High Quality Noise Cancelling Headphones
- 20th Dec 2007
- Leave a Comment
- Fun Stuff
after SearchSpice recently posted on the ipod headphones leaking so much sound you don’t you your own MP3 player you can just listen to the person sat 3 rows ahead of you.
my mind quickly moved to air travel and my search for decent Noise Cancelling Headphones, I like the idea of losing myself in my choice of noise ..
So I pinged Mel on messenger and asked him what I should buy ( 1 hour later ) this was Mel’s suggested :
the SE420 Sound Isolating Earphones from Shure
or
MDR-NC60 Noise Canceling Headphone from Sony
personally I have always fancied the
High Performance Noise-Isolating In ear headphones from Klipsch
or
QuietComfort 3 Acoustic Noise Cancelling Headphones from Bose
then but then I thought my readers travel a lot as well what do you use ?
DaveN
26 Comments | Leave a comment »
Nice,
already at number 3 in .co.uk for High Quality Noise Cancelling Headphones
and 9 in google.com
Dave I would suggest the Plane Quiet NC-7 Noise Cancelling Headphones, granted that I’m biased because I own a pair myself … but I sincerely believe that dollar for dollar no other noise cancelling headphones can beat them
After destroying three sets of “good” ear bud headphones (ran over two and dropped the third in a mug of tea…) I’ve now opted for some 97p Tesco value earphones.
Yes they leak more than a sieve but I can’t afford to keep replacing them :)
It’s bloody typical that they’re also more comfortable than the standard iPod headphones!
The Bose ones work great. A little pricy but they work great for me. Pretty comfortable on my big head.
I own the bose quiet comfort headphones and they are FANTASTIC…..they do a superb job of noise reduction. the only problem is that they are a bit clunky…if you want to sleep on the plane while wearing them, you cant turn your head b/c they are so big…
so I bought the Bose quietcomfort ear buds as well and while they reduce less noise, they are still an ergonomic solution.
I recently thought about getting one since I had a gang of builders working on my house. From the reviews that I had read the Sony one looked the best.
I bought some cheap $30 RCA noise canceling headphones and love them. It is the only way I can get work done in my loud ass office.
Best catch I had when researching was when I nearly bought these: http://www.amazon.com/Bang-Olufsen-A-8-A8-Earphones/dp/B000I1KGKK - Some poor sod pointed out you can’t wear glasses or sunglasses with them because of the over-ear clasp. What poor design?!
I got the Bose headphones last year for Christmas and I love them. I wear them in the office and no one bugs me after repeated attempts to get my attention were not anwswered because I couldn’t hear :)
Buy them all then test ‘em, return the ones you don’t like. The bose are nice though…
I got a pair of Sennheiser CX 300 In-Ear Headphones for flying with the laptop for £17 from play.com - totally impressed with the quality, couldnt hear anything but the movies I was watching.
I’m a fan of the Grado SR60 headphones. Not noise-cancelling, but they will absolutely re-define how you listen to music.
I own the Sure SE530 and they sound really great, ambient noise is reduced to a high degree.
But - as always - there is a downside: They are inappropriate for jogging/walking. Everytime you hit the ground with your foot you hear a “bump”, so no sports here.
Very useful in trains and airplanes, though. Since the noise is not cancelled by a dsp or some electronic device, you don’t need a battery and avoid the “white noise” which you get from electronic noise cancelling. (I own a Sennheiser PXC300 since I got the Sure it’s just there for playing counter strike or something on lan parties.)
The BOSE are absolutely awesome, and the newer design makes them not so LARGE. I bought them for the wife and the sound is as good as studio headphones, and as its BOSE they really pay attention to the sound spectrum so from bass to treble the definition is incredible.
The Bose ones are great. I have the in-ear Bose ones for my iPod though:
http://www.bose.com/controller?event=VIEW_PRODUCT_PAGE_EVENT&product=triport_ie_headphones_index
Which are also great.
For a while I had the sharper image version, but they really hurt my ears.
I’ve owned two pairs of Shure E4C earphones. The sound quality is excellent, as is the noise cancelling. But both pairs have worn out in under a year of regular-but-not-excessive use. They come with a two year warranty, so in the new year I’ll try and claim a replacement pair.
Thomas is right about jogging with the Shure ones. They have a connector half way down for the phone adaptor - http://www.shure.com/PersonalAudio/Products/Accessories/CasesAdapters/us_pa_MPA_phone_adapter - which does bump around irritatingly. I’ve found you get used to it walking - just bad for running. Might get in the way of your marathon training Dave ;-)
I got and love my Bose QuietComfort however one downside is that they will only work with a charged accu. So if you - like I sometimes do forget to switch them off and don’t charge them - ur out of luck - no sound at all… and contrary to others like the Sony the Bose do NOT work with standard batteries.
however sound and wearing comfort of the BOSE is untouched.
frank
Strangely enough just bought the Sennheiser Wireless ear phones - probably not any good for flying - but fantastic
for shifting those extra lardy pounds we’ve all put on over Xmas and they’re extremely safe!!! - I use them on my treadmill while mostly
watching The Sopranos and now don’t have to worry about getting tangled up in any wires and doing myself an injury AND the constant whining of the treadmill motor is somewhat deadened - great result.
Happy New Year
ps - did you notice Leeds went top for a few short hours t’other day :)
Dave I agree iPod headphones are pretty poor. I’ve had the older ones and the supposedly better iPod ones and have been disappointed. I went for Shure E2C headphones. It feels a bit strange putting the headphones right into your ears but it definitely cancels out the surrounding noise.
I see no mention of — Ultimate Ear — headphones. I have been listening to music since I was a kid. Had numerous walkmans etc etc and pretty much always had some form of portable listening device. I strictly carry the Ipod now. I have tried a number of varied in-ear headphones. Earbuds just simply annoy me and they don’t cancel any noise and I always found myself cranking my player to even get any sound worth listening. I would go through headphones so often due to simple wear and tear and the accidental cord catching. So many in fact, I wouldn’t spend more than $50 on a pair for fear of destroying them. In my search online to replace a broken set. I came across
http://www.ultimateears.com/_ultimateears/
and I never turned back. They fit great and sound quality is amazing. I work in contruction operating heavy equipment,jackhammers, chopsaws, etc. So ear protection is a must. I simple have my headphones in non-stop and I get quality music with the added bonus of ear protection. And I don’t need to crank up the music to drown out the equipment either.
Sorry for the ramble but I didn’t want these to go unnoticed.
As I mentioned, you wanna get yourself some http://www.play.com/Electronics/Electronics/4-/3438224/Shure-SE530PTH-Sound-Isolating-Earphones/Product.html Just tell Becky you got them for a fiver from the states ;-)
Yes, I agree with the above comments about in ear sound isolating earphones. They are so much better sounding than noise cancelling headphones - no electronics messing around with the music.
I have a pair of Shure SE420’s and the sound quality is a HUGE leap from the standard iPod ear buds.
The High Quality Noise Cancelling Headphones are definitely a good product . Espacially for factory workers etc. No one likes a noisy environment and you cannot possibly tell those people to stop talking so this is one of the methods you can use to ease ur headache caused by the noise.
First I owned a pair of Ultimate Ears SuperFi 5 Pros and thought sinking into my own audio world had reached Nirvana (the state of mind not the over rated pop band) then I was lucky enough to try a pair of the Triple Fi 10’s…Oh my god the music plays in the middle of your skull and you can hear every sound recorded, only pain I know have to relisten to every track I own.