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It is a DELIGHT to write this review of the Jabra Elite 85h Wireless Noise-Canceling Headphones. First things first, who am I and what are my qualifications?

Well thank you for asking... I have been in the broadcasting industry since 1986. I have used headphones on my job for roughly 5+ hours a day, 240+ days per year for over 30 years. I have used a variety of headphones, although I've tended to find something I liked and stuck with it so perhaps my list isn't as long as you might expect. I think it is safe to say that I have some experience with headphones.

That doesn't necessarily make me an expert though, because there are lots of different kinds of headphones for different jobs. But I think that I'm - at the very least - a knowledgeable professional.

TL;DR The short version: THE JABRA 85h HEADPHONES ARE WORTH EVERY PENNY OF THEIR PRICE AND SOUND AMAZING!

So lets talk about the Jabra 85h headphones. Let's start with the price. These are not budget headphones and they don't pretend to be budget headphones. If you are looking to save money, you are in the wrong place. If you are looking for great sound quality, good solid build quality and a useful feature-set, you are in the RIGHT PLACE.

The Jabra 85h headphones are very comfortable. Like most noise cancelling headphones, you can get a little hot and sweaty around the ears since it tends to create a sealed environment for your ears - but they are comfortable headphones.

I didn't mess with blue-tooth or Alexa. You'll have to check some other reviews for that - I don't really need those things in my headphones. I tend to use them wired for best sound quality and I have a million-zillion Alexa devices that all answer me when I say anything remotely resembling her name. I don't need another.

What I was concerned with was SOUND QUALITY and comfort. We already got comfort out of the way, so let's talk about sound quality. I put these on and tied into my Vault 2i network music player and tried out a mixture of music... Everything from The Cars, The Police, The Who, Toto, The Outfield, Billy Squier and more...

With a little bit of EQ, I could make the muddiest old recordings sound crisp, punchy and bright. With newer songs, almost no EQ was even needed. The volume levels were very good, and I was able to reach near-painful levels without any hint of distortion. I never experienced classic distortion, although if I jacked up the EQ high enough on the bass, I could get some bottoming out or popping, but that could even have been the EQ software itself. The headphones sounded amazing.

I realize that in most worlds, these are expensive headphones. They certainly are for me - but there are audiophiles who would scoff at these. People who pay far more for headphones than this, and then have to also buy amplifiers because the headphone have high resistance drivers that require more power to drive them. Those audiophile headphones sound amazing and I envy those who get to use them, but they introduce a whole 'nother level of complication and added devices and I could go on and on about why, for MOST PEOPLE, these are as good a headphone as you will ever need. I suspect that most of us couldn't hear the difference anyway, and I suspect that most of us are using pretty basic drivers (aka, your computer sound card or a mobile phone) to drive the headphones anyway and don't need that level of headphone because we would just be amplifying garbage anyway.

One last comment - there are three modes for these headphones.

OFF - they still play music, but it is not modified in any way - you just hear the music.
HEAR-THRU - you hear the music, but you also hear when someone is talking to you.
ANC - Automatic Noise Cancellation, you hear no outside noise, just music.

OFF is the purist mode, and shouldn't require battery.
HEAR THRU sounds great, and you can hear outside noises - a little bit.
ANC make the outside world VERY QUIET and almost all you hear is the music. The Jabra 85h does this VERY WELL and DOES NOT HURT THE SOUND very much at all. Mostly a little bass seems to be lost in this setting, but it is surprisingly good. I was impressed with this, because a lot of cheap headphones try to do ANC and it doesn't sound good. Jabra does ANC very, very well!

Ultimately, I would happily stand face to face with anyone considering these headphones and tell them that these are OUTSTANDING HEADPHONES and that you should absolutely buy them - THEY ARE AMAZING!!!

I hope you find this review helpful. I feel like that reviews are super important on Amazon and they really help me determine if a product is worth buying or not - so I try to return the favor and leave a review that will honestly tell you whether a product is good or not. We all use products differently, so I also try to make it clear what was important to me, and hopefully that makes it easy for you to tell if you will like it too.

I also think it is important for Amazon shoppers to stick together and let each other know if a product is garbage. I WILL let you know if a product isn't good, so you can avoid the hassles of returning a product or a product you lose money on. PLEASE go to my profile page and reach out to me if you have any questions. I enjoy writing reviews and try to respond to any questions about a product ASAP. Thank you for reading my review.

I purchased all three of these headphones because I couldn't decide which ones would be best for me.

Bottom line is, if you are looking for multi-purpose, noise-canceling headphones for the office, the Jabra 85+ Elite or the Bose 700 are the way to go (I chose the Jabras over the Bose for reasons detailed below). But if you are are an audiophile who is mostly going to listen to music and just wants the convenience of being able to answer calls at the same time, then the Sony WH1000MX3 are the clear winners.

I needed headphones to help me focus at my new employer, which is a large "open office" layout. Imagine 150 people in a huge room of long tables and you get the idea. None of the three headphones do a good job of blocking out higher-pitched sounds like human voices, which was a big disappointment for me as that was my most critical need. But the Jabras at least muffled voices somewhat, whereas the other two seemed to actual make nearby conversations stand out worse. All three did a great job of blocking out lower-pitched noise like fans, motors, etc., with the Bose being the best at this (So if my primary need had been to block out airplane or train noise, instead of human voices, I'd probably have chosen the Bose).

Music on the Jabras is fine and is comparable to the Bose which surprised me. But neither wet a match for the Sonys in terms of music listening (using default settings for all). That said, the Sony Sound+ software (a free, optional download) allows you to select from common music presets (eg bass boost) as well as customizable equalizer settings.

So, with reasons I chose the Jabras over the Bose came down to functionality and ease of use (the $100 lower price tag than the Bose wasn't really a factor). Here are some of the differences between the Jabras and the Bose that mattered to me:

- the Jabra software was easier to use and less glitchy than Bose. (Don't let the terrible graphic on the first "page" of the software scare you off).
- you can use them (both for listening and noise cancelling) with your phone without the software if you want to, just pair like normal.
- it recognized that I use Siri and automatically connected, even though I don't think the optional software listed Siri as a voice assistant option (might have that confused w Bose, though). No complicated setup or programming of buttons.
- pause music (or white noise if that's what you've selected) with a simple tap (Bose do this too). But the real plus is that they automatically pause music/white noise when you take an ear cup off your ears. I found this to be very useful: being the only headphones user at my office, people seem to want me to take off an ear cup to listen to them. Plus it saves battery life.
- they at least muffle human voices. The Bose and Sonys seemed to actually make nearby conversations stand out even worse than when not wearing headphones.
- they turn on and off simply by swiveling the ear cups, which you tend to do anyway to make them lie flat when not in use. No hunting for that tiny power button! Plus they can be set to "sleep" after a period of time to save battery.
- They were the best of all three at not getting hot uncomfortably hot during use (ANC + music, plus phone calls tested on all three headphones).
- the volume " buttons " (really more of a clickable area, not a tiny button) are easier to use than Bose's finicky swipe gestures (the Sonys were the easiest to use tho as you just tap lightly in the correct area).
- most importantly for me, they work well with both my cellphone and my win10 laptop, at the same time. They are NOT designed to work with computers, and Jabra does not make BT drivers for computers, so this capability may be highly variable depending on your computer and operating system (OTOH, the Bose 700s ARE supposed to pair with computers, and I could get them to at times, but not consistently.). BTW I can't recall if I tested this through the Jabra Sound+ software our without the software.

FWIW, What worked for me: (1) to my windows settings and (2) select the headphones as my audio output, then (3) select the special Windows headphone profile from the two options, and them (4) pair them with the computer Bluetooth as I would any other BT device. NOTE - buried in the online FAQs is this important info: the voice assistant only works with one device at a time, and always selects the last device you pair with. So unless you use Cortana, pair with the computer first, then your cell.
- to switch from one paired device to the other (For both the Jabras and the Bose) you simply pause the "active" device (e.g. Pandora on your laptop) and hit play on the other device (eg podcast on the cellphone). For phone calls though it's seamless -- just answer them, no need to switch which device you are paired to.
- finally the Jabra software was easier to use, not glitchy, and offered tweaks that are more useful on a daily basis than the Bose. There were 3 things that confused me at first: when you use the Jabra software, you end up "pairing" your phone twice. Jabras online FAQs explain why but the bottom line is that it's designed to do that. The other initial confusion was the software's "moments" function: "moments" are simply a way to select settings for different types of uses with a single click. Eg at home I like to have "hear through" on so that I can converse w my spouse while listening to music, and so I have that "moment" set to "hear -through" set to On. But at work I want to other voices blocked as much as possible so I can focus, so I have "hear-through" set to Off. And third, to use moments you do NOT need to enable the moments auto-select function (I read that it's a little unpredictable so, rather than have my audio settings change unexpectedly, I'd rather just choose them manually).

As far as looks -- The headphones look like what they are -- a nice upper-mid priced set of headphones. The outer covering o. The beige model is a light beige, unattractive woven fabric that I suspect will look gross in a couple of years, so I'd recommend the darker colored ones. The case shell is a tad bit flimsy but is cleanable plastic. They feel solid and I really don't notice the slightly heavier weight on my head compared to the Bose. The cords match the headset color (a nice touch) and they include an airplane audio adapter (both true of the Bose, but surprisingly, neither are true of the Sonys).

In the end, the Jabras were the best suited for my needs because of their better noise cancelling of voices; Siri integration; ability to pair simultaneously with a phone and my laptop; lack of glitchiness and easier to use controls; simpler and more useful software; and clever convenience features when compared to Bose. The sound quality for music was pretty similar and the Jabras didn't drop phone calls the way the Bose did. They don't look as high end as the Bose but then again they cost $100 less so I don't mind.

I thought I could upgrade to muti-use headphones with improved noise isolation. This is not a replacement for office calls. The active noise cancellation does not operate during calls so both you and the person on the other end hear all the ambient noise. The voice clarity is also not as good as my Plantronics voyager focus UC. The 85h makes my voice sound muffled to the recipient.
It has tight sound for music listening. ANC works well for low rumbling background noise (when not on a call), Bluetooth 5 connects to 2 devices although I have to stop and start the music on my computer to hear it once it has switched over to my phone to hear something there. It does not automatically switch back to the active source once the sound is complete like the plantronics.
It is enjoyable to listen to but is not the right choice for calls.

I purchased these headphones to use at work with my computer. To listen to music and do conference calls. When connected to macOS. The noise cancellation does not work properly. In fact, they seem to be in "pass thru" mode by default which makes the background noise even louder. There does not appear to be software to change this. The buttons don't change it when connected to macOS. I contacted support 3 days ago, with no response. Sad, as I've been very happy with other Jabra products.

If you are getting these headphones to use with your phone - great, they work well. Don't get them if you want to use them (even occasionally) with your mac.

EDIT: After sending these back, I came across a good deal on a used pair and I couldn't resist. I still find them uncomfortable at times, but this is the first pair of headphones I've had where the benefits outweigh the discomfort.

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The only problem I have with the Jabra Elite 85h headphones is that they aren't comfortable on my ears, and that's why I'm sending them back. However, after experiencing this with many different brands/models, I'm fairly sure that the problem is the shape of my head, and not the headphones. So, let's talk about why the Jabra Elite 85h headphones are so great, and why you should try them.

There are lots of professional reviews talking about their sound quality and noise cancelling, so I won't go into those areas very much. Suffice to say that I agree with the reviewers: the Jabras are among the best in both aspects, but not quite the very best.

From a design standpoint, I think they're excellent. They feel sturdy, and I really like the cloth surfaces, which feel nice to the touch and stand apart from the soft-plastics of many others. They're sporty and classy at the same time.

The controls are similarly good. Jabra avoided touch-based controls, which are great when they work and frustrating when they don't (or when you accidentally brush against something and skip tracks). Some things are just better served by physical switches and buttons, and Jabra got the E85h's controls mostly right. There's a button for a voice assistant (no long-pressing play/pause) on the right earpad and a button for noise-cancelling on the left. These buttons are are nowhere near the media controls, so you'll never have to guess what you're pressing. And when you do press them, a pleasant voice (in a variety of user-selectable languages) tells you what you've done.

The only miss is that you have to long-press the volume keys to skip tracks. I would have preferred dedicated switches, which should have been easy to do. However, they've at least compensated by having a friendly "knock knock" sound to tell you that you have successfully skipped forward/back, which is more than most other headphones.

I love that they turn on/off when you swivel the earpads, and I love how quickly they connect. As well, there are sensors inside the earpads so that they know when you've put them on. When you connect to a device, they're smart enough to wait until you're wearing them to tell you the battery status. If you're playing music, they'll automatically pause when you take them off and play when you put them on again. I've tried others with this play/pause feature, and the Jabras feel like the most responsive. You can turn it off in the app, and also have them automatically answer phone calls or mute calls when you take them off.

The Jabras can connect to two devices simultaneously, which I haven't had before (and really like). Unfortunately, you can only have one media stream at a time, so you can't listen to music on one device while playing a game on the other. As well, I noticed that when I had my Windows 10 laptop and Samsung phone connected, audio playback from a video on my laptop was choppy. When I disconnected my phone, the audio was fine. Hopefully this will be fixed in a firmware update.

The app is straightforward. You can't adjust the noise-cancelling strength, but you can turn it on/off or set the headphones into hear-through mode, which pipes in sound from around you. Of course, you can also do this via the button on the headphones. The big deal is SmartSound, which analyzes your environment and switches to one of three modes: commuting, in public, and private. You can customize each mode, but I don't really see the point and have turned it off. I'd rather just manually set the ANC when I need to change it.

The app can also play a variety of background noises for when you want to concentrate or relax: pink noise, white noise, ventilation fan, waterfall, diving, ocean waves, rainy day, songbirds, perfect storm, babbling brook, cavern, or crowd. It's a really simple feature that you can easily get from free apps, but I like that they built it in.

The headphones come in a case that feels really nice, but will probably get scratched up easily. However, Jabra did something that's stupidly obvious and brilliant at the same time. Most cases have dividers to keep the headphones from jostling around and scratching themselves up. Some cases have dividers that are molded in, and others have fabric pieces sewed into the case. Jabra uses a fabric piece, but it's attached by velcro. Remove it and the case becomes one big compartment that you can use for all sorts of things besides your headphones. I have a bunch of headphone cases that are largely useless for anything else and live in the closet. I'll actually use this one, which adds value to the purchase.

My overall feeling is that Jabra put a lot of thought into everything about these headphones. You can see it in the details, like the versatile carrying case and background noises. You can get sub-$100 headphones that are perfectly fine in most ways, but everything about the Jabras is a little bit better, and it adds up to them being worth the price.

If only my ears were shaped a little better...

Very good sound. As many reviewers said already - not too much bass, good sound stage. Quite comfortable - i don't feel they almost 300gr. I had Sennhaiser momentum 2 and they are the same weight, but I felt momentum were much heavier.

I have Issues with connection to the phone. When I'm listening to the music and there is incoming phone call, iphone loses connection to the headphones and the call goes to phone's speakerphone. Quite annoying, Sometimes it re-connects but it's 50/50.

UPDATE

connection issues resolved via hard reset.

If you get them on sale, they're quite good. For 399$ they realy hard pill to swallow, you might go for Bose or Sony instead.

I use this headset for work and entertainment. The sound quality for calls is superb. Music sound decent, I'm sure Sony sounds better specifically for people who need it for music editing or just looking for highly quality music output ... but it's still good quality for casual the listner. battery life is amazing I rarely charge it can deliver 36 hours or more to my type of use (4-5 hours a day of calls and music).
Overall, for a guy using it at the office it works great and I would highly recommend it.

The design is great. Auto turn on and off is awesome. The ANC is perfect. The music comes through crisp and clear, the call quality is excellent. The multi connectivity works seemlessly well. The weight of the headphones is manageable.
I found it uncomfortable after using them for an hour or so. And the sound was distorted when connected to the Mac.
So had to return them. But I would recommend these to anyone looking for a good set of headphones.

Mis audifonos Jabra, tengo que decir que no son economicos, ni baratos, pero es raro que haya mucha calidad por un precio inferior. Estos audigonos, tiene una calidad increible. Los mejores que he tenido en mi vida. Y me gustaron porque puedes hacer llamadas con total nitidez. Tienes que descargar una app ligada a estos articulos para aumentar otras funcionalidades. Excelente producto.

Excelentes audífonos
Buana calidad en música y en llamadas

Have been using it for 2 months and I'm very satisfied so far

Works very good. Great range.

Excelente sonido, presentación y caja para guardar. La cancelación de ruido podría ser mejor

Good, but not as good as QC 35ii

recommandé

Good set of cans