So these are the Sony WF-C700N, these are Sony’s newest entry level ANC earbuds, and I think that these are the best fitting earbuds sony has made so far cause of their new sleeker sculpt. Nonetheless, today we’re going to see how these new entry level earbuds stack up to some popular but aging mid tier ANC earbuds like the Jabra elite 7 Pro and Sennheiser CX Plus.
When it comes to pricing, the Sony WF-C700N have a retail price of $120… not bad for entry level earbuds… but I do expect these earbuds to go on sale from time to time. But then there are the Sennheiser CX Plus which have a retail price of $180 but they like to go on sale for $130… and then there are the Jabra Elite 7 Pro’s have a retail price of $200, but these like to go on sale from time to time too. Nonetheless, if you want to pick any of these earbuds up they’ll be linked down below.
Now first lets talk about these cases. Now all of these earbuds have decently small cases for every day travel, but I do feel that the Jabra’s have the smallest and most convinenite case here. Jabra’s case is a little shorter and its a little thinner than Sony’s case. But then there’s Sennheiser’s case which is still decently small… but when its in your pocket, it is the thickest here. But nonetheless, I think the most important thing that we have to point out here is that the Jarba’s are the only earbuds here that have wireless charging.
Now when it comes to battery life, with their active noise cancelation turned off, the Jabra’s have a combined battery life of 30 hours, the Sennheiser’s have a combined battery life of 24 hours and the Sony’s have a combined battery life of 20 hours. But if you were to use these earbuds with their active noise cancellation turned on, that is going to drain the battery life on all of these earbuds a little faster.
However, I do want to point out that Sony’s earbuds do have the best stamina here cause they can go for as long as 10 hours with their active noise cancellation turned off… where as these other two earbuds can only go for as long as 8 hours. So in general, all of Sony’s earbuds good options for retail workers or drivers, cause the earbuds themselves tend to go a little longer on a single charge.
But overall, the Jabra’s do have the best battery life to case size ratio here and they also have wireless charging. So if battery life is very important to you, then you do want to go with the Jabra’s here.
But now lets talk about fit, now all three of these earbuds are in ear earbuds. As in they all go into your ear canals a decent amount. These aren’t shallow fitting in ear earbuds like lets say either the beats studio buds, AirPods Pro 2 or Galaxy Buds 2 Pro. However, the Sennheiser’s do go in a little deep into your ear canals than these other two earbuds. And the sculpt of the Sennheiser’s are a little bulky, so these may not fit as naturally in your ears as with either the Jarba’s or Sony. But personally, I do feel that Sony’s earbuds sit a little more naturally in the bowl of your ears than the Jabra. They’re just a little smaller. Nonetheless, all of these earbuds fit well and they offer good lock down, but I wouldn’t recommend any of these earbuds for working out cause they can wiggle out due to their lack of ear fins. Especially the Sennheiser’s.
Regarding connectivity, with all of these earbuds, each earbud establishes a connection with your phone. So if you just want to use one earbud at a time, you can use either one, it doesn’t matter and this is the connection set up that we expect to see on all of out ear buds nowadays.
But the really cool thing here is that with the Jabra’s… and the Sony’s after they get a firmware update that is due out in the summer of 2023, is that they are able to be connected to any two devices at the same time. So this is really good for any power user that has devices from different eco systems… cause lets say that you have an android device and a MacBook, you’re going to be able to tho swap between your two devices.
Where as with the Sennheiser, these earbuds can only be connected to one device at time.
But when it comes to overall performance, all of these earbuds have zero latency across the board when watching movies or videos on your phone whether you’re using an iPhone or an android device… but when it comes to audio codecs, both the Sony’s and Jabra’s only have support for SBC and AAC… where as the Sennheiser have support for SBC and AAC… but they also have support for higher quality audio codecs like APTX and APTX Adaptive. But just keep in mind that if you want to take advantage of APTX, you do have to be an android user.
But now lets talk about actually listening to music with these earbuds. Now I do think the Sony WF-C700N are the worst sounding earbuds here because first off, they do have the least impressive instrument separation here, so they can sound a little narrow, plus these put an emphasis on the bass and vocals, and there isn’t as much detail in the instrumentals. Overall these sound good enough to get the job done and you can also customize their EQ to your liking, but these are better suited for someone who like a more bass heavy EQ. But then there are the Jabra Elite 7 Pro’s which I feel is a good middle ground. These sound more open than the sony’s, instrumentals have more detail to them and these earbuds also have a decent amount of bass to them. And just like with the Sony’s you can customize their EQ to your liking. But then there are the Sennheiser CX Plus. Now for this who may not know, the Sennheiser CX Plus and Sennheiser Momentum 3’s are among my favorite sounding earbuds to recommend. These earbuds sound a little more open than the Jabra’s… which means these earbuds have the best instrument separation here. But when really stands out on these earbuds is their bass. The Bass on the CX plus not only resonates like the bass on the Jabra’s and Sony… but it also has a punch to it, which is something none of these other earbuds have. And personally, I feel these earbuds will be able to please everyone. I think these earbuds sound great with their stock EQ… but if you want a bass heavy EQ… then these earbuds can do that… and they can have more bass than all of these other earbuds if you want them to. Or if you’re someone that like a more neutral or vocals focused EQ… then these earbuds can also deliver… plus they have the best instrument separation here. So if you’re looking for the earbuds here with the best sound quality, then the Sennheiser’s are easily the way to go here.
Now when it comes to the media controls on these earbuds, both the Sony’s and Jabra’s are using physical buttons. Where as the sennehsier’s are using touch pads. Now the touch pads on the Sennheiser are easy enough to use… but I know some people are just going to prefer physical buttons on their earbuds.
But more importantly, the Sony’s are the only earbuds here that don’t have proximity sensors. So these earbuds won’t automatically play and pause your music when you take them out of your ears and put them back in like with these other two earbuds. And personally I do feel that the lack of proximity sensors is super inconvinente… but since these are Sony’s entry level ANC earbuds… I can’t blame them too much.
But now lets talk about the active noise cancelation on these earbuds, cause its a little all over the place. Cause right now when it comes to overall ranking, the AirPods Pro 2 are currently my number one ANC earbuds, closely followed by the Bose QC Earbuds 2, right below them are the Momentum 3’s, below them are the WF-1000XM4’s, below them are the Linkbuds S, below them are the Jabra Elite 85T’s, Below them are the Jabra Elite 7 Pro’s, below them are the Galaxy Buds 2 Pro, and below them are the Pixel Buds Pro.
Now below the Pixel Buds Pro are the Sony WF-C700N, below them are the jabra elite 4’s, below them are the beats studio buds, below them are the Galaxy Buds 2, and below them are the Sennheiser CX plus. So even though the Sennheiser CX Plus are a pair of mid tier ANC earbuds… their ANC isn’t super impressive. Where as the ANC on the Jabra Elite 7 Pro is up there.
But like I have mentioned in the past, I only use the active noise cancelation on my earbuds when I have to, and what’s really important to me is the quality of their ambient mode. Now all of these earbuds have an ambient mode and you can adjust them to your liking. But I do think the Sony’s have the most natural sounding ambient mode here, albeit they are a little quick to pick up wind noise when walking out doors.
Mic Senn quite room
But finally here’s the microphone test
Mic Jabra quite room
Now I feel that all of these microphone’s sound decent enough to take phone calls with while in a quite room
Mic Sony quite
But overall, I do feel that the Sony’s have the best sounding microphone here.
Mic Sony road noise
Now when it comes to dealing with noise pollution, the Sony’s aren’t doing the best job of blocking out this road noise.
Mic Jabra road noise
But I do think the Sony’s sound better than the Jabra’s here
Mic Senn road noise
And with the Sennheiser’s these are just letting in a lot more road noise than these other two earbuds.
Mic Senn chatter
Now when it comes to blocking out chatter, even though these are letting in a decent amount of chatter, you can still understand me.
Mic Jarba Chatter
But the Jabra’s are doing a better job of blocking out this chatter.
Mic Sony Chatter
And the Sony’s are doing an even better job of dealing with this chatter. But overall, with all of these earbuds if you do plan on taking phone calls with them, then you do want to take phone calls in a quite room.
But with all of that being said, the Sony WF-C700N’s are a solid pair of entry level ANC earbuds that get the job done. They have a decently small case with a decent battery life, they have decent active noise cancellation, and in the summer they’ll be able to hot swap between two devices which is great if you’re a power user. But if you were to spring for the Jabra Elite 7 Pro’s, these are going to have significantly better battery life, and they are going to have significantly better active noise cancelation. Plus they have a smaller case and wireless charging. And these are good for power users as well cause you can hot swap between two devices. But if sound is your main concern, then you do want to go with the Sennheiser CX Plus. Just make sure that when you’re going to listen to music with them, you do so in a quite room cause their Active Noise Cancelation isn’t super effective.