Moving on/up from Drop Panda

I've been out of the headphone game for a while, downsizing and also the Panda did a surprising job of being sorta/close enough to my HD650 chain that I cleaned up my office desk and kept just the Panda.

For my preferences, I like these well enough with the features they have. What I'm looking for is something with active noise cancelling. My wife is working more from home and with one or both of us on calls, even with music/calls going I hear some noise bleed and it admittedly is very distracting for me.

Problem is when I do an initial search of what the market has, I'm left wondering if all the ANC options are going to be lackluster compared to the Panda when it comes back to sound quality.

Are there any recommendations that come to mind? I'm open to headphones or buds at this point.

 

I'm guessing you're not in the Apple ecosystem?

 

I am not. Is there something I should consider?

 

I'd look at IEM's. They're super easy to drive and in my experience often provide better bang for buck than full-size headphones.

 

It's maybe a bit cumbersome by comparison but I've eventually settled on using IEMs (Andro 2020) out of an LDAC receiver (BTR7); something about having the IEMs still tethered to me via cables (with the receiver clipped to my jacket or belt or whatever) is reassuring vs fully wireless headphones that could be yanked off or fall off without notice.

I agree that budget IEMs have gotten much better lately, though it's then a matter of finding something that works for you. Since they do bypass pinnae and some measure of ear canal, it's easy to see how the IEM space is VERY divisive; I have a lot of respect for the Campfire Ara's technicalities but oof, even with deep fit the treble and upper mids were maybe a bit too much for me, and same with the IER-Z1R

 

I can vouch for the Focal Bathys. By far the best sounding bluetooth headphone I have tested. Another good option is the Audeze Maxwell. It has very good passive isolation, but is pretty heavy on the head.

 

The Sony XM5 was good enough that I stopped using my main rig while working. Easy enough to get ahold of one to test out. Haven't heard the Panda or the higher end stuff, so the suggestion is limited. I really like Sony's ANC earbuds, too, but only situationally since I can't have things in my ears for more than a couple hours.

 

Same thing happened to me when I got my XM3s a few years back. They became my default selection whenever I needed a mobile headphone.

 

Happened to had the chance to listen to Focal Bathys and all the ‘flagship’ BT headphones (Sony XM5, B&W Px8, Bose Ultra, AirPods Max) and the Bathy is really in its own league, pretty obviously better than the rest and definitely the most HiFi sounding one. ANC performs reasonably well too, although it’s a bit more expensive than the rest, I think it’s probably the closest thing to the ‘only headphone you need’