Think noise cancellation headphones on long-haul flights or other noisy environments like trains or buses and what comes to mind? Bose, right? And with its latest QC35 wireless headset, Bose remains the name to beat at cruising altitude. Sony and Sennheiser have other plans, though, and their MDR-1000x and PXC 550 headphones really take the fight 
to Bose in the premium wireless noise cancellation category. How do they fare in the war on noise, and more crucially, can they displace the QC35? Read on:

Sennheiser PXC 550

Clad in a tasteful mix of brushed metal, leatherette and matte plastic, the Sennheiser PXC 550 is polished and businesslike, and the hinges at either end of the headband allow it to twist and collapse down for storage. Twist it back in place, and the headset switches on and is ready to pair over Bluetooth — a nifty feature but one that often leads to the cans being left on and connected to the phone when you don’t want them to. Fortunately, the soft, padded earcups and padded headband make the PXC 550 comfortable enough to be left on in place even if you nod off.

Now, where Bose takes the approach of keeping their headphones slim on features, Sennheiser goes the other way. For instance, you get touch-enabled controls on the right earcup to adjust volume, skip tracks and play/pause tracks…and a quick double-tap switches off the noise cancellation to let external sounds in. You can even pick the level of noise cancellation you prefer based on the ambient noise, and set the headphones to pause the music when you take them off. If you download the CapTune app on your phone, you can adjust the sound equaliser and noise cancellation levels to your liking, and fiddle around with a host of settings.

It’s not just a feature-fest, though — and the Sennheiser pleases with its sound quality, with clean audio at both the lows and highs. Even with noise cancellation on, the PXC 550 runs well past the 25-hour mark, besting the Bose battery life by a fair bit.

Sony MDR-1000X

Sony’s gone for a completely understated look with the MDR-1000X, with a tough plastic construction mixed in with matte metal headbands and synthetic leather earcups. Build quality is strong, and the Sony looks the most durable of the lot. As with the Sennheiser, you get touch-sensitive controls on the right earcup but what I liked more was the Quick Listen mode, where you can hold your hand up to the right earcup and the audio will fade away. It’s great when you need to respond to someone without having to take the headphones off. Incidentally, both the Sennheiser and the Sony support 
the aptX Bluetooth standard for higher quality audio streaming, but if you own an Xperia smartphone, you can use Sony’s own higher quality streaming standard.

Beneath the plain Jane looks lies a great sounding set of headphones, with huge attention paid to the highs and the mids, though I did like the PXC 550’s ability to fine tune the music to my liking a wee bit more. Battery life is a perfectly acceptable 20-hours on wireless.

Compared to the QC35

Both headphones pack in a bunch of features that Bose has economised on with the QC35, although I have to say that on sheer noise cancellation effectiveness, the QC35 remains the one to beat. All things considered, the Sennheiser is my pick of the lot thanks to overall sound quality and battery life.

Sennheiser PXC 550

• Rating: 9/10  
• Price: Rs 29,990
• URL: bit.ly/TT-SennPXC550

Sony MDR-1000x

• Rating: 8/10  
• Price: Rs 30,990
• URL: bit.ly/TT-SonyMDR1000X

Let there be light

We’ve been hearing of Internet of Things (IoT) and smart homes for a while now, but it’s still prohibitively expensive to pick up most offerings in the space right now. Indian startup Cube 26’s 13watt bulb bucks the trend with the somewhat reasonably priced Reos Lite smart LED bulb. It works with a standard E27 screw-type or B22 bayonet mount lighting fixture (although the latter requires an adapter) and is rated at a powerful 1100 lumen brightness. Plug it in, download the app and the phone connects to the bulb and sets it up. You can tweak the exact colour you want (from a choice of 16 million shades!) or choose from a set of predefined scenarios, such as book reading, movie watching or an evening party, and even set up a schedule to switch the bulb on and off automatically. Should you wish, the Reos Lite can double as a notification LED for your phone, flickering each time you get a new message on the phone, for example.

There is the obvious downside of using Bluetooth for connectivity — limited range, the ability to control only one device at a time and no connectivity over the Internet. Even so, the Reos Lite makes for an accessible smart home device that folks can try out without breaking the bank.

Rating: 8/10  
Price: Rs 1,600
URL: bit.ly/TT-ReosLite

technocool@kanwar.net; follow me on twitter @2shar