Sennheiser HD 4.50 BTNC review

Our Verdict

The Sennheiser HD 4.50 BTNC headphones provide a comfy over-ear design, great sound and solid active dissonance cancellation at an affordable price.

For

Excellent audio quality
Bonny, elegant design
Piece of cake-to-use controls
Comfortable fit

Against

Agile noise cancellation is lacking on planes
Ear-pad replacement procedure is a bit awkward
No difficult-shell travel instance is included

Tom's Guide Verdict

The Sennheiser Hard disk drive 4.50 BTNC headphones provide a comfortable over-ear blueprint, great sound and solid active noise cancellation at an affordable price.

Pros

+
Excellent audio quality
+
Attractive, elegant design
+
Easy-to-apply controls
+
Comfortable fit

Cons

-
Agile noise cancellation is lacking on planes
-
Ear-pad replacement procedure is a bit awkward
-
No hard-shell travel case is included

The Sennheiser HD four.50 BTNC deliver a surprising corporeality of value for dissonance-cancelling headphones priced under $200. And this is a brand that has get synonymous with excellent sound quality as well every bit pricey extravagance.

This set up of wireless headphones combine a comfy and elegant pattern, active racket counterfoil, NFC for easy pairing and long battery life. The dissonance cancellation isn't quite Bose-level quality, but overall, the Sennheiser Hard disk drive iv.50 BTNC is an splendid choice for travelers and is good enough to make our all-time inexpensive racket cancelling headphones listing.

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Sennheiser HD 4.50 BTNC price and availability

The Sennhsier HD 4.l BTNC originally launched at $199, but is now available for merely $139 from Walmart. That makes this not bad-value pair of headphones an even better bargain.

Sennheiser Hd 4.50 BTNC review: Pattern

The Sennheiser Hard disk 4.l BTNC has a muted design with a matte-black exterior accented past chrome on the headband and around the ear cups. You'll find the Sennheiser symbol tastefully added in multiple places along the top and sides.

All of the controls are housed in the chrome accent on the bottom of the correct ear loving cup, including a power button, a multifunction rails push button and a volume button.

Additionally, at that place is a micro-USB port to accuse the headphones and a two.5-millimeter jack (yep, not a standard 3.five-mm one) that lets you plug in the headphones when the bombardment is dead or connecting to a nonwireless source — for example, the seat-dorsum amusement arrangement on an airplane..

The left ear loving cup contains an NFC chip for quick pairing with compatible devices, as is noted by the icon etched ever then faintly into the plastic exterior.

The ear cups pivot and fold for easy storage in a soft canvas pocketbook for travel. However, other similarly priced or cheaper headphones come with hard-beat out protective cases, and I wish that were truthful for the Sennheiser Hd 4.50 as well. The ear pads can be removed and replaced if they ever begin to scissure or article of clothing out, though information technology is a bit hard to get them back on the headphones.

Sennheiser Hd iv.50 BTNC review: Condolement

The 4.50 BTNC headphones feature enough padding to be comfortable without placing also much pressure on my head. I wore them for many hours at a fourth dimension without any event. The leatherette is also quite soft, upping the comfort quotient while also making a tight seal to help block out some ambient noise.

The ear cups are large enough to fit almost entirely over my ears (which are small to medium-sized). Notwithstanding, if you accept larger ears, they may rest more than on meridian of your ears than over them.

Although the padding on the headband is thin, it was very comfortable to wear for relatively long periods of time. Nevertheless, if y'all prefer supercushy padding on the headband, the Sennheiser headphones may feel a little lacking.

Sennheiser HD 4.50 BTNC review: Setup and connecting

The starting time time I turned on the 4.fifty BTNC headphones, they automatically launched into pairing mode and took only a moment to connect to my Samsung Milky way S7. Once the initial connection was successful, subsequent connections were just as fast and effortless.

The iv.50 BTNC features an NFC bit on the left ear loving cup, making information technology simple to pair the headphones with an Android telephone or mobile device. But if you lot don't have an NFC-uniform device, just hold the power button in the On position for a few seconds, and the headphones will enter pairing mode. In all the time I used this pair of headphones, the connexion stuttered only a few times.

Sennheiser Hard disk drive four.50 BTNC review: Controls

The controls on the bottom of the right ear cup performed well and are responsive. Quickly depressing the multifunction button allows you lot to play or pause music, while guiding the spring-loaded button forrard or backward advances or rewinds the runway option. I plant that this design is much easier to use than competing headphones that brand users chop-chop click a volume button ii or three times to accomplish that aforementioned role. The aforementioned button can be used to answer and cease calls.

I initially confused the power/Bluetooth push for the agile-noise-cancelling toggle until I looked at the instructions. Withal, after further enquiry, I discovered that the noise-cancellation function could be enabled or disabled by holding both the volume + and book – buttons at the same time. Just due to the button positioning, this maneuver was slightly bad-mannered to pull off.

Sennheiser HD 4.50 BTNC review: Audio quality

Though I typically prefer a slightly exaggerated bass profile, I plant that the balanced sonic profile from the iv.50 BTNC offered a full and rounded sound without sounding overprocessed. Bass was generally clean and tight, while mids and highs were generally neutral.

Pearl Jam'due south "Nothingman" brought me back to loftier school, with Eddie Vedder's vocals front and heart, while the cymbals and high hats in the groundwork remained crisp against the aggressive electric-guitar riff in the foreground.

Comparing these to the Audio-Technica headphones, the Sennheiser iv.l BTNC offered only a bit more presence in Vedder's vocals as well as fullness in the instrumentation. For another comparison, I listened to the same song on the V-Moda Crossfade Thousand-100, a nonwireless, non-racket-cancelling model, and I found the V-Moda to be significantly more than bassy. The Sennheiser 4.l BTNC is tuned to audio more natural.

With the Sennheiser headphones, the subtle groundwork chorus harmonies on "Finally Moving" by Pretty Lights were easy to option out.

The headphones deftly combined multiple elements, beginning with a familiar guitar riff borrowed from Sonny Stitt's "Private Number" with a song sample from Etta James' "Something's Got a Hold On Me." Elements of the song panned back and forth betwixt correct and left, without muddying between channels, while the guitar and simultaneous bass melody continuously looped through the song.

Once more, compared with the Audio-Technica headphones, the Sennheiser 4.fifty BTNC offers a slightly higher level of item in subtleties and groundwork music while the vocals were more prominent. Additionally, the Sennheiser headphones are slightly louder while playing at the aforementioned volume.

The opening to Jasmine Thompson's "I Run across Fire" presented a "breathy" vocal with reverb and remained svelte and calorie-free, clearing conveying the openness the artist intended before an acoustic guitar began to play. The 4.l BTNC easily reproduced each guitar strum and pluck, letting me hear the string ring out, while I could occasionally hear the guitarist's fingers move up and downwardly the neck.

Sennheiser HD 4.fifty BTNC review: Noise cancellation

For the near part, toggling the active noise cancellation (ANC) on and off on the 4.50 BTNC fabricated very little difference when listening to music, peculiarly on louder tracks. Nonetheless, on softer, quieter tracks, there was a faint hiss in the background, which disappeared one time ANC was enabled.

When I pitted the 4.50 BTNC's ANC confronting that of the highly rated and cheaper Audio-Technica ATH-ANC9 on a 2.5-hour flight, I was a bit disappointed.

The Sennheiser headphones removed roughly 60% to seventy% of the rumble from the airplane, but when directly compared with the Audio-Technica headphones, they were certainly lacking. The Sound-Technica ATH-ANC9 was much quieter overall when the ANC excursion was turned on, while there was still an audible rumble on the Sennheiser headphones.

Sennheiser HD 4.50 BTNC review: Battery life and bluetooth

Sennheiser claims that the iv.50 BTNC lasts upward to 25 hours on a charge. However, that gauge refers to when the active-noise-cancellation circuit is turned off. With the ANC enabled, that time is closer to 19 hours. That meant that I had to charge the cans but three times in three weeks. They hands lasted for ii 2.5-hour flights, plus multiple 3-to-4-hour listening sessions, without needing a accuse.

It took roughly ii hours to get a total charge. The good affair is that, thanks to the micro-USB port, the Sennheiser 4.50 BTNC can be charged with a portable bombardment from whatsoever number of manufacturers. Insufficiently, the Audio-Technica headphones use a less-convenient, single AA battery to power the noise-cancellation circuit and are said to last a maximum of 35 hours on a accuse.

In all the time I was using this pair of Sennheiser headphones, the connection stuttered only a few times. Notwithstanding, they regained their connexion relatively quickly, out to roughly 30 feet, even allowing me to walk upwardly a flight of stairs in my apartment building. However, when I reached the edge of the connection range, information technology actually mattered which way my head was turned; the Sennheiser 4.50 BTNC would lose and regain connection equally I moved my head around.

Sennheiser HD 4.50 BTNC review: Call quality

Just about everyone I spoke with over the telephone while wearing these Sennheiser headphones praised the sound quality and clarity. But on my finish, when a phone call came in, the noise-cancelling circuit turned off completely. The microphones overamplified everything effectually me, which was a bit distracting. I heard everything from a cough, to someone knocking on the door, to cars honking every bit they passed, all with a strange, echo-like audio quality.

Sennheiser HD iv.fifty BTNC review: Verdict

If you are looking for great-sounding wireless headphones, I would easily recommend the Sennheiser HD 4.50 BTNC every bit your get-to cans. For less than $200, the headphones deliver articulate, rich audio with active-noise-cancelling technology that's potent enough to block out nearly of the din around you. The design is both fashionable and comfy, complete with easy-to-reach controls.

My only existent gripe is that the agile racket cancellation could be a picayune stronger to block out the rumble of airplane engines. . Overall, though, the Sennheiser HD 4.50 BTNC wireless ANC headphones are some of the best-sounding headphones available at this price.