Help needed choosing a good pair of noise cancelling earphones
I've found a good number of negative reviews of Bose QC 2 and quite a few good things said about Sony WF-1000XM5 so I'm leaning towards buying them but would love to hear the general recommendation on Lemmy first.
I live in a very noisy environment and need earphones for my sleep, when I work or relax, and for listening to podcasts as well as a bit of music. And since sleep is most important for me, I have in-ear comfort as the top priority.
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If you might also care about the socioeconomic manufacturing process and fair payment for these necessary resources, I can recommend the Fairbuds in-ears or Fairbuds XL for over ear.
https://shop.fairphone.com/fairbuds
Both have noise cancelling as an option and an equalizer via app.
That'd be great but can you comment on the comfort and sound/ANC quality?
They're underwhelming especially for the price. You trade performance for sustainability and repairability... But they do work.
Better than individual experiences I like to present some reviews, but there doesn't seem to be that many technical reviews in english, at least I did not find them. https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2024/apr/11/fairphone-fairbuds-review-ethically-made-earbuds-with-replaceable-batteries
However, for in-ears, I find them comfortable, but I am more an over ears person. ANC is alright, I'd say. A bit annoying if I am using it on the train and keep hitting the wall or head rest. But either I adapt to these sounds or the hardware takes a bit more time to filter these vibrations out.
For the tradeoff of better sustainability and exchangability if something breaks or the batteries need replacing, I find the price fair.
Tbh fair phone really turned me off when they removed the headphone jack on their phones. All for sustainability but they force you to use wireless earbuds that never seem to last more than a few years, or buy their sustainable, overpriced mediocre headphones.
That's fair to be annoyed about. I can understand their approach and their tradeoff for a bit of better water-/rain protection and having less components inside. With an USB-C adapter I am using my analog ear buds, even though I switch more and more to bluetooth as I find them more comfortable.
Mediocre headphones, I would not say. They are definitely not top of the line technology wise, but I find them sufficient and sometimes even more than I expected fairly produced hardware to be.