Sennheiser Conversation Clear 17+

All the right pieces, but the whole falls short

These earphones have a nasty constraint in Streaming mode: unlike normal ANC earphones, you *cannot* adjust the music volume while fully silencing the outside world. Instead, this app forces you to choose a balance between music and world volume — it intercepts the iPhone’s volume buttons to control the balance slider (shown in the second screenshot at the time of this review). If you’re taking a walk, flying, riding transit, etc… either the music is going to be SO LOUD IT HURTS while you completely block out the noise, or you’ll have to put up with varying amounts of unnecessary noise. Also expect some occasional Bluetooth dropouts if you turn your head to one side.

It’s really a shame. The ANC works great in “Relax” mode, and they’re pretty good for conversational use. I found it a bit uncomfortable to press the buttons on the earbuds while they were in my ears, but not horrible. They did a decent job of bringing particular voices to the forefront. Not quite as good as my (much older and discontinued) Bose Hearphones did, but better than my (far less expensive) AirPods Pro 2 in Conversation Enhancing mode.

I sadly ended up returning mine to Sennheiser. I really wanted to like them, but for the high price, I couldn’t look past the shortcomings. I’d absolutely consider purchasing a version 2 if they address these problems, though.