The Sony WH-CH700N is an exceptional entry to the already established line of quality Sony headphones that provides both an excellent listening experience as well as being an affordable wireless and wired option. At its price point, it offers competitive sound quality, noise cancelling, voice control as well as hands free calling. It also supports several codecs for wireless operation including SBC, AAC, APTX and APTX HD. Furthermore, the WH-CH700N is extremely compact and lightweight, making them a perfect choice for traveling and prolonged use. Completing the feature rich packaging, the WH-CH700N also includes a micro USB cable for charging as well as a 3.5mm cable for wired operation. Opening the box for the first time, I was surprised to see how small and compact they were. Stored with the cups facing flat down, the left and right sides are able to partially swivel (roughly a little more than 90 degrees). Initially, I thought this might be bothersome but it is actually quite helpful as it allows you to position them accordingly to maximize comfort. Connectively, the cups can be slightly adjusted upwards or inwards towards your ears. As someone who listens to music on a regular basis, these are extremely comfortable and I was able to easily listen for a few hours without any discomfort. In addition, they fit relatively secure and did not fall off nor was I able work them loose. This was impressive as it is quite rare to find something comfortable yet snug so they will not fall off. As for the construction, the external portion of the headphone cups are plastic, though it felt solid and sturdy, but it did not feel cheap. Additionally, the black model has a slight granite appearance on the outside of the cups that enhances the aesthetic. The internal leather cups were soft and durable and provided quite a bit of cushion, including the top inside of the headphones. The adjustable band on both the left and right side was seemingly sturdy and with some force, I still could not bend the frame. At the top of the headband, however, there was some slight weakness, but overall the construction was solid. As for the operation controls, you will note familiar territory. On the bottom left cup resides the power button, the micro USB port for charging, the headphone jack, and lastly the noise cancellation button. Connectively, on the bottom right hand side, you will find the pause/play and track buttons as well as volume control for Bluetooth only (wired mode requires you to control volume on the specific device you use). Paring the headphones was quite simple and both my Xperia Z3+ and my Xperia Z4 tablet connected without any issue. As somewhat of a music enthusiast, I listen to a wide variety of music genres including Classical, World, Metal, Rock, Rap, Jazz, Latin, R&B, Trance, so naturally I was quite excited to test the WH-CH700N and see how it performs across multiple genres. All my files that I played are lossless FLAC files that I have made from my personal collection. They all have been aggressively analyzed with various audio software and spectrograms to verify that they are indeed in proper quality. Lastly, all sound altering settings were turned off and I tested both wired and wireless connections using my Xperia Z3+ as well as connecting it directly to my computer's SoundBlaster XZr. For software playback, I used MusicBee 2.4 using WASAPI mode for output. Overall, the WH-CH700N handed every genre relatively even, aside from perhaps some slight muddy places in some of my metal tracks. However, the longer I used them the sound seemingly improve; connectively, my ears adjusted to the sound as well. In addition, on Queen's "Bohemian Rhapsody" and Metallica's "Enter Sandman", I thought the headphones were consistent in reproducing a nice warm vocal clarity as well as instrument separation. As for more bass oriented genres such as Trance and some Rap, the bass was quite punchy and definitely rumbled more than I was expecting. On Eminem's "Stan", I was quite pleased with the bass reproduction. I do want to stress though to keep your bass expectations reasonable as this is not going to shatter windows, but nonetheless you should at least be able to feel it depending on the song. During more dynamic Hi-Res tracks (96 KHz/24 Bit), such as Sonny Rollin's "St. Thomas" or Schumann's "String Quartet In A Minor, Op 41" the middle and high sounds were clear and pronounced. I could easily make out each instrument of the quartet. The results were quite intimate. While testing in wired mode, I did notice that the headphones were able to work either with the headphones on or off. When they are on, the sound is amplified as noise cancelling headphones of what I assume is the AINC (Artificial Intelligence Noise Cancelling) feature. However, by holding down the noise cancelling button, the headphones chimed to notify it was off, but after a few seconds it would seemingly reactivate itself automatically as the music increased drastically in volume. I could not get it to stay off. This occurred on my computer as well as my phone, and it affected both wired and wireless modes. Nonetheless, it is not an issue or a complaint, as most will undoubtedly leave the AINC on, but merely an observation that one should be aware of. As for wireless operation, the sound results were excellent. For my wireless test, I left the codec to APTX to maximize the wireless transmission (despite it not being technically/mathematically full lossless) and left all sound enhancing features off. During wireless playback, I was pleasantly surprised about the volume level; at roughly half volume on my Xperia Z3+ everything was loud and clear. This is a huge plus as typically on some Bluetooth devices you usually end of having to max out the outgoing volume; definitely not the case here as I was thoroughly impressed. Musically, everything sounded clear and punchy as it had with wired mode; highs were reproduced quite well. For my personal listening experience, I usually always prefer a wired connection. However, I thoroughly enjoyed the ability to use the headphones as either wired or wireless. It is definitely a great advantage to have as you can switch back and forth depending on your needs. Overall, as far as sound goes, I am confident that almost everyone will be pleased with the results. Once again to reiterate, as a bit of caution since sound quality, generally speaking, is quite subjective from person to person, I strongly recommend to keep your expectations within reason. No complaints here. For a noise cancelling test, I wanted to see if I could detect a difference depending on the environment. While listening indoors, the WH-CH700N did a fairly decent job of isolating out the noise from several TVs as well as conversations without even turning the noise cancelling on. Moving outside, while the wind was quite breezy, I still could not fully distinguish between toggling manual noise cancelling on or off. During a hands free call outside, my conversation was clear and I could hear the other person without any issue nor could they hear the wind. As part of a worst case scenario, while in the passenger seat of our car with the window rolled down, I again tried to see I could discern any differences between the noise cancelling but to no avail. I still heard the wind whipping around me on both settings, but it never distracted me from the music. Overall, I do not have any complaints as I thought it did a decent job, despite still hearing the wind from the car test. For most environments, they are more than adequate. Lastly, I would like to mention some features of the Sony Headphones connect application as there are several features worth noting. First and foremost, the application allows you monitor the Bluetooth battery which I found quite helpful. It also shows next to the battery symbol which current codec you are currently using. Furthermore, you can also change the codec setting by preferring quality (APTX) or prioritize the connection (SBC). Strangely, for some reason, Sony's LDAC codec is not supported on these headphones. In addition to codecs, you can change the sound altering features that I mentioned earlier such as the equalizer or the Virtualphones technology (VPT) for different effects. However, both the equalizer and VPT effects can only be used as long as the prioritize connection is selected (SBC). Lastly, the equalizer has 11 different presets including the familiar treble and bass booster or vocal and custom settings. The VPT has 4 different ones including arena, club, outdoor stage, or concert hall. You can also toggle the DSSE setting on or off, which is supposed to dynamically restore missing sound that is erased with lossy encoded music. In conclusion, the WH-CH700N noise canceling headphones provided an excellent listening experience, enhanced by both its ability to be used either wired or wireless. While I am disappointed in Sony's decision not to include their LDAC codec, the WH-CH700N nonetheless still supports a wide range of codec choices for wireless operation. Furthermore, other features such as noise cancelling and hands free calling, in combination with its sleek and sturdy construction, solidifies its value and overall performance. At a relative reasonable price point, the sound quality was excellent and they were extremely comfortable. Given Sony's audio reputation over the decades, I have no doubt that most will be pleased with the WH-CH700N. It is definitely worth a listen. Highly Recommended.