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We compare products from their published specs and features; the verdicts below are our independent editorial opinions.
Updated: 2026-10-07 · 7 min read · Independent comparison
• EKSA USB Gaming Headset — biggest strength: 7.1 virtual surround sound with a 50 mm dynamic driver and a detachable unidirectional noise-cancelling mic, plus one-key mute and volume control right on the headset.
• EKSA USB Gaming Headset — biggest trade-off: It's wired only, with a 3.5 mm jack and no active noise cancellation at all. The "noise cancelling" in the name refers to the microphone, not to what you hear.
• Philips H8000 — biggest strength: Adaptive active noise cancellation that reacts to your surroundings in real time, a 5-mic call array, and up to 70 hours of playtime with ANC off (50 hours with it on).
• Philips H8000 — biggest trade-off: It's a Bluetooth headphone first. There's no boom mic, no virtual surround, and it weighs a fraction of a gaming headset, which is great for travel and less great if you want that big, clamped-on gaming feel.
• Pick EKSA USB Gaming Headset if you sit at one machine all day and want a headset for work from home that also handles PS5, Xbox One, and laptop gaming.
• Pick Philips H8000 if you want wireless noise cancelling headphones for calls, commuting, and shared spaces where other people's noise is the actual problem.
The EKSA E900 Pro is a wired over-ear headset, and it's honest about what it is. The 50 mm dynamic driver and 7.1 virtual surround are aimed squarely at positional audio — the kind of thing where you want to hear which direction a sound came from. For work from home, that translates into something more mundane but genuinely useful: a headset for work from home where the mic is the star. The unidirectional noise-cancelling microphone is detachable, which means you can pull it off when you're just listening, and it's paired with a one-key mute switch and on-ear volume control. If you spend your day hopping between calls, that physical mute button matters more than any spec sheet number.
Who should skip it? Anyone whose main complaint is the world around them. The noise control field is literally "None" — this headset does not cancel the sound of a lawnmower, a coworker, or a café. It also won't help you if you want to walk to the kitchen mid-call. It's a desk tool, and it's a good one at that job.
Philips H8000: Who It's For
The Philips H8000 is the opposite philosophy. It's a wireless over-ear headphone built around adaptive active noise cancellation that reacts to your surroundings in real time — including wind — and suppresses external noise without you touching a thing. Awareness Mode lets the outside back in when you need it, and Quick Awareness specifically enhances voices so you can hold a conversation without taking the headphones off. For anyone hunting for wireless noise cancelling headphones, that adaptive behavior is the feature that separates a real ANC headphone from a pair that just plays music loudly.
The call side is handled by a 5-mic array working with a noise-reduction algorithm. The claim is clear voice pickup and reduced background noise on calls, even on a busy street on a windy day. That's a different approach than EKSA's boom mic — no arm in front of your mouth, but five mics and processing doing the work instead. For work from home, this is the headphone you grab for a call while pacing the house, not the one you leave tethered to a desktop.
Battery is where the H8000 runs away with it. Up to 70 hours with noise cancelling off, 50 hours with it on, and a quick charge of 10 minutes for 8 hours of playback. Bluetooth 5.4 handles the connection, multipoint lets you stay linked to two devices at once, and Auracast lets you tune into public broadcasts — airport announcements, sports-bar commentary. It even ships with a 3.5 mm to 3.5 mm cable, so you can go wired when the battery runs dry or when you're on a plane. At 0.18 kg it's light, fabric-clad, and built for adult everyday use.
Who should skip it? Competitive gamers who want virtual surround and a dedicated boom mic. There's no 7.1 processing here, no detachable mic arm, and Bluetooth introduces the kind of latency a wired headset simply doesn't have. It's a lifestyle and work headphone, not a gaming peripheral.
• Best for active noise cancellation → Philips H8000. Adaptive ANC, Awareness Mode, and Quick Awareness are the whole point of the design.
• Best for gaming and positional audio → EKSA USB Gaming Headset. 7.1 virtual surround and a 50 mm driver are aimed at exactly that.
• Best for battery life → Philips H8000. Up to 70 hours with ANC off, 50 with it on, plus a 10-minute quick charge for 8 hours.
• Best for microphone clarity on a desk → EKSA USB Gaming Headset. A detachable unidirectional noise-cancelling boom mic with one-key mute beats a beamformed array when you're stationary.
• Best for commuting, travel, and shared spaces → Philips H8000. Light, wireless, and designed to shut out the street.
• Best for a fixed desktop setup → EKSA USB Gaming Headset. Wired means no charging, no pairing, no latency.
• Best for switching between phone and laptop → Philips H8000. Bluetooth 5.4 multipoint holds two devices at once.
• Best for long-session comfort with a bigger frame → EKSA USB Gaming Headset. Adjustable headband and memory protein earmuffs built for hours at a desk.
In my opinion, I'd buy the Philips H8000 if I could only own one. For work from home, the adaptive noise cancelling, the 5-mic call array, the multipoint Bluetooth, and that 70-hour battery cover more of a real day than a wired gaming headset does — from a morning call to an afternoon coffee-shop session to a flight. The EKSA USB Gaming Headset is the better pick if your day never leaves one desk and you want 7.1 surround plus a boom mic for gaming and calls. But if you want a single headset for work from home that handles noise instead of just hearing it, the H8000 is the one I'd reach for. Check the current price on Amazon before you commit, since that's the one thing neither spec sheet can tell you.
They're over-ear or in-ear headphones that connect over Bluetooth and use microphones plus processing to actively reduce incoming ambient sound. The Philips H8000 fits that description: wireless Bluetooth 5.4, active noise cancellation, and a 3.5 mm cable as a wired fallback.
Built-in microphones sample the noise around you and the headphone generates a matching signal to cancel it out. The H8000 goes a step further with adaptive cancellation that reacts to your surroundings in real time, including wind, and an Awareness Mode when you want the outside back in.
I'd point to the Philips H8000 for that job, because the 5-mic array, adaptive ANC, multipoint Bluetooth, and long battery life line up with a workday. If your work from home is really a gaming desk, the EKSA USB Gaming Headset's boom mic and 7.1 surround are the better match.
Neither of these two lists an IPX7 rating, so neither is built for sweat-soaked workouts or rain. For a desk setup that's fine — IPX7 matters for running and gym use, not for calls at a computer.
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