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 high sensitivity when the noise cancelation feature is turned on so they can provide satisfying volume levels when used with home audio equipment and lower powered portable audio devices. When the noise cancelation feature is turned off they have medium sensitivity; so they can provide satisfying volume levels when used with home audio equipment and all but the lowest powered portable audio devices. The BT-300ANC has a noise-canceling on/off switch and an integrated microphone and volume, music player function, and call connect/disconnect controls that work with paired Bluetooth devices. Additional features earcups that fold and swivel for ease of carrying and storage. This model comes with a detachable 47-inch long standard audio cable, a USB charging cable, and a carrying case.
Sound quality:We found the BT-300ANC provides Excellent active noise reduction, and when the noise cancelling feature is used in either the Bluetooth or cord connected modes 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 somewhat hazy and a bit soft. The bass (as in bass drums, bass guitars, stand-up bass, etc.) has good impact and goes fairly deep, but is a bit prominent. The midrange (voices, guitars, horns, etc.) is fairly even but is somewhat hazy and a bit congested (think sonic traffic jam), soft, echoey, and has a slight plastic resonance (something like what you would hear if you talked into a semi-rigid plastic cup). The treble (cymbals, the upper range of violins, etc.) is fairly extended but a bit sizzly (sounds that should have a delicate shimmer have a sound reminiscent of bacon frying). While the sound has a decent sense of liveliness and this model does a decent 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), it is closed sounding (sound-wise it's obvious you have something covering your ears). When the noise canceling feature is off in either Bluetooth or cord connected powered mode, or when the headphones are cord connected and unpowered the sound quality drops a bit but is still in the Very Good range - it's similar to when noise canceling is on, but the upper midrange and lower treble sound a bit duller. These headphones provide Excellent noise reduction that is fairly even across most of the frequency range with low frequencies reduced the most. When they are in noise canceling mode an extremely faint hiss can be heard in very quiet environments when there is no audio program material to mask it.
Comfort and Fit:We found that these headphones produce a sense of moderately high pressure around the ears.
As typical of over-ear models the ear pads might feel hot and/or sticky after prolonged use.
Large
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.
Small
Users with smaller heads may find that when they lean far forward the headphones feel unstable and shift forward, but not to the point of falling off.
When the audio cord is used the sound of it rubbing on clothing may be faintly heard through the earphones.
