More headphones GO! This time I'm gonna do a head to head between Audio Technica's ATH-ANC7b and their new noise cancelling headphones the ATH-ANC70. The ATH-ANC7bs sell for around $130-$150 new while the ATH-NC70s sell for $200 new which is their MSRP as they are new headphones (they came out in December 2013). A good thing to note is that both of these headphones can play music without a battery which is always a plus
especially in the realm of noise cancelling headphones. As a review it'll be just about the same as most others just with head to head comparisons. So let's get started.
First off, as with all reviews is form, comfort, and accessories. Thankfully, in this particular category the two don't vary much. Both headphones are over ear closed back headphones. The build quality on the ANC7b feels more sturdy regardless of the lower price. Both headphones have memory foam cups but I find that the ANC70's cups are more comfortable and the ANC70s are more comfortable to me. A thing to note though is that I feel like both pairs are somewhat small. If your head is large I might not recommend these. Personally, I find the headband to push down on my head more on the ANC7bs leading them to be less comfortable in that respect as well. In terms of accessories, both pairs of headphones come with a carrying case, airplane adapter, and 1/4" adapter. The ANC70s come with one 1.2m (3.9') cable while the ANC7bs come with a 1m (3.3') and 1.6 (5.2') cable. These cables are standard 1/8" to 1/8" cables so it's relatively easy to replace them if you have to. A couple of nice things about the ANC70s in particular are that it has a volume fader on the left earcup which can be useful and that it has a built in microphone to answer calls with. To use the microphone, or pause/play music you hit the logo on the left earcup which doubles as a button. Overall pretty cool although I haven't tried taking a call with them.
Before jumping into the differences in sound quality, as these are both noise cancelling headphones it makes sense to compare how well they cancel noise. As I was reading up on reviews of the ANC70s I came across this review which I agree with in some parts and wholeheartedly disagree with on others. Most importantly I completely disagree with how she portrays the noise cancelling, saying that they cancel higher pitch frequencies better than low. First off, it's not true. I'm typing this review on a mechanical keyboard with MX Blue switches, which if you don't know what that means, means that there is a really loud audible click every time I hit a key. These clicks are pretty high pitched. Regardless of whether I have noise cancelling on or off, the clicks are quite audible. In fact, while wearing my ANC7bs, the clicking is louder with noise cancelling on than off because the other sounds are muted more than the clicking of my keyboard. The reason why it makes sense that higher pitches aren't affected by noise cancelling as much is that higher pitch sounds tend to be louder and easier to hear, up to a point, and because higher pitch sounds travel faster. Noise cancelling also does relatively poorly with voices since those are quite variable. Also, what's the point of noise cancelling headphones if they can't cancel out the low drones of airplanes? It's a weird statement by the reviewer for sure. In regards to how well these cans do in ambient noise cancelling, both are pretty respectable. The large majority of fan noise from my desktop is removed as well as all of the other non-keyboard clicky noises. Voices don't get cancelled all that much but being closed back headphones, there is still a decent amount of general noise isolation to both cans. If you run the noise cancelling without any music on, there is an audible hiss on both headphones that's just about the same loudness which is just the signal that the headphones are using to cancel the outside noise. All that said, given what I hear, the noise cancelling on the ANC7bs is better than the ACN70s regardless of price but neither are as good as what you can get from Bose.
Anyways enough about noise cancelling, let's talk about sound. These two headphones could be seen as complete opposites in terms of sound. For a compressed review on sound, the ANC7bs are quite bassy and sound very tin can like with recessed mids and highs. The ANC70s on the other hand are quite lacking in bass and have quite good mids with somewhat bright highs. Going more in depth, since both of these headphones have to be compared with noise cancelling on and off as that does change the character of the headphones sound.
Starting with the ANC70s with noise cancelling off, the first thing you'll notice is the absolute lack of bass. It's like there is none at all. For people who enjoy bass, these are absolutely terrible headphones with noise cancelling off. The mids however are quite nice and detailed with pretty rich vocals and an overall pleasing sound. Me personally, I don't mind headphones that are a bit lacking in bass as really bassy headphones fatigue me greatly, much more so than bright headphones. That said, with the noise cancelling off, these headphones are not particularly bright but do have a relatively pronounced high end which I find satisfactory. With noise cancelling on however, these headphones sound quite a bit better. The bass actually shows up and it's relatively good if still on the light side which again, if you really enjoy a lot of bass you won't enjoy these at all. The review I linked earlier said that the ANC70s also get brighter which I don't particularly agree with. I found that mainly the bass comes in and the overall sound of the headphones are louder with the noise cancelling on. This might be because of the almost absurdly high impedance on these headphones which leads to some odd behavior and quieter performance than expected with noise cancelling off. I'm not completely sure, but I would bet that the noise cancelling also acts as a sort of amp for the headphones which brings up the bass. Overall, the sound isn't super amazing but for $200 noise cancelling headphones they're still more than sufficient unless you like your bass.
The ANC7bs however are a much different story. Without noise cancelling on, they kind of sound pretty bad. They suffer from total tin-can syndrome where the bass is too strong and bloated and the mids are ultra-recessed. The highs are ok but not nearly good enough to punch through the thick bass texture. As with the ANC70s, the ANC7bs get louder when the noise cancelling is on. Interestingly though, the mids and highs are boosted more instead of the bass on the ANC70s. Still, the bass is a bit too strong and the mids are a bit too recessed for my tastes. However, for $130 you can certainly do worse in the sound quality department. More importantly they are noise cancelling which if that's what you're really looking for these make a good option if you don't want to spend the extra money on a pair of Bose noise cancelling headphones.
If I were to compare these headphones to others that I've reviewed, I would say that the ANC70s remind me somewhat of the Brainwavz B2s, good mids but lacking in bass. The B2s are definitely brighter though so it's not a perfect comparison. The ANC7bs remind me of the VModa Crossfade LPs in that they are more bassy than anything else but not so bad that I really hate the sound a la the JVC-HAFX1X. Honestly, if I were going to recommend one of these headphones as a pair of noise cancelling headphones, I would say go with the ANC7bs. They're cheaper and have better noise cancelling even though the sound is worse. Me personally, I like in ear headphones if I really want to block out sound but if that's not for you and you want active noise cancelling, the Audio Technica ATH-ANC7b headphones would be my choice as they provide adequate, though not spectacular sound, and pretty good noise cancelling for less than half the price of Bose's flagship QC15 headphones. If you want to spend the extra money on better sound, the ANC70s are definitely a viable option as well though.
--CsMiREK
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