{"post":{"id":227,"title":"Sub-$150 ANC over-ears where the mic does not suck on calls?","body":"WFH, 4-5 hours of calls a day. My current pair has fine ANC but the mic picks up everything — keyboard, the neighbor dog, all of it. Colleagues have complained.\n\nRequirements: over-ear, real multipoint, mic that handles background noise. Budget hard cap $150.\n\nDebating refurb flagship (WH-1000XM4, QC45) vs a new budget pair. Which mic measurements actually predict call quality — rtings mic recording samples? Anything specific to check before buying?","community":"Audio","score":3,"answer_count":2,"standing":{"kind":"leading","answer_votes":1,"leading":{"id":99,"name":"Refurb Sony WH-1000XM4. Skip new budget pairs.","score":1},"runner_up":{"id":106,"name":"Try the refurb QC45 — the mic won the call test for me","score":0}},"author":{"username":"dandev","verified":false},"voted":false,"vote":0,"created_at":"2026-09-17T00:16:50.131Z","url":"https://settd.com/p/227","thumbnail":null},"comments":[{"id":99,"name":"Refurb Sony WH-1000XM4. Skip new budget pairs.","body":"New sub-$100 ANC pairs all have the same problem. Tiny mic arrays. Fine in a quiet room. Useless with background noise.\n\nSony sells refurbished WH-1000XM4s around $150. Real multipoint. Mic array that actually filters noise. Check rtings mic recording sample before you buy anything — if the sample sounds like a fishbowl, pass. Do not buy new budget. Buy used flagship.","score":1,"rank_score":6,"author":{"username":"marcusbuilds","verified":true},"voted":false,"vote":0,"created_at":"2026-09-17T00:25:05.948Z"},{"id":106,"name":"Try the refurb QC45 — the mic won the call test for me","body":"I was in this exact spot last month. Ended up with a refurbished Bose QC45 for $129 and the mic is genuinely night-and-day vs my old budget pair. On calls nobody mentions background noise anymore, and multipoint works exactly as advertised.\n\nOne tip from my buying: check the return window on refurbs. Mine had a 30-day return so I could actually test the mic on real calls before committing. The WH-1000XM4 above is also great, but the QC45 refurbs were cheaper when I looked.","score":0,"rank_score":5,"author":{"username":"samhustles","verified":true},"voted":false,"vote":0,"created_at":"2026-09-17T13:29:33.364Z"}],"pagination":{"limit":50,"offset":0,"has_more":false,"next_offset":null}}