Sony WH-1000XM5 The Best Wireless Noise Canceling Headphones, Auto NC Optimizer, 30-Hour Battery, Alexa Voice Control, Midnight Blue

I am almost 65 years old SO, I DO NOT have the ears of a 18 year old. That said, I consider these to be good for these reasons:A: Exceptional battery life.B: Call quality that was considered good UNTIL I did a direct comparison to my Blueparrott B450-XT’s - NO WHERE NEAR the quality of the Blue 450’s, BUT the Blues are made specifically for calls in noisey environments. . Blues are in my opionion the defacto standard by which all other ANC phone calls should be judged. My "demo" for people is to run my upright vacuum cleaner whilst on a call. People on the other end cannot hear it AT ALL – REALLY!, I hear them, and they hear me perfectly! TRULY amazing! I did the same test with these and alas they failed miserably in comparison. I expected that. I was told they sound like I am in a room away from the microphone, a bit fishtank like, and muddy. SO, they’ll do in a call but not as a primary phone call device in noise. I heard a sample of the BOSE 700’s and they were terrible, which is what prompted me to get the Sony’s.C: One unconventional thing they do great at: A Sleep Aid. Yup, they drown out all the extraneous noises like people talking, Air conditioners, fans, Water coolers, hums, etc. ALL gone with nothing playing through them!I bought them primarily for playing on my PS5, and watching TV late at night. They do both quite well.D: Amazingly, my ears do not sweat much in these even after prolonged use. I’ve ordered those Dekoni Suede Earpads for them as well just for added comfort.(https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0BS4T3X62?psc=1&ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_product_details)(5/16/23 - Returned The earpads: they claim they are suede when in fact they are 2/3 suede. The inner part inside the cup is something else, not leather so NOT durable. Considering this, $49 seems FAR too expensive.)E: They are long-term comfortable unless you have ears like a B-52 in which case you will probably be stuffing bits.As for music, I find them to be more flat without pronounced highs or bass - which I prefer. The EQ on the app is a nice feature. The ANC works very well listening to music and will be adequate to the task in both quiet and noisey settings. Again, I remind you, I’m not 18. ;-)Pricewise, they ARE a bit expensive but the build quality seems better than most.If you have the time, I would HIGHLY recommend you test several brands and models at a store simply because sound quality is subjective and EVERYONE has their preference.UPDATE: 5/23/23 - Returning (REPLACING) Headphones - Why? They started acting "Funky". By that, I mean that if you turn them off, they will not turn on unless you do not hit any buttons for about 15 sec. NOT normal. ALSO, they started to exhibit Connection issues that were NOT there initially. I STILL, at this point consider them excelllent. Now, if the NEW pair goes weird, THEN I would have to re-evaluate.UPDATE 6-3-23: New pair are working as they should no connection issues or on/off bttun problems.UPDATE 2-16-24: Still working perfectly and I use them nearly every night to sleep.

Pros:-So far the only over ear headphone I can find that has the least amount of sound leak, even when wearing over a hat and with glasses. For the life of me I could not find a more reasonably priced (and non-wireless) over hear headphone that had the lack of sound leak that I was looking for.-Sound quality seems good to me.-Wound up liking the wireless feature, even though that wasn't initially what I wanted when I started looking for headphones-The app offers some nice extra control-The tap/swipe controls on the headset itself are intuitive, and there aren't so many that it's confusing-These can also be used as wired headphones.-Seems to charge fast, and battery life seems good-They can connect to two devices-Fit well, and are lightweight, don't hurt my ears or head to wear for a long timeCons:-I kept bumping the outside of the headset because I often like to adjust them or lift them to itch my ears, etc, so I wound up eventually having to turn the tap/swipe feature off. If I was watching youtube, and accidentally bumped the outside of the earcup, then suddenly spotify starts playing while my youtube video is still going. It got too frustrating.-They feel a bit too flimsy, I'm worried I'm going to drop them or set them down too roughly, or something one day and easily break them. Luckily, I don't really plan to use them out, and only plan to use them at home for now.-When using wired, I feel like I still have to use up battery by keeping the noise cancelling feature on, because with it off it makes the sound quality too bad.-When using wired, it can't connect to the app, and bluetooth functionality is turned off.-When I turn on wireless and connect to the app, it automatically messes with my phone's media and ringer volumes, even if the device it is connecting to first after connecting to the app, is my computer. I keep my phone volumes all the way down 99% of the time, connecting these shoots the volume up, and I have to manually turn down. Have not found any solution in lots of searching.-Sometimes sound randomly cuts out if I have too many things open that have any audio. If I have a game open, that mutes its own audio when it is in the background, and I am trying to watch youtube, while also having spotify open, but the music paused and not playing...then the sound on youtube won't work. I have to close the game in the background in order to get the sound on youtube to work. I found when playing the game as well, that the sound kept cutting out ever few seconds. It does not do this when listening to spotify, even if I'm playing the game at the same time, and does not do this to other things like youtube if the game is closed. Maybe these are not good for gaming. I mostly listen to music so it's not terrible, but I do like to play games sometimes. They work fine for phone games, and for using wired on Switch.-I don't know if all colors would be like this, but the black is matte, so spots from oil from fingers show up so easily on it. Before even using them, and after having them just one hour I was already noticing them looking sort of messy from this, and it's a little unappealing lol. I'm not trying to impress anybody, so I don't really care, but looks-wise, it winds up making them look like $30 headphones, instead of nearly $300 headphones.