Sony's reasonably affordable wireless Bluetooth noise-cancelling CH700N headphones offer great quality audio with a flat frequency curve and incredible battery life in a solid, comfortable package and could well be the best headphones for you.
Sony has a long history of popular headphones but I was somewhat hesitant to purchase one myself as I had dreaded a bass-heavy audio experience lacking in real quality; luckily, I took the leap on the relatively affordable CH700N's for their supreme comfort and subsequently found an excellent pair of headphones in almost every respect.
Design
The Sony CH700N's with their large circular circumaural design and thick, soft earpads are extremely comfortable, even for extended listening sessions; much more comfortable than any of the equivalently-priced competition that I was able to test which typically had narrow, uncomfortable ‘ear holes' which would only fit the very small-eared (I have average-sized ears).
The overall mostly-plastic build quality leaves a bit to be desired even if it looks pretty decent, and while I expect the CH700N's to hold up fine from standard use, they do exhibit a small bit of creaking and do slightly worryingly feel like they could snap if handled particularly roughly. I personally elected for an extended warranty just in case, but I wouldn't hold the build quality against the headphones unless you plan to really attack them.
The CH700N's have a pretty large range of extension and should fit just about anybody's head; they fit mine just fine with room to spare and I have a particularly large cranium. They also have a decently strong clamping force but I'm not sure I'd trust them to stay on during a particularly powerful sprint; they stay on perfectly fine for jogging though.
One small gripe I do have with the CH700N's is that they do not fold; instead, the earcups can only rotate to flat (the wrong way with the left earcup on the right, annoyingly) which is somewhat useful but certainly not as functional. Far from a dealbreaker, but the lack of folding hurts overall compactness and contributes to my slight misgivings about durability and the potential snappage. The CH700N's also do not come with a case, so you'll need to find one on eBay ($5).
The CH700N's have a fairly large array of buttons/ports along the rims of the earcups which I find to overall be a better placement than on the outside like other headphones. With a power button, microUSB, 3.5mm headphone jack, and noise-canceling button on the left earcup and a play/pause/skip/rewind button/slider and volume rocker on the right, the CH700N's are certainly not lacking in features. I did find that I would often accidentally press the power button when moving the headphones on my head though, which just requires me to alter how I grip them. There's also a perfectly functional NFC reader for easy pairing on the left earcup which was indeed easy to pair.
Overall, I'd say the design of the Sony CH700N's is the weakest point of the headphones – not to say that it is bad or even anything less than fine, but apart from comfort, the competition generally offers sturdier builds with greater flexibility at this price.
Performace
Now we come to the area where the Sony CH700N's shine; performance, and in almost all aspects the headphones perform excellently.
Starting with the all-important audio quality and the CH700N's offer a rare flat response rate allowing users to enjoy music as it was intended to be heard, which combines with the rather large drivers to be very enjoyable to listen to – even if they aren't audiophile tier (which you can't expect at this price of course). I'd say at the CH700N's at least on-par with the industry-staple Sennheiser HD280's on the audio front. I also found the maximum volume to be enough for my usage, however I could see some use cases where they may not be loud enough – a problem the noise-cancelling unfortunately cannot really help…
Yes, noise-cancelling. The CH700N's offer the feature much like a good portion of their price competition, however like much of that competition it is not particularly powerful and thus not particularly useful. In my brief testing, NC only reduced outside noise by a few decibels. Fortunately the aforementioned circumaural design provides much in the way of natural noise cancellation; I was able to mow my lawn with the extremely loud motor being reduced to only barely audible.
To connectivity, and the CH700N's appear to live up to their specifications with an excellent wireless range of a good few dozen metres (hundred feet) in a clear environment, and at least a single dozen in a more realistic indoor setting. I did, however, notice some severe connection issues when in a heavily-blanketed wireless area like my university – a near-unavoidable issue for most wireless devices – though I did find switching my phone to my left pocket fixed this issue almost entirely; I must thus assume the wireless modem is in the left earcup.
The CH700N's also offer the ability to remap the noise-cancelling button to instead be a Google Assistant button, tethered to your phone, with a tap reading a summary of weather and events (and notifications if you choose) while a long press will query anything said while held down. The Google Assistant feature works fine, though it's a shame you can't have it enabled alongside noise-cancelling for those who would want both.
And now to the CH700N's absolute standout feature – their supreme battery life. I have owned the headphones for a month at this point, having bought them with 70% battery remaining, and at this point after around 20 hours of usage, they're still on 40%! The CH700N's are officially rated for 35 hours of battery with noise-canceling enabled and 40 hours without, but based on my usage I wouldn't be surprised if they last upwards of 60 hours at moderate volume levels. Quite the feat, and significantly more than any of its competitors, to my knowledge.
Closing
While they are by no means some mind-blowing pair of headphones, the Sony CH700N's are certainly a solid audio offering, with great audio and stellar battery life in a comfortable and attractive, if not outstanding physical package; and at ~$150US/$200AU they present a strong argument for your consideration and may well be the best option for many buyers.
