This review is about the comparison between two headphones of popular brands. Both of these headphones are retailing for under 200 Dollars but their features vary. To know which one has better features that you need so that you could buy your right one, go to the detailed review.

Sony WH-XB900N	Sennheiser HD 450BT
BUY NOW	BUY NOW
PROS	PROS
Great sound quality for the price. Option for dedicated Google Assistant/Alexa button. USB-C charging. Good battery life. More affordable than the 1000XM3. Clean, simple looks.	Great audio range. Good value ANC. Sleek, understated style. Excellent battery life. Can be used in passive mode with cable, or wired mode with ANC enabled. User-adjustable EQ. AptX Low Latency Bluetooth
CONS	CONS
Touch controls are still frustrating. Noise cancellation isn’t as powerful as the 1000XM3. Too much bass for some people.	Plastic build. Bass emphasis won’t suit all. Noise cancellation is solid, but not class-leading. No auto-pause or ambient sound mode.

SPECIFICATIONS:

Detail Review:

INTRODUCTION:

Sony WH-XB900N

The Sony XB900N basically Looks like the 1000XM3 and it took a lot of the audio features from the XB950 which is really a nice combination. These do retail for around 180 dollars.

Sennheiser HD 450BT

Obviously the Sennheiser’s basically known for its sound quality. The Sennheiser HD 450BT also sounds good in a unique way. These are currently retailing for around 190 Dollars.

DESIGN:

Sony WH-XB900N

These are available in grey, black and also blue colors. I really thought the grey gave it a different look. As far as branding, that’s really minimal. You can see the Sony logo on the headband on both sides. As far as inputs and buttons all the physical buttons are all on the left-hand side, you have your power button and then you have a custom button. You also have your USB-C input and then the headphone jack input. Then on the right side are all your touch controls just like the 1000XM3.

As far as durability goes, I can stretch these and twist these and they’re gonna be okay. They are strong enough. One thing that is pretty unique is you can see the little ventilator ports up top on the ear cups and really what that’s doing is allowing your bass to kind of breath more as this is the extra-base series, so the base is definitely prominent in these. These do have NFC pairing on the left ear cup, and it has microphones on both sides.

Sennheiser HD 450BT

The button functionality of this headset are with the 1st button you have an on-ear cup you can access your assistant on your phone, with the button next to it you’re gonna actually skip and go previous and you press it in the middle and that’s the play/pause, then you have your volume rocker to increase and decrease your volume, then you have your USB-C port for your 3.5-millimeter headphone jack, then you also got your button that’s gonna activate the noise-canceling power on power off and hold it to connect and at last then you have your microphone.

You can also fold the headphone and keep it inside the case that comes in the box. This makes you convenient without occupying the case much. If you fold them in, they do not turn off or they do not turn on automatically like the Beats or any other headphones because there are no touch sensors in these and there is no auto-play and auto-pause in these. I think that’s okay, that they have the functionality buttons right there on the ear cups, they do work very well and it’s really simple to use too. So, no smart sensor technology.

COMFORT:

Sony WH-XB900N

There is a leather padding at the top, but the padding is really minimal and that’s fine because this is a really lightweight headphone. As far as your extensions, you have the metal extensions in here so you can be adjusted as however, the size of your head will be.

It does kind of stay away from some of the premium offerings that the 1000XM3 has like the side of the ear cups is not that leather material. But the ear cups actually feel softer to me than the 1000XM3. So, I found that it is a huge plus because it feels really comfortable. The ear cups are one of the things that I liked in the XB950 and that is what this seems like. There’s plenty of depth in the ear cups, so these are definitely over the ear because it has a pretty wide opening. These do fold flat and they also fold inwards. So, depending on your bag or your case or anything you’ll be able to find a way to fold them down and taken with you without any issue or occupying space.

Sennheiser HD 450BT

These are made up of plastic so its lightweight and the ear cups are made of the foam. The ear cups are actually really nice. I have worked out on them. I’ve used them for everything the whole time in my office, for phone calls, working out of them just all-around for jogging, etc. I tried out everything with these by assuming what most people are gonna do whenever they buy a pair of headphones and it was quite comfortable always.

The clamping force in these is also good. I was not hearing any creaks or anything when I pulled that far apart. I can twist it and bend it but still, it was good and have a good clamp force which gives a grip to stay in our head. I think it will break if I try to push the boundaries, so it feels like it didn’t loosen it, either it feels like it’s gonna stay in its form. It doesn’t clamp really hard too and all around they actually feel pretty comfortable in my opinion.

FEATURES:

Sony WH-XB900N

Inside the box, you’re gonna get a 3.5-millimeter cable to use this as a wired connection. It didn’t come with a hard case. It does come with the little soft pouch. It’s not like the thinnest material but it’s not gonna protect these from getting crushed.

The Bluetooth on here is incredible. It’s 5.0, it uses Qualcomm AptX HD and with it being Sony it uses their LDAC. You’re going to get the best Bluetooth connection and sound quality here. 

The main thing here with these headphones which is very important is to download the app. That way you have control over your smart assistant, your surroundings how much noise you want to pick up, because these are noise canceling, and it does have the ambient features. If you cover the right ear cup and it will channel in the sounds around you.

You can go in the app and change the function of the custom button to do different things like tell it to read your last incoming notification, your battery level, voice assistants, etc. The touch-sensitive performs the functions like swipe up for volume up, swipe down for volume down, tap twice to play and pause, swipe forward to skip forward, and swipe backward to make it go back to the previous track. So, the controls are pretty simple. This is a really easy headphone to pick up and use.

The noise-canceling on these is okay. It’s not anything special and I don’t think this is really supposed to compete with the 1000XM3 or the Bose QC35, it’s basically just giving you that little additional feature just to kind of block out a few of your surroundings, and for that, it does a really good job. Again there is an awareness mode in the app, where you can kind of channel in how much of the sound around you want which is always nice. Especially, if you’re somebody that’s commuting a lot or you have people that are gonna come up to talk to you, you don’t have to take these things off.

Sennheiser HD 450BT

We are getting voice assistant access, 30-hour battery life with noise cancellation on or off, easy connectivity, Bluetooth 5.0 compliance which has AptX low latency and AptX AAC, and sound the quality with ambient noise isolation.

As far as connectivity and distance issues, I noticed that when I went passed about 850-900 square feet from the distance of my phone, I had full coverage but if I go beyond that I start to lose that. I think that’s obviously gonna happen with anything, but just to let you know that the coverage and distance of connectivity were strong the entire time at least in the space that I’m in.

I noticed this with Bose that, if I’m gonna have two different devices connected at the same time whether it’s my computer or my phone or two different phones that with that, the seamlessness between the connectivity depending on what’s going on like if you get a phone call or something like that was really easy. It would jump from one phone to the other. But in these, it’s vice versa or with two different phones. It has multi-connectivity but I had to stop one before I was able to do the other. That’s the only way I was able to work.

When it comes to the ANC with these, at first I was expecting them to be pretty good giving out of a Sennheiser as I heard a lot of good things about these. But I will say that they’re good enough for low frequencies or things that are going to be consonant like most ANC headphones. Like you can hear fans, the noise outside music that’s playing, or a TV, etc.

The ANC can only go so far but things that are constant the headphones that it cancels out as much as it can but it’s still not that much. It just does not perform that well and where you’re gonna really notice it is in chimes or high-pitched frequencies such as even dogs barking things like that they come right through the headphones.

The ANC is totally a back-end thing to this product, they gave it a good try but it’s only gonna cancel out like long-duration noises or very low subtle frequencies like fan noise, AC, cars driving, I wasn’t able to pick up on but I would say the sound quality is great.

MICROPHONE:

Sony WH-XB900N

They are claiming HD for mic calls and Sony does a really good job because they know a lot of people that are traveling and commuting are using these headphones so they made the mic to be one of the important features. The call quality in these is quite good. I sounded good to the person on the other side and they do sound good to me.

Sennheiser HD 450BT

The microphone here is a very sensitive one for phone calls. When it comes to phone calls, it’s not most ideal if you’re expecting a lot of ambient noise. You will hear a sidetone when the pass-through effect is with them and it does stop everything that’s playing a course into using the microphone and it sounds like it picks up a lot of background noise and from playing this back using the microphone, but it is nice that you can actually hear yourself just for safety and awareness.

BATTERY:

Sony WH-XB900N

You have USB C for charging, the battery life on this is about 30 hours, and it does have a quick charge feature where if you charge it for 10 minutes you’re gonna get an hour’s worth of use which always comes in handy.

Sennheiser HD 450BT

With the battery life, I would say we have almost right on the head with 30 hours. I got about 28 and a half as I was listening to music at around 70% and with ANC on. So, I would say they actually are pretty much right what they claim, I’m actually really impressed with that.

SOUND:

Sony WH-XB900N

If you’re going to mix the XB950 which has a really prominent base and the 1000XM3 which is the king of noise-canceling headphones for me currently. You gonna get pretty high standards. To be honest, I really was hoping for a kind of the middle between these both and that’s exactly what I got in this. Bass is really prominent and I felt like the sound with the XB950 at times it can get too much and muddy and kind of take over everything. But these didn’t and what I found out like most was going into the app and changing these to the excited EQ setting.

It was perfect like the bass is way overpowering it in a good way because it doesn’t mess with everything else. Mids had no problem coming through treble because it’s the exciting mode it pushes it up so everything’s just kind of good and makes this a really fun dynamic headphone to use. To be honest it was great across all genres. I didn’t feel like I needed to keep going back in and messing with the EQ. As far as clean and clear, it takes a step back from the 1000XM3 but it didn’t take any step back when it came to having the base of the XB950. So, it’s really is an improvement over the XB950 then just slightly under the 1000XM3.

Sennheiser HD 450BT

These have good lows not as strong as Sony but about as good as Bose and they have balance mids and really crisp and clear highs. I listen to all kinds of different genres, it doesn’t matter if it’s rock hip-hop, classical, even when it comes to podcasts and audiobooks it’s just that type of headphone where it sounds different in a good way than other headphones I tried even above this price range.

When it comes to the sound quality is if you’re gonna use the app for equalization or you can get to balance out things that you want whether that’s increasing the bass or you want to increase the vocal range anything like that depending on how you like to listen to your music. It kind of sounds like it has more of a 3D immersive sound signature to it than most headphones I’ve tried, where it’s not just gonna be flat like some headphones are given that passively. These do a good enough job especially if you’re listening to music at a high volume.

WHICH TO BUY?

Both of these headphones are of great brands but they do have different features. In my opinion, if you are looking for a headphone with great ANc performance and with the touchpad functionality, then you can buy the Sony WH-XB900N but if you are looking for a headphone that has great sound then you can buy the Sennheiser HD 450BT.

Expert Reviews of Sony WH-XB900N:

By T3
The Sony WH-XB900N delivers the right amount of bass and noise cancellation features to make it a less expensive alternative to the WH-1000XM3. For 899, casual users looking for a decent pair of everyday wireless headphones. can consider the…

By Digit
Essentially existing as a bridge between Sony’s Extra Bass series and the much-acclaimed Sony WH-1000XM3, the Sony WH-XB900N attempt to provide something of value to numerous kinds of users at a lower price point than the exorbitantly-priced WH-1000XM3…

By FirstPost
The Sony WH-XB900N is priced at Rs 16,990 with a one year warranty but can be purchased close to Rs 15,490 online. If you are looking for a set of wireless headphones with good sound clarity, active noise cancellation, loads of bass…

By stuff
People love bassy headphones. Sony’s Extra Bass range takes that to its logical conclusion, with so much of the stuff it dribbles out like sticky aloe vera gel. These headphones have categorically too much bass by any sane metric and they’re active…

By TechHive
Sony’s Extra Bass WH-XB900N noise-canceling Bluetooth headphones sound great, are low-latency, and do a good job at blocking out unwanted sound.

Expert Review of Sennheiser HD 450BT:

By TechAdvisor
If you’re looking for affordable over-ear headphones with active noise canceling then there’s very little to dislike here.

By PCMag
Sennheiser’s HD 450BT headphones deliver excellent Bluetooth audio and solid noise cancellation for a bargain price.

By What Hi-Fi?
While not class-leading performers in the competitive mid-range market, these well-featured Sennheisers are still worthy of consideration.

By GadgetGuy
I was very impressed with the Sennheiser HD 450BT headphones. Everything worked as it should. The sound was, perhaps, engineered for enjoyment more than extreme accuracy, but you can tweak it with the app. The noise reduction was effective. Definitely recommended.

By ReviewGeek
If you’re in a pinch and want a set of cans right now, I don’t think you’ll regret buying the 450s. But if you can bide your time, the WH-1000XM3 will likely go on sale (especially because the writing is on the wall for the M4s), which are a better choice if the price dips anywhere close to $200.