PanasonicLightweight Over The Ear Wired Headphones with Microphone, Sound and XBS for Extra Bass, Long Cord, 3.5mm Jack for Phones and Laptops – RP-HT161M (Black)

As someone who spends throughout the day in Web meetings, a comfortable and long lasting headphone is a must. I've tried many, including earbuds and have come to appreciate this one. What I like:- Comfort: When you sometimes spends hours in Web meetings, on-ear headphones becomes really painful. Over-the-ear also shuts out outside sounds better than on-ear.- Wired: I don't have to worry about running out of charge like earbuds and wireless headphones. The sound quality is also guaranteed to be consistent over wireless.- Inexpensive: At this price-point, I can easily buy another one if it gets broken (usually from me stepping on them).- Sound quality: The meeting participants couldn't really differentiate the sound quality with likes of Bose. NOTE: The results may be different when using for other than Web meetings where sound quality is critical.- 3.5mm Jack: This is the gold standard for sound. I've had USB-based headphones and had issues with the USB-driver. Fortunately, all 4 laptops I own (3 Lenovo Windows & Macbook Air M2) have 3.5mm port.- Brand: Panasonic is not a fly-by-night and they're known to product quality products.

Who would have thought that my search for the most comfortable pair of headphones would lead me to these? I sure didn't.I have tried, and still own, in ear "bud" headphones, behind the neck in-ear headphones, medium cup sized over-ear headphones, and huge over-ear closed style headphones. All have their perks, and unfortunately negatives too.The in-ear type of headphones would actually cause me physical pain only shortly after wearing them. The little ones, buds, with the little suction type end piece hurt the most. And the portable factor was dismissible once I realized I had to fight to untangle them each time I wanted to use them. The around the neck in-ear headphones, but no "suction cup", would typically yield better results in regards to the length of time before pain commenced. They still hurt after some time, and because the pressure of the band was suppose keep them on your head they weren't very practical for quickly taking off. This also made having them around your neck uncomfortable.Moving on I then tried headphones with over-ear designs. I ended my search with my Audio-technica monitor headphones (ATH-A700). I love them, for the most part. Audio quality is superb, and the comfort of the band is great, as the wing design fits to your head. They have a closed back design so it helps keep outside noise at a reduced level. These positives unfortunately came with some big negatives though. One, obviously, they are not very portable, and much less practical to use in public. Secondly, due to me spending large amounts of time using headphones for work, school, and hobbies, My neck would start to ache. The sheer weight of the headphones was actually causing pain in my neck around my shoulder area. Keep in mind, I was wearing them for close to 5-8 hours straight, so I'm not knocking the ATH-A700s, I still love them.Now the Panasonic RP-HT21. I was doing my normal shopping on amazon when I decided to throw these headphones into my cart as an add on item. I thought to myself,"What the heck, why not? Would be nice to have a pair I could throw around, travel with. They have to be super light by the looks of them, which has a bunch of benefits in itself. They look like the headphones I had in the 90s though, so there's a chance they sound like crap. I mean it's been close to two decades, technology of headphones has to have drastically changed. Ah, for the money, its worth a shot."Got them, opened, popped into my clip+, hit play. Simply put, I love them. These headphones have obviously exceeded my expectations. They are light, audio quality is good, and the form factor is perfect for traveling and using in public. The biggest plus to these headphones is that they are extremely comfortable, and I mean they are almost "not there" comfortable. Not to mention, the price is fantastic.I will be buying probably around 2-3 more pairs, so I have backups, and a couple to tinker on. I'm thinking of adding a Rean plug and maybe some braided cord, just for fun not because it's needed.

These sound great. They're indeed very light weight. They have a gentle fit so don't hurt your ears squeezing them against the sides of your head etc. They're a lot like the old time Sony Walkman style headphones that came with those little cassette players.They're probably fairly durable, but I wear these for hours every single day. I buy 3 or so at a time and unbox the next one when I finish the one I'm wearing off. The quickest I've ever finished one off was around 3 weeks, but they usually last 4 months or so.The bass is there, but not overpowering. It's just right, not too much mid, and not too much high. I'm blind so my computer is talking to me constantly when I'm using it. I'm also profoundly deaf, so wear behind the ear hearing aids. These fit well against the aids if I turn them around backward. The downside to that is the stereo field is reversed. The flat pads on these don't try to wrap around your ear or cancel out environmental sound. They are very gentle in terms of causing hearing aids to experience feedback. I can wear them for many hours without getting tired of having them on. They don't press the backs of my ear against the aid and produce sore spots and the like.The cable is not overly thick, not ridiculously thin either - probably just about right for the price. The plug is an l shaped, sticks out of your device about 1 cm before the 90 degree turn, then the sleeve ends 7/8th of an inch. The wire splits about 14 inches from the earphones with a little plastic gizmo that does not slide up or down. It sends one wire to each earphone.The earphones are on a slide thing that's in the headband, you can slide them out for a bigger head. I always keep them all the way slid in, that's the best fit for my hearing aids. All the way slid in, worn backward with the headband tilted way forward and nearly on my forehead. If it sounds weird it's because it is, but it works, and works for many hours every day.If I want to complain, it would be that I kind of wish they had a straight plug, with a short jacket on it, and I wish they had an integrated decent quality microphone. I've driven myself crazy trying to find a headset that looks sort of like these do, has flat pads, sounds ok, will sit on my hearing aids, etc, etc, while having a microphone that, a: doesn't have a short and allow the person on the other end to hear my computer talking as though it's actually their computer talking, even though I'm freaking wearing headphones, and b: refuse to sound decent.The most common failure point for these have been one or the other of the earphones will become quieter. Once or twice one will completely stop working and I can affect it by pushing the cord up into the bottom of that earphone, but usually it just grows quieter. This is most often after a few hundred hours of usage though, and I'm not disappointed. For the price, I honestly don't think these can be beat in terms of durability and sound quality. They're above average any way I slice it for sound quality. They won't hold up against Bowse and the like but they're quite impressive anyhow.

These phones are an excellent quality. I compared them to me Bose wireless and they compared very well when listening to lively organ music, in particular "Emperor's Fanfare" by Soler, played on the church organ in Santanyi Spain by Paul Fey. That combo is my gold standard for audio evaluations. The Bose had better bass response, of course, but these earphones didn't leave you wishing you had upgraded. A very good headphone unless you are an audio professional, which I am decidedly not. I have no reservations about this purchase. Go for it.