Get Them Here
The new bang and olufsen HX ANC headphones are a fine pair of headphones that feature exquisite build quality, a super long battery life and a delightful neutral sound signature. But today we’re going to see how they stake up against everybody’s favorites the Sony 1000XM4’s and Bose NC 700’s. Cause even though I really like the HX’s… if active noise cancellation is a big deal to you the HX’s will might leave you wanting more.
Now when it comes to pricing… The Sony 1000XM4’s are the most affordable headphones here retailing for $350… but they can sometimes be found on sale for $280. A pretty solid pick up if you ask me. Then there are the Bose NC 700’s which have a retail price of $400 but can be found on sale for between $380 and maybe even $320 dollars. It all really depends if you get lucky or not. But then there are the HX’s which retail for $500 which is definitely pricey but you do get what you pay for in build quality. Nonetheless if you want to pick any of these headphones up they’ll be linked down below.
Now first lets talk about these case. Thankfully all three of these headphones come included with a decent hardshell case. Which is particularly good to see from bang and olufsen cause until recently you would only get a carrying pouch from them. Now all of these cases are going to keep your headphones protected if you stuff them into a cramp back pack. However the HX’s do have the largest case here. This case has the largest foot print here cause the HX’s can only be laid down flat. Now the bose can also only be laid down flat, but they do have a smaller foot print cause this case is triangular. But then there are the Sony’s which have the smallest case here in part cause the Sony’s are fully collapsible. Over all, I like all of these cases but if you are a constant commuter then you’ll might want to go with the smallest case here which would be the Sony’s.
But now lets talk about the headphones themselves. Both the Bose and Sony’s have decent build. They both feel sturdy in your hands and they both have zero cracking or squeaking whenever you flex them. But the Sony’s are mostly made out of plastic and their leatherette does feel fairly synthetic. Now the Bose’s build quality is a little step up from the Sony’s mainly cause they have this mostly exposed stainless steel headband that has a whole lot of padded silicon underneath that both feel awesome in your hands and its very comfortable on your head and the leatherette on the bose feels very supple and smooth. Ive said in this in the past, but bose has some of the best feeling leatherette on the market. Now even though both of these headphones have decent build quality… wear and tear does show up on both of these headphones. Particularly when you extend their headbands. I’ve found that with the Sony’s as time goes on their headband won’t click as much as when you first got them, and with the bose their ear cups won’t glide as smooth as they age.
Now I mention wear and tear cause the HX’s design lends itself to better longevity. The ear cups swivel very smoothly and so does their headband. So the hope here is that in 2 or three years the HX’s will feel as premium in your hands as when you first got them. But also the HX’s are using more premium materials like cow hide on the top of its headband, and underneath there’s padded fabric. And once we make our way down to the ear pads you’ll find lamb skin leather. Now like I said in the full review, these lamb skin ear pads can feel very plastic when you first get them. But after your oils get soaked into them they do soften up. However personally I prefer the feel of Bose’s leatherette here cause it does feel softer. But that just me. But nonetheless the HX’s do have the superior build quality cause their design does lend itself to better longevity… But the HX’s are using finer materials.
However when it comes to comfort… even though the HX’s are fairly comfortable and I can wear them for hours on end cause they don’t have a lot of clamping force making them big head approved, and they are fairly light weight weighing in at 285 grams… my main complaint about the HX’s is going to be their round ear pads. These round ear pads push down on the top of your ears and they rest on your ear lobes. So even though everything else about these headphones fit wise is great… you don’t forget that you’re wearing them cuase your ears are constantly getting pressed down on. Where as both the Sony’s and Bose are using oval ear pads, so your ears aren’t getting pressed down on. Now if you have really large ears or ears that stick out a lot then you’ll might want to go with the Bose cause their ear pads are roomier than Sony’s. But also, the really nice thing about both the Bose and sony is that they are a little lighter than the HX’s weigh in at 264 grams and 254 grams respectively. So you notice these headphones a little less on your head than the HX’s.
But now lets talk about tech specs… all there of these headphones charge via a USB C port as they should. But when it comes to battery life, one is not like others and thats the Bose. The Bose NC 700’s have an advertised battery life of 20 hours. And personally I feel that 20 hours just isn’t going to cut it for a pair of premium ANC headphones in 2021. I wanna see at least a battery life of 25 hours.
Where as the Sony’s and HX are a whole other story. The Sony’s have an advertised battery life of 30 hours with their ANC turned on and an advertised battery life of 38 hours with their ANC turned off. But the HX’s kick it up a notch with an advertised battery life of 35 hours with their ANC turned on and an advertised battery life of 40 hours with their ANC turned off. So if you’re someone thats planning on traveling a lot with your headphones and you’re looking for stamina then either the Sony’s or HX are more your speed
Regarding connectivity all three of these headphones can be connected to 2 devices at the same time which is great for power users cause you can easily hot swap from one device to another. Now I point this out cause this is actually a long awaited that just made it on to the Sony 1000XM4’s.
But performance wise all three of these headphones have zero latency across the board when watching movies or videos on your phone whether you’re using an iPhone or an android devices… but when it comes to audio codecs these headphones are pretty different. The bose only have support for SBC and AAC. Just like the AirPods Max. Now if you’re an iPhone user AAC is perfectly fine cause iPhones top out at AAC anyways. But both the Sony’s and HX’s have support for more higher quality audio codecs. The HX’s also have support for SBC and AAC but they also have support for APTX adaptive. Where as the 1000XM4’s have support for SBC, AAC, and LDAC which is their own in house audio codec cause Sony is moving away from Qualcomm’s APTX.
But if you want you you can always just use a wired connection with any of these headphones cause they all still have an audio jack. Now I know this is pretty basic but I do gotta point it out cause now that the AirPods Max and Beat Solo Pro’s are here and they don’t have audio jacks, im afraid other companies will follow suite. And I don’t think we're ready for that yet. However I do wanna point out that with the HX’s you can use their USB C port as a wired connection which is still pretty rare right now… but I do think we’re ready for that.
But now lets talk about listen to music with these headphones. For starters I gotta point out that the ANC on the HX’s really changes how they sound. With their ANC turned on the HX’s get narrowed quite a bit and the bass won’t resonate as deep or hit as hard. You really don’t need a trained ear to hear a difference. Where as with both the Sony’s and Bose their ANC don’t really change how they sound. So if you want to get the best sound out of the HX’s you gotta use them with their ANC turned off. Now with that being said, with their ANC turned off the HX’s sound way better than both the Sony’s and Bose. The HX’s have a much wider soundstage and much better instrument separation than either of these two headphones. However the HX’s are better suited for someone that prefers a neutral or vocals focused EQ cause their bass is the resonating kind. If you’re someone thats looking for a pair of headphones thats going to physically rattle your head then you’ll want to go with the Sony’s. Now like ive said in the past, the Sony’s are people pleasers. Whether you like a neutral EQ or you want a lot of physical bass the Sony’s can do it all. However they are the most narrow sounding headphones here. Now the Bose do sound a little more open than the Sony’s and the Bose are also better suited for people who like a neutral or vocals focused EQ just like the HX’s… But the Bose don’t sound as open as the HX’s. But the main difference between the Bose and HX’s is going to be the bass. Even though the bass on the Bose also resonates like the bass on the HX’s… it doesn’t hit as hard as the HX’s. Now with the Bose you can go into their EQ settings and raise their bass… but their bass can get a little muddy at times and if you raise the bass too much on the Bose they can start to sound shallow. Now the HX’s can also sound a little shallow if you were to rise their bass too much as well… but if you find that sweet spot the HX’s will sound open, vocalist are well pronounced and you’ll get a decent amount of physicality in your base that will offer a more fun and dynamic listening experience that the Bose can’t match.
Now when it comes to controlling you music, all three of headphones are using touch pads. Now I know some people will might not like using touchpads on their headphones but all three of these touch pads are easy to use and they’re all very accurate. But the main difference between all these touch pads is how you raise their volume. With the Bose you gotta do a swipe for every step which I feel is pretty clunky. Where as with the sony you can either do a swipe for a single step or you can swipe and hold to continuously raise or lower your volume which I feel is way more intuitive. But then there’s the HX’s where you do circles on this touch pad. And with this touch pad’s accuracy and the inbeded groves guiding your finger tips, adjusting the volume on the HX’s is pretty easy.
And both the HX’s and Sony’s have wear sensors… so when you take either of these two headphones off they’ll automatically pause your music and when you put them back on they’ll start playing your music again. Now personally I don’t really care for wear sensors so I usually just turn them off. But I do gotta point them out cause this is something the Bose don’t have.
But now lets talk about the active noise cancellation on these headphones… For starters all three of these headphones have very little cabin pressure which is great for comfort. But like I mentioned earlier the ANC on the HX’s really changes how they sound where as that isn’t an issue with these other two headphones. And when it comes to the amount of noise blocked out… the HX’s really struggle to keep up here. But so that you can see for yourself we’re going to jump into an ANC test
So like you may have just seen, over all the HX’s block out the least amount of noise here. They do an okay job of blocking out constant low frequency sounds like road noise which is to be expected… but they don’t block out as much noise as these other two headphones. Now when it comes to comparing the Bose and Sony… I gotta say the Bose’s do a better job of blocking out constant lower frequency sounds than the Sony cause they don’t have as much of a high pitch tone to them in the background like the Sonys. But when it comes to blocking out chatter or random higher frequency sounds this is where the HX’s really struggle and this is where the Sony’s do come out on top. So like I mentioned at the top of this video, if active noise cancellation is a very big deal to you then you’ll either want to go with the Bose or Sony.
Now even though the ANC on the HX’s isn’t super impressive what is though is their ambient mode. The Ambient mode on the HX’s sounds very natural with zero hissing in the back ground. And this is true for both the Sony’s and Bose as well. However Sony does have the superior ambient mode here for 2 key reasons. For starters the microphone array on the Sony’s pick up the least amount of wind noise here when walking out doors. But also the ambient mode on the Sony’s is the active kind meaning that they’ll actively block out sudden spikes in loud noises saving you from jump scares or from just going deaf. Where as with both the Bose and HX’s they just pump in everything.
But one feature that is missing on the HX’s is a conversation feature of sorts. Cuase with either the bose or sony if you’re listening to music or to a podcast and someone starts talking to you can pause your music and pump in all of the ambient sound around you and talk to someone with having to remove your headphones. With the Bose you press and hold on their ANC button for a second and on the Sony’s you fully cover their touch pad.
Now personally I do prefer Bose’s method cuase once its activated you can let go. Where as with the Sony’s you gotta keep their touch pad covered which is a little awkward. Now the 1000XM4’s do have speak to chat which is a flag ship feature for the 1000XM4’s… but personally I don’t like using speak to chat because its very easy to accidentally active it.
But finally here’s the microphone test, both the Sony’s and HX’s have decent enough sounding microphones for phone calls while in a quite room.
But the microphone on both the HX’s and Sony can sound a little shallow.
Where as the microphone on the bose does sound much more natural.
But what’s really impressive about the Bose is the amount of back ground chatter its able to block out. Cause is we were to switch over to my lapel microphone you’re going to hear all this chatter. But if we were to switch back over to the Bose NC 700’s it is severely reduced.
Where as the Sony’s just don’t block out as much ambient noise as the Bose.
And the HX’s also struggle to block out ambient ambient noise. And if there’s too much ambient noise then your voice does start to get jumbled up quite a bit.
SO if you are planning on taking lots and lots of phone calls with your headphones… and you know with the amount of remote work we do now… you’ll might want to go with the Bose.
So with all that being said, the Bang And Olufsen HX’s are a pair of great sounding, premium built headphones that have a super long battery life and a very natural sounding ambient mode. But I don’t think the HX’s would make the best travel companion because their active noise cancellation is trailing behind both the Sony 1000XM4’s and Bose NC 700. And not to mention they do have the largest carrying case here. So if you’re a constant commuter I highly recommend that you either go with the Sony’s or Bose. Personally I would go with the Sony’s cause of the longer battery life and active ambient mode. But if you’re someone thats solely concerned about sound then yeah the HX’s are a great pick up and they easily out class both the Sony’s and Bose. The only real draw back about the HX’s to lookout for is going to be their round ear pads. Cause it does take away from their over all comfort.