Good morning everyone, I’m doing a little bit of research for my friend who wants a pair of good ANC closed headphones, I was thinking the Drop Panda’s but it’s been a bit since they came out and I was trying to see if there are any better ones out on the market right now. His number one thing is the desire for ANC, while using a desktop(I don’t understand it myself). Any help, as per usual, is greatly appreciated. Have a great day everyone!
IIRC the Panda does not do ANC. But in that price range is the Sony XM4. I suggest starting there.
What had me thinking they did, maybe some fever dream. Also budget really isn’t an issue, so long as they are 1k or less. Thanks, I should’ve remembered the XM4!
Your options are basically Bose and Sony, they are generally a step up from the cheaper solutions.
I haven’t heard the Apple solution.
You could always go with the Airpods Pro Max 
I don’t think I could ever endorse an apple product in good faith lol
There’s also the Beyer Lagoona, Senn PCX550 and Jabra 85. I haven’t heard the Beyer or latest Sony, but the sound quality spread is somewhat preference oriented. I’ve heard/demoed most options and owned Sony MX3, Senn 550, and a pair of Edifiers. I probably liked sound quality of the Senn best, but for travel, was trying to minimize the number of charging cables needed, and since the XM3 uses type C, it won.
I have a set of PCX550, and rather like them. Sound is decent, ANC is great, comfort and whatnot is good. Although the app has been updated to shit as of late. And never really liked the cup turning to turn off/on but it’s a nice feature if you want to throw them on and not rely on buttons so much.
The Sony XM3/4 would be my second choice. I think the tonality is better, but for me they sounded a bit veiled. The biggest issue I had was they press on your ears a bit too much. The Senn more/less surround your ears.
But, I warn, the Senn have smaller cups. If you have smaller ears that lay flatter, they can have some of the best comfort–that floating around the ear type. But folks with larger ears will have issues.
Sony is the easy rec here. Better tonality, better comfort for most.
Pandas are a big nope. Tonality is way, way off. They need DSP correction big time.
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That’s fair LOL
I personally wouldn’t consider any apple audio device as “HiFi”, but hey, sometimes you just want the best ANC and I hear they’re good for that.
+1 to the sony recommendation. I had the XM3s and loved them.
I was using them daily in 2019 as i was traveling most of the year for work, and they just made it so easy. The ANC is like, “fell into a black hole” levels of cancelation, short of sitting next to the crying child on the plane you likely won’t hear it.
They sounded Ok - good, not on the same level of a pair of enthusiast headphones, but they more than got the job done. Comfort was great, I would usually put them on the second i got through security and would wear them through the flight, baggage pick up, the uber to the hotel, all the way until the check in counter without complaints.
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If ANC is the primary feature, then Sony or Bose are your only options. Their respective ANC is well ahead of the competition.
If ANC and sound quality are equal, then I second the recommendation for the Sennheiser PXC 550-II. Solid ANC, very good sound with far clearer mids and smoother treble than the Sony or the Bose. Far less bass bloat than the Sony’s, too. Plus they’re only $190-200 at Amazon. A superb road warrior or mobile headphone.
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Maybe it’s just me, but I didn’t like the Lagoons at all. Veiled sound, which is odd from Beyer, which is known for piercing treble in some models. Weird fit and middling ANC, too.
I only kept the Lagoons for a few days of testing before I returned them. A big disappointment.
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Yeah, that’s one of the few I haven’t at least demoed…just know it got some hype around when it came out for some of the features it had that were pretty unique at the time.
Gonna tell him go for the Sony. Thank you all!
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