[mrseldowski]

Hi there, I am a long-time lurker on this thread and need some advice. I currently own a pair of Sennheiser HD-555's for home use (that are kind of broken) and a pair of Shure SE210's in-ear's for on-the-go. I was pleased with both of these for their uses.
 
I am looking for something to use on the plane, and to take on the road for traveling with use with an mp3 player as with my new job I will be doing a lot of traveling. I do not want to use my in-ear SE210's on the plane. So my questions/possibilities are as follows:
 
1. Does noise canceling really help that much? I heard the Sennheiser PXC 350 are pretty good but I don't want to pay extra for a gimmick where I could just get a pair of closed headphones that sound better.
 
2. I really like the design of the B&W P5 , how small they are, the build quality, the easy maintenance, the sound quality (from what I heard). Would these be good to use on the plane? I mean provide enough isolation? I do have a pretty large heard....I think
 
3. I love the comfort of my HD-555s but they are not something I would want to bring on the plane because of their sheer size and the sound leakage (being open cans)
 
4. Any other suggestions? I want something good but the B&W P5 is about as expensive as I would go.
 
Please lend me a hand, I know you guys are good at this stuff
 
I might go to the apple store and try on a pair of the B&W P5 to see how they fit etc.

 

[shaun_g]

I'd go for a really good closed back headphone, e.g. Shure SRH-840 or Ultrasone HFI-780.  The Shure is the best at sound isolating in my opinion.
 
Noise cancelling electronics does work well with the kind of noise in an aeroplane cabin, but doesn't do much for the quality of audio.  It's a nice toy to play with, but that's about it.  Obviously you also need to keep feeding noise cancelling headphones batteries.