Audio-Technica ATH-ANC9 (2012) vs TaoTronics SoundSurge 85 (TT-BH085)

While the Audio-Technica ATH-ANC9 (2012) makes for a passable Closed-Back Headphone for its asking price, the TaoTronics SoundSurge 85 (TT-BH085) simply doesn't make the cut and should be avoided by the majority of people. In either case, we suggest that you look into some better alternatives that cost around $200 or $50.

However, if you'd nonetheless like to find out more about the Audio-Technica ATH-ANC9 (2012) and the TaoTronics SoundSurge 85 (TT-BH085), you can continue reading for our summary of what we know about them:

While the Audio-Technica ATH-ANC9 (2012) wasn't able to make it to the very top of any roundups from sources that perform quality hands-on testing, it still got featured in a large number of them. CNET, Rtings, PCmag, What Hi-Fi?, and Reviewed have all deemed it worthy of a place on their respective shortlists.

Taking a look at the TaoTronics SoundSurge 85 (TT-BH085), it got featured in roundups from two reliable sources that conduct their own testing - TrustedReviews and Wirecutter (NYTimes) - but it fell short of earning a top spot in either.

We couldn't find any sources that tested both of these Closed-Back Headphones, so we only analyzed how they performed in reviews from different sites.

We first examined which sources rated each of these best and found that the Audio-Technica ATH-ANC9 (2012) got its highest, 9, rating from Digitaltrends, while the TaoTronics SoundSurge 85 (TT-BH085) earned its best, 7, score from TrustedReviews.

Lastly, we averaged out all of their review ratings and observed that the Audio-Technica ATH-ANC9 (2012), with its 7.5 average, performed considerably better than most Closed-Back Headphones - the mean score for the product category being 7.4 out of 10 - while the TaoTronics SoundSurge 85 (TT-BH085) managed an average of 7.0.

There's one caveat here - it might not be entirely justifiable to do a direct Audio-Technica ATH-ANC9 (2012) vs. TaoTronics SoundSurge 85 (TT-BH085) review average comparison since they aren't priced the same and more expensive products tend to get higher review scores from some sources.