Help! Need advice on how to choose the Noise-cancelling headphones!

[yoyo_086]

Hi, everyone,

I plan to buy a Noise-cancelling headphones, but there is so many brand and companies (including I think Bose and Sony being the most “famous” or any others) that make noise-cancelling headphones. They are usually used for reducing outside noise on airplanes, but can also be used under other circumstances.

anyone knows the headphones that seem to get the best reviews first for quality?

Like I said, first please just review for quality and customer satisfaction. Just tell me about the ones that seem the best.

Thanks in a million

best
Yoyo

 

[chews89]

When someone asks for recommendations for noise-cancelling headphones, it is very common for head-fiers to suggest canalphones instead.

This is because the sound quality provided by noise-cancelling headphones tends to only be average, whereas with canalphones, the sound quality achieved can be quite exceptional plus they can isolate very very well. So yep, I suggest looking into canalphones

What is your budget? What music do you listen to? What is your source(mp3 player)? Do you have an amplifier?

 

[Dat_Dude]

I second what Chews had to say. I have a set of Shure IEMs that almost completely block out outside noise and offer a very good sound. I have the lower end model, which was around $100, but if you have a larger budget you could go for higher end ones. If noise cancellation if a high priority, then that is my recommendation.

 

[Denaturat]

No doubt that IEMs will offer far more balanced sound, but when it comes to isolation things may be different. At specific frequencies I found the active noise cancellers to be superior to IEMs, even though their respective freq. graphs suggested otherwise - i.e. humming of the airconditioning, kitchen exhaust, onboard an airplane etc. NCs were very impressive at killing the noise of the ventilation and computer coolers in my office, but I had to switch NC off for VOIP calls, as I could not adapt to my voice sounding so much different mutilated through the NC

Still, overall advantages of NC headphones seem very limited and I eventually switched back to IEM for isolation, yet I would not dismiss the NC idea as such, just remember it will not be very audophile

 

[K_19]

If you must get an active NC headphone, then I suggest the Denon NC732's. Read my review here: http://www.head-fi.org/forums/f4/say...review-419012/

IEM still does a far better job in isolating and give audiophile-level sound, however.

 

[K_19]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Denaturat /img/forum/go_quote.gif No doubt that IEMs will offer far more balanced sound, but when it comes to isolation things may be different. At specific frequencies I found the active noise cancellers to be superior to IEMs, even though their respective freq. graphs suggested otherwise - i.e. humming of the airconditioning, kitchen exhaust, onboard an airplane etc. NCs were very impressive at killing the noise of the ventilation and computer coolers in my office, but I had to switch NC off for VOIP calls, as I could not adapt to my voice sounding so much different mutilated through the NC

From my experience, the passive NC headphones/IEMs are better at killing high/mid frequency noises where as the active NC ones are better for low. So overall passive ones do the job better but actives are good for certain tasks (like drowning out jetplane engine, etc).

 

[kelvinz]

that is unfortunate... I've been using my IEM's at work recently and they just aren't as comfortable as full size cans