Wireless over-ear noise-cancelling headphones for Dumbo-sized ears?

April 14, 2022 9:22 AM

I'd like to find wireless noise-cancelling headphones of the over-ear variety that are comfortable to wear for long durations. Problem: I have big ears. Every headphone I tried in the past were unusable because they pressed against my ears and hurt after a short time. I'm trying again to find ones that might fit completely around my ears.

Some Googling led me to articles like 4 Best Headphones For Big Ears. The Bose QuietComfort 35 ii often show up on people's lists, so I bought them, and they turned out to be not big enough. I finally asked my spouse to measure my ears, and apparently they're 80mm along the longest axis, which is bigger than the 70mm inner diameter the Bose or some other options I've found. Further Googling and research has yet to turn up an option that is simultaneously (1) big enough, (2) wireless, (2) with active noise cancelling, and (3) for which the size of the inner diameter is available. (Sometimes I can't find any info about the size, even on the company's product pages.)

I will not be using the headphones for calls, and I don't need super-great audio quality because I'll be using them when working at a computer and playing relaxing sounds without vocals, to help concentration. I'm not averse to in-ear earphones, if they were wireless, had active noise cancelling, and were comfortable inside my ears. The main reason I'm currently leaning towards over-ear headphones is because when I have to return to working in an office, I'd like it to be really obvious to other people that I can't hear them, but if it's impossible to find over-ear headphones big enough for my giant ears, then in-ear would be a reasonable fall-back.

posted by StrawberryPie to Technology (9 answers total)

Jabra makes headphones primarily for the business market, but gear meant to go from 9:00-5:00 is also good for any other long use.

I have their recent Evolve2 75's with big cushions that I like. I wear them most of the day. They have a wireless dongle that plugs into my MacBook's USB port. They have ANC. They work great for music and Zoom and Teams and movies.

And to signal co-workers to stay away, they have a small indicator LED on each ear when you're listening!
posted by wenestvedt at 9:36 AM on April 14, 2022

Response by poster: Not meaning to thread-sit, but I fear I may not have been clear: I'm looking for headphones whose cushions go all around the ear, and touch my head around the ears, not on my ears. The reason I can't wear (e.g.) the Bose ones is because the opening is not big enough and so the cushions press against parts of my ears. I need something that goes all around the ears on the outside, without touching the ears. (That's what I thought "over-ear" meant, but maybe it doesn't mean what I think it means.) The Evolve2 75's sit on the ears themselves, which is not at all what I'm hoping to find. (I appreciate the answer, though.)
posted by StrawberryPie at 10:00 AM on April 14, 2022 [2 favorites]

Whoops, my mis-reading. I see what you mean now: that will be a challenge!

Have you asked on Reddit? There's all sort of very niche communities there.
posted by wenestvedt at 10:18 AM on April 14, 2022

I have the same general big-ear problem as well as a gigantic noggin, and while they're expensive, I've been comfortable wearing Airpods Maxes all dang day. It's a miracle, to me. Usually the only long-term comfortable on-ear headphones for me are like Koss Portapros, and that's because they put their weight on a temple pad and not the ear.

But while the Airpods Maxes are only 40x60mm and 30mm deep (and my ear is also ~80mm from the top of the helix to the bottom of the lobe), they don't crush the cartilage of my ear (the 30mm part, mostly, I think?), and only briefly gave me problems with the lobes of my ears when I went back to wearing earrings last Christmas and my ears were a bit over sensitive.

The noise cancelling is fantastic - we got them because my wife started playing games in the room next to my office in the afternoon and it was distracting, but the transparency mode is also surprising - it's like they aren't even on your ears, you can have conversations clearly, and toggling between ANC and transparency is one of the two dedicated buttons.

Admittedly, they're a lot nicer if you're in the Apple ecosystem already, but they are just bluetooth devices if you aren't.
posted by Kyol at 12:41 PM on April 14, 2022 [1 favorite]

This is kind of a sideways of looking, but a lot of the sellers of headphone replacement parts on AliExpress have actual dimensions for the earpads.

There are a bunch of Bose QuietComfort 35 ii replacement earpads that look like the regular size, but they might sell larger ones.

I didn't immediately see any that were 80mm tall on the inside, I would guess that some exist on Ali, and if they don't I would send a message asking some of the sellers if they could sell/make you larger ones.
posted by gregr at 1:32 PM on April 14, 2022

The website Rtings.com has detailed reviews of headphones with precise measurements. Take a look there.

You may enjoy the Beyerdynamic DT-770 Pros, they have a large ear-area.
posted by bug138 at 4:45 PM on April 14, 2022

I have biggish ears, certainly a large head, and recently bought a Sennheiser Momentum 3 because a cheap pair I bought was doing what you describe. They're quite comfortable and the sound and noise cancelling are both very good as far as I can tell. They definitely fit all the way around my ears.
posted by BlackLeotardFront at 6:30 PM on April 14, 2022

I’m not sure about a specific recommendation but the search term you need seems to be circumaural headphones
posted by piyushnz at 8:16 PM on April 14, 2022

Drop.com has some headphones with huge ear cups.
posted by kschang at 10:37 PM on April 15, 2022