(whimsical music)
- Hey everybody, David and David here
from PayetteForward.com and UpPhone.com,
and in this video, we're gonna tell you
about the best over the ear headphones of 2021.
We've got 10 pairs of headphones on the table
and we bought these all ourselves.
- Right, you can trust our reviews,
unlike some of the others that you see on the internet
or from other YouTubers who may receive some
of these products for free, and before we do.
We had to buy 'em with our own gosh darn money
for $550. - Yeah, we had to wait
for everyone else.
So we tested all these headphones;
we had a playlist of eight songs.
Test for bass, you know, sound quality
and surround clarity. - Yeah, dynamics, yep.
Soundscapes. - Yes.
- Also, we tested for comfort and durability,
we looked at the case, we looked at the quality.
We're actually redoing this video
because AirPods Max just came out,
and so we just got 'em and we've been using 'em a lot.
We wanted to get those in there because for 2021,
you've got some high quality choices.
AirPods Max, you got the Beats, got the Bose,
so it's a lot.
- Yeah, I think it also, you know, the fact
that we had to buy all these ourselves
made price really stand out as an important factor for us,
and I think that kind of gets lost
in some reviews when people just get the headphones
for free or they get paid to promote them.
So that was one of the big factors for us as well,
especially when you take a $550 pair
of headphones and...
- Don't include a cable.
- Doesn't come in the box,
so you have to buy that separately for $35.
So if you want to just skip right to the results,
our top three and our bottom three,
timestamps are in the description.
Otherwise you wanna watch us see, you want to see
some highlights of us - Highlights
- reviewing these headphones, let's dive
right into that.
AirPods Max.
- Now these are a little bit more expensive
than some of the other ones that we've reviewed,
and by a little bit more, we mean a lot more expensive.
- Really suspenseful.
There we go.
Right off the bat, you notice, what is this case?
- It looks like a VR headset.
- A purse.
- It's like a sleep mask.
Shouldn't a case cover the entire thing?
- So we found with the AirPods and the AirPods Pro
is that Apple kind of optimizes the sound of it.
I want to know what you think about that.
- I think they are to some extent,
but it's less noticeable
for sure. - Okay, yeah.
- They sound great.
- Yeah. - I think
they're a little trebley.
- The first song was to do is the Daft Punk song.
I thought that was kind of bass heavy there.
- It was. - And then I went
to the Beck song, and it sounded
like the bass was almost two soft
on that song. - That's what I thought too.
(chill music)
- These are like so comfortable.
A lot of bass on these.
- And my overall take is that it plays sound,
but not too well.
- If you're looking for a cheaper pair of headphones,
these are significantly better than the Skullcandys.
You like a lot of bass.
- And not a lot else.
- Yeah, I mean they're really heavy on the bass.
One thing we're noticing is like,
"Oh our headphones aren't that good,
"let's just blow up the bass and cover everything up."
- I think that's the trick, you're right.
It does come with a carry case,
but not anything that's gonna protect the headphones.
- Something's goin' wrong here.
- Oh, something's going wrong there.
- Something's gone wrong.
These are the consumer line, $200.
I would be very curious to hear what the high end
sounds like, 'cause these sound pretty good.
- I was very impressed with these.
This was the first one I put on and started listening
to the Daft Punk and I was like, thank God, it's balanced.
If anything, I felt like these headphones
were a little bit trebley.
- Bass sounded a little bit shaky in that one,
just a little bit. - Compared to the
Bowers and Wilkins, which are $350,
I mean these blown 'em right out of the water.
- Oh.
- What shows up as we're making the video?
- I feel like that there could be a little bit more padding
on the top headband.
These are one of the headphones where the color
was a little, a little misleading.
They're not that bright.
Strong bass.
- Strong bass, again, disappointed.
- The bass can get overpowering if there isn't a bunch
of other rich sound to sort of balance it out.
- I feel like they're optimized
for intelligibility and definition of voice,
and it ends up with this sort of compressed sounding,
not a lot of depth.
All right. - Touch controls laid out,
some instructions there.
These are nice and stylish, futuristic.
- We finally got a good pair of headphones.
- Yeah, I think they're neat, now they're a pretty good
pair of headphones.
I think they kind of suffer from the same issue
that the Sony has, where the price is so high
that the expectation is so high.
- What didn't you like about these?
I thought these were great.
- I thought they were a little, they were missing
that like big punch.
I don't know, I don't know.
- Missing the punch?
- Just like missing like a big, wow,
that's so much better than everything else.
- I think that these are so much better
than everything else. - You think so?
Let's talk about the Bose QuietComfort IIs.
These are active noise canceling over the ear headphones.
- [Payette] I like how it has the L and the R
inside the ear cup.
- It's very comfortable, very light.
I mean, would you rather take the $80 discount on these
over the 700. - Yes.
- You think so? - Yep, you?
- I thought the bass on these ones
was a little bit inferior.
- It's like the other ones, they're trying to be cool
with that slide up and down thing,
and this is just like a really solid design.
- Here we go headphones.
These feel super light.
I wish we got the white ones.
I'm not a big fan of the the black and the dark blue combo.
- Not the most optimistic sigh.
- Yeah. - Kind of hmm.
- Curious to hear what you think, I don't know.
So I'm just reading the box.
First thing it says, "powerful sound."
That's not the impression that I got from these headphones.
- No, very good high-end, but not enough bass
to round out anything that sounds full.
- There we go, nothing to it.
Look at that case, huh.
Wow, the headphones, they don't have a lot of give.
I can just, there's just a little bit of pressure.
The issue that I had is that the bass is really heavy
and it kind of overwhelms the sound at some point.
- Almost like their engineers got together
and they were like, "You know what people like?
"They like the bass, they want to hear the words
"of the song, and then they like the shine."
It ends up sounding like crap.
I mean, it's just, it's like, bleh.
Are you hearing that?
- Yeah, yeah.
Yeah, I was doing that too and I didn't know
if that was like a...
(Payette laughing)
(cup vibrating)
So first thing I'm seeing, it's got these cables
on the side; I just don't like those.
- It's like a winter cap of a bag, you know?
Doesn't it feel like? - Yes, it does.
There's a nice case, huh?
No branding on the case
- Somebody is copying Bose.
I'm not the biggest fan about how my actual ear
touches the inside of it.
- Hmm, so comfortable.
These are, these are so light.
- I think those look the best on you.
- These are so light, these are great.
I don't have a lot to say.
I mean, they're just really good headphones.
Everything sounds pretty balanced.
- I was not super impressed by these.
- But it doesn't have that "it" factor.
- It doesn't have the "it" factor.
The Beastie Boys, the bass was not like (fist smacking),
and I think it's because dynamically it's kind of flat.
- Bottom three over the ear headphones,
there were two clear losers.
- Right, so. - And three and four
were, it's just a very steep drop off.
We wanted to give a dishonorable mention to Anker.
- Yeah. - So these didn't
make my bottom three personally,
just cause they're only $60 and
for the price, they're fine. - Right.
Right, and that's why they're not number three
for me either.
These sound better than these headphones,
but these are $60.
- Leaves a little bit to be desired.
- This has all the features,
it's just, as I wrote, it plays sound, but not too well.
- Yeah. - Acceptable.
- 60 bucks. - $60, good value.
- Yep, a good value.
All right, number three, why?
- Number three. - It's the Bose.
- So I think part of the issue is
with these Bose headphones, is we're also comparing them
to all the other Bose headphones
which we love so much and these were, stand out as
the worst for me. - Yeah, they were
the only ones that didn't hold up in terms
of sound quality or construction.
- Like if you can kind of see behind the ear muffs.
- It's like Bose wanted a $200 pair
of headphones that they could sell
and still have the Bose name.
- If you like dull music.
When you have an over the ear headphone,
I think you kind of want like a powerful sound,
and just, you're not gonna get it from these.
- Nope. - I would say
it was pretty dull.
So number two and this is a pretty big disappointment
for me, 'cause you know,
- This is hilarious.
- it's fancy, it's got a fancy name.
It had, I think my favorite case of any headphones,
and I was like, oh my gosh.
- Yeah, they had a great case, they look nice.
I don't think they sound that great.
They sound terrible. - Bowers and Wilkins,
they're just... - We saw them
in the Apple store, they're $350.
I added these as a last second addition to this list
because I wanted to have another high, high, high
high quality headphone to compare against the Bose,
and eventually the AirPods Max
which did not make any of the lists.
- Yeah. They are not worth the price.
- These are just really a disappointment.
They don't sound good.
I wonder why no audio professionals
use Bowers and Wilkins, hmm.
I thought that they were thinking, okay
people want to hear the singer
and they want to hear the bass player,
and everything else can just go away.
I felt like they were really just bad sounding headphones.
Yeah, I'm not a fan of these headphones.
Our worst. - I mean.
- Not even close.
- It was like funny.
- It's more of an endurance test
than a pleasurable experience.
- You know, taking them out of the box the first time,
the bass, there's a bass slider.
- Yeah. - And you know,
it was turned up relatively high.
Or maybe, it was either too low or too high,
and I put on the headphones,
and it was like, (imitating bass).
And I was like... - David started laughing.
- Oh boy.
If you like the sound of people driving
by your house or apartment with their bass
blasted out all the way, and it's like,
shakes your whole house or apartment,
you'll love these headphones.
- If you like sound, these are not the headphones for you.
(Lynch laughing)
Fisher-Price headphones, they should be called.
It's like a toy because they have this slider
that makes 'em sound ridiculous.
Do you remember the Fisher-Price microphones?
- Whoa.
- These are the headphones equivalent of that microphone.
It's just this artificial extra bass.
It's not like they're actually putting out more bass.
There's some sort of a springy thing
inside the headphones that just like vibrates.
- It's like a "Fear Factor" challenge where you know,
"All right, how much bass are you gonna do?"
And then - Yeah turn it all the way up.
- Joe Rogan slides it all the way up
and people start quitting.
It's like, I'd rather eat the cockroach than listen to this.
These are only $150 too, so if you...
- That's a lot of money for terrible headphones.
I'd rather eat the cockroach than listen to this
for another second. - Maybe they'll
put that up on the website.
- Yeah, perfect.
- Bad. - Just terrible.
- Really bad, very disappointing.
- Moderately disappointing, yeah.
- So these are our worst three.
I really want to talk about the best three.
- Yeah. - So best
over the ear headphones.
We brought up the AirPods Max, just to talk about this.
So we had to re-shoot a bunch of stuff
because these came out after we finished recording.
Then we had to wait a week to get them.
So we just want to mention them,
and they're not gonna be in our top three
for a few reasons.
Price is too much.
- Prohibitive, yep. - The case is not good.
- The case is terrible.
Doesn't come with a cable.
- I just think the overall sound quality
isn't so much better than our top three
that it's worth paying double the price.
Not worth the price.
I mean that's your headline right there.
- They're too expensive, yes.
- So number three.
These are actually, I think our ranking
is gonna be a little bit different
than some people's. - I think it's gonna be
a little bit controversial too,
especially in this video. _ Yeah, number three,
we had the Sonys.
- Right. - And these, some people
will consider these the best
over the ear headphone. - Right, people are
gonna start getting mad at this point and start giving it,
don't give us a thumbs down yet.
These Sonys are excellent headphones.
They sound good.
They do not sound as good as some of the other ones.
The noise canceling was really highly reviewed
by a lot of people.
They said that these are the king of noise canceling,
and now the AirPods are the king of noise canceling.
I don't agree with either of those.
These have that Sony noise canceling white noise
that are on my older Sonys.
There's something about the Sony noise canceling
technology that produces sort of a little bit of a hiss,
and take my word for it, it gets annoying after awhile.
- Everything sounds pretty balanced.
- Pretty balanced, for me, they were kind
of dynamically flat.
- They're very light, very comfortable.
One issue I had is they felt a little bit loose
and if I shook my head a little bit too much,
they would just kind of wiggle.
And if I went to the gym, I think they would,
they would probably fall off.
So there, I mean, what we should say too is like
all these headphones are great.
These are all great headphones.
It's just that some of them were slightly better
and the Sonys just fell a little bit short.
- Boring pair of excellent headphones.
- Our number two pick is the Audio-Technica.
I was surprised by these because
- We were very surprised.
- we had talked about how Audio-Technica makes these really,
really expensive headphones for audiophiles,
and these are just for a regular consumer.
$200, I would be very curious to hear what the high end
sounds like. - Right, I thought
they were gonna slap the Audio-Technica brand
on some sort of a consumer level product, just to sell it.
- But that wasn't true.
Very comfortable, great sound. - Great sound.
- I think the one thing you might get concerned
about here is just that it's very,
there's a lot of padding and it may be after a while,
it might make you a little bit sweaty, but...
- They definitely have that Audio-Technica
studio look to them, and if you want to be an Audio-Technica
brand ambassador, everybody's gonna know these
are Audio-Technica, because it's all over the headband,
it's on the ear cups, and it's everywhere.
Great sounding headphones though,
and for the price, that's why there are our number two.
This is like real close to being perfect.
- $199, these headphones, good deal.
- Really great deal for the sound.
You will not be disappointed.
Good stuff.
Number one. - So let's give
that a silver medal. - Oh, we'll give it
the silver medal. - Number one,
we went with the Bose Noise Canceling Headphones 700.
- Right. - When I, you know,
so my first impression, I wasn't super excited
about these headphones, 'cause I'm not the biggest fan
of the sliders, and it kind of has like a futuristic feel.
I'm not crazy about that, 'cause it,
it's hard to line 'em up perfectly.
Was opposed to some of the... - What we're used to.
- Yeah, what we're used to. - With the more
traditional headband. - Yeah, but you get used to it
and they're very comfortable, very light.
Padding is super soft for what it's worth.
Where they do better than the Sonys is that I don't feel
like they're gonna slip off my head
when I'm moving it around, so.
- Right, I think that they're very snug,
They're very comfortable to wear for a long period of time.
The sound quality, If you're on a phone call
or a Zoom call, is perfect.
The noise canceling, I think is the best
of any headphone that I've heard,
because it creates a pretty solid seal
around your head without scrunching your head,
like some of the other ones.
I think it's a better quality, it feels better
to me than the other ones do.
That creates some good passive noise cancellation
in combination with the Bose built in noise
cancellation electronics, sounds fabulous.
- Yep, $379, so they are a little bit expensive.
Sometimes you can get 'em on sale for a bigger discount,
- Right. - but if you want
to save some money and, you know,
we know this is a 2021 video.
- And that's why we didn't rank these
as like part of the top three.
- These were among my top, like overall favorite,
even though they're an older headphone.
- Yeah, and they were, they're not this year's
top of the line, they're a previous year's
top of the line, but they're fabulous.
- They're good. - A lot of people
will prefer the fit of the Quiet Comfort 35 IIs
to the Bose Noise Canceling 700.
I think I liked the comfort factor of these more.
- These are very light and comfortable.
- Because it's a more traditional design,
but it's the best traditional headphones design
that I've ever seen.
They're high quality.
Maybe not quite as durable as these Bose headphones.
I thought the sound was very comparable.
I really could not tell that big of a difference.
For the price, 300 bucks, great headphones.
- Yeah, one thing to be concerned about, as he said,
is the build quality.
It's a little cheaper plastic, but I, you know.
I wouldn't be too concerned. - Be careful.
Yeah, it'll be fine. - Good case, yeah.
- Bye Bose, can you really, it's hard to go wrong
with these over the ear headphones.
I mean, they're all really good.
- Well, the ones on the table really good, right.
- Well yeah, if you get one of these,
you're gonna be fine.
- You're gonna be fine. - If you get, you know,
- Yeah. - Bowers and Wilkins.
- Terrible. - Awful.
- Yeah, so really the moral of the story
with the over-ears is expensive does not always equal good.
- Right. - That's what we learned.
It's not, you know. - Expensive does not
always equal good.
Good point.
- Thank you. - Thanks for watching
this video.
Leave us a comment down below,
let us know you think of our rankings.
I think we might get some comments.
- We're gonna get some comments,
especially about the Sonys, I think.
- Or if you agree with us, leave a comment too,
and kind of balance it out.
- Yeah, balance out the Sony people.
- Give this video a thumbs up if you enjoyed,
and don't forget to subscribe to this channel
for more great videos about headphones.