Sennheiser HD1 In-Ear Wireless Headphones, Bluetooth 4.1 with Qualcomm Apt-X and AAC, NFC one touch pairing, 10 hour battery life, 1.5 hour fast USB charging, multi-connection to 2 devices

If sound quality is a priority in an in-ear bluetooth headset, then this pair of Sennheisers is the way to go. They are articulate and dynamic, consistent with Sennheiser's audiophile lineage, an entirely different animal than Beats and Bose for example. Imagine a photograph that is slightly out of focus, blurring some of the details, making them difficult to distinguish. The HD1s sharpen that image so that the details are clear and distinct. This results in instruments sounding more like themselves and less like a representation of themselves. The way they articulate the unique timbre of acoustic instruments brings the music to life, making it more three dimensional and real compared to some of the other offerings. And just as sharpening a photograph increases the contrast of the image making blacks more black and whites more white, the way these headphones articulate sound makes them incredibly dynamic sounding with no sense of strain or compression, never losing their composure even on the most demanding passages. These qualities are not uncommon on high end headphones or speakers but it's simply not a priority for most bluetooth headset manufacturers. And while most of them sound far better than the cheap headphones that came in the box with your phone, ultimate accuracy, articulate music reproduction and dynamic range is not their design intent. It's also not the highest priority for many end users so there is a place everyone.The bass quality on the HD1s is outstanding, articulate and focused like the rest of the sound spectrum. Having no point of reference I think many consumers are taken with the bass quality of lesser sets and relatively speaking, they aren't bad. But once again, these are a different animal. Think of it this way, which is more impactful, getting hit with a five pound pillow or getting hit with a five pound brick? The focus and articulation of the HD1s give the bass more slam, not more bass, just more impact to the bass. You can feel the purr of a slapped electric bass, the nuances that bring it to life, the space between the notes, without the sound becoming blurred, even at high volumes.One of the unique aspects of in-ear headphones is that their tonal balance is determined to some degree by each user's particular anatomy. That being said, I found the HD1s reasonably neutral, somewhat rich, but not overly so and at times a bit aggressive on the top end, in my ears. Using the Comply foam earphone tips seemed to tame the top end a little, perhaps at the expense of a bit of sparkle. I could easily have gone either way but the fact that the Comply tips stay in my ear better and provide greater sound isolation, coupled with the fact that the included tips can become uncomfortable over extended listening periods, tilted things towards the Comply tips, so that's what I'm using. Also, some modification of tonal balance can be achieved by experimenting with the tip size. Better seal = greater bass.So oh yeah, these things work with your phone. They paired to my iPhone 7 (but not my MacBook Pro) without a hitch. I can use them as a wired set connecting to the USB port on the MacBook. The sound quality of calls is excellent and the passive noise isolation blocks out a very high degree of environmental sound, especially using the Comply tips. Think the squishy foam earplugs typically used in an industrial setting or on the gun range. Callers on the other end reported that the sound quality from the microphone was also excellent, better than what they experienced from my Bose SoundTrue wired set but environmental noises also come through loud and clear. For quiet on both ends there are better choices, perhaps even Sennheiser's own HD1 Wireless over the ear headphones with its beamforming microphones. The HD1s are light and comfortable around my neck, often forgetting they are there, only to be reminded when they begin to buzz from an incoming call. This is particularly useful in noisy environments where you wouldn't hear the phone ringing without the earphones in. On the neck band, up and down volume controls that double as skip forward and skip back are easy to locate by feel after a bit of practice as is the center answer, hang up, voice dial button. The power button is safely out of the way. Battery life is rated at 10 hours but that, I assume, is continuous talk time as the battery life indicator displayed on my phone barely moved even after a couple of days without charging. I never managed to wander out of bluetooth range from my phone though I haven't measured the exact distance. Also notable is that when you answer a call on the phone itself, the sound is routed through the phone, not the headset, even when it is connected. This can be annoying at first but is actually convenient once you get used to it.Occasionally, when making a phone call, the sound would become extremely deep and garbled on both ends sounding like two aliens speaking some foreign and frightening language. I'm not sure if that's an artifact of the headphones, the iPhone or Bluetooth itself but it requires hanging up and calling back. Fortunately that is a rare occurrence. There is also a bit of lag when playing games or dialing numbers on the phone with the sound trailing the button press by about a second. This isn't an issue when speaking on the phone or listening to music.The whole set is elegantly understated, the leather on the neckband soft and luxurious and it feels like a quality piece. If you love music and need a bluetooth headset in this price range, these are worth serious consideration.

I needed a good pair of earbuds to listen to music at work, and had a demanding list of criteria going in. I needed something comfortable, since I got tired of constantly pulling and twisting at my Jaybird X3's which never wanted to stay put and started to hurt after an hour or two; I needed something that had a long battery life, at least 8 hours; and it had to be bluetooth. And of course I didn't want to skimp on sound quality. It was surprisingly hard to find earbuds with all of these qualities for a digestible price. I've never had a Sennheiser product I didn't like, so I decided to go with the HD1 IEW's, and I am not disappointed. Firstly, sound quality is a bit subjective, but even among my other Sennheiser products these are the best sounding earpieces that I own. I had only planned to use them for work, but I have also come to use them on my PC for music / movies / gaming when it's convenient. (There's a downside to this, though, which I will get to in a moment). The comfort of both the buds and the collar is unexpectedly good. I easily forget I'm wearing them, and often someone else will remind me to take them out / off if I enter a situation where they're inappropriate. Battery life is no issue at all - they're listed to last 10 hours and after an 8.5 hour day I've never bottomed them out, though it is possible that if someone were to use the buds AND mic for an extended period of time they might not last as long. I don't often use the HD1's for calls, but they work just fine when I do, and are clearer (on my end) than my Iphone, and no one seems to have trouble hearing me. The bluetooth connectivity is on par with anything else I've used, solid up to maybe 15 yards or so. Some walls might give interference depending on what they're made of. I did replace the stock rubber buds with foam, since I prefer foam much more, and this seems to help a bit with the noise cancellation. And lastly they seem to hold up pretty well in terms of durability. I often have to tuck the earbud I'm not using into my shirt, to keep it from swinging around, and I will occasionally pinch it between my chest and something I'm carrying, but it's no worse for wear, and I've been using them for almost a year. Really an excellent set of earbuds.That one issue I mentioned with using these with my PC was that there are circumstances in which the sound will skip or pause every 10-20 seconds. I believe it only happens because the HD1's are paired with both my PC and my Iphone, and if I forget to disconnect from my Iphone the PC connection will keep skipping. Disconnecting the HD1's from the Iphone *usually* fixes this. It could be an issue with Windows 10, or my Iphone, or just my own error, so I'm not ready to hold it against the HD1's, but certainly worth mentioning.