best sound quality of the bunch...
Pros:
Good sound quality, good battery life, airplane adapter, cheap!
Cons:
Microphone placement, slightly inferior noise cancelling
The Bottom Line:
A good entry-level noise cancelling headphone that is a great start for someone unsure of whether they need these at all.
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Overall Rating:
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Author's Review
Initial Impressions
I know a lot of people will disagree with me here and before anybody shoots me down, ask yourself whether you have ever compared each of Sony's noise cancelling headphones side by side at the same time. Most electronics stores dont have all of these headphones on display, so it's not too common that you get to try them all out.
Testing Methodology
I recently went traveling to Asia and after 12 hours of flying and several hours more to go on several more flights, I broke down and decided to buy a pair of noise cancelling headphones, not really knowing what to expect. In Tokyo, I went to the Narita duty free shop and checked out every noise-cancelling headphone they had on display. So I whipped out my iPod and tried every Sony, a handful of JVC's and a couple of Audio-technica headphones. Without looking at the price and gauging solely on sound quality, I chose this pair hands down.
Sound Quality
This seems like a strange pair to pick for sound quality, but the configuration of the headphones I think lend to better sound and a more comfortable experience. Most of the other headphones used a closed-headphone, using ear cups that attempt to block out the rest of the world and keep sound trapped in. From my knowledge and experience using headphones, closed headphones always sound worse than those that are open. While closed headphones might give you heart-pounding bass, I don't want that out of a pair of headphones I'll be wearing for 10+ hours. I don't want my ears to be fatigued and I don't want to damage my hearing.
Noise Cancelling
Compared to other noise cancelling headphones, I concur with the other reviews--this pair does not do noise cancelling as well, but it does a fairly decent job. It's hard to explain the difference but all I can say is that if more expensive headphones cancelled approximately 75% of the "constant" noise, these headphones did about 60%. So the noise cancelling is not totally inferior, it's just not as good as the others. I also emphasize "constant" because no noise cancelling headphones will filter out random noises. It will only help to filter out the airplane engine and wind rumble.
Likes
Great battery life
I used the headphones for a full 11 hour flight and one AAA battery lasted the whole trip. Perfect!
Airplane Adapter
It was a huge plus that it came with an airline adapter because I spent half of my time watching movies on the plane and the noise cancelling helped.
Price
Although I probably overpaid because I purchased these in Tokyo, at $35-40 USD, these are a great deal.
Dislikes
Easy to block microphones.
In case you don't already know, noise cancelling technology works by recording outside noises and sending an inverse-waveform to your headphones to cancel out that noise. This is a crude explanation but that's basically how it works. That being said, it's important for those microphones to be unrestricted so they can record the outside noise. The problem is, if you wear these headphones and try to take a nap by resting your headphones against a pillow or the seat, the microphone gets blocked and it effectively deactivates noise cancelling on that side. The microphones should really be located on a separate component.
Power Switch
There should be either a "hold" switch or some means of preventing you from accidentally leaving your headphones on and running down the battery because it's too easy to do. I accidentally left them on before I left the plane and when I got on my next flight I discovered that my battery was dead. i had no extra batteries so I was SOL.
