Sony MDR-NC7 Noise Canceling Headphones.

[markw]

To start off, my normal portable headphone are Koss Porta-Pros. They sound great, are cheap and durable and, on the whole, that's not going to change.

We fly frequently and I've always been curious about noise cancelling headphones. When I saw these advertised at a local store for $27 I couldn't resist. That price makes it truly an invitation for an impulse buy for a gadget guy like I am.

So, I get 'em home, sit down in my comfy chair, put the battery in, grab my Porta-Pros and Zune, and do a head to head test.

My initial impressions were that the Sony was not good. I flip the on/off switch on and don't hear any difference. They were not as loud as my Koss units and sounded somewhat tinny. Heck, what did I expect for this price. So, I took the battery out and put 'em in the supplied pouch and pretty much forgot about them. I've spent more than $27 on bad meals out and didn't lose any sleep over it.

A few months later we were preparing for out annual trip to Texas to visit the family, a three hour plane ride where I pass the time listening to my music and reading. I remembered the Sony's and stuck them in my magical musical travel pouch to see how they worked on the airplane.

While waiting to take off from beautiful Newark "Liberty" Airport, without plugging them into the Zune, I put them on. I switch them on and, lo and behold, the bass droning is cut down noticeably. Interesting... This is a good sign. I found that using them this way alone is an improvement.

So, we take off and they give the go-ahead for us to turn on out toys. Mrs W starts playing Angry Birds on her Ipad and I fish out my Zune and Porta-Pros for a real test.

The Porta-Pros are louder and have more bass here. More so that that, combined with the airplanes drone caused me to need all the volume I could get to try to overcome it. Time to switch.

The sony's are definitely not as loud as the Koss units and don't have the bass but, strangely enough, I got accustomed to the Sony's quickly in that their loudness was not an issue. Perhaps the lack of bass droning or what, but after switching between the two a few times I found I preferred the Sony's in this application. They have a permanent place in my travel kit.

Now, I'm not saying they are the end-all and be-all. The Porta-Pros are still the headphone of choice for walking in the park or in the gym but, for air travel, the cheapo noise=cancelling Sony's win hands down.

Now, I'm wondering what a "real" pair of noise cancelling headphones can do.

See the item under discussion here

 

[lsiberian]

To start off, my normal portable headphone are Koss Porta-Pros. They sound great, are cheap and durable and, on the whole, that's not going to change.

We fly frequently and I've always been curious about noise cancelling headphones. When I saw these advertised at a local store for $27 I couldn't resist. That price makes it truly an invitation for an impulse buy for a gadget guy like I am.

So, I get 'em home, sit down in my comfy chair, put the battery in, grab my Porta-Pros and Zune, and do a head to head test.

My initial impressions were that the Sony was not good. I flip the on/off switch on and don't hear any difference. They were not as loud as my Koss units and sounded somewhat tinny. Heck, what did I expect for this price. So, I took the battery out and put 'em in the supplied pouch and pretty much forgot about them. I've spent more than $27 on bad meals out and didn't lose any sleep over it.

A few months later we were preparing for out annual trip to Texas to visit the family, a three hour plane ride where I pass the time listening to my music and reading. I remembered the Sony's and stuck them in my magical musical travel pouch to see how they worked on the airplane.

While waiting to take off from beautiful Newark "Liberty" Airport, without plugging them into the Zune, I put them on. I switch them on and, lo and behold, the bass droning is cut down noticeably. Interesting... This is a good sign. I found that using them this way alone is an improvement.

So, we take off and they give the go-ahead for us to turn on out toys. Mrs W starts playing Angry Birds on her Ipad and I fish out my Zune and Porta-Pros for a real test.

The Porta-Pros are louder and have more bass here. More so that that, combined with the airplanes drone caused me to need all the volume I could get to try to overcome it. Time to switch.

The sony's are definitely not as loud as the Koss units and don't have the bass but, strangely enough, I got accustomed to the Sony's quickly in that their loudness was not an issue. Perhaps the lack of bass droning or what, but after switching between the two a few times I found I preferred the Sony's in this application. They have a permanent place in my travel kit.

Now, I'm not saying they are the end-all and be-all. The Porta-Pros are still the headphone of choice for walking in the park or in the gym but, for air travel, the cheapo noise=cancelling Sony's win hands down.

Now, I'm wondering what a "real" pair of noise cancelling headphones can do.

See the item under discussion here

Have you ever tried the Etymotic Research Noise Isolating headphones? Those things are amazing for sound reproduction. I often use them as a reference for speakers. Not a bad deal for 30 bucks though.

 

[Adam]

Now, I'm wondering what a "real" pair of noise cancelling headphones can do.

I used the original Bose QuietComfort headphones on a couple of plane trips back in 2003, and they worked great to reduce the fairly constant droning sound of the aircraft. The processing certainly wasn't fast enough to cancel out transient noises (like a baby crying...grrrr ), or perhaps they weren't designed to cancel higher frequencies. The lack of cancelling "day to day" sounds is something that was also obvious when I checked out those headphones at a Bose store.

I wonder if the newer ones are better at canceling out more types of sounds.