Over ear wireless headphone recommendations for many hours of coding?

Not sure if poster meant it specifically, but these are ON ear headphones and can cause a lot of fatigue and hot spots for people, depending on clamp strength.

I only use over ear, and have found that of the popular brands, Bose have the most comfort for me.

I was like, wait I'm gonna go look better on wirecutter for recommendations, when the NYT logo throw me off..

Then I realised...

I bought a pair of these to replace my old Bose Quiet Comfort II headphones and love them. They are also USB C which is nice. I highly recommend them. They're a bit pricey, but I hear the Sony ones mentioned in this thread are pretty good too. I haven't used those though.

I had my old Bose headphones for several years and wore them all the time while working remote in lots of cafes and kitchen tables. The only thing I ever had to replace were the ear cups.

I don't like the NCH 700s because your ears will get hot (good for reducing outside sounds, bad if you're not in an air conditioned environment). Additionally my ears hurt after several (6+) hours of use (if you're sleeping on a plane you won't notice, but at your desk you might).

I think they're great for the 30+ flights I've been on, but I wish I got the QC 35 IIs instead for everyday activities.

Another vote for Sony noise cancelling headphones from me. I have the WH-1000XM3, and they're fantastic. I easily wear them for 3-6 hours at a time.

The only thing I dislike is the lack of multiple device support, but that was added in the XM4, so yeah. Basically perfect.

yep i agree. Got the XM4's in sept 2020 for £350 used them everyday until the dog got them. I immediately ordered another pair on amazon, and at £250 now i couldn't recommend them enough. - Sound is great for this type/price of headphone. - ANC is great and the wind noise-cancelling option is incredible. - comfort is great - battery is good recharge speed is great. - multi-device support is meh, airpods are better at this. - dog proofing sucks.

Agreed. I had a friend get these and they spread through our friend group. Absolutely amazing for flights too. I’ve had mine for 5 year I think. (This is one of two products that I happily advocate for, the other being the philips norelco oneblade)

If you take a lot of calls, the on-the-ear version is great too.

I Have Sony's WHCH700N Bluetooth/NFC/Wired Noise Cancelling Over-Ear headphones, and I wear them for 3, 4, or more hours per day most days. Edit: Good for voice calls as well.

Just picked up some XM3s last week. It’s the most I’ve ever spent on headphones, but as soon as I tried them on and the noise cancelling kicked in I knew it was money well spent. A little bit of high frequency still comes through but it works so well that the initial experience is a little eerie. I’m prone to finding many headphones apply too much pressure to the top and sides very quickly, these I can happily use for a few hours at a time. I’m not an audiophile by any stretch but I have found other Bluetooth headphones I’ve tried pretty lacking, and streaming with LDAC on these sounds really great to me, if a touch cool/clinical. Bass is well handled as long as you’re not producing, it isn’t monitor level flat, nor Beats muddy. Touch interface takes some getting used to, I’d probably prefer buttons, but it does avoid applying lateral pressure so it’s a win on the comfort front. I haven’t tried competing high end ACN products from Bose and Shure (wasn’t possible do to Covid restrictions here), but you won’t be disappointed with these… or the XM4 presumably, the 100€ premium was hard to justify for me.

I have the 3’s and adore them. Can’t imagine life without them. I got my dad a set for his birthday and he also feels the same.

Only gripe is that if they are Bluetooth connected they will remain on forever. So it’s easy to forget they are on and they stay on all night and then are dead or low battery.

The XM4 has superior ANC to the Bose QC-35, but the Bose has a much more comfortable headband. Almost loose enough to feel like it’s going to fall off my head, but not quite.

I find that comfort is most definitely my biggest consideration, when we talk about the best headphones with ANC. Nothing else really matters too much if the thing hurts your head so much that you can’t wear them for long.

This is my go-to pair as well.

Seconding this recommendation,my DT990s are the most comfortable headphones I have ever owned. They are the only pair I can wear for most of the day and feel no fatigue.

I use Beyerdynamic DT-880 for music production. They're the only headphones I can wear from morning until night without a headache or ear pain. If you're okay with paying $200 and have an audio interface or amp, it's a great option.

The only downside is that they're intended for studio purposes and have very accurate sound, so the listening experience for bass-heavy music is less "fun" than consumer headphones. For mix testing and casual listening, I sometimes switch to the Audio-Technica ATH-M50X, which is the standard for EDM kids.

DT770 80 Ohm is fantastic. Although I wonder if 32 Ohm would be a better option since 80 Ohm needs an amp to boost the volume. It was just not loud enough for me when connected to my Mac.

It looks like the WH-1000XM4s have something like this. Would love anyone's personal experience with these kind of features.

Voice passthrough would be really useful

My Sony WH-1000XM3s have the "ambient sound" option too. It's good for hearing voices, but it also pipes through background noises like fan noise

When I need a mix of noise cancelling and hearing, I usually just turn ANC off. The headphones' physical design already blocks out a lot of background noises without blocking out voices much

PXC-550 series has this feature. I can turn it on by tapping one earcup a certain way. It's also _always on_ when using the headset for phone calls or as a microphone input, which infuriates me, but YMMV.

Seconding the PXC-550 (I have the older version), which I am wearing as I write this. They're very comfortable, and pair well with my macbook, phone, etc. They cancel most noise enough not to be bothersome (_except my Roomba_), and last long enough between charges. I wear them pretty much my entire work day.

One thing I'll caution is, don't use their microphone for anything. Sennheiser decided to _amplify_ all the outside sounds that it normally cancels whenever you are using it as a voice input (e.g. phone calls, or zoom), and you can't disable it (at least, not in mine). It's infuriating, and presumably for safety in a situation (driving) where I'll never be using these. In practice, this isn't a big deal -- I use the macbook speaker for zoom calls, and never use my phone w/ the headphones for calls.

I meant "voice through", of course.