Very good sound and good active noise cancellation

After my last 10 hour flight I was so annoyed by the noise that I finally wanted to set a headset with active noise cancellation to me. Best yet to the cable to be Bluetooth-enabled, while listening to the smartphone off. However, the selection is unfortunately very limited in headphones with two properties, so I also tested wired.

I've compared three types:
- Bose QuietComfort 15 (Wired, about 330 EUR)
- AKG K495NC (wired, ca. 230 EUR)
- Sennheiser MM 450 X (Bluetooth, ca. 230 EUR)

The AKG K495NC look very sophisticated and looks quite classy for my taste because of the metal parts. But probably that is why he is relatively heavy. The other two headphones are well made purely of plastic and significantly lighter. The silver-colored Bose also looks quite passable, the Sennheiser pale in comparison very cheap with extreme plastic appearance.

The AKG has a very pleasant, warm and balanced sound with great bass, but not stand out too dominant for me. When you turn on the noise reduction, the sound is still a bit crowded. By comparison, the other two headphones sound much thinner, as if the lower middle missing. The Bose brings nevertheless still the deeper bass. The Sennheiser sound the least, with activated noise reduction it is a little bit better.

The active noise cancellation I tested at home with range hood, dryer and PC fan. Even when setting up the AKG off, the ambient noises are passive well damped. With additionally switched active noise cancellation prevails at once astonishing silence among the listeners. The Bose, however, is still a bit better in this discipline and still covers a wider range of noise. The Sennheiser clearly the weakest noise suppression. Overall, however, high frequencies are hardly damped by all models in the market, such as getting a few high-frequency noise components remain from the hum and noise of the extractor fan left. With Bose at least, the Sennheiser most. Even voices are slightly suppressed.

Negative I noticed that the AKG produces smaller noise if the earpieces wiggle times on the ears, for example, while running or if you need some more turns his head. This one takes only true if just do not play music.

Without music to the AKG unfortunately hear noise when it is turned on. The Bose rushes noticeably less. At Sennheiser no noise I noticed. Unfortunately disturbs purely also the mobile phone in the AKG headphone when it is inconvenient. This should not happen in this price range.

The harassment of the person sitting next when listening to music is the AKG excellent since virtually no sound penetrates to the outside. The Bose and Sennheiser give too much noise from outside.

The comfort of the AKG is its weight certainly not his forte. The ear cushions could be a bit softer. Depending on the head shape, it could push one or the other soon on the ears. I've personally taken once an hour, "sample" and I think, for me they are acceptable. By contrast, the Bose surround the ear and does not press on the ears, he also has a very soft padding. The Sennheiser has fairly small earpieces, but hardly press on the ears. Both Bose and Sennheiser are nice and light and very comfortable for me to wear.

The charging times (2h) and usage times (40h) of the AKG are fine for me. Charged is via an included charging cable to any USB port or by the included AC adapter. The Bose has another, quite practical concept: when the AAA battery is empty (for up to 35 hours.), Simply plug a new pure. Batteries can also be used. Although the Sennheiser has a very praktischn Micro-USB port for charging, but the running time of 10 hours is pretty weak.

The AKG and Sennheiser are also available without battery, with the Sennheiser then of course not have to be used by Bluetooth but also via cable. Unfortunately, it sounds far too thin and then total unconvincing without active noise reduction for me.

In the end I decided for the AKG K495NC. The warm, balanced sound, good noise reduction and 100 EUR price advantage over Bose convinced me. When the thin Sennheiser sound and the lack of noise suppression for me were not. Unfortunately I had to thus dispense with the Bluetooth function. But that's not so bad - Airborne you have to plug it anyway wired to the on-board system. I have the money saved by the way in an additional Bluetooth headset without noise reduction for each day invested, namely the Philips SHB 9100 (about 65 EUR). The sound is also balanced beautifully and very similar to AKG K495NC. The Philips headset SHB 9100 I can also highly recommend.