Noise-cancelling headphones head-to-head test

Now we're in the season of the long winter break, with its long train, car and plane journeys, we thought a comparison of some noise-cancelling headphones from Denon and Sennheiser would be timely. Sennheiser PXC-350 Sennheiser's PXC-350: NoiseGuard technology well established Noise-cancelling technology has come a long …

[Anonymous Coward]

I am missing BOSE QC3

Granted, you compared only those two, but I would have hope, in something like this, that there would be a bit more competition.

I have tried a number of different ones and I got stuck with the QC3.

Since I am on a plane on average twice a week, it was a good investment for me.

It is amazing what the noise cancellation does.

[Barry]

Don't discount passive noise-cancelling

Ok, so these are two pretty smart active noise-cancelling headphones. But, don't discount the abilities of the passive noise-cancelling ones.

I can personally vouch for the Etymotic ER4p's. Ok, so they are inner-ear type, and you have to use the little foam earpiece to get the most noise cancelling effect. But, with them in place, and your music turned *off* you can barely hear a sound. It's like wearing earplugs. Of course, this means that your personal choice of music is almost entirely isolated from the external noises. And, because of their passive nature, no batteries are needed.

[Anonymous Coward]

What about the market leader ?

I know it's not possible to review every product, however, the Bose should have been included in the review... the original, most marketed and (supposedly) market leading product. American Airlines lend the Bose headphones to you when travelling in business class... they were excellent, I'd like to know if these products are better or worse.

[Tezfair]

I have a Sennheiser

Don't expect them to wipe out all the background noise. I have a set of Sennheiser PXC150 from pc world that I wear when im driving the van around. What I like about them is that they are small enought that other drivers / police won't see them. no point in having great big cans and draw attention!!

One of the interesting side effects is a noisey van like mine, is that I can hear sirens far better than without.

Biggest downside and something that wasn't mentioned on the test is that if you have a mobile within 3 feet of your headset you get the du-du du du-du du du sound similiar to when you put your mobile near a radio / speakers. Only this is amplified. When im driving through Bristol and going through so many cells I often have to turn off the mobile because the mobile is busy talking to the masts that you can't hear anything.

Be aware that these (or at least mine) don't totally block all the outside noise so your not going to put them on and then get total silence. It tends to block out the high and low frequencies so you will still hear some road noise / mid range hum / the car radio / naggin wife.

Overall im pleased with mine (about £80). battery life seems to go for ever on 2 x AAA. Quality is good enough for my needs, but may not suit those who are complete audiophiles.

[David Hicks]

Sony MCR-NC22

For those of us that don't want to travel around with Huuuuuge alice-band headphones, the sony alternative works rather nicely on the plane, on the tube or even to drown out annoying excess noise in the office.

Been using them a year or so and they're great, provided you like in-ear headphones. Maybe El Reg should review them alongside these two? Especially given the sub £100 price tag.

Either way, I highly recommend some sort of noise reducing headset for regular use. They can help you sleep on the plane, help you get work done, and I reckon they've got to be good for your hearing too - you can get away with listening to your music at lower volume when you don't have to overcome background noise.

[Andy Worth]

Prices

The article quotes a price of £195 as an online price for the Sennheisers and then there's an advertisement at the bottom of the page offering them from £139.99. Amazon have them at that price as well.

The Denon's I struggle to find at less than £200, aside from one company who offers them shipped from the U.S., but then you'll spend another £50 on shipping anyway. Oh, and the links provided now draw a blank as they have assumedly been sold.

Realistically if you take your online prices as £140 and £200, then you're paying an extra £60 for the Denon's, which from what I can see just doesn't seem worth it.

[jai]

QC3

meh - i tried out the QC3s at a Bose shop a few months ago, but was very unimpressed

you'd expect in the retailers shop they would have things set up to show the product to it's best, but while i could clearly hear the reduction in the outside noise when it was acivated, i was still able to hear the salesguy talking on the phone 5 feet away. for the price and the hassle of wearing big bulky headphones, i was not impressed, i've stuck with my in-earphones from Sony that block out far more external noise for 1/3 the cost.

still, would have been nice to see the QC3's in this review so I could use them as a benchmark to see if these two are any better

[Bad Beaver]

"Review"?

Come on folks, you can do better. This is a tech site, after all. "An over-ear set" translates to circumaural = enclosing the ears, vs. supra-aural = sitting on the ear. Also, I would like to read whether these sets produce any audible hiss, the bane of active headphones. Next up is speed — just how fast is the cancellation circuit and how well does it respond to sudden peaks? Such peaks rarely occur in the comfort of an airliner, when these kinds of phones are happy to reduce the drone of turbines, but more often on trains. As trains pass each other at high speed, things go bang, a most unpleasant experience with active cancellation phones which are not up to speed.

In most cases, you are much better off with IEM-style passive isolators. Not only are they smaller and have no peak-problems, you will also get much better phones for the same money minus the worry about yet another set of batteries. Circumaural phones with active cancellation are only a good choice if you have IEM-related comfort issues or have to take off your phones every five minutes for some reason.

[Mike]

PXC-250

Why do you want noise cancelling? most of the time on a plane, in which case you want small, the 250's are fantastic (4 years old now), the limited test is a bit rubbish apart from only selecting two, they are both more bulky that you want to cart around, maybe in the ear would be better (who knows).

[Amanda]

PXC-250: Seconded!

I bought a pair for my fiance for Christmas last year to make the trip to visit my family in the US a bit more pleasant. We agreed that they are excellent and were worth every penny. They can currently be gotten quite cheaply (about $65). I'm about to go buy a second pair so we can each have one for the annual "big hop" from Germany.