Noise canceling headphones?

March 16, 2005 7:35 AM

I want to get a nice set of noise canceling headphones, and would appreciate some first-hand reviews.

The obvious super-luxurious choice would probably be the Bose Quiet Comfort 2. Other possibilities include Targus (have not seen any reviews), and Sony MDR G94NC (which has gotten very mixed reviews online). Sennheiser also has a couple different models in their PXC line, but these models look like they sit ON the ear rather than over/surrounding it, a style I do not find comfortable for any length of time (is this right?). Has anyone used any of these or others that you liked? Comfort and superior performance (both in noise canceling and in balanced audio delivery) are the most important factors for me.

posted by turtlegirl to Technology (11 answers total)

I've got the Bose and they are gorgeous. The sound reproduction is excellent and the noise cancellation is pretty much spot on. If you can jemmy up the wedge I'd highly recommend them.
posted by benzo8 at 8:05 AM on March 16, 2005

I went for the Sennheisers -- they do indeed sit on the ear, rather than over, but I find them quite comfortable. You might want to try them out before buying them, if possible, but it's still hard to guage whether they'll be comfortable over a long period of time. I wear them for 2-3 hours a day and occasionally forget I have them on, but of course your mileage may vary.

I wrote a favorable review on my weblog with more detail. In the interest of fairness, here's a negative review from Dan's Data.
posted by Acetylene at 8:18 AM on March 16, 2005

I have enjoyed Sony noise-canceling headphones for years. My favorite pair was the in-ear MDR-NC10, which I used way past their logical replacement point; I now have NC11s, which are good but a little less effective, thanks to their smaller earbuds. (I need to replace them with the large size but haven't yet; the adjustable sizes are a nice touch.) I also have the over-the-ear Sonys, which are far less cumbersome than, say, the Bose, but not as effective.

I tried the Bose headphones on an international flight last month and thought they were terrific. They are big and bulky, though, and may not suit your needs (the in-ear Sonys--and, I'm told, Etymotics--have similar performance in a more portable size).
posted by werty at 8:57 AM on March 16, 2005

If your ears can handle it, I would suggest ear canal phones, such as the Shures over noise canceling. The sound quality is much better, and the noise reduction is more complete (noise canceling is very good for constant sounds like the drone of a plane, not so good for less regular sounds, like babies crying). Plus, you don't get the head in a barrel feeling that noise-canceling tends to give. I have a pair of the Westone UM2's and absolutely love them.
posted by rtimmel at 9:13 AM on March 16, 2005

I had the Bose ones for a while and didn't care for them at all. The "noise cancellation" seemed to be a constant hiss of limited effectiveness and the sound quality was... Let's go with not what I prefer. What I went with instead was a regular set of headphones with big, foamy, old school earpieces. For me, the venerable Sony 7506 worked out. If I desire more noise cancellation, I put my earplugs (custom flat-response "musician" plugs) on underneath the cans. This set of phones isolates well enough that I can do that without subjecting passers-by to my taste in music.

Basically, many headphones, particularly those designed for audio production already offer lots of isolation. In my opinion, this is a better solution than noise cancellation. As ever, try out a bunch of headphones and let your ears be the guide.
posted by stet at 9:30 AM on March 16, 2005

I agree with the previous posters who aren't big fans of noise-cancellation circuitry. If you don't want canalphones like the Shures or Etymotics, I would suggest the Sennhiser HD 280 Pro, which offers something like 20db of isolation.
posted by box at 9:54 AM on March 16, 2005

I had a pair of the original Bose Quiet Comfort phones; a friend had the next generation. One day (a day that was past the warranty period), the plastic band that held the right muff on my headphones snapped in two. I showed it to my friend who then discovered a crack in the same place on his headphones. He was able to get a replacement pair which cracked again some months later.

Since I liked the way the headphones fit and didn't need the noise cancellation anymore, I bought a set of Tri-ports. They, too, had structural failures in the plastic on both sides of the headphones.

My small sampling of Bose headphones shows a 100% failure rate in their construction. Considering the cost of the headphones, I'd recommend avoiding Bose.
posted by joaquim at 11:00 AM on March 16, 2005

Response by poster: Good points all, regarding the cancelation vs. isolation debate. Thanks!
I am usually a fan of ear buds (the type that sit in the ear but don't plug into the canal) but these don't provide good isolation. I plan to check out some canal and sealed over-ear models and see what's comfortable. My husband has a pair of the in-ear Sonys that I found very painful to wear (the ribbed rubber style), but I checked out the Etymotics and they have at least two different options that come with theirs: silicon and expanding foam. I am willing to give those a try, as well as some of the fold-up over-ear varieties. Low impedance on the big sealed models is key.
posted by turtlegirl at 11:06 AM on March 16, 2005

See also the earlier discussion about reasonably-priced NC headphones. It was not conclusive by any means.
posted by majick at 11:38 AM on March 16, 2005

The previous thread has several messages in it that state that noise cancellation "works best with steady droning sounds" and that it is "predictive." This is not true. It's simple phase inversion. It simply works much better with low-frequency sounds. This is why you can hear voices -- not because they're transient but because they're above the frequency at which noise cancellation is effective.
posted by kindall at 1:47 PM on March 16, 2005

I have the Bose Quiet Comfort 2 headphones and haven't seen the problem that joaquim describes crop up in the year+ that I've owned them. If I had a pile of spare cash lying around I would look at the Shures since they are much smaller. My primary use of the Bose is for flying--in the last few years I have spent a lot of times on long plane rides and now shudder to think about goign on such a trip without the headphones. I often just use them to dampen jet noise and it has made flying much less stressful--I had no idea how rattled my typically sleep deprived body got from the dull roar of airplanes. One drawback is that the over the ear bulkiness makes it hard to twist sideways and sleep if you're in a tiny coach seat.

I'd previously owned a much cheaper pair of Sony noise cancelling headphones (can't remember the model) and I can't recommend them--all they did was produce a dull hiss.
posted by donovan at 2:18 PM on March 16, 2005