Title: A headphone for work and travel
Date: 2017-11-02 16:30

I'm currently living in a big city, and working in an open-plan,
so I wanted a nice headphone to <s>cancel the ambiant noise</s>
enjoy my music, but the plot twist is that I still need to hear when my
colleagues are <s>yelling at me because I broke something on production</s>
kindly speaking to me. It would also be nice if it could be small.

To sum up, I was looking for a headphone:

- with [active noise cancellation](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Active_noise_control) (also known as ANC),
  to be able to work in silence, and to refrain my desire to bomb the
  public transportations system everytime I'm using it;
- small enough to be carried away everywhere without taking all the place in my
  bag;
- with a sound as *neutral* as possible: I don't like when my audio equipment is tweaking stuff
  on its own;
- that could still be usable with an empty battery (if it comes with one).

[Bose](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bose_Corporation) is known to be the
go-to player when it comes to *ANC*, with their
[QuitComfort 25](https://www.bose.com/en_us/products/headphones/over_ear_headphones/quietcomfort-25-acoustic-noise-cancelling-headphones-apple-devices.html),
unfortunately, 300EUR is super-expensive, the sound is way too warm for me
(Classical music and metal tend to sound groovy with it.), and it was a bit
too bulky to match the "please don't fill my bag" criteria.

I then tried the [Plantronics BackBeat Pro](https://www.poly.com/us/en/support/product/backbeat-pro),
because of their nice review on *[les
numériques](http://www.lesnumeriques.com/casque-audio/plantronics-backbeat-pro-p21897/avis.html)*
but despite being way cheaper (150EUR) and with a lot of fun features
(like pausing the music and activating the *ANC* upon phone calls ♥),
it was way too big (and heavy!) to wear all day-long.

![Picture of the akg n60]({static}/images/akg_n60.png)

I finally gave a try to the [n60](http://us.akg.com/all-headphones/on-ear/N60+NC.html)
from [AKG](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AKG_Acoustics), a small,
foldable headphone, with active-noise cancellation, for less
than 200EUR: love at first sight! Sufficiently small to be carried in my pocket,
lightweight (150g) enough to be forgotten once wore,
comfortable even for a glass-bearer like me, its sound is super-precise: you'll
hear when a track is ill-mixed, the battery for the *ANC* leasts at least 30
hours (you can still use it when the battery is empty), …

A minor downside is that the *ANC* produces a small distortion,
but every headphone that I tried had one,
and it's strictly better than having to endure the noise around you.

I have mine since a bit more than a year, using it on a daily basis, 9 hours a
day, and it's still looking brand new: not a single scratch, no vanishing foam,
even the cable looks great. I wholeheartedly recommend it.

**edit** *(2018-06-30)*: The cord got a bad contact, cutting all the mediums,
so I had to buy a new one. Careful, it's a jack `3.5` to `2.5`, with 4 stripes,
not the usual 3 ones.