Good enough for the Subway
I’ve said this before. The Subway is my ultimate litmus test of ANC. If I can be on the phone or listen to a podcast on the platform with trains passing by, the ANC has got to be decent. The Ult Wear exceeded my expectations of $200 headphones. I wouldn’t have been disappointed if these were half as good as Sony’s $400 cans, but they pleasantly surprised me. I could clearly make out every word of my podcast and easily took multiple calls on the platform. The sound of the trains’ engines and station announcements were around 80% muted. Unlike the XM5, I could still tell I was at a train station, though.
On the streets, they silenced a thunderous construction site, the siren of a fire truck that most headphones cannot mute, and every car horn. I mostly turned the ambient mode on in the streets, which allowed me to stay in touch with my surroundings. Sony claims that you can have around 30 hours of battery life with ANC turned on and 50 hours when it’s off.
