Anyone who’s been on the market for headphones may have noticed a trend that has started emerging:

The price of certain noise cancelling headphones seems to be dropping. 

We noticed this specifically with a couple brands, one of which is Sony. Their new WH-1000xm4 model, which was just released this past fall is already seeing a drop in its retail price - which, if not reflected at the time of this publishing, will be very soon. 

The story is the same for another fairly recent release, the Shure Aonic 50 - which I also compared to the Aonic 40 on this channel not so long ago. You can now save up to 25 percent on these, which are also one of the newer more prevalent options for noise cancelling headphones.

A third example which is older, but still comes from a premium brand is the Sennheiser Px 550 II, the price has dropped by 15 percent in the open-box version of this item.

Now, it is of course not abnormal for price adjustments and sales to occur at this time of year, especially with the holidays right around the corner.  

But, the cases noted above are especially strange, and nearly unheard of for models that are barely a few months old. This indicates that there is more stock of these units at this moment than might previously had been expected. So in short, people have been buying noise cancelling headphones less than usual.

And this is not just an ill informed generalization. For context, at the height of the first nation wide lock down due to the pandemic back in the spring, we actually saw an uptick in business. With many people stuck home for the foreseeable future, it seems that many headphone buyers saw this as an opportunity to stock up on their gear so that they could spend them time getting the most out of their music and hifi setups.

Despite this increase in business, we did see a downturn in one specific area of products, and that is headphones with noise cancellation. This may seem strange at first, but the reasons for this do make sense when you consider the circumstances. 

Noise cancelling headphones are almost always aimed at consumers who are on the move. After all, if you are in a home studio, there’s virtually no need for the technology. The overwhelming majority of consumers buy these products when they are going to be travelling, to block out the ambient noise of airplanes, trains, crowded stations or bustling workplaces. 

With the advent of the pandemic, and its effects which seem to be upticking once again as we head into the winter, there simply aren’t as many people travelling on public transportation or taking long flights. Therefore, the demand for these products is lower than they’ve been in a long time.

What this means for you, is this might be the best possible time to buy if you’ve been on the search for one of these products. This is likely as cheap as they’ll ever be while still not very old, and it certainly won’t last forever. As one example, the Bose 700  (which, full disclosure, we do not sell) also saw a brief downtick in price, but it has since returned to its original amount, so it is indeed not a permanent situation.

So if you’ve had your eye on a good ANC headphone - or think you might need some when times look different - don’t wait. The time to buy is right now or by next week we anticipate great sale prices for Black Friday 2020.

You may want to watch our video on the same topic. See it below.