I own and daily drive both. Bose QC45s and Sony MX1000s. Both were about AUD$400 rmeach when I bought them.

I can wear either while driving, but the QCs can get a bit sweaty. I prefer the QCs while driving.

Likewise, I wear both while working, sometimes one, sometimes the other.

I only ever war the MX at the gym of while jogging, headphones just don’t work for me in that case.

The QC45 have better controls, and better cancelling, and I think good music sounds better in them, marginally. They also keep playing when I take them off. Conversely, the MX stops playback when I take them out my ears. This shits me, because although they restart playing, they usually play from my audiobook app. Which sucks if I was listening to a podcast from my podcast app. I have to whip my phone out and change media. Likewise if I was listening to YouTube, it doesn’t automatically resume.

The MX are good if you want to retain spatial awareness by putting one bud in and keep one out, but then you have to choose which control to keep and which to lose. Sometimes I hand my QCs off one ear, but that feels awkward.

I wear both at the shops, but prefer the MX, because they are more discreet.

If I had to absolutely choose one, I’d choose the MX buds.

But then I would save up and buy the QCs, I really do love them both.