Marshall Monitor Wireless Over-Ear Headphone, Black

I was a bit skeptical when I first tried ordered these headphones, but after some testing, I truly believe that these are the only $300+ bluetooth headphones that are worth the price. PROS (and there are many) +Sound quality is perfect. As usual, Marshall doesn't disappoint. Music is punchy and immersive. Textures in the music and instruments are also very clear. Great listening experience overall. +ANC is better than most. Cancels out a majority of fans and outdoor noises when I work. After testing a variety of different ANC headphones, I would say the Marshalls lose out only to the Bose NC700 and Sony WH1000xm3. +Build quality is excellent. The hard plastics, metal, and faux leather construction make for a durable and premium feeling device. The faux leather, although nowhere as nice as genuine leather, is still very soft and offers plenty of padding. +Design is phenomenal. I would usually lump design in together with build quality, but the design on these is so overwhelmingly brilliant that I had to speak on it separately. There are several elements that make the design of these so great. 1st, they are slim and offer a low profile look while wearing them. 2nd, these headphones fold up in just about every imaginable way. Depending on how you want to store them, you can fold them up similar to how Beats fold up, or how the WH1000xm3's fold up, or the ATH50mx, or... you get my point. 3rd, The button placement on these are exactly where they need to be. Although some other headphones have very nice touch controls, Marshall chose to keep their knob control which works as well as, if not better than any touch controls that I've tested. The knob works well and intuitively- up and down for volume, forward and backward for skip/reverse, and press and long press for play/pause and on/off. In addition, the ANC and multi-function buttons are placed on either side of the cups exactly where the headband connects to the earcups. When touching your headphones, they line up exactly where your thumbs would be. +The app is another aspect of this headphone not only works, but exceeded my expectations. Just like other companion apps, they have a battery indicator and offer some customization buttons. However, Marshall's app takes it a step further and offers full ANC/ambient sound customization. Using the app, ANC and ambient sound's effectiveness can be toggled from 0%-100%. The app also allows the user to assign different functionality to the multi-function button, toggling between the equalizer, Google assistant, or your device's native voice assistant. If you choose to set the multi-function button to equalizer, you will be able to toggle through 3 different sound settings, 1 preset Marshall tuning, and 2 other optional presets that can also be tuned with a full eq. +Comfort on the Monitor ANC II's is also spectacular. The earcups cover my ears completely with a relatively loose clamping force. This causes less pressure on the sides of my head compared to many other headphones. However, this looser clamping force does not negatively impact the seal or the stability of these headphones. They sit well on the head even when looking down or jumping up and down. The headband padding is also very thick and soft, with no pain after 5 hours of continuous use. +Battery is top of the line. With ANC on full and the volume at around 70%, I was able to get 18 hours from 100% to 50% battery. I have no doubt that these headphones will be able to meet the 30 hrs that Marshall has listed. Additionally, due to the USB C charging port on these headphones, fast charging will fully charge the battery in about 2 hours. +The 3.5mm audio cable that comes is the box is top notch in terms of quality and length. +Like most other ANC headphones at this price, the Monitor II's feature multipoint, allowing it to connect to two devices at a time, for all you multitaskers out there. +Bluetooth connection is very good and stable. Setting my phone down at the corner of my house, I was able to walk all throughout my two story house, through walls and floors, without losing connection or experiencing crackling. This was a feat, few headphones were able to achieve. +Microphone works great. Testing these with discord's playback testing feature, my voice came in loud and clear. Some other reviewers have complained about a lack of microphone in wired mode, but rest assured that is not true. While the 3.5mm cable that comes in the box does not have a microphone, the mics in the headphones will still work during wired mode, whether the headphones are on or off. CONS (and these are small nitpicks) -Long press time it takes to power on the headphones is approximately 5 seconds, which is a bit too long for me, especially when considering powering off only takes a 2 second long press. -No hard case. This is quite a bummer, considering how well these were designed. I would have loved to see what Marshall could have done with a case design. That being said, due to the variety of ways the Monitor II can be folded, just about any case available should fit these headphones. -Coming in at 320 grams, the Monitor II's are a bit heavier than much of the competition. However, after hours of testing, I can safely say that I have experienced no neck pain. -No sensors in the earcups, so you'll have to manually pause the music when you take them off (feature has been a bit buggy on other headphones I have tested anyways, and for many of those, I would end up having to pause them on my own just to make sure they were actually paused) I simply cannot praise these headphones enough. While there are some areas where other headphones score higher (sound quality:MW65, Beoplay H9i, B&W PX7 and ANC: WH1000xm3, Bose NC700), no other pair of headphones offer such a complete set of features that all work exceptionally while still offering a decent price.