Design and features:These headphones work with or without the noise canceling feature being turned on, and you can use the noise-canceling feature without listening to music. These headphones can be used wirelessly with Bluetooth devices or can be cord connected. When cord connected they have medium sensitivity when the noise cancelation feature is turned on so they can provide satisfying volume levels when used with home audio equipment and all but the lowest powered portable audio devices. When the noise cancelation feature is turned off they have medium high sensitivity; they can provide satisfying volume levels when used with home audio equipment and even lower powered portable audio devices. The Surface has touch sensitive Bluetooth music player and call connect/disconnect controls on both earcups, a volume control ring on right earcup that operates in Bluetooth mode and when headphones are powered and cord connected, and a noise canceling control ring on the left earcup that can be used to adjust the noise canceling/ambient sound monitoring levels. Additional features include support for the Cortana digital voice assistant when the headphones are Bluetooth paired to Windows PCs or Apple and Android mobile devices with the free Microsoft Cortana app download, and earcups swivel for ease of carrying and storage. This model comes with detachable 48-inch long standard audio cable, a USB charging cable, and a carrying case.
Sound quality: We found the Surface provides Excellent active noise reduction. In all of its powered modes, regardless of whether the headphones are Bluetooth or cord connected or if ambient noise is being canceled or monitored, it delivers sound quality that falls in the Very Good range - it reproduces music and voice very well although it does have some noticeable sonic quirks. The overall sound can be summarized as generally smooth, but bass-heavy and a bit grainy. The bass (as in bass drums, bass guitars, stand-up bass, etc.) has good impact and goes deep, but is somewhat prominent and boomy. The midrange (voices, guitars, horns, etc.) is even but slightly grainy and smoothed over, and the bass somewhat crowds the midrange. The treble (cymbals, the upper range of violins, etc.) is even and extended. This model does a good job of recovering the room ambience of a recording (the sense of the acoustic space in which the audio program that's being listened to was recorded). The sound also has a good sense of liveliness and is somewhat open--sound-wise it almost seems like you don't have anything covering your ears. When the headphones are cord connected and unpowered the sound quality drops to the Fair range - the sound becomes less bassy, but more grainy and hazy, and takes on a noticeable plastic resonance (something like what you would hear if you talked into a semi-rigid plastic cup) and echoey quality. At the maximum noise cancelation setting these headphones provide Excellent noise reduction that is fairly even across most of the frequency range with low frequencies reduced the most. The noise cancellation adjustment ranges from a maximum noise cancellation setting to somewhat amplifying ambient sound. When noise cancelation is used a slight hiss can be heard in very quiet environments when there is no audio program material to mask it.
Comfort: We found that these headphones produce a sense of moderate pressure around the ears. As typical of over-ear models the ear pads might feel hot and/or sticky after prolonged use. Users with larger ears might find that the over-the-ear fit of the ear pads feel cramped, or that the ear pads sit on, rather than around their ears; in that case the less-than-ideal fit around the ears might interfere with the earpad seal and reduce the noise reduction capabilities of the headphone. Users with smaller heads may find they can't get a good earpad seal because earpads gap at the top and that the bass becomes a bit subdued, and that when they lean far forward the headphones feel unstable and shift forward, but not to the point of falling off. Incidental contact with the tap controls on either earcup can cause unintentional playing, pausing, or track skipping. Incidental contact with the volume ring on the right earcup or the noise cancelling ring on the left earcup can respectively cause unintentional volume or noise cancelling/ambient sound monitoring level changes. When wearing this model while walking the muffled vibrations from each foot step can be heard slightly through the headphones.
