Sub-$150 ANC over-ears where the mic does not suck on calls?
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. Requirements: over-ear, real multipoint, mic that handles background noise. Budget hard cap $150. Debating 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?
2 answers
- Refurb Sony WH-1000XM4. Skip new budget pairs.
New sub-$100 ANC pairs all have the same problem. Tiny mic arrays. Fine in a quiet room. Useless with background noise. Sony 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.
- Try the refurb QC45 — the mic won the call test for me
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. One 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.