****** - Verified Buyer
4.5
I'll try to be brief.I decided to buy wireless phones because my ears have degraded over the last several years, and I knew that asking my wife to tell me what someone said on TV many times a night was really getting to her. My hearing loss is mostly in the upper mid and the high end. Above 8K cycles to be exact.Once i decided to buy, I did my due diligence and read the reviews and decided on several pairs to consider. Here's what I got in no particular order:1. Shure Aonic 502. Sennheiser Momentum 33. Bowers and Wilkins PX74. Focal Listen5. Massdrop x Beyerdynamic DT177X6. Beyerdynamic Amiron Copper7. Master and Dynamic MW65They all arrived on the same day, and the testing began. I listened to them all for about 2 hours each. I'll start with the ones that I didn't like:Focal Listen - Honestly, these felt so cheap for a pair in the $300.00 to $500.00 range, I didn't even listen to them. I reboxed them and set them aside. Am I a snobby audiophile? Quite the contrary, but I do expect build quality to be commensurate with the price.Shure Aonic 50 - A very brief listening session. They also felt rather poorly made, and the bass was overwhelming.Massdrop x Beyerdynamic DT177X - These actually had a few things going for them, but not enough.Beyerdynamic Amiron Copper - Loose, mushy bass, decent mids and highs. I hated the touch controls. Much too complicated for someone who staunchly believes that less is definitely more.Sennheiser Momentum 3 - Getting closer. Bass was boosted, mids were quite good, highs unremarkable, instruments sounded distant. Build quality was also very good.Bang and Olufsen PX7 - Closer still. Excellent, wide soundstage, bass was too boosted for my liking, midrange was excellent as well as the highs. Comfort, again a close second.Master and Dynamic MW65 - The holy grail. My god, it was like entering a different dimension. Bass was dynamicbut not bloated, mids were lush and articulate, and the highs crystal clear. The soundstage was a bit wider than the PX7's, but not by much.I heard things not heard in any of the others. Cymbals sizzled, you could hear the air rushing through the horns, fingers striking the strings on upright bass, hammers hitting the wires on piano, and human voices were quite literally astonishing.Obviously, my main criteria here was the sound. I don't care at all about ANC, making or taking calls, how good the app is, etc. I wanted a neutral but not dry sound signature. Perhaps analytical by most people's liking. These babies put out exactly what you put in. The better the recording, the better they sound. They are also very comfortable. On ear, not over the ear for me at least. The PX7's once again came in a close second.I would easily recommend the PX7's if cost is an issue, but the B and D's simply blew the rest out of the water.I forgot to mention build quality. As for the MW65's, I cannot imagine a way in which you could improve upon them. CNC machined, the finest leathers available, nothing to wear out really, aside from many years of use. Lastly, they have beryllium drivers. I don't believe that any others on my list use them. I have to believe that there is some significance to that when it comes to their elegant sound. The PX7's once again came in a close second.Last night while surfing I found these in an all black version. How I didn't see that configuration in my many hours of doing nothing but searching for headphones, will forever remain a mystery. They must be quite limited. So now I'm even happier with my purchase. I didn't think that was possible.
