Noise Cancelling Headphones - Hype or any good?

Avoriaz

Wolfman, it looks like you and I make similar choices in headphones.

I use the Grado phones for all my late night home listening and guitar playing. I bought the PX 100s for using when I am out and about, walking down town or whatever and I got the E2Cs for use on trains and planes so that I don’t upset fellow passengers.

The PX 100s are fantastic value. They are really light and portable and the sound is almost as good as the Grado.

The E2Cs are a bit weird. I don’t particularly like the in ear feeling and I also get odd sounds and sensations if I walk about wearing them. I suppose I could get used to them in time but I think they are going to be very much last resort only.

Fatnbald, I agree with you about in ear discomfort. On ear noise cancelling is the way to go for you.

randomtask_2

Other MSErs have given some good recommendations at all price ranges.

I use the Shure E2c everyday on the way to work on the tube and find them indispensible for the isolation on offer. Great sound quality too. Have also used them on flights...and even vacuuming the house But it does take some adjusting to get used to the sensation of the 'plugged in' feel and the way the wire wraps round the ears and along the back...

Personally, I wouldn't bother paying the extra for Bose products - I find the amount you have to fork out is disproportionate to what's offered from it's noise cancellation technology and/or better sound quality.

The key is to get good isolation from a good fit of headphone/earphone - this is often preferred from a audio quality perspective to noise cancellation (or active noise control to give it it's technical name) which pipes in opposing frequencies to the outer noise to counter the soundwave your ears pick up.

moonrakerz

I did a lot of work on this type of headset for Military use a few years back.

These headphones can be extremely effective. But they usually only block a fairly narrow band of (noise) frequencies, so you could find that they work extremely well on a jet aircraft but be totally useless on a propeller aircraft. Also if they take out one noise, another (more annoying) noise might then be more prominent, and thus even more annoying than the original noise.

Totally agree with the comment, "you get what you pay for".


PS: A really useless piece of information on this subject, may come in handy for Trivial Pursuits.

"Noy - a subjective unit of noisiness. A sound of 2 noys is twice as noisy as a sound of 1 noy and half as noisy as a sound of 4 noys."

chartreuse_2

moonrakerz wrote:

"Noy - a subjective unit of noisiness. A sound of 2 noys is twice as noisy as a sound of 1 noy and half as noisy as a sound of 4 noys."

Ignoring the fact that it's a log rather than linear scale, this reminds me of the old definition of a nybble as being four bits, or half a byte.:D

thefirs

You can get these Thomson HED-25 noise cancelling headphones at Bigpockets for less than £11 inc postage now. Undoubtedly a budget model, but good enough to test the water?

[Deleted User]

I've tried the Bose headphones, but since i'm not that flush, i spent 25 quid on these:

Philips SHN2500 Travel Earbuds

http://www.iheadphones.co.uk/headphones/22210/Philips+SHN2500+Travel+Earbuds.htm

For the money, they make my life a lot happier when watching DVDs on the train / plane. I would not spend a lot more

thetargetarcher

I have not used the Creative Labs HN-700 Headphones but they are a lot cheaper than the Bose ones at around £30 and got a very good review:

http://www.trustedreviews.com/multimedia/review/2005/10/28/Creative-HN-700-Noise-Cancelling-Headphones/p1

Lowestonweb sell them including delivery for £30.37 direct link is:

http://www.lowestonweb.com/products/info.asp?e=76C6178F-5AAC-4547-B910-54A3A6F29B7C

That is the lowest price the trustedreviews website gives anyway.

Ebuyer.com sell them and customers have rated them 5 stars:

http://www.ebuyer.com/customer/products/index.html?rb=25047196506&action=c2hvd19wcm9kdWN0X3Jldmlld3M=&product_uid=94117