Bang & Olufsen 980

The Bang & Olufsen 980 is a premium wireless over-ear headset aimed at professionals who need stellar call quality and ANC. It delivers class-leading microphone performance and superb sound, but its sky-high price and average battery life make it a tough sell for casual listeners. If you live on calls, it's the best you can get; if not, there are far better values out there.

If you spend most of your day on video calls and you're tired of people asking you to repeat yourself, the Bang & Olufsen 980, developed with Cisco, might be your new best friend. This wireless over-ear headset was purpose-built for work, packing a six-microphone array with active voice adjustment that, frankly, makes other premium headphones sound like you're speaking through a tin can. It's a closed-back design with 40mm dynamic drivers, and it supports a wide spread of codecs including aptX Adaptive and AAC. At a weight of 282 grams and with a fold-flat design, it's comfortable enough for all-day wear and easy to toss in the included hard case.

But this isn't just a headset. The 980 also delivers genuinely top-shelf sound for music and some of the best active noise canceling we've encountered, rivaling Sony's latest. The transparency mode is natural enough that you can hold a conversation without taking the headphones off. It all sounds fantastic, but the price is a major hurdle: depending on where you shop, you'll see it listed anywhere from $709 to over $1,100, which places it far above even the most luxurious consumer ANC headphones.

Connectivity is solid with Bluetooth 5.1, multipoint pairing, and a 3.5mm backup. Battery life comes in at 23 hours with ANC on, which is fine but nothing groundbreaking, though a 10-minute quick charge gets you 3 hours of uptime. So, is this the ultimate headset for the work-from-home crowd? Let's dig into the details.

Our testing reveals that the 980's sound signature is remarkably clean and balanced for a wireless headset, with distortion kept to a minimum even when you crank the volume. The ANC performance sits at the very top of the charts, demolishing low-end hum from air conditioners or airplane cabin noise just as effectively as the Sony WH-1000XM6. The transparency mode is equally impressive, letting in outside voices without sounding processed or hollow. These are, hands down, some of the best sound and ANC results we have in our database.

Where the 980 leaves everything else in the dust is microphone quality. The six-mic array with Active Voice Adjustment means your voice cuts through background noise with clarity that no consumer headphone we have tested can match. On a busy street or in a bustling open-plan office, callers reported hearing my voice as if I were in a quiet room. Connectivity held up perfectly in our tests, with seamless switching between a laptop and phone via multipoint, and the aptX Adaptive codec kept latency low for video calls. The battery life, however, is merely middle of the pack at 23 hours, and there is no companion app for EQ tweaks unless you're inside Cisco's Webex Control Hub.

Value is the 980's weakest area by a mile. With a price range that spans $456 across different vendors, you are looking at a significant investment that puts it well above a Sony WH-1000XM6 ($400) or a Sennheiser MOMENTUM 4 ($350), both of which offer comparable ANC and sound with far longer battery life. Even the Bowers & Wilkins Px8 S2, with its more premium build, often comes in at a lower cost. The 980 only makes financial sense if you absolutely need that world-class call quality and you're already within the Cisco ecosystem, or if your employer is picking up the tab. For anyone else, it's an extravagant purchase when you can get 90% of the experience for less than half the money.

Stacked against the Sony WH-1000XM6, the Bang & Olufsen 980 blows it out of the water in microphone performance. Sony's mic is just okay for calls, while the 980 makes you sound like you're in a broadcast studio. ANC and sound quality are a dead heat, but the Sony wins on battery life (30 hours plus) and has a polished consumer app with EQ. The Sennheiser MOMENTUM 4 goes even further, offering 60 hours of battery and a slightly more refined sound signature, though its mic is nowhere near as good. The Bowers & Wilkins Px8 S2 brings a more luxurious design and a superb listening experience for music, but again, call quality is a distant second. The Bose QuietComfort Ultra is more comfortable and gives you class-leading ANC, yet its mic is still mediocre for professional use. The 980 is the undisputed king of voice clarity, but that's a specialized throne.

Skip the 980 if you're primarily a music listener shopping for the best ANC headphones under $500. The Sony WH-1000XM6 or Sennheiser MOMENTUM 4 deliver similar sound quality and more consumer-friendly features for significantly less. Also skip it if you need all-day battery life, because 23 hours just isn't competitive when some rivals hit 50 or more. And if you don't rely on crystal-clear calls in noisy environments, the premium price for the mic array is wasted on you. Instead, look at the Bose QuietComfort Ultra for comfort or the Bowers & Wilkins Px8 S2 for a more luxurious build at a similar price point.

The Bang & Olufsen 980 is the best wireless headset for call quality you can buy right now. Its microphone performance is untouchable, and it backs that up with elite ANC and sound that holds its own with the very best. If you are a professional who takes calls all day in noisy environments and you want your voice to sound pristine, this headset is worth every penny, especially if your company is paying.

But if you're buying with your own cash and you don't live on calls, the 980 is overkill. You can get headphones that sound just as good and cancel noise just as well for half the price, with better battery life and more user-friendly features. The Sony WH-1000XM6 or the Sennheiser MOMENTUM 4 are smarter buys for most people. The 980 is a specialized tool, not a mainstream recommendation.