Best traveling headphone 500 budget

closed back
design/build
well balanced sound
500 under budget
features like bluetooth wireless is ok but not mandatory. pls help!

Sony WH-1000XM3. https://www.sony.com/electronics/headband-headphones/wh-1000xm3

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Drop Beyerdynamic DT 177x Go

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With the XM3 the current flagship, if you can find an XM2 on the cheap they are also great.

Do you already have a portable amp to use for power?

Sennheiser PXC 550 work wonderfully for me. If you are looking for a set of bluetooth headphones that are loud these aren’t the best but sound canceling is very nice and it’s very comfy for long periods at a time.

Best of luck!

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I quite enjoy the sound of the B and o H6 and H7

I will 2nd or 3rd the opinion about the Sony XM3 …They are noise cancelling, they don’t need an amp to sound good and are meant for travel. I don’t own the XM3 but I do have the XM2 and they sound pretty good for a Bluetooth noise cancelling headphone.

An alternative wired headphone that I have that I recently took travelling is the 1MORE Triple Driver over-ear headphones. They have a fun sound, and they come with a neat relatively small travelling case. I brought these headphones along with a Dragonfly Black on a recent trip and it all fit in the included case.

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My daily driver office headphones are… a Sennheiser Momentum 2.0 Wireless. Sound quality, I have no complaints. It sound quite good with clean mids (as I really expect with Sennheiser), with a slightly warm bias. But not unpleasingly so. It also comes with everything you really need: charging cable, carrying case, adapter for airplanes. The build is absolutely superb; the only plastic here s in the earcups with the headband being either metal or leather. It’s even very reasonably priced because it’s been sold for so long (250 at Amazon).

The downsides of the Momentum are all about its age. It’s not as feature-laden as its newer competitors. No integration with voice assistants, no on/off-switch for ANC, etcetera. If you can live with the very minor disadvantages, I think it’s a good ship.

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The XM3 is going to be really hard to beat as an all-around traveling solution. It has quite good sound, even via Bluetooth. But it’s compact, has standard setting NC, and even the stock case is compact, durable, and fits nicely in a carry-on or backpack.

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I don’t I will look for that along with the headphones…any good setups?

Wow Thank you guys I will check out all of these… you all got me excited about the XM3s and Sennheiser Momentum

I have heard good things about the iFi Nano iDSD Black Label.

More options:

  • xDuoo XD-05
  • Fiio Q1 II

All three are portable DAC/amp solutions. Not sure if the XM3 will need an amp or not, not familiar that headphone.

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The XM3 doesn’t need an amp. Fully wireless and noise cancelling and sounds proper decent. Not just for being wireless and NC, but actually good and enjoyable while traveling. Also comes with all the connections for flying so no need to worry about amps/dacs and cables.

Sure you will get better sound by using a portable amp with a set of HD600’s for instance, but for me the convenience of the XM2 trumps that.