The Best Sounding Over-Ear Headphones You’ll Love In 2021
The best wireless Bluetooth noise cancelling over ear headphones give the gift of peace, quiet and solitude. In a hectic world of construction noises, loud traffic, screaming children and infinite distractions, high-end wireless Bluetooth noise cancelling over ear headphones silence your surroundings and let you enjoy music the way it was meant to be heard. That’s crystal clear, acoustically perfect, and the most important one, uninterrupted.
But the benefits shouldn’t just be limited to noise cancelling. No, over ear headphones should give you a wealth of benefits without seriously denting your bank balance. While being worth the price tag, you’ll also want them to prioritize acoustics, be supremely comfortable, durable, look good and come with a battery life that won’t mean you have to charge them repeatedly after just a short period of use.
Premium active noise cancelling over ear headphones can seem like a crowded marketplace. You have your brands that everyone recognizes but there are also now a whole host of new, emerging companies whose products may actually be better than these big brands, just without the name recognition and massive price tag. With the ANC marketplace expanding greatly over the past few years, we’ve seen the release of lots of superior headphones at affordable prices.
In this instance, we’ll focus on wireless Bluetooth over ear headphones because if you need the absolute best noise cancelling money out there, these types of headphones are always going to be preferred to any earbud-style options there. Here are some of our favorite high-end wireless Bluetooth over ear headphones as we move into 2021!
Sony WH-1000xM4
Sony is a well-known name in the electronics industry and their line of premium wireless Bluetooth noise cancelling headphones has long been regarded as some of the best available to purchase. Now this high quality does not come cheap, as at $350, the new Sony WH-1000XM4s are an incredibly expensive proposition for most. However, this price tag does promise a high level of quality and their new range of noise cancelling headphones do sound good.
They offer users the ability to personalize their audio via the Sony Headphones Connect app which lets you create your own sound profiles or pick from multiple fine-tuned presets that lend themselves well to almost every music genre. Essentially you can listen to anything however you want to.
With these over-ear headphones you’re also getting top-tier active noise cancelling that provides full immersion when you put them on. However, as has always been the case with Sony over-ear headphones, the call quality isn’t great. They’re also pretty heavy meaning wearing them for long periods of time can become uncomfortable and you’re likely to need a break to give your ears a rest, but for short bursts of total listening isolation, they are a very good product. If you are all about active noise cancellation and high price tags don’t bother you, you can’t go wrong with these over-ear headphones.
BOSE 700
Bose are another instantly recognizable name in audio equipment and their 700 product focuses highly on personalization too. The 700 boasts 10 levels of active noise cancelling that can be adjusted in the Bose Connect app and works well to drown out the majority of ambient sounds. More importantly though, the 700 achieves this without compromising sound quality, allowing users to enjoy clean, well-balanced sounds in peace. There is also Bose’s companion app which lets you adjust the EQ for personalized audio.
Unfortunately, one of the big downsides to these over-ear headphones is that Bose requires you to sign up for an account in order to use the app and set up your headphones. This is an added annoyance which is unnecessary and can be off-putting for most people to have to do, but probably not a deal breaker. Their $340 price tag on Bose’s website however might be.
Overall, the Bose 700 sounds great, are feature-rich, do-it-all Bluetooth over ear headphones with a clean sound that is lighter on the bass than Sony but feels slightly less vibrant. However, if you’ve been happy using Bose over ear headphones in the past, you’ll probably be happy to do so again here too.
FLOW II
Fortunately, you don’t have to spend high prices to get high-quality over ear noise cancelling headphones. The FLOW II from Cleer Audio can do everything the Sony and Bose offers, as well as little more in some areas, all at half the price of these recognized brands. If you’re looking to make working from home or taking virtual calls easier or just like to keep your over ear headphones on all day without being disturbed, the FLOW II are what you’ll need to invest in for everyday use.
The FLOW II are built to provide premium noise-cancelling. With hybrid noise cancelling featuring optimized passive and active isolation, these wireless Bluetooth headphones can suppress an ambient noise of 30db. They also offer listening versatility with intuitive controls for taking calls or adjusting volume, and combined with Google Assistant Voice recognition, the FLOW II are headphones so easy and comfortable you can keep them on all day. That’s not an exaggeration because their battery life is frankly phenomenal.
It bares stating clearly, the FLOW II offers 20 hours of playback on a full charge. That’s when using noise cancelling settings too. Meanwhile a 10-minute fast charge gives you 2 hours of unencumbered listening meaning you’ll never find yourself stuck in a situation where you can’t use your over ear headphones. Also, their patented 40mm Ironless Driver™ technology creates bold, clear, articulate sounds free from distortion and deep bass for audio perfection as the FLOW II are a bespoke, premium pair of headphones, just at an incredibly affordable price.
