Headphones (for work from home)

hey, looking for new cans and hoping someone has recommendations:

things I must have:

  • OVER ear
  • bluetooth

things I care about

  • works well with multiple devices
  • battery life

Less important

  • super high sound quality (I will be doing video conferences and listening to podcasts mostly, occasionally some music so I don’t want them to be dogshit but I don’t need top-tier audio)

things I don’t care about

  • noise cancelling (I work from home, it’s pretty quiet anyway except for shit like the kids yelling and as far as I can tell noise cancelling doesn’t really work for that anyway)

budget: meh… I’d like to keep it under $100 but I could go higher

My current situation: I have some decent bluetooth earbuds, but the battery life is pretty meh (I can’t even get through one full working day of zooms) and I borrowed some on-ear shit from my kids and my ears hurt after about an hour.

a few things I’m looking at:

My 14-year-old has these and loves them ($110):
https://www.amazon.com/Skullcandy-Bluetooth-Headphone-Microphone-Adjustable/dp/B01DWH77GC/ref=sr_1_2?crid=R5QYWU9PDQ8Q&dchild=1&keywords=skullcandy+crusher&qid=1585500743&sprefix=skullcandy+cr%2Caps%2C183&sr=8-2

My 16-year-old has these and says they’re pretty decent (cheap and with noise cancellation):
https://www.amazon.com/TaoTronics-Cancelling-Headphones-Bluetooth-Cellphone/dp/B07L5LPSQT/ref=sr_1_3?dchild=1&keywords=taotronics+soundsurge+60&qid=1585502672&sr=8-3

upper end of my budget:
https://www.amazon.com/Audio-Technica-ATH-M50xBT-Wireless-Bluetooth-Headphones/dp/B07HKVCVSY

I’ve gotten a couple of good reccs for these (very reasonable):
https://www.amazon.com/Headphones-Soundcore-Wireless-Earphones-Memory-Foam/dp/B07BKN8Q79/ref=sr_1_3?dchild=1&keywords=anker+soundcore+vortex&qid=1585502058&s=electronics&sr=1-3

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I’ve struggle with bluetooth on MS laptops/PCs and resorted to using USB headsets. So if you’re looking to use with MS software, keep that in mind.

I have a mac and iphone

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Eh my wh-700 has both good sound and noise canceling tbh

I had a corsair headset for a while and it was good but after hundreds of times taking it off sloppily a plastic piece snapped and now it’s broke. Got a razer kraken 7.1 and it’s the shit. Top headset, highly recommended

I guess I should add, I do (err, did) travel a lot (120 flights in 2019), but I wouldn’t take over-ear headphones with me since I am an ultra-light packer. The noise on plane doesn’t bother me (I sometimes will do an email or two on the plane but mostly avoid work so I’m not too worried about productivity).

Well shit neither of these is wireless, if there isn’t wiggle room on that then never mind… I’ll leave this for other people looking for video conferencing headsets.

https://www.amazon.com/HyperX-Cloud-Gaming-Headset-KHX-HSCP-GM/dp/B00SAYCVTQ/ref=sr_1_3?keywords=hyperx+virtual+surround+sound&qid=1585522249&sr=8-3

My boss at work always suggests these for people looking for gaming headsets. Super easy plug and play install on computers or game systems. Only downside is that the mic is fixed in place, there is a mute switch on the cord but to get the mic out of the way you unplug it. Maybe if folds on one of the more expensive models. They sound really good listening to stuff, I’ve only used them for calls once or twice and don’t remember much.

https://www.amazon.com/Sennheiser-Multi-Platform-Headset-Xbox-360-63043006306200/dp/B008VQ68C4/ref=sr_1_13?keywords=u320&qid=1585522482&sr=8-13

These are what I use at work every day for taking support calls and are really nice, the mic picks up a little too much of the rest of the office but it also lets me here what is going on around me so I don’t feel like I’m in an isolation chamber when I’m wearing them.

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On a related note, krisp.ai is actually really great for muting background noise during calls.

If you are feeling charitable feel free to use my referral link (will get me some free credits). They do have a free trial. Referral link is Krisp

It will walk you through a pretty simple setup, but basically you select it as your input/output on your call software and it does the rest.

I’m actually thinking about just saying yolo and getting the sony wh-1000, fuck it.

I buy $25 Microsoft lifechat usb headsets, and when they break I buy another pair. This may not apply to your situation, as they are not bluetooth, but they are a good product at a good price.

https://www.amazon.com/Microsoft-LifeChat-LX-3000-Headset-JUG-00013/dp/B00906E03I/ref=dp_ob_title_ce

do boom microphones really make that much of a difference?

I like to think so, but I end up talking really loud on headsets regardless so I’m not really sure. If nothing else it puts your mouth closer to the mic which is good, but also increases the chances you’ll be one of those mouth breathers who make conference calls uncomfortable.

my kids both use bluetooth over-ear headsets but they have the aux input so they can use them as tradtional wired headets. My older one plays a lot of overwatch etc and he uses this with his computer, which he says is pretty good:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07W3GGRF2/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o01_s01?ie=UTF8&psc=1

this lets him use it as a wired headset with boom when he’s on the PC but still use bluetooth other times when he’s using his phone or whatever, seems like a pretty sweet best of both worlds kinda deal.

I pulled the trigger on the cheapo anker soundcore life Q20 for now, I still might decide to send them back and get the bonkers sony 1000s tho.

thanks for all the help guys

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yeah, thanks for that tip, if I do decide to pull the trigger on the 1000s I would definitely go the refurbished route.

Have had a pair of these for 4 years now and still going well, even after my cat has eaten the shit out of the cord near the USB plug.

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necrobump

just to update yall, I tried like four pairs of increasingly expensive over-ear phones, all of which had more than acceptable sound quality, ok microphone quality, and shitty-to-decent noise cancelling, but ALL of them absolutely SUCKED when it came to switching between the computer and phone, so I tried the airpods pro and they’re actually really great. Still not 100% flawless when it comes to switching back and forth but less shitty than everything else, the noise cancellation is… ok? and the mic quality is really, really good, much better than I expected. Battery life is kinda meh but if I think I’m really going to be using them all day I simply use one at a time, so when the battery dies, the other one is all charged up and I just switch em out.