Sony XB950N1 Extra Bass Wireless Noise Canceling Headphones, Black

This is a great product at a great price! I have tested 2 other wireless headsets in this process (MPow 059 and Marshall Monitor), and the Sony is way above them both in quality of sound and usability. My observations:1) The sound quality is excellent through the full range from the lowest bass to the highest treble. And the sound Quantity (Max Volume) is great. If you enjoy loud music and like strong bass response, this is an excellent set. And the ability to adjust the bass via an app on a smartphone is very useful. I tried different levels of settings on the "Bass Effect" and found the app did boost the bass significantly, without compromising the mid and high-range as some reviewers have claimed. The Bass Effect can be toggled on and off using an easy to locate button on the set.2) The controls for volume, track changes, and Pause/Answer a phone call are very well designed and easy to use. Many headsets fail this basic test. The Sony passes with flying colors.3) I really like the fact that I can turn off the Noise Canceling using the phone app. I do not listen in noisy environments and I want to hear the music as it was recorded, since NC does degrade sound quality. I listened with the NC on and off and the sound quality was better with the NC off.There are some areas for improvement for future versions of the product that Sony should take note of.1) The head band is tighter than it needs to be and that does reduce the comfort level. Several reviewers noted this and I agree. I am tryingto get the plastic to "relax" a little by putting the band in a stretch position when I am not using it.2) The swivel in the band may improve the fit, but it also introduces a weak point where breakage could, and did occur, for some reviewers.3) I use the NC set to OFF, but the setting goes back to the ON setting when the set is turned off and then back on, so I have to turn it offagain each time. This is not a big deal, but the setting should be "remembered" for the specific user. Hopefully this can becorrected/improved in the mobile app so existing users will have the benefit of the change. The set "remembers" the setting for BassEffect when it is turned off and on. It should do the same for the NC setting.In conclusion, based on my research and experience, the Sony XB950N1 compares very favorably to headsets at much higher prices offered by Bose, Sennheiser, and by Sony itself.

Over the course of a month of testing, I purchased this along with five other popular/high-end headsets: Corsair Void Pro RGB Wireless, Skullcandy Crusher Wireless, SteelSeries Arctis Pro Wireless, Beyerdynamic MMX 300 2nd Generation, and Sony XB550AP (at the bottom of this review I compare the Sony XB950N1 against those five products). After a long and arduous experience of trying everything out, I can say with confidence that I love this headset and it achieves the best sweet spot for those who want to both game and listen to music.When I'm doing competitive gaming I connect a V-MODA BoomPro Mic (picture attached) so that I can use a mic and have perfect 0-latency sound. It turns this fantastic headphone into a fantastic gaming headset. IMPORTANT NOTE: when you first plug the wired connection in, the headset always turns itself off by default. Yeah, it'll work fine that way, but you lose the extra bass and noise reduction. But guess what? If you just turn the headset on again it enables the extra bass and noise reduction WHILE WIRED! Maybe this is obvious to some people, but it was a total revelation for me. It was a literal game-changer.I listen to everything from orchestral/vocal tracks to hard rock and dubstep. I play games with rocket launchers but I also need to hear quiet footsteps in the distance. I want high-fidelity sound quality with good clarity but I ALSO want to have high amounts of bass. I want amazing sound but was NOT looking for the bland "neutral" EQ that sound producers and audiophile purists consider perfect. I can understand why they want that perfectly faithful precision, but I wanted a headset that brought the thunder with extra oomph without sacrificing sound quality.With the extra bass feature turned on the XB950N1 puts out nice deep SOLID bass that doesn't distort the rest of the frequency response. The headset has no problem putting out subwoofer-quality bass that vibrates your ears. It doesn't struggle at this or need "encouragement" from 3rd party EQ settings - it's what it was designed for and it does its job extremely well. Most importantly, it does this without losing the high end or letting bass spill into the mid-range which causes a muddy sound. It does indeed bring the thunder without sacrifice. It's the only headset out of all the headsets I've tried where I can honestly say I took it out of the box, turned it on and it just had the perfect stock EQ. I can listen on my PC or cell phone and songs sound exactly the same with zero effort needed. No fiddling with settings, just play and enjoy. For those who are less of bass-addicts, you can always install the phone app and reduce how much extra bass the headphone delivers or even set it to reduce bass.The noise cancellation is a really nice perk. I didn't realize how much noise the air conditioning and cars driving past the house made until I disabled the feature (it's on by default) and suddenly heard all that white noise. I quickly enabled it again. With this feature on, the quiet moments in games are dead silent, making it easy to hear the softest of footsteps and just improving the overall immersion in music. I can only imagine how useful this will be at the airport. I've heard from other reviewers that the noise reduction is about 90% as good as the noise reduction on the WH-1000XM3.COMPARED TO COMPETITORS:Skullcandy Crusher Wireless: technically has heavier bass at its max bass setting, but if you crank it up it does so at the expense of bleeding into the mids and suffocating the highs to the point that it sounds like you're in the bathroom of a concert rather than out on the stage. The headset sounds great with the bass slider at around 50%, but also is the most uncomfortable headset I have ever in my life worn. It felt like putting a steel bear trap on my head from how much it clenched into my jaw muscles. I'm 160 pounds, 5'10", so pretty average body, pretty normal head I'd say. Not sure why it hurt so dang much but wow.Corsair Void Pro RGB Wireless: Felt great, had a nice loose fit with breathable mesh. Has good wireless range. Didn't have NEARLY enough bass, not even close to enough, no matter what I tried. It has a really nice mic, but I'm leaving a short review on this comparison because not having bass is an immediate no-go from me.Beyerdynamic MMX 300 (2nd Generation): This is a really expensive wired-only headset that retails at $450. And yeah, of course it sounds good. In fact, it sounds perfectly faithful, which is to say, it has that neutral frequency response. Instead of thundering bass, you just get regular bass. You don't get "larger than life"... you just get "life". You can use an EQ to crank the bass up and make it sound boomy but it feels like a struggle against what the headset wants to do. Even when I had everything set for hard bass I don't think it had a blend that sounded as nice as the XB950N1. This isn't the fault of the headset, it's just the case of trying to fit a square peg into a round hole.SteelSeries Arctis Pro Wireless: Man. I reallllllly love the wireless tech on this thing. It has a really snazzy base unit that has a LCD to control the EQ, sidetone, etc. Makes it easy to connect to PS4, PC and phone at the same time, has great range, feels comfortable, has a cool dual-battery feature so you never run out of juice. But.... the bass, it's just like the Corsair Void Pro... it isn't nearly enough. The drivers just aren't made to put out heavy bass, even with the EQ set to max bass it's pitiful compared to the XB950N1. It's a shame, cause I love everything else about the headset.Sony XB550AP: This is the wired version of Sony's extra bass headphones. So for someone like me who games wired you'd think it'd be a no-brainer right? Well no, first of all cause I like being able to just pick up my phone and jam out without dragging clunky cords around. I don't care how I look in the privacy of my gaming room but I DO like looking decent in public, lol. Second, with the power on and the extra bass effect turned on the XB950N1 puts out noticeably better bass than the XB550AP which lacks the feature. The XB500AP is a fine headset, and if you fine-tune the EQ you can get very close to the XB950N1. However, the XB950N1 still takes 1st place especially with the bluetooth and noise reduction built in.FINAL WORD: I researched for days and bought/tested/returned way more headphones than I ever wanted to in search of perfection. This headphone becomes a perfect wired gaming headset when combined with a V-MODA BoomPro (you could also use an Antlion ModMic) and also operates perfectly in bluetooth mode for music listening or if you prefer to game that way. Be aware you can't use the built-in mic while gaming over bluetooth, it's just for taking phone calls with (this is a limitation of bluetooth) so you'll need a separate mic. However, if you want high-quality thunderous bass + crisp & clean audio, the ability to go wireless on your phone and wired while gaming, this thing is an absolute beast. Just remember to power up the headphones AFTER plugging in the wire, that way it stays powered up and gives you the extra bass :)