Cheap headphones under 10K with ANC?

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FXGalvatron

FXGalvatron

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Hey guys, I hope you're all doing well.

So, I've recently decided to move on from my Airpods and I understand that there are some pros and cons to it as well (especially since I sort of belong to the 'ecosystem') I'd definitely like ANC for the long writing sessions and study sessions. I am looking to sell my Airpods (has about 4 months warranty remaining) and that would be used to fund my headphones purchase. I am not much of an audiophile so I don't really know a lot about sound quality (sorry audiophiles, I am the kind of guy who wouldn't know the difference between a 30k headphones and a 5K headphones) though I'd still prioritise it.

My main priority is comfort. I wear them for about 2-3 hours everyday in the college bus, roughly 1-2 hours at home and another 1 hour at the gym. The Airpods sometimes would just pain the longer I was wearing it, thanks to the lack of silicon tips. I prefer a clearer kind of sound (like, I wanna notice the other sounds that I never noticed before in a song) It's also worth noting that I'd prefer a good build quality. I don't need some high end Airpods Max sort of quality but something that lasts for a very long time since I don't plan on buying another headphone at least until I get a job.

I don't have any particular brand or preference and am open to any suggestions!

Thanks and have a great day! :)
 
I was recently in the same boat, and came across a thread on the marketplace selling a sealed galaxy buds 2 for 7.5k and decided to jump on the opportunity. The galaxy buds pro is the top end of the lineup but with most people mentioning its not very comfortable, coupled with the buds 2 being more ergonomic and me prioritizing comfort over anything else, i think that was the way to go. Until now I was using the Boat Airdopes 701 but would definitely not suggest boat due to their lack of QC and poor level of refinement (since you're coming from the airpods).

Might I suggest the Nothing Ear 1? I have heard good things about it. If music quality is your biggest concern, the Oppo Enco X seems good too
 
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ryu_88 said:
I was recently in the same boat, and came across a thread on the marketplace selling a sealed galaxy buds 2 for 7.5k and decided to jump on the opportunity. The galaxy buds pro is the top end of the lineup but with most people mentioning its not very comfortable, coupled with the buds 2 being more ergonomic and me prioritizing comfort over anything else, i think that was the way to go. Until now I was using the Boat Airdopes 701 but would definitely not suggest boat due to their lack of QC and poor level of refinement (since you're coming from the airpods).

Might I suggest the Nothing Ear 1? I have heard good things about it. If music quality is your biggest concern, the Oppo Enco X seems good too
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I would like to move to a headphone to be honest. I have a cheap Oppo Enco W11 and that feels a lot more comfortable than the AirPods, for me personally. Only issue with that is it moves around.

Music quality isn't my biggest concern. Comfort is my top priority. I was looking at this and wasn't sure how good this is. If someone here is willing to swap their WH-1000MX3 (which I guess is rare) for my AirPods 2, I'd be a very happy person. :p
 
FXGalvatron said:
Mostly other people talking, sound of bus engine. I thought it’d help me focus better
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Have you any experience of ANC as to how well it works for that use case ? you mention airpods.

If these are the first gen there is almost zero sound isolation with them,
 
blr_p said:
Have you any experience of ANC as to how well it works for that use case ? you mention airpods.

If these are the first gen there is almost zero sound isolation with them,
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Actually, I have no idea how ANC works. I have the second Gen AirPods.
 
ANC works best against regular pattern sounds so engine sound can be reduced. That is the kind in an airplane. I bought these few years back for around 10k and if I sit in front of a washing machine it reduces the machine noise by half if the ANC is on. Higher end sets would likely reduce it more.

If you're riding in a bus i don't think it will make too much difference. Less than half. A little better only.

Voices are hard for ANC to handle because they're random. The only thing that works better with these kinds of sounds is passive isolation. So a good seal takes out a lot of the sound. To get that seal requires clamping force. Some headsets are going to be less comfortable to wear than others but will have better passive isolation. If you see what i mean.

Where will you be wearing them ? in a room or outdoors
 
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FXGalvatron said:
Actually, I have no idea how ANC works. I have the second Gen AirPods.
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The concept is simple, it is to create an exact opposite (phase inversion) of the sound wave outside such that the two cancel each other out. Practically, it is a lot more difficult as ambient noise never stays constant and thus the ANC circuit cannot always accurately cancel the noise when noise keeps changing.

If you are in a closed room with a constant noise, then most ANC headsets will do a decent job. However, it will not cancel out people talking or cars honking or construction noise with varying drill levels.

Most ANC headphones need a good passive seal first to reduce ambience noise in the first place, so while some are comfortable to wear, all of them will make you sweat as they are close-ended with little ventilation.

The headphones need good microphones and algorithms. Sony does it best but then has decent audio quality and a rubbish microphone. Bose has better audio quality and slightly inferior ANC. Sennheiser, Jabra, Shure are not up there in terms of ANC but have good audio quality and microphones.
 
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