Sennheiser PXC 550-II Wireless Headphones Review

The Sennheiser PXC 550-II are over-ear wireless headphones with a fairly sleek and understated style. They look identical to the Sennheiser PXC 550, though they're now all black with no silver accents. They're made with high-quality materials that give them a premium, high-end look.

The Sennheiser PXC 550-II Wireless are quite comfortable over-ears. They have the same great padding as the PXC 550, with fairly small ear cups that should still be large enough to comfortably fit most people. Unfortunately, though the headband is heavily cushioned and comfortable, it doesn't extend too far, so these headphones may not fit all head sizes and shapes.

The touch-sensitive control scheme of the PXC 550-II is great. It's quite intuitive and easy-to-use and lets you adjust volume, skip tracks, turn on/off talk-through, and pause/play music or answer/hang up phone calls. The Bluetooth button pulls up your phone's assistant, and there's a dedicated slider to choose from the 3 levels of ANC: off, user mode, and max.

The Sennheiser PXC 550-II Wireless have decent breathability, especially for closed-back over-ear headphones. They may cause you to sweat more than usual but will keep your ears cooler than most other over-ear headphones, making them decent for lighter workouts.

The Sennheiser PXC 550-II are decently portable. They're mid-sized over-ear headphones that can fold one ear cup in at a time. They can lay flat, and come with a hard case to protect them in a bag.

The Sennheiser PXC 550-II come with the same case as the first generation. It's a decent soft case that should protect your headphones from light water exposure but probably won't do much for harder falls or drops.

Like the first generation, the Sennheiser PXC 550-II have a good build quality and they feel quite solid. They're made of dense plastic, and the headband is reinforced by a thin metal frame. Overall, they should be able to withstand a few accidental drops and bumps without too much damage.

The Sennheiser PXC 550-II are quite stable and shouldn't easily fall off your head. They're just as stable as the first generation and are some of the best over-ear headphones for working out we've tested. While they may not be stable enough for more intense workouts, you should be able to jog with them without them swaying too much or falling off.

• Sennheiser PXC 550-II headphones
• 1/16" to 1/8" TRRS audio cable
• Airline adapter
• Carrying case
• Micro-USB charging cable
• Manuals

The sound profile of the Sennheiser PXC 550-II is bright and well-balanced and should be well-suited for most genres of music and content like podcasts and audiobooks. Unfortunately, the treble range isn't as well-balanced as bass and mid, which may cause vocals to be lacking in detail, and produce slightly harsh and piercing sibilants (S and T sounds).

The frequency response consistency of the Sennheiser PXC 550-II is decent. They're fairly consistent in the bass range, but their treble delivery is sensitive to the fit and positioning of these headphones on the head. This means that different people may experience their treble reproduction differently.

The bass response of the Sennheiser PXC 550-II is excellent and very well-balanced. While they won't provide head-rattling bass, they will produce just the right amount of thump and rumble. Overall, their bass is deep, well-balanced, and punchy, without sounding muddy or boomy.

The mid-range response of the Sennheiser PXC 550-II is very accurate. Low-mid and mid-mid follow the neutral curve almost perfectly, meaning lead instruments should sound detailed and present. In high-mid, our right driver dipped, though this result may not occur on all units, and overall, vocals should still stay present and sound detailed as well.

The treble accuracy of the Sennheiser PXC 550-II is decent. Vocals may be slightly lacking detail, and cymbals and sibilants (S and T sounds) may sound harsh and piercing.

The peaks and dips performance of the Sennheiser PXC 550-II is decent. The most noticeable peaks/dips are in the treble range, which unfortunately is quite uneven. The dips in low-treble will result in some detail being lost from vocals, whereas the peaks in mid-treble will cause cymbals and sibilants (S and T sounds) to sound harsh and piercing.

The imaging performance of the Sennheiser PXC 550-II is great. The group delay is below the audibility threshold for almost the entire range, although it does cross it in low-bass, suggesting that the sub-bass may be a bit loose. Our L/R drivers also have a slight frequency mismatch, though this may not be noticeable. It's worth noting that these results are only valid for our unit and yours may perform differently.

The Sennheiser PXC 550-II have a poor soundstage. There's not much pinna activation, and the closed-back design sounds less open than open-back headphones. The soundstage will likely sound fairly small and unnatural, and be inside the listener's head as opposed to in front.

The Sennheiser PXC 550-II's weighted harmonic distortion performance is good. All frequencies fall within acceptable limits, which should result in a clear and pure audio reproduction.

The Sennheiser PXC 550-II have great noise isolation performance, and their ANC feature works much better than the PXC 550. They do a good job at blocking the low rumble of plane and bus engines, and an excellent job blocking background speech. This means they'll be a great choice for your daily commute or to block out chatty coworkers in the office.

The Sennheiser PXC 550-II have decent leakage performance. Most of the leakage will be from high frequencies and therefore will sound quite thin. Even at higher volumes, the amount of leakage is around the same as the noise floor of most offices. As long as you don't blast your music in very quiet environments, you shouldn't bother those around you.

The recording quality of the microphone is decent. Speech transmitted or recorded sounds reasonably full and understandable and shouldn't be too muffled.

The microphone is decent at handling noise. Like most Bluetooth headphones, the microphone will have a hard time separating your voice from background sounds, even in moderately noisy environments.

Update 06/17/2020: We've retested these headphones for passive playback and fixed the review as they do work passively. This review has been updated to reflect these changes.

The Sennheiser PXC 550-II have excellent battery performance. Their total battery life of over 21 hours means that they should easily last you a few days without you having to worry about charging them. They have an optional smart pause to pause your music when you remove the headphones and also go into a standby mode after 5 minutes without a Bluetooth connection. To turn off the headphones completely, you simply fold the ear cups flat. It's worth noting that while our test unit fully charged in under 1.5 hours, they're advertised as taking three hours to charge.

Update 03/06/2020: We had incorrectly stated there were no EQ settings available. There are indeed a few EQ presets, but no customizable graphic or parametric EQ. The text has been updated.

The dedicated companion app for the Sennheiser PXC 550-II is acceptable. Besides providing ANC adjustment, it only has a few EQ presets and room effects, unlike the Sennheiser Momentum 3 Wireless which have a full parametric EQ. On the upside, it's available on both iOS and Android.

The Sennheiser PXC 550-II are Bluetooth headphones that support aptX(LL) for low-latency connections. While their default latency is decent, their aptX(LL) latency is quite good and should result in barely noticeable audio lag, assuming your device supports this codec.

These headphones are Bluetooth-only for their wireless connection.

Update 01/09/2020: Our wired latency test for the PXC 550 was incorrectly done with the analog audio connection and has since been retested with the USB connection with an updated score. However, the PXC 550-II was done with the USB connection and the score remains unchanged.

The Sennheiser PXC 550-II can be used wired with the included 1/16" to 1/8" TRRS cable if your device has a headphone port. They also can carry audio and charge through USB when connected to a PC.

These headphones can be used for both audio and microphone with PS4 when wired into the controller via the included TRRS cable. However, in our tests, this enabled talk-through on the headphones and couldn't be turned off, which could be irritating. On PC, we didn't have this problem. This doesn't appear to be an issue if you connect the headphones directly to your PS4 console with USB.

While you can plug these headphones into an Xbox One controller using the supplied TRRS cable, this only worked for audio in our tests and we couldn't get the microphone to work.

These headphones don't have a base or dock.