Reviewed in the United States on September 20, 2021
Buckle up! it going to be a bumpy ride, but if you're looking for the perfect pair of headphones (under $200)... I can't give you a great answer because they dont exist. I can tell you however one of the two best that have ALMOST everything with VERY FEW compromises.
To start, I'll explain my methods and what I was looking for. I used Rtings.com scores as the basis for what to try based on sounds and features. I have some very specific deal-breakers and absolute requirements. Hopefully my analysis will help you make your own decisions.
First an important point that not everyone may have known. Bluetooth wireless has gotten very good, especially with advanced codecs like aptX. It can sound really good if you have a phone or device AND headphones that support it, but it deafults to crappier sound if one of them does not, and will always have a significant delay (200-400ms). This PROBABLY IS enough to notice when watching a movie, but YMMV. I've made the assumption that this is not good enough and was trying to find one with non-BT wireless which is "lossless" (perfect quality and undetectable lag). BT and non-BT wireless both use the 2.4 MHz spectrum (along with lots of other things like WiFi) but "non-BT" wireless is kind of a vague term that is supposed to mean VERY high quality or "loss-less" audio and low latency (compared to BT). However, every manufacturer seems to have their own version of the technology and there is at least on example of non-BT wireless that has terrible latency (Jabra). I think it is almost a typo because it basically has the latencey of BT, so I think they might actually jsut be implementing a proprietary version of it rather than HQ/lossless wireless transmission.
So let's breakdown all of my must-have features:
1. They must be able to be used while charging (it's crazy to me that any pair would not have this, but it's more commmon than you'd think and you can filter for it on RTINGS). A great battery can compensate for this, but the only thing worse than running out of battery is being completely incapable of using them while they charge. I want this for conference calling and if you dont have this, you're literally cut off from communicating until they recharge.
2. They must have "passive playback" meaning you can use them with a standard headphone cable while they're turned off (or with a dead battery). This may not be essential to many, especially since many phones have gotten rid of the headphone jack, but I consider is a deal-breaker.
3. It must have "good" wireless. I started out thinking I NEEDED NON-Bluetooth wireless as a feature, but I had to ditch that because there are only THREE MODELS (out of the 547 evaluated on Rtings.com) that have #1 and 2, and also both bluetooth and non-bluetooth wireless.
4. Audio recording quality is also essential since I'm using these for zoom calls all day (and gaming, thus why I wanted non-BT wireless for better latency). I'm not picky about having a boom mic, but it has to have a good quality mic. This is subjective, but it sems like this means a score of >6-6.5 (they have actual sample recordings on Rtings) and I found that a score of 5.7 sounded awful, but 6.7 was plenty good.
5. I'd really like to have ACTIVE noise cancelling (ANC) but it isn't a dealbreaker. I especially want this if I'm going to spend >200. I want this in general for travel because if I'm going to spend this much, I'd like to be able to use them everywhere.
So, with criteria 1-4, there were 3 remaining models (#4 recording quality didn't actually filter any out). I've listed them below with the major drawback that has made me reconsider my search:
Jabra Evolve2 - $350, but non-BT wireless latency is terrible, it's basically just proprietary BT and thus the latency, but it cant technically be called BT
SteelSeries Arctis 9 or 9x - $200, but no active noise cancelling, terrible non-BT wireless quality
Arctis Pro - $350, but no ANC
The Evolve2 are the ones that seemed to have the proprietary non-BT wireless, which explains it's terrible latency and I'm not willing to spend that much for something that doesn't have loss-less audio. I did not buy these to try, but did buy the "elite 85h" because I assumed that they would share the wireless connectivity latency problem.
The Jabra elite 85h are a really good pair, a little pricier at $250, but the crappy lag on the non-BT wireless was immediately evident and was reason I eliminated them. They were able to connect to both my pc and phone well, but while using the microphone for any reason, there was a loud audible hiss present. I think this may have been "side-tone" which is where it plays back the mirophone input so you can hear yourself when you speak, but I could not hear much of myself, and it was a hiss at ~20 volume which was simply unusable (loud enough that I couldn't hear my zoom participants well...) This actually does NOT have passive playback (via headphone cord with no battery/power) and this discovery is the reason I added this criteria.
The Steelseries 9x were absolutely terrific...SOME of the time. Using the wireless on anything but an xbox requires a microsoft xbox wireless adapter, but I had frewquent intermittant problems (that are all over the internet and have not been resolved as of 2020). I consider the non-BT wireless problems to be an actual defect and eventually returned them because of the weird noises that were basically nonstop. Despite this, and despite the lack of ANC, the BT and overall quality was stellar. I tried it on many different windows computers and nothing solved it.
I actually ended up keeping the Steelseries 9 (not 9X) which amazon does not sell, and I had to get directly from the manufacturer. They are my daily home pair, they work great, and are SUPER comfortable. The BT is surprisingly worse than the 9 and I cant imagine why it would be any different, but it is. Still all-around the best
I decided not to even try the arctis pro because they were so expensive, but also because of the hub that it uses. I believe the hub is only necessary for the non-BT wireless, but I'm also just not willing to pay that much for a pair without ANC.
JBL Quantum 800 - $200, this is a great pair that has almost everything, but not quite. The BT and non-BT wireless audio quality was great and the recording quality was great (boom mic). However, the battery life is almost insufferably bad, and, to add insult to injury, they cannot be used while charging. This was actually the second pair that that I bought, and is the reason I added criteria #1. They were also not very comfortable, but not the worst (none can compete with the comfort of the Steelseries). One wierd issues that may be present in other devices (but not the 9x) is that when the headset is turned off, the device in windows does not deactivate, meaning windows still keep playing audio on the non-existant device rather than switch to your next default. This means you have to manually select a different audio source when you turn them off.
My final pick was the Seinhausser PXC 550-II. While these also do not have non-BT wireless connectivity, they have great BT wireless (AptX, low laency) and all the other features I wanted: great sound, great microphone, great battery, great ANC, passive playback, playback while charging (and can actually play directly over USB). The only slight negatives are the touch controls (intuitive, but easy to hang up on people if you stretch your arms in the air) comfort (again, cant compete with steelseries) and bluetooth connectivity. It says it can connect to two devices at once, and while this is true, you basically need to disable your phone or pc bluetooth to get it to work right. This took me the longest time to figure out, but it works great now.
If I had to pick one pair now, it would be the Seinhausser pair. They have it all: great for travel, great battery, great sound, great mic, great battery/charging, good comfort, everything.
The next best are the steelseries 9, which are better in some ways (comfort, non-BT wireless, chatmix, boom mic) but canty compete with the 30hour battery, ANC, and portability of the Seinhausser pair.
