Cool friends for a hot summer

Here are the finest audio companions you can take along wherever you go, or while you cool off

Bose QuietControl 30 

Price: Rs 27,000

The QuietControl (QC) 30 is the sporty version of the QC35 (which I loved), with some caveats. For one, the neckband-based design could raise a few hackles; I didn’t have a problem wearing it, but it was too loose for my wife. Two, this is a strictly wireless pair — there’s no backup of an audio cable in case the battery runs out. That said, it has all the goodness expected of a pair from Bose. One morning, I put on the theme music of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 and went for my run. As I was crossing the road, I lowered the volume to hear the ambient noises. But when I reached the park, I realised I had actually lowered the level of noise cancellation. I could control how much noise I wanted to let in. I could hear all nuances on Zubin Mehta and the Israel Philharmonic’s performance of Rossini’s La Scala di Seta, and the soundstage was detailed. Calls on Delhi’s busy streets were crystal clear. The QC30 are the best noise-cancellation earphones I have used to date. The Bose QC30 is your best friend if you want a wireless no-nonsense pair for daily use.

Sony MDR-XB950B1

Price: Rs 12,990

This pair from Sony’s Extra Bass line-up did justice to all the David Guetta, Calvin Harris and Steve Aoki I could listen to. I turned off the bass effect and played around with the Sony app on my iPhone while listening to the soundtrack of Raabta. I was impressed with the way the equaliser enhanced the sound. Calls, too, were handled well. What disappointed me though was the output when I tried listening to the deluxe edition of The Beatles’ Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band. The mids sounded muddy, while the highs were flat. That said, the noise isolation on this pair is good and there wasn’t any sound seepage, even at high volumes; neither was there any distortion. The cans are comfortable to wear for extended periods, though they’re extremely uncomfortable to wear on your neck, especially in these sweaty times. Using the equaliser, one gets a pretty decent soundstage, as I discovered while watching The Blacklist on Netflix. A caveat: the cans convert into simple headphones (even the microphone doesn’t work) when there’s no charge. The Sony headphones are for those who love bass-heavy tracks and would want a decent pair for their mobile devices.   

B&O BeoPlay H9 

Price: Rs 39,990

The H9 paired easily with my iPhone. The cans ooze class and are comfortable to wear for long hours. They have a snug fit and I was confident enough that I could jog wearing them (I didn’t because its powerful sound isolation would make them unsafe for use on Delhi’s roads). My first stop was the soundtrack for Rockstar. While the soundstage flattered the stereo sound, I was missing certain edgy riffs; it seemed the cans were “sandpapering” the rough edges. Next, I switched to Wilhelm Furtwängler’s interpretation of Beethoven’s Symphony No. 6 in F Major, on my iPad (as I was hopeless with the touch controls on the cans). This recording is believed to date back to 1944 and the subtle variations are a pleasure; but on the H9, the “smoothening” of the music seemed to take the life out of the recording. That said, as soon as I switched to pop and country music, I was more than happy. Johnny Cash’s Ring of Fire and Folsom Prison Blues sounded as if the late musician was sitting in my living room. The BeoPlay H9 is a good pair of headphones if you like noise isolation, but an audiophile would prefer the H6.