Sennheiser PXC 550 Wireless – NoiseGard Adaptive Noise Cancelling, Bluetooth Headphone with Touch Sensitive Control and 30-Hour Battery Life

I have probably worn these more than any other human on earth. I purchased these on deployment in 2016. I have slept with them almost every single night since then (I watch movies or TV shows or listen to music to fall asleep). They have a nice smooth low-profile shape that isn't annoying when sleeping, even on my side with them wedged between my head and the pillow. And the ear pads are exquisitely comfortable. I think I like the feel of wearing them more than not! The handband is as comfy as the ear pads. I can wear these for days. I like the looks. Modern and minimalist. Black and silver. As I've worn them every day for 4 years at the time of this writing, I'd say they are well made! They look new! I did replace the ear pads with genuine Sennheiser replacements a year ago. They were starting to crack and flake. I'm not faulting them for this as they had A LOT of use. The auto on/off feature is handy and better than (forgetting to) turn them off with a button. Rotating the ear pieces to turn them off just becomes second nature when I take them off. They pair perfectly every time I turn them on with either my phone or computer. They really do sound great! I also own Sennheiser HD600 open-back and HD-1 (Momentum 2.0) wireless headphones. Better/worse? I'd say just different. The 600's obviously have a more open sound with a bigger soundstage, but that is the nature of open-back vs. closed back. The 550's have more bass than the Momentums, but I'd say the Momentums are more revealing. The PXC-550's have a very mellow, relaxing sound that I can listen to for eternity. The noise cancelling doesn't fully cancel out all noise, but it is effective. I work and am deployed half the time on an aircraft carrier and this helps a lot. It is loud here sometimes! Some quirks: -I wish Apple had better (aptX) support for 3rd party headphones. I can tell a difference wired vs. wireless during critical listening. -The touch controls do sometimes get pushed by accident. It isn't usually a big deal and I just tap them to unpause. -Wind upsets the ambient sound sensors and causes a fluttery distortion sound like someone blowing in your ear. I have to make sure I'm not in the direct path of my rack fan. -I wish they were USB C or Lightning. I hate having to figure out if the USB plug is right side up or not. -The Captune app is nice but doesn’t play Apple Music. You don't have to use Captune tho. -Probably 6 times over 4 years (but 2 of those times have been recently) I will roll over in my sleep and somehow it registers on the touch sensor to "redial", and it will redial the last called person on my phone. Pretty silly in the middle of the night when I am sleeping. There is no way I can tell to turn the touch features off on the headphones or in the app. -If I'm using the headphones to listen to music on my computer, and my phone rings or I get a text message and it beeps, it signals the headphones to pair with the phone. A couple seconds later or hitting play again on my computer causes it to play what is on the computer again. Smart, I guess. Cool things: -Unlike many other reviews, I've never had Bluetooth connection issues with these headphones, ever! -If you plug the USB charge cable into your computer, it can play wired through the USB. It sounds much better than wireless. They also come with a standard mini-headphone cable. -There are many features in the Captune app you can adjust. Equalizer, Director, noise-canceling level, etc. -I've used them seldomly for phone calls, mostly because I was already wearing them and someone called. They said it sounded fine. -The British woman's voice is pleasant. "Power on." -They are quite lightweight. My Sennheiser Momentums headphones cannot play through USB, and several features in Captune do not work with them (like adjusting the noise cancelling, call features, and "Director" EQ mode). Odd, since they are both wireless headphones that can otherwise utilize the app. The Momentum earpads, while they feel great (almost gooey) are slightly too small and it does become a bit bothersome after a while. I never have this issue with the 550's. The ergonomic shape helps I'm sure. Anyways, I just love these headphones and recommend them most highly! Here's hoping for at least 4 more years of "sound" sleep with them! Update Nov 2020: I decided I'm buying the PXC-550's for everyone in my family for Christmas this year. They have served me well, and I hope they get just as much enjoyment out of them as I do.

This was my first pair of noise-cancelling headphones I've ever gotten. I'm not an audiophile nor do I really care about sound quality. I got these mainly because I have auditory issues and that hearing certain noises for extended periods can cause my anxiety to get really bad. I was a little wary of getting any headphones since I know nothing about noise-cancelling ones. These weren't my first pic, but after comparing and contrasting a couple of pairs, I decided on these and I'm beyond pleased with them. The noise cancellation alone can be a little underwhelming at times, but in the right circumstances, it's absolutely amazing. In a windy car, it severely cuts the noise just from the wind alone by probably a good 50%+. Unfortunately, I've found they don't cut the white noise caused by several machines that annoy me to the degree I'd like (namely actual white noise machines and the dehumidifier that's my noisy roommate in the basement). But it makes up for that when I actually put music on. Once I get these puppies on and start playing music, I basically can't hear ANYTHING. The world just becomes dead to me and I can focus on whatever I'm doing (usually writing). The only major downside to this is if a family member comes down to tell me and it scares me half to death when I see them right behind me. I swear these things were also made for my ears. I am very tiny (only 5'4"/110) so over-the-ear headphones had me wary since a lot of them are big and bulky. Not these. They're relatively small and light and are just the PERFECT size for my ears. I tend to leave them hanging around my neck, too, so if noise gets overwhelming for me, I can just put them on and cut it out partially or entirely (if I put music on). They're so light I often forget I'm wearing them and can comfortably do that all day. I can also comfortably wear them for hours on end even with glasses. At first, it would irritate me but I think I've gotten used to having them on like that by now, so I don't really notice it anymore. I will say the touch controls can be a little on the finicky side. A good part of the time when I go to pass up a song I don't feel like listening to, it'll register as pausing instead of fast forward. That might also just be on me because I use a super light touch and might not go back as far as necessary to get it to register. I can't say anything more about them, though, because I only tend to use the pause and pass song functions since that's about all I need. They're great for calls too. It's really my preferred way to make calls since the sound quality is just excellent. I hate using the phone because of how terrible built-in speakers tend to be. This completely negates the issue and even makes calls comfortable for me (at least as comfortable as they can be for me). I will say that, even though I'm not an audiophile, the headphones can be a bit bassy. I'm someone that prefers to listen to vocal tracks over pure instrumental (although I do plenty of that too). I've noticed the instrumental tracks tend to drown out the vocals to some degree. I ended up having to use the Android Adapt Sound function to make it sound better to me. That or I've just gotten used to the balancing and can pick out the vocals better. Possibly both. Other than that, the sound quality is absolutely amazing. I was just like "HOLY CRAP" when I first put them on after using cheap Skullcandy earbuds for years on end. Overall, I'm very, very happy with these headphones even if I have a few small struggles with them that possibly come down to some sort of user error. Definitely a solid A from a first-time headphone buyer.

Çok kaliteli, fiyatını hak eden bir ürün. Uzun süredir kullanıyorum. Çok hızlı şarz oluyor. Pili bitmek bilmiyor. İki cihaza birden hızlıca ve sorunsuz bağlanabiliyor. Pili azaldığında sesli uyarı veriyor. Dokunmatik kontrolleri sorunsuz çalışıyor. Hafif, yumuşak malzemeden üretilmiş. Gürültü engelleyicisi başarılı. Ses kalitesi zaten harika. Bendeki ilk versiyonu yakın zamanda yeni versiyonu çıktı. Son söz; Bravo Sennheiser!

The headphones are great, good sound quality, good noise cancelling and good battery life. However, my pair of headphones came with the problem that every now and then, the Bluetooth would not work at all, it will simply create static making it impossible to use, I tried fixing it by connecting and disconnecting it, turning it on and off, checking the app to see if I could update it or do something. The problem I had could be from one in a million faulty items, but that is the experience I got.

Comprei e tive problemas com um lado não funcionar direito, pesquisei e vi que é bem comum nesse modelo que um lado pare de funcionar depois de um tempo. Além disso, o modelo do fone tenta ligar quando se vira a parte das caixas de som, isso faz com que em movimentos mais rápidos com o fone ele ligue e desligue pausando a música e sendo meio incomodo. Eu vi estes avisos mais em comentários gringos e achei que pudesse ser algo mais pontual, mas aparentemente é um problema recorrente do modelo. Não foi uma boa experiência ou que valesse o valor do fone.

Do not buy these headphones! The firmware update which fixes a huge number of fundamental issues with this model does not install from the sennheiser app, which is the only way to get the update. I've included a screenshot showing all of the fixes it brings to show how much doesn't work properly with that firmware. I have contacted Sennheiser support, but had no response. Having had the original version for years and loved them, I am gutted these are soo bad. I'm returning the item, but now have to pay for the return postage myself. Do no buy unless they sort out the firmware issue, you have been warned. Edit - Sennheiser have apparently fixed the bug in the app preventing the firmware update.

I bought a set of these to use on a long haul flight to block out some of the aircraft and people noise, and enjoy a nicer sound for the in-flight music and movies. Because I was travelling with my family I bought 4 different models and took the opportunity to compare them against each other. We travelled with the KitSound Immerse, Lindy BNX-60, Sennheiser PXC550, and Sony WH-1000XM2. KitSound Immerse Wireless Bluetooth On-Ear Headphone with Noise Cancellation for Smartphone and Tablet LINDY BNX-60 - Bluetooth Wireless Active Noise Cancelling Headphones with aptX These, Sennheiser PCX550 Wireless NoiseGard Adaptive Noise Cancelling, Bluetooth Headphone Sony WH-1000XM2 Wireless Over-Ear Noise Cancelling High Resolution Headphone First a minor point - like a few of the sets these headphones will talk to you to tell you when you have powered them on or off, or selected a particular mode. I immediately smiled when I heard the voice from this set - is it the same voice as Mummy Rabbit (from kids TV Peppa Pig)? Anyway, a British accent that I preferred to the American computer voices from the other sets. These were the largest of the sets, with room for my ears, and felt very comfortable. For noise cancelling, these were second most effective of the sets we had, not as good as the Sony, but not far away. While they took out rumbles almost as well as the Sony, voices are not reduced in volume so much, but playing even very quiet music masks out any distractions. This was the only one of our sets that did not make a gentle hissing sound with noise cancellation, so perhaps that silence makes the remaining noise more noticable. Walking down the street on a windy day the noise cancellation generated a bit of a rushing sound, but maybe noise cancellation should be off in that case anyway! The sound quality is good - deep base is noticeable, but not too loud, and the sound is shaped for clarity - detail is easy to pick out, and particularly great for quiet music and voices. For louder music you might want to reach for the EQ on your device (I used a dip at 8kHz), or press the "music" button on the side of the headset to switch to "Club" mode. Volume and playback touch controls on the headset still work even when using the wired connection, and the supplied wire includes a microphone and command button. If you're using a PC you can plug the PXC 550s in using a USB cable, which provides a new sound device with a microphone. The microphone is in the right ear cup (and sounds great in a quiet room). 16bit 48kHz is the only recording format available. This combination of features, focused on use as a voice headset, seem very well thought out, compared to the selection of new technology on the Sony that I can't use. There is a hidden button to turn off Bluetooth, which could be helpful if you just want to use them to cancel out some background noise, or be sure that there are no radio waves coming from your head. The other physical switches are another switch to switch noise control to off, active or maximum, and a button to cycle through the built-in sound modes. The sound mode pre-sets are built in (club, movie, speech, …), and can't be modified. Other controls are via stroking gestures on the side of the right ear cup - playback and volume controls are easy enough, but controlling a phone would take some memorising. Oddly, I'm pretty sure there is no "voice command" gesture available, so you can't start any assistant or dial by voice over Bluetooth. The Bluetooth on/off switch seems deliberately hidden (behind the front gimbal arm around the edge of the right ear cup) - you would not be able to accidentally turn it off while you're wearing these. The app doesn't seem necessary for any use of the headphone features, perhaps just Smart Pause? The app also offers a music player, and has an equalizer. Don't see the point of that - you might as well just use the system equalizer on your phone. If these were the same price as the Sony WH-1000M2 it would be hard to choose between them, but as these are £100 cheaper they would be my choice.