a contribution to it.
I tried the Bose QC30s and wasn’t too impressed.
With the noise cancellation set to max, I could still hear background music in the shop, and a screaming kid.
Maybe my expectations were too high, but are there any earphones which will properly eliminate background noise?
Custom IEMs. Sound blocking rather than noise cancelling. Try 64 audio or JH audio.