Having been an "audiophile" for the last decade, wireless headphones are the best thing that happened to me since the beginning of the journey.

[frix]

I recommend the sennheiser momentum wireless 3. Great build, good comfort, good ANC and feature set. Really solid tuning (especially with the high end profile or a simple EQ for balancing bass/treble/mids. It is not the most resolving but perfectly fine for a mobile closed back set.

 

[storing]

The battery life on my Sony far exceeds any period of time that I would listen continuously. It charges by USB C port, and it is just as easy as charging a phone.

I have a dumb phone which needs charging about every 2 weeks. So I'm not yet in the zone where I consider having to charge things every couple of days easy, instead of a setback to where we've come from. I.e. as a teenager I was constantly swearing on walkmans because of their inability to last a proper amount of time. This became better with minidisc and once memorycard-based players came out things were lovely. Weeks even months on a charge? No problem. So going back to less, much less even, is just not really my thing. I might fall for it once, who knows.

 

[edahl]

I recently got the Sony WH-1000XM4 and really love it. It is not as good as my Audeze wired or my Sennheiser wired. However the combination of ANC and wireless capability on the Sony make it a no-brainer for travelling and also for working around the house when you don't want to hear the sounds of dishwashers, microwaves or washers and dryers. Very comfortable fit, I would rate it 4.5 out of 5. For more serious listening, when all those appliances are turned off, I can use wired headphones with a headphone amp. But I don't think there is anything better than the Sony WH-1000XM4 for getting through airports and while on airplanes. I don't know for sure, but my guess is the FR has been adjusted to a "smile" or something similar, not completely flat. I haven't had time yet to investigate the EQ options in their app. But to my ears, it sounds damn good right out of the box, even when used wirelessly (it can also be used wired).

Try the treble boost EQ setting and pull the 16k band back to 0. Very nice harman tuning imo.

 

[AudioStudies]

I have a dumb phone which needs charging about every 2 weeks. So I'm not yet in the zone where I consider having to charge things every couple of days easy, instead of a setback to where we've come from. I.e. as a teenager I was constantly swearing on walkmans because of their inability to last a proper amount of time. This became better with minidisc and once memorycard-based players came out things were lovely. Weeks even months on a charge? No problem. So going back to less, much less even, is just not really my thing. I might fall for it once, who knows.

The Sony advertises 30 hours of battery life. If I were to use it 2 hours per day, I could get about two weeks. Batteries have come a long way since the minidisc era.

 

[storing]

The Sony advertises 30 hours of battery life.

My mistake for not looking it up; I misread 'like a phone' to be about battery life.

 

[617]

Sean Olive on Twitter recommends the Razer Opus model, which made me feel proud because I have a pair. They are really very good with the 'thx' eq setting (default).

Battery life is immense, never had them crap out on me.

 

[bravomail]

if by wireless u mean Bluetooth - then meh, reduced audio quality and (worse) a big delay, which makes videos unwatchable.
And overall problems with any wireless headset:
- weak, irreplaceable (and likely bad measuring) amp inside the headset
- need to recharge one more (or many more) device
- heavier, due to added battery, radio and amp
- exposure of yourself to extra radio emission
- if battery, radio or amp dies - so dies ur headset.

 

[aandres_gm]

Do you mean you can charge while listening?

No, but even the true wireless IEMs I use can run for longer (~8 hours ) than any listening session I've had. You then put them in their case and you get like 2 more full charges. I'd say battery life is really a non-issue nowadays.

 

[AudioStudies]

if by wireless u mean Bluetooth - then meh, reduced audio quality and (worse) a big delay, which makes videos unwatchable.
And overall problems with any wireless headset:
- weak, irreplaceable (and likely bad measuring) amp inside the headset
- need to recharge one more (or many more) device
- heavier, due to added battery, radio and amp
- exposure of yourself to extra radio emission
- if battery, radio or amp dies - so dies ur headset.

Well, I have no need to use them for video. With respect to all your points, I think the reduced audio quality because of Bluetooth is likely the biggest offender for me. I was surprised though that these Sony's sound as good as they do. I surely don't perceive the amp as being weak, and don't need the volume turned up anywhere near max. Sound seems dynamic to me. The irreplaceable amp could be problematic, but all headphones have a life span, and who knows whether something else on the headphone would wear out before the amp? Going wired with a separate amp, the amp could likely cost more that the entire package in the Sony 1000XM4. So, I consider them a good value even if an amp going out is a risk. The charging is so easy, I just don't see what the fuss is all about. And while at home, I can leave my tablet plugged in all the time, so the only device I need to charge is the headphones. There are various types of electromagnetic waves around us all the time. My guess is that Sony (and other manufacturers) have to comply with some sort of limits for exposure to radio emission. If it were that big of a problem, I don't think there would be a such thing as these headphones and Bluetooth speakers. Time will tell how the 1000XM4 holds up with regard to the amp and the battery with the potential for failure. But I think there are already a lot of satisfied users with Sony's previous model XM3, and I haven't heard much about amp or battery failures. I think the same will hold true as the years pass since the introduction of the XM4, I think it will hold up fine. The weight may be an issue for some people, but not for me. They don't feel too heavy for me even with the built in amp and battery.

 

[AudioStudies]

Has anyone every seen a longer title for an ASR post than this one?

 

[AudioStudies]

In addition to my aforementioned Sony over ears, I have the Cambridge Audio true wireless ear buds on order. I have never used ear buds before, so I hope that I find them comfortable enough. They don't have ANC. Bluetooth has come a long way. It is not ideal and not as good as wired, but let's face it, there are many advantages. We use many things in life that are not ideal or perfect. Not everyone owns audio separates, some use stereo receivers. That doesn't make the stereo receivers "bad" just because they are not as ideal as separates for sound quality, and they do have some advantages over separates.

 

[617]

In addition to my aforementioned Sony over ears, I have the Cambridge Audio true wireless ear buds on order. I have never used ear buds before, so I hope that I find them comfortable enough. They don't have ANC. Bluetooth has come a long way. It is not ideal and not as good as wired, but let's face it, there are many advantages. We use many things in life that are not ideal or perfect. Not everyone owns audio separates, some use stereo receivers. That doesn't make the stereo receivers "bad" just because they are not as ideal as separates for sound quality, and they do have some advantages over separates.

DSP equalization and noise cancelling impact sound quality far more than bluetooth does.

 

[AudioStudies]

DSP equalization and noise cancelling impact sound quality far more than bluetooth does.

A dishwasher affects sound quality more than noise cancelling, and the noise cancelling could be turned off when not near a dishwasher. My understanding is that DSP affects latency and that would be problematic for audio associated with video. But I am not using these for video.

 

[Destination: Moon]

I think wireless headphones have been very good for a long time and there is no doubt that wireless functionality is hugely liberating. I had an earlier iteration of the Sony 1000XM and they were impressive. A lot bassier than I'd like but superb ANC and brilliant for commuting and flying.
However I have a big objection to battery powered devices, the use of sealed batteries which are often priced (assuming available) to make it more sensible to just replace the device. My 1000XM batteries fell off a cliff after about two years, I have had the same experience with phones, tablets and digital audio players to the point that I now prefer to restrict battery powered purchases to cheap throwaway items. I have a pair of original Sennheis loter HD580's I bought in the early 90's and which I still use (and why I never bought any HD6xx headphones), there's a lot to be said for such longevity.

A reliable way to get your lithium battery devices to last is to monitor battery levels more closely. Only charge to 100 percent occasionally. Don't let them sit for long at 100 or below 50. Don't charge them to 100 and take them into the cold. Don't let them get really hot. If you do this you can extend them to provide good service for many, many years.

 

[pk500]

I'm talking about my AirPods Pro and Max, but could be extrapolated to every other set of nice wireless headphones/IEMs out there.

The convenience provided with the comfort, features and sound quality as a whole package, makes me rethink many things about the end of my journey as an "hardcore" audiophile, I'm enjoying my music as never before without actually sacrificing the sound quality factor that induced me to the rabbit hole at first instance (EQ'd AirPods Max are truly outstanding).

In fact, audio science has played a crucial role in all of this, providing enough knowledge resources in the last years to separate the chaff from the wheat and now be able to adjust the sound to my liking within the right fundaments about target responses and parametric EQ, with the main technical data of many popular headphones in the market covered. Straight to the important stuff, no bullshit.

Does this mean I'm done with wired headphones? No, but for all the main purposes of music enjoyment, they have been relegated to a very sporadic use cases.

Have you reached this point yet? Do you plan to do it anytime soon?

Nope, because I've yet to hear a set of wireless cans that sound nearly as good as my $150 HiFiMan HE-400se or $400 Focal Elegia. I haven't tried AirPods Max or Drop Panda, but I've tried nearly every other wireless over-ear can at $350 or less. Sennheisers, Sony, Bose, Master & Dynamic, Shure, AKG -- you name it.

I work at home, so portability isn't that important to me. Sound still is the ultimate feature, with comfort as a close second and ease of driving third.

 

[JJB70]

Sean Olive on Twitter recommends the Razer Opus model, which made me feel proud because I have a pair. They are really very good with the 'thx' eq setting (default).

Battery life is immense, never had them crap out on me.

I have tried these and was impressed, for the price especially they are excellent. I find it a bit odd they are rarely mentioned, maybe the fact that they come from a gaming company turns some headphone enthusiasts off.

 

[JJB70]

if by wireless u mean Bluetooth - then meh, reduced audio quality and (worse) a big delay, which makes videos unwatchable.
And overall problems with any wireless headset:
- weak, irreplaceable (and likely bad measuring) amp inside the headset
- need to recharge one more (or many more) device
- heavier, due to added battery, radio and amp
- exposure of yourself to extra radio emission
- if battery, radio or amp dies - so dies ur headset.

The amplifier point raises an important issue about measurement. I don't doubt that the amplifiers in active headphones and speakers are not particularly great in terms of measured performance, but it's irrelevant if headphone or speaker performance meets the demands of the user. I can't remember ever meeting anyone with any complaints about amplifier sound quality in these things, except for wanting more volume out of some headphone models. That may indicate many things, one of which is that thresholds for audibility are below even the low cost amplifiers used in BT headphones.
On weight, most BT headphones are lighter than many passive audiophile headphones. I get the impression that part of the audiophile segment associates heavy weight with high quality (a bit like car doors).

 

[JJB70]

A reliable way to get your lithium battery devices to last is to monitor battery levels more closely. Only charge to 100 percent occasionally. Don't let them sit for long at 100 or below 50. Don't charge them to 100 and take them into the cold. Don't let them get really hot. If you do this you can extend them to provide good service for many, many years.

I try to look after batteries, but even trying to look after them battery devices only really work if you can utilize most of the charge, and if you use them a lot then you soon start running up a lot of charge cycles. Temperature is what it is, I am in a country where it is always warm/hot and humid outside, before I was in a country where it was very cold in winter. And if using devices hard the batteries tend to run hot.

 

[garbulky]

I stayed away from wireless stuff for the longest time. Finally got myself some Amazon Echo buds and I was really stunned at the sound quality I got for less than a hundred bucks. Though the overall sound was a little muddy, the soundstage was really quite impressive for...wireless earbuds! What really sold it was the integration. It was hands free, played any song I wanted. I could adjust the volume, pause, play, find out the weather, and control my smart home hands free. It was also so convenient and lightweight allowing me to do other things with my hands. All that time, I spent tied down to a listening chair, fiddling with separates. Now it's all hands free and super portable.

Having said that, no they aren’t even close to my eq’d HD800S in terms of sound quality. I wonder if ther airpod max’s can get close. Wishful thinking, perhaps? What kind of eq setting for the max do you have on your phone?

 

[Destination: Moon]

I try to look after batteries, but even trying to look after them battery devices only really work if you can utilize most of the charge, and if you use them a lot then you soon start running up a lot of charge cycles. Temperature is what it is, I am in a country where it is always warm/hot and humid outside, before I was in a country where it was very cold in winter. And if using devices hard the batteries tend to run hot.

Don't draw them down past 35 - 40. Taking them down past that also degrades them over time. But it sounds like heat is a really big issue where you live....