Sennheiser MM 450-X Noise-Cancelling Bluetooth Wireless Headset

Comments about Sennheiser MM 450-X Noise-Cancelling Bluetooth Wireless Headset:

Great sound and easy on the ears. Furthermore, great on a plane with screeming kids, noise canceling works as stated. ActivX is a plus. Rather pricey and a little finger practice with the controls.

Comments about Sennheiser MM 450-X Noise-Cancelling Bluetooth Wireless Headset:

I am not an audiophile but I would rate the sound as very good to excellent. The sound experience seems to have more to do with how well balanced the recording is than with the headphones themselves. Sometimes the bass is a little lacking on some recordings but is much more than adequate on others. Unfortunately my music collection quality is all over the map because I started to convert to MP3 back in the days when MP3 players had limited capacity - a lot of it is at 128kbs. It's important to have the headphones properly adjusted on your ears too.

I use these headphones with a MacBook Air and an iPhone. There's a little trick to getting the MacBook Air to use the AptX codec. You have to start Bluetooth services with only the headphones connected, then connect the other peripherals (like my bluetooth mouse). If I don't do it in that order then I the SBC or SCO codec is used. When using the AptX codec I can't tell any difference between wired and wireless modes. When using the other codecs the sound is still many steps up from using any of my earbuds (Bose, Klipsch, and Sure).

They are very comfortable. I wear them for hours and there is no discomfort. I opted for the on-ear version as opposed to the MM 550-X because I wear glasses and thought they would be less likely to pinch the arms of my glasses between my ear and head. I can only compare these to my old Bose QC1s and they do pinch less.

Noise cancellation works as well as my Bose QC1s (first edition noise canceling Bose) and I don't feel tethered to my laptop or iPhone! It's awesome to be able to get up and go to the kitchen without having to stop the music and take the headphones off. It's also awesome to be able to just toss my iPhone in my briefcase and not get all tangled up in wires.

I also bought the iPhone dongle to get the full benefit of AptX (the iPhone/iPads do not natively support AptX yet). It works great and pairs flawlessly every time.

One thing to note: when using with my iPhone the sound volume is limited to a certain level (some kind of EU regulation thing I guess). If you are the type that really wants to crank up the volume these may not be for you. Personally, I find it less fatiguing to block out ambient noise which these do well, and listen at a more reasonable level so it's not an issue for me. Sometimes with my earbuds (which are not in the ear canal type) I find myself cranking up the volume to overcome the ambient noise and then feel a little blown out after an hour or so.

One feature I read about before I bought them was the Talk-Through feature. It wasn't any kind of deciding factor for me. At the time I thought it was sort of gimmicky. As it turns out, it's a really great feature. It pauses iTunes and uses the microphones to bring in the ambient sound. When you press the button again the music resumes. It works sort of like taking a call. Genius.

I haven't really used the external microphone for making calls, and I'm not sure if that will work when using the external AptX dongle or not but I did make a test call to my work voicemail using the native iPhone Bluetooth before the dongle arrived. The quality of my voice recorded through the headphones wasn't anything to write home about but I would say it was adequate. Given that the position of the microphone is basically on my ear I think that's to be expected. I'm also very spoiled by using a Sennheiser DW-PRO1 headset on my office phone which has absolutely perfect sound both when listening and speaking (people often asking me what kind of phone I'm using).

The battery life is as advertised - about 8 to 10 hours depending on how you're using them. After about a week I opted to buy a spare battery so I could be charging one while using the other. That way I have zero downtime. I'm a heavy user. It's not uncommon for me to use the headphones on my patio and around the house all day and then use them to watch a movie in the evening. I didn't want to pay attention to power management.

They are certainly not objectionable from an aesthetic point of view. They are nice a low-key looking - not bling. Unlike earbuds, people around you do notice them which I don't necessarily see as a bad thing - they're less offended if you seem to be ignoring them or if you have to ask them to repeat something. They will easily fit over a baseball hat or beanie (if you don't have an exceptionally huge head I guess).

Overall I am extremely pleased with these headphones and would recommend them to a friend BUT they are pricey to be sure. I guess sometimes you have to pay for what you get.

Comments about Sennheiser MM 450-X Noise-Cancelling Bluetooth Wireless Headset:

I am an international frequent flier and the airline headsets can be really nasty. I wanted something that was portable, wireless,had good noise cancelling technology and great sound. I opted for on-ear as buds too uncomfortable and over-ear made them less compact. I pack a lot of gear (iPad, PC, iPhone, adaptors for 4 countries, so wanted something that would fold up and safely and compactly fit into my biefcase. The winning combo is to be able to switch from great noise cancelling functionality to talk-thru, so when a flight attendant talks to you, the sound is cut and you can hear them and yourself clearly. Another touch and you are back in high quality stereo heaven.