Sennheiser PXC 550 (2016) vs TaoTronics SoundSurge 85 (TT-BH085)

The Sennheiser PXC 550 (2016) is a relatively good Closed-Back Headphone for people that are willing to spend around $330. The TaoTronics SoundSurge 85 (TT-BH085), by contrast, is quite unremarkable and doesn't stand out in any meaningful way from other products at this price point.

In both cases, however, we recommend that you take look at some other options at the $330 and $55 budget ranges; in all likelihood you'll find some better alternatives.

If you're still interested in learning more about the Sennheiser PXC 550 (2016) and TaoTronics SoundSurge 85 (TT-BH085), however, we wrote a summary of what we know about them:

While the Sennheiser PXC 550 (2016) 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. HomeTheaterReview.com, What Hi-Fi?, Techradar, Head-fi, CNET, Expert Reviews, PCmag, TrustedReviews, AVForums, Rtings, 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.

When we thoroughly analyzed their review scores, we learned that all of the sources that tested both Closed-Back Headphones, including TrustedReviews, preferred the Sennheiser PXC 550 (2016) over the TaoTronics SoundSurge 85 (TT-BH085).

We also took a look at which sources they managed to impress the most. The Sennheiser PXC 550 (2016) was liked best by HomeTheaterReview.com, which gave it a score of 10, while the TaoTronics SoundSurge 85 (TT-BH085) got its highest, 7, score from TrustedReviews.

Lastly, we averaged out all of their review ratings and observed that the Sennheiser PXC 550 (2016), with its 8.5 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 Sennheiser PXC 550 (2016) 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.