Headphone recommends that actually block out voices
I'm on the search for a good, over-the-ear headphones that actually blocks out background voices (not just noise). My wife and I share a home office and she is on a lot of calls. I'm looking for headphones that are comfortable to listen to for long periods of time and really muffle the outside world. I have two headphones I've been using, Sony MDR-7506 and Bose QC45. The Bose does great with blocking out ambient background noise like fan hum. However this has the effect of accentuating my wife's voice. Her voice is tinny but more clear even when listening to music. The Sony does a better job of blocking all noise and attenuating her voice, but I can still hear it.
Wired is better since I run multiple computer through a mixer so I can hear all the computers at once when I have the headphones on.
I realize this absolutely does not fit your request for over the ear or wired headphones, but I would still check out airpods pro 2. I have tried a handful of different noise cancelling headphones and nothing comes close to them. The only headphones that I have heard similar things about are the bose QC line, so if those aren't working for you I would highly recommend checking out the airpods. You will still be able to hear voices, but it is quite good at cancelling voice.
Seconded. I use AirPods Pro 2 in an open floor plan office environment without a lot of talking. They will heavily suppress voices around you in ANC mode. Once you turn on music, everyone is generally inaudible.
They're also hands down the best earbuds I've tried for audio quality. They're not quite up to my Sony MDR-7506 studio headphones at home, but are definitely respectable.
The rubber tips are also well designed. They clip through the center of the device, which works better than the typical way, and the software will run tests to help ensure you picked the right size (out of four) for a desirable seal.
Imo, having used a pair of AirPods Pro 2, they’re on par with a Bose QC 35ii. A little better with higher pitched sounds, a little worse with lower. I keep them in my gym bag and use the Bose headphones 99% of the time, since in ear headphones aren’t recommended for long term use (I have some gentle music + ANC running like six hours a day).
rtings has some frequency attenuation tests which might be useful? However, as ANC improves, we might see it become selectively better at blocking (or passing through) specific sounds, so that metric might not be perfect going forward. Should still give you a baseline, however.
Since OP asked for over-ear headphones, I also want to recommend Airpods Max. I was absolutely baffled when I put them on for the first time. My partner stood right in front of me and talked, but I couldn’t hear anything unless he raised his voice. The effect wore off a tiny little bit over the months, but once I play music quietly I can basically hear nothing from the outside.
Hmm, I'll look into those. I'll have to get a BT adapter for my mixer I guess.
You should probably go the closed earbuds route. With properly fitted tips they will block out more than ANC headphones, period. Etymotic Research makes some great ones.
I second this suggestion. One problem with noise canceling headphones is that they're good at eliminating background noise but bad with irregular noises like speech. If you eliminate all your ambient noise from HVAC, computer fans, etc., you might make the talking even more noticeable because you got rid of all the background noises that might have helped to drown it out.
Most noise canceling headphones rely on passive isolation above roughly 500 Hz, while the active noise canceling helps for sounds below 500 Hz. If you look at the detailed reviews for noise canceling headphones, you can see that the noise attenuation graph above 500 Hz doesn't change much between having noise canceling on or off. Most human speech is made of noises above 500 Hz. So by having really good active noise canceling, you are mostly lowering ambient noise, but not doing much to reduce the volume of speech.
So the best way to handle this is probably to use earphones with good passive isolation that are essentially ear plugs, like the suggested Etymotic ones.
Another idea is to increase the ambient noise, whether it's running a fan in the room or playing white noise (or pink or brown noise) through your headphones.
Yeah, this is exactly the situation I have. I put on the QC45s, all the background hum from the A/C and computers is gone and its quiet, then my wife's voice comes through tinny but clear unless I'm really blasting music.
I've typically shied away from in-ear monitors but most of the ones I've tried have been low quality. If I'm ready to drop some dough I might as well look at Etymotics.
I don't think you're going to get complete voice blocking in any headphones, ANC or not, without them playing some sort of music or sound at a moderate level. From personal experience, I can second the recommendation for Etymotic IEMs as they passively block an impressive amount of sound. As far as over ears headphones go, I have had very good luck with the Beyerdynamic DT-770 pro and Beyerdynamic DT-1770X. For the last two specifically, you get more passive isolation with leather or pleather ear pads rather than the more standard velour.
I third this. I use ER2SE for flights and it's easier on your eardrum (and batteries) than the usual active noise canceling. Some can even have a microphone mode so you can switch on ambient listening.
Also I'd trust this ranking.
https://crinacle.com/rankings/iems/
This is a pure sound quality ranking:
I know nothing about these, but I apparently bought the ER3SE a few years ago. How does it compare?
Fourthing this. A single pair of Etymotics ER4s have been my go to mobile headphones for the last 10 years and they're the best isolating headphones I've ever used because they are essentially earplugs when fitted correctly.
I can ride the central line East of Liverpool Street (London, UK), generally regarded as an excruciatingly loud journey and not really hear anything except my music. Well worth the money.
I also quite like my ER4SRs, but I'd note the following caveats:
I think that to a degree what you're asking for isn't possible. The human ear and brain are specifically built to pick up on human voices. Sound can leak through your skull to your inner ear, so even if you have noise cancelling headphones on you'll be able to hear a voice. But there are probably headphones out there that are marginally better than what you have.
Yeah, it might not be possible. Might be cheaper to invest in sound deadening for the office than better headphones.
I just did a quick and totally unscientific comparison between AirPods Pro 2 and ATH-M50xBT, since both have been mentioned and I had them to hand.
With slightly louder than average speech coming from a speaker next to me:
With nothing playing, the ANC on the AirPods made it sound far away and a little tinny, kind of like there was a conversation going on in another room rather than right next to me. The M50x (which don’t have ANC) muffled the sound slightly, but not even close to the AirPods. I was genuinely surprised at how big the gap was, although I will say that what did get through the AirPods had a slightly unnatural quality and I’m not sure if that’d make it harder for my brain to tune out relative to its volume.
With music playing, and especially with spatial audio turned on, the speech was just totally gone most of the time with the AirPods; again, though, slightly unnatural in the way it did sometimes briefly creep in as the ANC “drifted” compared to what was being said. What surprised me on this round was how well the M50x compared once sound was playing - the speech wasn’t totally erased like with the ANC, but the combination of natural muffling and the music playing towards the whole ear rather than piped straight into the ear canal did a way better job than I’d expected from the test without music. It was 90% of the way there consistently, as a function of acoustics, rather than 99% most of the time with the occasional glitch to 50% as a function of electronics, if that makes sense?
From that, it seems like the Sony WH-1000XM5 would potentially be the best of both worlds - all the acoustic and comfort benefits of over ear with quality that compares favourably to the M50x and ANC that’s up there with the market leaders.
The best in class for ANC are supposedly the sony XM5s, I recently bought the xm4s which are slightly better than what they replaced - some Bose QC35IIs. I heard Sony held back on the noise cancelling for the XM4s because they wanted something to offer on the 5s. I ultimately went 4s due to the price and compactness when travelling (the 5s don't fold).
The XM4s were the previous Sony flagship for ANC. I have the over-ear and in-ear models of the XM4 and both offer stellar ANC (and transparency mode). I think only the high end Bose and Apple headphones have comparable ANC.
Too bad the XM-series UX is on an AliExpress bluetooth speaker level.
I cough or clear my throat, they turn off ANC and music for a good 10-15 seconds. Yay.
I open the app to change the setting, and whoa! I've got ACHIEVEMENTS. Fucking achievements in my headphone app?
Now a YouTube video is WAY too loud, I need to do the swipe-down ba-donk like 10-15 times to stop my ears from bleeding.
Not to mention the legendary "yourrr baderiiiii is aaat tweeentyyy per-ceeeent" voice. Sony is one of the biggest media powerhouses in the world and this is the best voice they can put in their flagship ANC headphones?
Source: have owned both XM4 and XM5
You can turn off the talk to pause feature on the XM4.
I know, you just need to dig through the weird menus to disabled it completely. The main issue is that it activates with every cough and throat clearing.
The AirPods Pro 2 did it properly: it only activates when you actually form words, just clearing your throat doesn't do anything.
I love the over-ear XM4 - they are like magic. The in-ear version also has very good noise cancellation but I've found them difficult to wear comfortably due to their size.
I have the XM4s. I loved them until they started screaming absolutley ear-piercingly loudly in my ear due to some bug in the ANC. I've looked around the internet and it's apparently somewhat common, and there is no fix. So now my fancy ANC headphones don't have ANC.
The XM4s were already mentioned and I do love them however I'd offer a different suggestion that I use on my motorcycle, it's a combo thing:
I'm joining the bandwagon of many here who are suggesting the earphones instead of your request, sorry about that. I've a Soundcore Liberty 3 Pro earphones which were on sale for $85 last year and ANC experience on LDAC mode provides an absolutely high-quality experience. These headphones come with an app to perform hearing test which recognizes which frequencies is one short of hearing. Having that equalizer turned on after the test l, I've never looked for another pair of headphones. I had Philips Fidelio and XM 4 before, but I didn't like either of them as much.
Earbuds with foam tips. I'm switching to IEMs with a mic cable and can't hear much past the foam. I have an alright setup with TruthEar Zeros and a Kinera Gramr cable, specifically to shut out all noise around me. Plus a USB DAC if you don't have a 4-pin port. $50 IEM, $40 cable, $10 DAC, and $20 for a 10-pack of tips, but it has worked for me.
Have you tried mixing in white noise with your normal music/audio?
A free alternative recommendation that maybe could help you without spending hundreds of dollars is https://mynoise.net/. Instead of blocking the outside world, you just drown it out in non-descript noise that your brain will filter out. Paired with any ANC headphones, it really helps when I work in an open space.
My favorites are brown rain and café restaurant with cutlery noises turned down. You can even open multiple tabs to combine sounds.
Active noise cancellation doesn't really work well for blocking human speech unfortunately. Since it sounds like you want something that is comfortable and doesn't go inside your ears, your best bet will be with some good, isolating, closed-back headphones. For that, I would recommend the Audio Technica ATH-M50x, with the Beyerdynamic DT-770 a close second.
I think the DT-770's sound a lot better, but their velour earpads do not offer quite the same level of isolation as the pleather that comes with the M50x. Both can be easily customized with aftermarket earpads that will change their performance in this regard, but it will also impact their sound signature.
I should also set the expectation that neither of these will completely block out all human speech. That is a surprisingly tall order, because our ears have evolved to be the most sensitive to that frequency range.
I have tried a lot of headphones and many of them work really poorly and hurt your ears. The Mac AirPod max work incredibly well. But they are very expensive.
https://www.apple.com/airpods-max/
A cheaper second choice would be from Bose: https://www.bose.com/p/headphones/bose-noise-cancelling-headphones-700/NC700-HEADPHONEARN.html
I might recommend waiting on the airpods pro max if you plan to go that route. Apple is full steam ahead switching to usb c, and the max are still lightning. More importantly, the max have the same level of ANC as the airpods pro 1, and it was greatly improved in the pro 2. Predicting when apple will refresh a product, especially a low volume product like the max is a fools errand, but now seems like a less than ideal time to invest in a $550 pair of headphones.
I don't know how much more the Pro Max could remove noise. These are eerily quiet as is. It's just me and my tinnitus here. =)
But yea waiting for the next version is a good idea, then pick up the older version for cheap.
I own and have used for longer periods of time:
And from out of these, my favourite are the Pro Maxes. They work wired too with a lightning -> 3.5mm adapter. I use it pretty regularly when gaming at night on the Xbox, PS5 or Steam Deck and it works seamlessly.
The Bose's issue is that it turns down ANC pretty heavily and swaps to "crackly American landline" codec if you enable the mic. With an external mic you won't have this issues.
Sony's ANC is on-par with the Pro Max or maybe slightly better, but the UX is very tedious and annoying. Just turning down the volume by 10 steps is a 30 second operation of swiping down on the earcup. With the Pro Max it's a quick flip of my fingertip on the dial with a subtle audio cue. The Sonys go BA-DONK after every single volume step.
No in-ear headphones stay in my ears, and yes, I've tried everything except 100% custom-molded eartips. They all just pop out eventually. (Weirdly the non-in-ear OG Airpods stay in my ears perfectly even while running...)
If you’re dead set on over the ear headphones, maybe take a look at Bluetooth hearing protection? I haven’t tried them myself, but assuming they don’t have a cutout for speech in their frequency attenuation curve, that might be a useful path forwards.
(edit) also — just thinking out loud — maybe it’d be worth investing in a more sensitive mic for your wife? That way she doesn’t have to speak as loudly, which might be caused by either feeling the need to speak up for clarity or a lack of side talk in whichever app that’s being used for voice calls.
I tried these out when I forgot my headphones at work, and liked them so much I immediately used my work tech budget to purchase a pair -
Polycom Voyager 8200 UC -
https://www.poly.com/us/en/products/headsets/voyager/voyager-8200-uc
They have pretty good ANC, and block out noise pretty well, but are not 'I am in a soundproof room' like I think you're looking for. What's really nice about them is that they're really built for a noisy office environment, and have some features that are specifically work focused.
The things I appreciate are -
Native Teams integration -
That being said, there are some cons -
My husband passed me down his either Sony XM4 or XM3 (Can't rememebr which model). They are really good.... he has to wave his hand in front of my face to let me know he wants to say something to me. They are unfortunately wireless but they do have a plug for an input cord as well.
You know, since this is still going, I'll mention the Koss Pro/4AA. It's a closed over-ear headset with a design literally straight out of the year 1970. It's even got a thumb knob to attach a microphone which nobody manufactures anymore. It's got no ANC but it's so thick that it blocks out a lot of noise passively.
Get some earmuffs, the kind construction workers use and put that over some IEMs. It'll work better than any ANC you'll find I'm sure. If you wanna go overkill you can wear some ANC buds in there too, but with diminishing returns.
Source: I have a brother in construction who's into gaming, this is the setup he uses. I've tried it, the cancellation is crazy.