I loved mine but the membranes aged quickly

They are designed to be repairable, but iirc the parts cost enough to make it hard to justify repairing over just buying a new pair

These are basically the lowest price good headphones worth actually getting. They're the Toyota Corolla of headphones.

I have a similar approach. Keep the headphones basic for repairs. I have a fiio Bluetooth receiver and a Zen DAC at my desk. I then have a series of custom made cables for different headphones and jacks (balanced 4.4mm, stereo 3.5mm and balanced 2.5mm).

I can run any headphones with this setup, I might need a new cable made up depending on what pair I next buy.

Had an XM3 and now an XM5, these are top notch head phones indeed!

I'm still on my xm2 from almost a decade ago, if that helps anyone with the decision. Just had to buy new earpads from AliExpress a few years ago.

They're a little bassy and have that proprietary app. Good contender for wireless headphones though, but a cheaper wired will outperform instantly

I second the Beyerdynamic. I have the DT 770 myself, bought them 15 years ago and still going strong. I'd expect these to be the last pair of headphones I'll ever need. Mine are however fully closed, which can lead to hot ears. They are super comfy and I get cold ears quickly, so I prefer them. I also really like the sound isolation and the sound quality is absolutely perfect.

A friend of mine has the DT 990 which are open backed, so they don't suffer as much from hot ears. However the sound quality can be a bit worse as they have less isolation. It's a bit of a trade off, both have excellent sound and in a quiet room there is no difference. So it's just preference really.

Agree. There are some things that annoy me but my QC35 II are the most comfortable headphones I've ever had. I don't like anything touching my ears and I am very very sensitive to pressure, so if this matters to you then look at the quiet comforts.

I completely agree with this. If I want noise cancellation, the quiet comforts are good, I am mostly playing music to mask sounds anyway, so the main exception is comfort, non-obtrusive sound, and good ANC. I also use them on flights, for podcasts when awake or background music when trying to sleep- so again, sound quality is secondary. My only problem with them is the faux leather cover of the ear cup flakes easily, needs replacing about every 2 years. For listening to music at home, I use open headphones.

Adding another +1 from personal experience.

I’ve happily used the same wired, over-ear Sennheisers as my daily drivers for 15 years, but tried switching over to Sennheiser’s wireless noise-canceling line a few years ago. Horrible mistake: the sound quality was acceptable but the firmware, the fit, and the ANC were atrocious.

Couldn’t believe the two products were made by the same company.

What is the Bose sound?

I have a pair of QC 35’s that i bought in 2015 that still work. They’re at the end of their third battery and just had their 5th set of ear cups.

ANC no longer works.

I really like my QC35, but man these components are not built to last. I’ve had to replace my ear cushions and cable a few times now to the point where I wonder if I should be looking at other options. I respect that you can replace individual parts but I never have had issues like this with the ATH-M50 for instance.

I was gonna recommend the same. Have been using them for 2 month and absolutely love them.

I've had a Momentum 4 and a WH-1000XM5.

I was not happy with the Momentum, and can't recommend it. I initially had some kind of connectivity problems with Linux. Then, it had a tendency to l cut out, which I eventually discovered was a problem with the infrared sensor in one cup used to detect whether you've taken the hesdphones off. When it fogs up with condensed sweat, apparently not enough IR light gets through and it thinks that you've taken the headphones off. I disabled that feature with the Android app. Then some problem came up where when moved slightly, it would play back loud, high-frequency "squeaky" sounds. Some sort of problem with the noise-cancelling setup. Oh, and I had problems with bumping the side triggering touch controls.

The XM5 was fine for me when used as headphones---and better noise cancellation than the Momentum 4. But when used as a headset, sometimes, especially when resting my head against a chair, the other party would say that I suddenly became muffled.

I currently use it as headphones, but pair it with a USB lapel mic when I need a mic.

I think those are usb only :(

I second these as well

8 Years. They just posted about them 2 years ago...