Best noise-cancelling headphones?

letsbehonest

I have a JVC HA-NC250 bought for me as a gift they work quite well and are not as expensive as Bose, £85 amazon, but like all over the ear cans I find that after about half an hour my ears feel compressed and hot so they have to come off

magyar

esuhl wrote: »

It might be better to go for noise-isolating earphones (which physically block sound from entering your ears), rather than noise-cancelling ones (which use circuitry to create sound waves that are the inverse of any background noise).

Noise-isolating 'phones will be cheaper, don't need their own power supply and won't create any audio artefacts due to the limitations of noise-cancelling circuitry.

My Shure SCL2 earphones sound great... maybe worth a look?

I have an excellent pair of Sennheiser CX-500s which I think are a bargain at around £20. (Which is about the right level of price/quality for me, given how often I lose/break headphones).

And as noise-isolating phones they're find but I find that airplane engine drone really does cut through - I think it's a frequency thing rather than a volume thing.

I'm interested in the point about audo artefacts. Are you talking 'bleeps and squeaks' or a more consistent sort of effect? Something that you get used to or constantly irritates?

If I do consider going down the £200+ Bose-type route then I would want to be absolutely sure. They used to do a free trial but not so sure they do any more.

magyar

Just checked - and Bose do still have 30-day money-back satisfaction guarantee.

lee636

googler wrote: »

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/2594253

:rotfl: Love it!

prowla

Etymotic ER-4P are great.

http://www.etymotic.com/ephp/er4.aspx

esuhl

magyar wrote: »

And as noise-isolating phones they're find but I find that airplane engine drone really does cut through - I think it's a frequency thing rather than a volume thing.

I have to admit that I haven't used the SCL2s on an aeroplane, but they do seem to cut out a surprising amount of background noise in other environments like in crowded bars or on the bus. Thinking about it... they do block high-frequency sounds better (so maybe they won't be as effective against the drone of an aeroplane's engines).

magyar wrote: »

I'm interested in the point about audo artefacts. Are you talking 'bleeps and squeaks' or a more consistent sort of effect? Something that you get used to or constantly irritates?

Again, this isn't something I've had direct experience of, although I've read about it a number of times. From what I've read, the audio artefacts sound a bit like the odd "digital squelch" (there's got to be a better way to describe that!) that you get from MP3s.

Another thought... you can get custom-moulded earplugs for many noise-isolating earphones. They're not cheap, but would make the noise isolation even more effective (and will probably be more comfortable too).

I've just found a few links that might be of interest - they all discuss noise-cancellation vs. noise-isolation to some extent:

Anecdotal forum post suggesting IEMs over noise-cancelling phones
PCWorld magazine review of Shure E3C phones (the SCL2s used to be known as E2Cs, so the E3C is the "next model up" from the SCL2)
Another forum with several posts recommending IEMs over noise-cancelling

Anyway, I hope that's of some help and hasn't confused you even more!

globalds

The Goldring ns1000's are very popular ..They have been cheaper at play as low as £49.99.

I think there popularity has pushed the price back up

http://www.play.com/Electronics/Electronics/4-/8240767/Goldring-NS1000-Active-Noise-Reduction-Cancelling-Headphones/Product.html?_%24ja=tsid:11518|cc:|prd:8240767|cat:Hi

EDIT

I have these
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Sony-MDR-NC60-Quality-Cancelling-Headphones/dp/B000OQ5OOM/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&s=electronics&qid=1286317547&sr=8-3

Sony N60's

They are fairly good at noise cancelling , but mine were much cheaper than this price and I would only go about £60 max for these...I think they are a bit overpriced