Wireless noise-cancelling headphones

When the rumble of the tram drops out from under the music

On the morning journey the fight is rarely with volume, it is with the background: the underground pushes the music beneath its own noise floor and you instinctively turn it up. Active noise cancelling takes that fight away. It cancels much of the steady, monotonous noise, so the same track keeps its detail at a lower volume and your ears are quiet when you arrive.

What ANC does, and what it leaves alone

Active noise cancelling (ANC)

Microphones in the earcups pick up the surrounding noise and the headphones' electronics add sound of opposite phase to what is playing. The two cancel each other. It works best on continuous, low-frequency noise: engine hum, air conditioning, train wheels.

What it leaves alone is human speech and sudden, sharp sounds. The murmur of an office drops away while a sentence from the colleague beside you still arrives. That separation is what makes the headphones worth wearing in an open-plan office.

40 millimetre drivers, 20 Hz to 20 kHz

The cups carry 40 mm drivers with an impedance of 32 ohms and a sensitivity of 105 decibels; the frequency range runs from 20 Hz to 20 kHz. In practice those figures mean a phone drives them loudly enough with no separate amplifier.

More than thirty hours of playback

The 300 mAh battery gives more than 30 hours of playback, and charging over Type-C takes 2 to 3 hours. Real running time depends on volume and on how much you use the noise cancelling, but as an order of magnitude that is a full working week of commuting on one charge. Charge from a 5 V, 1 A USB charger.

If the battery does run down, the 1.2 metre AUX cable is there: plug it into a device with the right socket and the music carries on. The box holds both the Type-C charging cable and the AUX cable.

Folded down to bag size

The headband folds and the earcups turn in towards each other, so the headphones become a flatter package. Open, they measure 18.5 cm high and 17 cm wide, which fits the side pocket of a laptop bag.

The cushion and the metal ring

The frame is light plastic with metal reinforcement, and the cushions are made of soft, skin-friendly PU leather. The cushion plays two parts: it gives a comfortable seat around the ear and it works as passive insulation, so the ANC only has the remainder to deal with. A metal ring runs around the brand mark in the centre of each cup; that detail is what makes the headphones read as something worn rather than a piece of equipment.

Work and music on the same head

The headphones work with iOS, Windows and Android, so there is no switching between a work laptop and a personal phone. The Bluetooth connection has a 15 metre range, which covers moving about a room: you can walk to the kitchen for a glass of water and keep the stream intact.

At home the same quiet is what you want: they stay over the back of the sofa until the next call or the next record.

Finishes

The headphones come in more than one finish; the tone of the body and the shade of the metal details change.

Safety, hearing and disposal

Care

• Wipe the cushions with a dry or barely damp cloth and let them dry before putting the headphones away.
• Fold them after use, which takes load off both the headband and the cushions.
• Keep the Type-C socket clean; blow out pocket lint gently.
• Before long storage, charge them halfway and top the charge up monthly.
• Coil the AUX cable loosely and never pull it by the plug.

When they are a good choice

Frequently asked questions

Technical data