This is quite the headset with a bit more nuance in its capabilities than I expected, though I found in the long run that one particular pairing of audio modes produces the best quality.
Out of the box you have a charging base with some assembly required, the basic necessary cables for operation, the headset itself and a detachable mic with a standardized 3.5mm jack meaning you could likely use other replacement mics if need be.
The charging base is reasonably solid but it's not going to handle a lot of abuse probably being that it's so narrow and top heavy when the headset is attached, the headset itself connects via some contacts on the middle of the headband. I would recommend setting this up on a sturdy surface where you're not going to bump it if you do use it.
The headset has a handful of buttons though they're pretty easily identified by touch with a grouping of three buttons that dip in the middle for volume up and down on the outside and pause in the center and additional functions depending on if you hold the buttons or not. There is also a power switch that just flips between on and off, and the on side has a hold to pair additional distance it can travel. Having a flipping switch for power is really nice over having to hold a button for some arbitrary period. The other side, the left, has a distinct small button on the bottom with a ridge that switches between balanced and bass boost mode, and a big dimpled button that switches between normal, noise canceling and transparency modes.
If I have any complaint here it's that I wish there were a slider, roller or jogger for volume, but it uses system volume, not its own built in volume so I suppose that's not as easy to implement as some buttons.
The headphones are on the larger side but not huge, they barely fit over my fairly large ears but they DO fit and they're very comfortable, if a bit warm. They have decent passive sound isolation.
From here we have the actual audio quality and I went through several bits of audio I generally run any new sound equipment through in all of its six possible mode combinations as well as comparing them against my monitor earphones that I generally use for music. These compare favorably in the correct mode but they have a WIDE range of quality. They were tested in bluetooth mode which SHOCKINGLY has no audio delay, after a few hours of testing I never saw any audio drift and I'm very impressed by this, though, there's some weird mode switching and drop-outs associated with using the microphone which I'll get to later.
The audio combinations available are as follows with some simple notes:
Normal mode/Balance mode - mildly tinny, decent vocal reproduction, weak bass, flat soundstage
Normal mode/Bass mode - full feeling, somewhat muffled vocals, better bass, improved but still mostly flat soundstage
Noise canceling/Balanced mode - very full feeling, somewhat weak vocals but not bad, rumbling bass, okay soundstage
Noise cancelling/Bass mode - muffled, muted vocals, excessive bass, decent soundstage
Transparency/Balanced mode - tinny, flat, distant vocals, very weak bass, flat soundstage
Transparency/Bass mode - close to full but still tinny, distant vocals, weak bass, flat soundstage
Between these modes I felt that the Noise canceling/Balanced mode was the highest overall quality coming very close to my monitors, they hit almost every audio range pretty well being only slightly weak in the midtones and a little excessive in bass, but not to the point that it ruined anything. The music experience here is very nice.
The active noise cancelling capacity of the headphones is pretty okay, it got rid of most background noise about 95%, and while it muted voices it didn't prevent me completely hearing someone speaking to me, so it's not going to give you 100% isolation chamber experience but it's enough to get rid of fan noises and TV's in the other room or the like.
Beyond that, I would vote for the Normal mode/Balanced mode combination for general voice content like podcasts or news programs, it manages speaking sounds very well, and nothing else is offensively bad it just isn't as good as could be.
I found the Transparency modes to be the worst quality all around, and to also not really add much for external audio, sometimes it seemed to make it easier to hear what was going on around me and sometimes it made no difference at all.
Naturally, your opinions may be different and it's worth experimenting between the modes.
An annoyance with changing modes is the headset cuts off ALL audio to announce which mode has been selected every time you push one of the buttons and it takes probably 2 full seconds to come around to where you can hear it again, but it keeps you informed so there's that.
The microphone is a mixed bag, you need to have it VERY close to your mouth to get decent quality speech, and it is pretty good. It's not going to match a decent cardioid mic but for a wireless headset it's absolutely fine, good even. Th