Noise cancelling headphones

[philsmove]

Off on my hols soon

And think of buying some new headphones for the ipod

Has anyone used these? Do they work?

Is the battery pack a big nuisance

[Clive Long]

Originally Posted by philsmove

Off on my hols soon

And think of buying some new headphones for the ipod

Has anyone used these? Do they work?

Is the battery pack a big nuisance

I bought Philips "full ear" noise cancelling-head phones. They look like I am wearing a pair of aluminium coconuts over my ears - not trendy at all. I use them on the underground and they cancel a lot of the low frequency rumble - so I don't have to have the volume on my mp3 brick (aka iRiver) turned up so high. They do not cancel ALL external noise. They become tiring to wear, just under the earlobe, after 1 hour of wear. The battery is in the "coconut" so no heavy battery. Poor design of the lead lead to a split in the sheathing where the wires from the "cans" meet in a "Y" junction . I repaired with super glue but don't think it will be a permanent fix. Overall I am pleased I bought them for use on tube journeys - although I look a twit wearing them. Cost c. £50 .

I feel the "closed ear" design helps in blocking some noise. The open ear sony and panasonic must be more comfortable to wear than my Philips phones but I can't think how they can be effective against ambient noise.

A friend of mine bought the Bose. He thinks they are great - I haven't tried them to compare against the performance of my Philips cans. The Bose are expensive c. £200 ?? Much cheaper in the US - but you need a US mailing address to get the price benefit.

Another alternative is the "in ear" Shure (and now other makers) type. I think these work by forming a really close fit to your ear canal - a sort of ear plug effect. Some people think they are brilliant (online reviews). Others worry abut a sound source so close to one's ear drum.

I saw loads of other models - AudioTecnic and others I can't remember - so you won't be spoiled for choice.

Hope you get something satisfactory.

Clive

[frodo]

Originally Posted by philsmove

Off on my hols soon

And think of buying some new headphones for the ipod

Has anyone used these? Do they work?

Is the battery pack a big nuisance

As Clive Long says they do help with low frequency rumble, but don't cancel all noise.

(if anyone finds one which works at higher (voice) frequencies I'd love to know ).


They work well on the train / tube, in a server room (for cancelling fan noise), of even if you've got a noisy computer, and it would be ridiculous to fly without them.

Maplin have some cheap ones at 30.00 ( periodically on offer at 15.00, which is when I've bought them for myself and others ) They take a single AAA battery which lasts a long time so weight isn't really an issue.

http://www.maplin.co.uk/Module.aspx?...elling&doy=2m1
(The picture doesn't look exactly like the ones in the Maplin shops, but I think the picture is probably wrong).


I've tried a colleague's Bose headphones and they feel wonderfully comfortable to wear - I'm not sure they are that much better at noise cancelling though.

However the price ( at 280 pounds ), is so high and Bose spend so much on advertising, I can't help thinking that it should be possible to do better.

Two I mean to investigate are the Creative Labs ones at 50.00 and the Senheiser* at around 100.00 - I think these are both fairly respected audio companies.


* Not sure of spelling.

[Tiggerbabe]

Originally Posted by frodo

Senheiser* ...............* Not sure of spelling.

Sennheiser

[ducasi]

Originally Posted by Tiggerbabe

Sennheiser

I don't think I'd buy noise-cancelling ear-phones, but if I did, these would be the ones I'd look at first. They look like a good compromise between bulk and efficiency.

[DavidB]

I've used the Sony ones for a couple of years, and am pretty impressed with them. They are lightweight, foldable, and the AAA battery lasts a long time. They don't cut out all the sound, but enough to make a big difference.