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There are plenty of great truly wireless earbuds out there to choose from… but the premium ANC earbud market is really starting to heat up. First we got the Sony WF-1000XM3’s… then we got the AirPods Pro’s… shortly after we got the Sennheiser Momentum 2’s and now after a few delays and a name change we’ve got the Bose QC earbud’s. Now there are more ANC earbuds hitting the market these days but these are the most popular ones. So if you’re thinking about getting any of these earbuds… lets see which ones are right for you.
Now when it comes to price the Sony WF-1000XM3’s are the most affordable ones here… but they’re also the oldest ones here. They have a retail price of $230 but they do routinely like to go on sale for $178. The AirPods Pro have a retail price of $250, the Bose QC earbuds have a retail price of $280 and then there are the Sennheiser Momentum 2’s which have a retail price of $300. Now if you want to pick any of these earbuds up they’ll be linked down below and if you want to learn more about any of these earbuds please watch their full reviews cause we’re only going over their main differences.
Now as with any pair of truly wireless earbuds for me the first thing we’ve got to look at is the case. Now plainly said the AirPods Pro have the smallest and most convenient case here. This case is tiny, it slips in and out of your pocket super easily and you barely even notice it when you’ve got in your pocket. And for comparison sake this case is just a little larger than the AirPods case and Galaxy Live case. Where as with all of these other case’s they are a little larger. For me, the momentum 2’s case is the largest that I’ll go and say is acceptable… but Sony’s and Bose’s case are just way too big to be acceptable. Both of these case’s have a huge footprint and they are significantly thicker than the AirPods Pro’s case so they are super noticeable when you’ve got them in your pocket. Now granted I will admit that the Momentum 2’s case is just as thick as the Bose QC earbuds case… but it’s saving characteristic here is its smaller foot print. But personally I do think Sennheiser know’s that they have to shrink their case down and I do have high hopes for the future Momentum 3’s cause the Momentum 2 earbuds actually fit inside the new CX 400BT’s case which is significantly smaller. But nonetheless when it comes to case the AirPods Pro are the clear winners here… Sennheiser just manages to skate by and Bose and Sony… get your act together these cases are way to big for 2020.
However, the Sony’s do manage to justify their rather large case by having a combined battery life of up to 32 hours if you use them with their Active noise cancelation turned off. But with their ANC turned on they have a combined battery life of 24 hours. The Sennheiser’s also somewhat justify their case size by having a combined battery life of 28 hours… and the AirPods Pro have a combined battery life 24 hours. But unfortunately the Bose QC earbuds do not justify their large case cause they only have a combined battery life of 18 hours.
Now Bose’s case does have wireless charging which is something the Sennheiser’s and Sony’s don’t have but the AirPods Pro also have wireless charging all while having a significantly smaller case. Over all the Bose QC earbuds are really lacking when it comes to the battery life and case size ratio where as all of these earbuds have acceptable battery lives for earbuds in 2020. But hand down the AirPods Pro have the most convenient case here for everyday carry.
But now lets talk about fit cause all of these earbuds fit very differently. Now I actually feel the Bose are the best fitting earbuds here and you can actually wear these earbuds for hours on end without any problems. Now these earbuds don’t actually go into your ear canals all that much they just rest right out side of it. So these are a great option for people who aren’t the biggest fans of in ear ear buds for long use sessions like me. And thanks to their very large curtains they still do a really good job of creating a seal and blocking out ambient noise. And thanks to their built in ear fins these earbuds stay in place very well after you’ve put them in. You barely have to go back and readjust these earbuds… which is something you constantly have to do with the AirPods Pro. Now the AirPods Pro are in ear ear buds they they don’t go in super deep into your ear canals they’re very shallow. But since they’re so shallow they do constantly like to wiggle out so you do have to constantly go back and push them back in. But again these are a little more comfortable than your typical in ear ear buds. Now the momentum 2’s fit like you typical pair of in ear ear buds. They go into you ear canals a decent amount unlike the AirPods Pro… but unlike the AirPods Pro they don’t wiggle out as much. So these do a better job of staying in place. Now you can wear these for long periods of time but for me they do get itchy after awhile but thats the case for me when any pair of in ear earbuds. But other than that the Momentum 2’s fit well. But then there are the Sony’s… now im not the biggest fan of how the Sony’s fit specifically cause these earbuds go in super deep into your ear canals which just feels very unnatural. But over all when it comes to the fit… I do feel the Bose are the most comfortable earbuds here followed by the AirPods Pro, Sennheiser ’s and then Sony’s. But cosmetically I do gotta point out that these earbuds are huge. When I look at the Bose QC earbuds im reminded of those huge bluetooth’s from the 2000’s.
Now when it comes to Bluetooth connectivity, both the AirPods and Sony’s each establish a connection with your phone. So if you just want to use one earbud at a time you can use either one it don’t matter. And this is the connection type that we like to see these days.
Where as both the Sennheiser’s and bose are using a hero and sidekick set up. So one earbud, the hero earbud, in this case the right earbud actually establishes a connection with your phone and then relays that connection to the other earbud. So if you just want to use one earbud at a time you gotta use the correct earbud. In this case the right ear bud.
But more importantly when it comes to watching movies or videos on your phone all of these earbuds have zero latency across the board whether you’re using and iPhone or an android device which is always great. But when it comes to audio codecs the Bose, Sony and AirPods Pro only have support for SBC and AAC… Where as the Sennheiser’s have support for SBC, AAC, and APTX.
But now lets talk about listening to music with these earbuds. Plainly said, if you’re tying to decide between any of these earbuds and sound is your main priority… than the AirPods Pro are the last ones you wanna go with. When compered to all of these other earbuds the AirPods Pro sound super narrow and their bass doesn’t resonate anywhere near as much as these other earbuds. And since these earbuds do like to put an emphasis on the mids they are a little vocals forward. Now don’t get me wrong they are going to get the job but they don’t sound anywhere near as good as these other earbuds. Personally for me I only use my AirPods Pro to watch videos or listen to podcasts with. But then there are the Bose QC earbuds and I feel these are a step up from the AirPods Pro. Just like the AirPods Pro the Bose QC earbuds do like to put an emphasis on the mids but these are even a little more vocals forward than the AirPods. But unlike the AirPods the Bose are a little more open and the bass on these earbuds does resonate a good amount. But unfortunately unlike the Sony’s or Sennheiser’s the Bose don’t have an adjustable EQ. You’re stuck with the Stock EQ bose gives you. Now personally I do think that it would behoove bose to add an adjustable EQ to their earbuds cause they recently added an adjustable EQ to their Bose NC 700’s. Personally for me I just want to dial the mids back on these earbuds. But next up there’s the Sony WF-1000XM3’s and this is where things start to get serious. Performance wise these earbuds have much better instrument separation and a much wider soundstage than both the AirPods Pro and Bose QC earbuds. So the Sony’s sound much more open. And the bass on the Sony’s resonates more than the bass on the Bose. And unlike the Bose, the Sony’s have a fully customizable EQ so you can make them sound however you want. If you want a vocals forward sound signature like the AirPods Pro or Bose on the Sony’s you can do that. Or if you want a more bass heavy EQ then you can also do that. Or if you want a balanced sound signature then you can always just use Sony’s stock EQ. With the Sony’s you’re not just getting better sound quality…. You’re also getting a lot more freedom to choose. But finally there are the Sennheiser Momentum 2's and these earbuds kick it up a notch. Like I’ve mentioned in the past… these are my favorite sounding earbuds. These earbuds have the best instrument separation and widest soundstage here so they sound the most open. But what really makes these earbuds sound out is that they have the cleanest deepest resonating bass here so these earbuds can actually induce goose bumps. Now personally I just use these with their stock EQ cause their stock is EQ is very balanced with well defined mids and hard hitting bass. But if you want to you can always customize the EQ on these earbuds to your liking. And im just saying, if you’re someone that really like bass in their music then these earbuds can deliver more bass than the Sony’s.
And sound quality aside the Sennheiser’s also have the best media controls here. Straight from the earbuds themselves you can play or pause your music, skip a track, go back a track, you can cycle better active noise cancelation and ambient mode and you can even raise or lower the volume straight from the earbuds themselves. Now the Sony’s also have really good media controls and you can do almost everything the momentum 2’s can but the only thing you can’t do is raise or lower your volume unless you decide to sacrifice your playback controls or ambient sound controls.
Where as by comparison, both the Bose QC earbuds and AirPods Pro do have fairly limited media controls. However if you’re an iPhone user having always listening Siri does offset limited media controls. Cause with AirPods you can just be like hey siri call so and so and or send so and so a text and boom its done.
But now lets talk about the active noise cancelation on these earbuds. Now I do feel comfortable saying that the Bose QC earbuds block out the most amount of noise here. And when it comes to ranking it goes Bose, Sennheiser, AirPods, and in last place is Sony. Now the Bose don’t block out a lot more noise than the Sennheiser’s and AirPods which are neck and neck but they do block out a little more noise.
Now I do want to taper expectations here… none of these earbuds are going to block out nearly as much noise as a proper pair of over headphones like the Sony 1000XM4’s or Bose NC 700’s… but the Bose QC earbuds do block out an impressive amount of noise for earbuds. However I do gotta point out that these earbuds do have a little more cabin pressure than these other earbuds and on occasion they did make me feel a little nauseous which isn’t a problem with these other earbuds.
But like ive mentioned in the past… I only use the active noise cancelation on any of my earbuds when I have to and what’s really important to me a decent ambient mode. Now all of these earbuds have decent ambient modes that all sound very natural and that have zero hissing in the background except for the Bose. And when it comes to blocking out wind noise when walking out doors all of these microphone arrays do a good job of rejecting wind noise.
But the AirPods Pro do the best job here of rejecting wind noise. Where you’ll might get hit by a gust of wind these other earbuds the AirPods Pro will actually still reject it.
The Bose also don’t have too much amplification to them by they do sound a little cooler.
I think the AirPods sound good but they do have a little more amplification to the them.
And then there are the Sennehsier’s which have the most amplification to them here but I think they still sound pretty good for phone calls.
Inperson AirPods chatter
But when it comes to blocking out chatter this is an area where both the Aipods and Bose QC earbuds really struggle
With both of these earbuds you can clearly hear a lot of chatter in the background.
Where as with the Sennehsier’s they do a decent job of blocking out chatter given at how much they do like to amplify your voice.
But just for comparison sake these are the Galaxy buds Live and these earbuds do a much better job of blocking out chatter. Cause if we were to switch over to my lapel microphone you’re going to clearly hear all of this chatter. But if we were to switch over to the Galaxy Buds Live you don’t hear it as much.
But with all the being said… if you’re trying to choose between any of these earbuds for me it really boils down to two options. If you’re an iPhone user looking for maximum connivence then the obvious choice are the AirPods Pro. The AirPods Pro have the smallest and most convenient case here with a combined battery life of 24 hours and wireless charging. They have the best ambient mode here, and having always listening Siri just makes it super easy to places calls, send out texts, and more all with just your voice. And the active noise cancellation on these earbuds is also good. However these pale in comparison when it comes to sound quality. So for me I just use these earbuds for watching videos, listening to podcasts or take phone calls with. But these are my go to earbuds for when im running errands. But if your main concern here is sound then you gotta go with the Sennheiser Momentum 2’s. These earbuds truly sound amazing cause of just how open they sound and super deep resonating bass. These earbuds sound so good they can actually be a viable alternative to a pair of headphones. And when it comes to active noise cancelation these earbuds do manage to block out a little more noise than the AirPods Pro… but im going to mostly attribute that to the Momentum 2’s better seal. Now even though I do prefer to run errands with the AirPods Pro cause of their smaller case you can absolutely still take the Momentum 2’s on the go with you. But then there are the Bose QC earbuds and Sony WF-1000XM3’s. Even though the Bose QC earbuds are the best fitting earbuds here and they do manage to block out the most amount of noise here… its not a huge difference from the Momentum 2’s or AirPods Pro. And its certainly not a big enough performance difference to compel me to compromise on the Bose QC earbud’s huge case. And given that the Bose have a combined battery life of 18 hours that just unacceptable for a case of this size these days. When it comes to earbuds im looking for maximum convenience and case size and battery life plays a big roll in that.
But then there are the Sony WF-1000XM3’s… even though this case is rather large they do help justify it by having upto a combined battery life of 32 hours. Even though they block out the least amount of noise here at least they have a very good ambient mode which I feel is more important. And these earbuds also sound much better than both the AirPods Pro and Bose QC earbuds. So even though these wouldn’t be my first pick… if you’re on a budget and you can get them on sale for $178 I say why not.