Bought these for a couple of ten hour flights. Very good decision. The noise cancelling reduced the ambient volume of 92dB to a far more acceptable level.
If you're unfamiliar with Active Noise Cancelling (ANC) then it's with knowing that they don't make things absolutely silent. They do cancel out constant noises, though. So the stone of an engine, fan or air conditioner goes away, but instantaneous noises like voices still come through (although these are also reduced quite significantly). It's much better at cancelling low frequencies compared to passive Noise Isolating earbuds.
It's worth noting that once you start pumping sound through the headphones most of what makes it through the ANC is lost beneath the sound. On the aforementioned flight I was running my music and movies at around 80dB in my ears. I could still hear a little bit of air conditioning noise, but only during quieter parts. On my walk to work it makes the traffic quieter, but I can still hear trucks/cars, but it's barely perceptible, particularly if music is playing. I'll note that there's a feature that lets you bleed in surrounding noise for safety purposes (so that you can hear a car coming).
More let's talk sound quality. Wow! I must say I was impressed. And you should be given the price. There are a couple of things at play here. The drivers that Sony use deliver good response over a very wide range. I get clear highs, defined mids and tight bass. If that audio jargon means nothing to you then suffice it to say that each part of the track is in its place and doesn't bleed into another frequency range (which is sometimes referred to as Muddy).
This isn't just music either. They're great for movies. I watched Spiderman: Homecoming, Inception, and Black Panther on the flights. The latter two were particularly noteworthy. Hans Zimmers score for Inception was handled very well without taking away from dialogue. Black Panther as well had done interesting sound stages, particularly the low bass of Killmongers theme, again not muddying up the dialogue or sound effects. The rumble of explosions were also welcome. I'll also note there is no perceptible audio delay.
Now, onto sound quality. These things are great. I mostly run them on an Android phone, but also through my laptop. These headphones use the LDAC Bluetooth codec which allows 990kbps connections compared to the usual 300-350 for the normal Bluetooth audio codec (SBC I believe). Now I sure a lot of my music in FLAC (lossless) but also stream through Google Music (320kbps lossy). Both sounded excellent because there was no second layer of compression to get the audio through the Bluetooth connection. The real winner was the FLAC files which had a fidelity that I just want used to. Not everyone can tell the difference between lossy and lossless audio but it is perceptible on these headphones as there paired with good speakers. I won't get into a lossy vs lossless debate here, but for those who do care you can take advantage through Bluetooth (or the provided 3.5mm Jack).
Now onto comfort. I wear glasses. There's no change in noise cancelling or audio performance with glasses on vs glasses off. The headphones themselves are quite light and they don't press in too hard, which is good because I was concerned they'd be uncomfortable pressing into my glasses but after ten hours on a plane I had no complaints. I do with that the stems of my glasses will run up against and eventually tear or damage the cup material, but this may not happen. In any case you can purchase replacement cups. From a comfort point of view I'll also note heat. I regularly walk to work (about 20 minutes each way) my ears do get warm at the end, particularly on those hot days. That being said if you're not exerting yourself (is in an office or on a flight) then the ears do get marginally warmer but it's barely noticeable. I had them on for ten hours straight each way and they were actually very pleasant from start to finish.
The controls are pretty good. There's a button which for on and off and a button which can change the noise cancelling level (or activate Google assistant etc, selectable in the app). The touch controls are intuitive, tapping for pause/play. Swiping will skip/rewind/volume up/down depending on direction. It takes a little getting used to but not much.
There's also some fancy controls via the app (free download) that lets you manipulate noise cancelling levels, have noise cancelling assist depending on situation (eg sitting vs walking vs transit) and it's pretty good an auto switching. There's also an eq, but I haven't felt the need to tweak.
If you're smart phone has NFC connecting and disconnecting is very easy, just tap the left ear cup.
Finally I'll talk accessories and features. I'm glad they use a 3.5mm backup Jack. It's handy that they've used a standard put. The headphones charge via USB-C however the cable provided is quite short. They also give you an airline adaptor. The case is a hard fabric and comes with suits to put all the included bits and pieces as well as a handy guide showing how the headphones fold and how the controls work.
My one gripe is that I couldn't have to devices connected at once which I could do with my small Bose in-ears. It's also a feature available on the Bose QC35's which are the main competition for these headphones. It was noticeable on the flight where I wanted to switch between laptop and phone, whereas the others can just be connected to both. It's a minor annoyance for me, but could be an issue of you're constantly using multiple devices. Ultimately the superior audio quality of the Sony's won over this small feature. Hopefully this could be added by a firmware update... One can dream.
Overall I love these things. If certainly hope so for the price but I think there well worth it (particularly when they drop below AUD 400)
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