Ive really been wanting to get a pair but im not sure whats best.

Ideally I'd like somethig padded or adjustable, I wear glasses and I find that sometimes headphones can make my glasses did into my head. Also something with a long battery life and decent sound quality.

Update December 2024: I'd no longer recommend the B&W Px7 S2e. After 3 months of use, I'm facing all the usual problems folks have said they encounter with this set: hissing left earcup, charging/battery level issues. They look great and feel great, but I'd pick the Momentum 4s over these.

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Context: I work remotely and have been using a pair of Sony 1000XM3 daily for about 5 years. They're starting to show their age, so I decided to look for a replacement and spent about 6 weeks testing various headphones. I ended up trying most of the currently available flagships under $400 USD, so I figured I'd give my perspective on each of them. I'll quickly go through them below in order of least favorite to the ones I kept. Hope this helps someone considering these options.

Priorities in order:

1. Comfort for long wear (2+ hours minimum)

2. Connectivity stability

3. ANC performance

4. Sound quality

5. Mic quality for video calls

6. Portability

I didn't consider battery life too much. It's really easy for me to just throw them on a charger if they're low on battery. Most of the current options have "good enough" battery life for my usage.

Bose QuietComfort 2023

Like I said above, comfort was my top priority, and the Bose QC 2023 felt pretty good in that regard in the store. Cypress green was probably my second favorite color of all the ones I tried. They didn't sound very great IMO, and these suffered from the notorious bluetooth skipping problem.

Strengths: Comfortable, light, green color was cool, foldable, good ANC, has actual buttons
Cons: Boring sound, buggy connectivity

Sony 1000XM4

Being the same build as my trusty XM3s, I tried the XM4s also. They felt great and were a familiar experience but added multipoint connectivity. Unfortunately these sounded probably the worst of all the headphones I tried. The mids and highs were noticeably sharp compared to my XM3s, and I couldn't really EQ it to make them work for me.

Strengths: Comfortable, proven design, foldable, multipoint
Cons: Harsh sound, slow to connect to multiple devices

Sony 1000XM5

Was really skeptical about these because they were such a departure from the last generation's design. At first I didn't care for the earcup feel/design, but that quickly changed. The biggest problem for me was the headband. It's so thin that after 30-40 minutes the top of my head hurt a lot. I loved the overall experience with these and tried a few times to make them work. Couldn't get over that headband.

Strengths: amazingly light, sound great, function very well with multiple connections, have excellent microphone sound, ANC is stellar
Cons: Headband hurts, don't fold, case is huge and looks like a purse

Bose QuietComfort Ultra

I really wanted to like these. They have a really nice design and in theory were everything I was looking for. They were pretty comfortable and have unreal ANC capabilities. Overall I felt they were a bad value even on sale at $350 USD. They do a lot of things "ok", but I didn't connect with them.

Strengths: very comfortable, strong ANC (actually a little too strong for my preferences), flawless connectivity, foldable
Cons: Pared down controls, touch slider is annoying, sometimes stayed on when I meant to turn them off, sound is meh, overall volume a little too low, ears got hot

Sennheiser Momentum 4 (2nd place)

Alright, I really really liked these. They sound phenomenal and tick all the functionality boxes (i.e. play over USB, feature rich app, 3.5mm jack). While multipoint connections work well, the iPhone app has a hard time recognizing the connection to the headset, and I had to disconnect/reconnect them to fix it. I very nearly kept these, but my number 1 priority was long wear, and I found myself dying to take them off after 45-60 minutes.

Strengths: Best sound of all options I tried, lots of great features and functionality, excellent microphone quality, workable ANC, best case for cans that don't fold, battery life is phenomenal
Cons: Finicky app connection, heavy, uncomfortable for long wear

Bowers & Wilkins Px7 S2E (Winner)

I was skeptical to get these due to both the retail price point and the mediocre reviews across the interwebs. However, I decided to try a pair of recertified directly from B&W at $229 USD. I really like them; they tick all the boxes for me and will replace my XM3s. Of course, the big draw for these is the build quality—none of the others can touch them in that regard. I also vastly prefer the actual buttons instead of touch controls. Love the blue color.

Comfort: These are really comfortable for me, maybe edged out only by the QC 2023. They're on the heavier side, but the weight is distributed really well, and I can forget they're on my head after 30 minutes. They stay closer to my head than the Momentum 4s, which felt large and unwieldy by comparison. The square-ish earcups feel a lot better to me than the oval shaped ones.

Connectivity: No problems at all connecting to M3 MacBook Pro and iPhone. I found that they don't automatically connect to both devices when you turn them on, and they'll default to the last "primary" device. I have to manually connect them to the other device if I want to have them both connected, but I usually don't. Primarily just use them with the computer. Connection is stable and solid.

ANC: Works fine for me. As I said above, the "really strong" ANC headphones are a bit too oppressive for me, and I like to have "just enough" to block out kids playing in the room next door etc.

Sound Quality: These sound excellent. They're not audiophile headphones, and they don't sound nearly as impressive as the Momentum 4s (I even preferred the sound of the XM5s). But for my usage, I need them to just be really good. When I'm paying attention (i.e. not working), I can nitpick the sound and wish it was better. But even then, they're better than most of the others—probably somewhere in the middle of what I've tested. The flip side of this coin is that if I connect them via USB, I can get a "better" experience via higher bitrate/lossless music. At least it's a placebo effect to make me think it's better.

Mic quality: The audio for calls is probably the most natural sounding of all the ones I tested. Pretty impressed by that actually. I don't feel like my voice has that robotic sound from bluetooth audio.

Portability: Pretty good. The case is fine, just a little bigger than my old Sony case. For a non-folding option, these are a decent. The case could be harder in my opinion; there's a bit of give in the rigidity which might be a concern in a tight bag/pack.