Denon AH-NC800
At the plush end of the market, Denon’s over-ear headphones have luxuriously soft cushioning and pivoting adjustments for comfort and folding. Weighing only 180g (including AAA battery), it hardly feels like you’re wearing them. There’s an additional processing mode on top of noise cancelling called Restorer, which aims to improve compressed audio, though it isn’t very noticeable. Built-in volume and talk-through controls are absent but the AH-NC800 functions as normal headphones if cancellation is off. When on, this works meticulously, however, its claim of 99 per cent noise reduction is stretching things a bit. Overall the headphones deliver a bold, open and expansive performance.
Reg Rating 75%
Price £219
More info Denon
Digital Silence DS-321D
These in-ear headphones by Wolfson Microelectronics are decent value if your budget doesn’t reach treble figures. In terms of comfort, they are also midway between cheaper and luxury models. Instead of the usual AAA, a built-in battery is charged from a micro USB, giving about 30 hours, slightly less than a removable cell. Its advantage is the tiny, featherlight control unit but you’ll need a mains connection to recharge. Sensibly they also work normally if noise cancelling is off. Features include a monitor button and mobile phone mic. It has a emphatic sound, packing plenty of bass and crisp higher frequencies, though vocals are not as smooth as the Sennheiser or Sony.
Reg Rating 70%
Price £70
More info Digital Silence
Next page: Panasonic RP-HC55
COMMENTS
Errm, why spend
upwards of £150 on these, when you can get a Sony NWZ-A845 16GB walkman with the exact same functionality...
Surely the real test
Is how any of these compare on noise reduction to just a simple pair of over-ear ear defenders from B&Q for under ten quid? I use a pair of those over some fairly decent Sennheiser earbuds and it works a treat on flights, even against screaming children. They seem to survive a lot more abuse than any headphone set I've bought, too.
Earplugs
I've had at least 5 pairs of noise cancelling headphones in the last 5 years, including Sennheiser, Sony, Bose, Philips and Koss.
None of them ever came close to beating ear plugs + over ear std headphones. I used to do around 150k miles of air travel a year, and that combination left me much less tired after longhaul flights than anything else I tried.
Oh, and the type of ear plugs makes a difference. If you can find them, Hearos are fantastic, with an NRR of 33db+ and very comfy. They are also very useful to block those noisy hotel HVAC units so you can get a decent nights sleep....
As an aside, I find that wearing headphones in public places just bothers me, I feel less in control. It's alright while sitting down for a while, but I tend to take them off as soon as I stand up.
I'm a bit disappointed that you didn't have more over-the-ear models. I find that, with careful selection of earpiece moulding, that in-ear 'phones hardly need noise reduction, but are too uncomfortable to wear for several hours. I have closed, over-ear headphones from Sony (MDR-Vsomething) and Sennheiser, they offer good noise shielding and are comfortable, so comfortable as to make it worth going for the expense of noise cancellation. I've owned Sennheiser PCX-250s in the past, but though the noise cancellation is reasonable, they sit on the ear, block less sound and aren't as comfortable. (Over-the-ear headphones can block out sounds that the noise cancelling circuitry doesn't affect)
I've tried the Bose, but while their noise cancellation is good, I don't like the way that they sit on my ears rather than over them. How about including the Sennheiser PCX450 in a future test?
Incidentally, why do these devices only cancel low frequency sound? As a layman I just expect them to reverse the phase of the signal from the microphones and thus subtract noise from the input. Ok, there needs to be some adjustment to compensate for the response curve of the microphones and the driver. Can't a simple analogue circuit do this? Wikipedia suggests that you'd need to have the microphone next to the eardrum. As I see it, you need the microphones to be at exactly the same distance from the eardrum as the acoustic driver, yet isolated from it so they only pick up ambient noise. Tricky, but not impossible at these prices? If the microphone is further away then you'd need to go digital and introduce a delay line in the signal path. Am I on the right lines here?
Bose 15
Had them for 2 years now. I like them. They work perfectly on the train and plane, but I don't use them outside because i feel too isolated from the outside world - dangerous. They don't block the baby crying or unusual noises unfortunately. They can make your ears sweat after a couple of hours especially in the summer. My wife also got one of them for the long vacation flights and she's happy with it as well. After comparing my old one with hers, I have the impression that hers blocks outside noise a tad better, maybe my noise recording microphone got clogged, i don't know. In-ear is not for me because it hurts in a weird way after a couple of hours...
