Noise cancelling headphones for plane journeys

Delvis · 5 Apr 2017 at 13:40

Hi all,

Looking to purchase some noise cancelling headphones for use on plane journeys, budget is max £50

I realise they won't be the most effective but should be better than your run of the mil headphones?

I also prefer the overhead variety rather than in ear

joeyjojo · 7 Apr 2017 at 09:08

The usual advice at the cheap end of the market is to get the best IEMs you can, the idea being that noise cancelling in cheap headphones is usually not very good and neither is the sound quality - at least with IEMs all your money goes on sound quality as you get the isolation 'for free' from sticking them into your ears.

Marsman · 7 Apr 2017 at 11:26

If you want over ear headphones rather than IEMs, then closed headphones is the best bet. Some will perform better than others when it comes to noise isolation, but you'll get better noise isolation than anything that is sold as 'noise cancelling' at a low budget. For such a low amount of money, anything that's sold as 'noise cancelling', will be as joeyjojo said; basically neither here nor there. There's such a pair on the spicy food site; Philips noise cancelling headphones for £40 where the NC doesn't actually work according to a few user comments. No surprise there really.

AKG Y40 or Y50 might be good choices.

Scam · 7 Apr 2017 at 11:55

IEMs + Comply foam tips. I use the tube every day (same amount of noise as a plane to be honest) and they're brilliant.

Irish_Tom · 7 Apr 2017 at 12:06

If you want over-hear with active noise cancelling for a budget, your best bet is the Goldring NS1000.

£9 over budget but they are decent ACN headphones.

I got a pair for my fiancé and while they aren't as good as my Bose CQ15s, they did a decent job for her flying to Australia.

If you can't stretch the extra £9, get some IEMs.

Delvis · 7 Apr 2017 at 12:43

Marsman said:
If you want over ear headphones rather than IEMs, then closed headphones is the best bet. Some will perform better than others when it comes to noise isolation, but you'll get better noise isolation than anything that is sold as 'noise cancelling' at a low budget. For such a low amount of money, anything that's sold as 'noise cancelling', will be as joeyjojo said; basically neither here nor there. There's such a pair on the spicy food site; Philips noise cancelling headphones for £40 where the NC doesn't actually work according to a few user comments. No surprise there really.

AKG Y40 or Y50 might be good choices.

Thanks, the AKG Y50s look good? I would prefer over ear that. On ear though.....That's just me I guess. A possible contender!

Scam said:
IEMs + Comply foam tips. I use the tube every day (same amount of noise as a plane to be honest) and they're brilliant.

Thank you for the suggestion.

Irish_Tom said:
If you want over-hear with active noise cancelling for a budget, your best bet is the Goldring NS1000.

£9 over budget but they are decent ACN headphones.

I got a pair for my fiancé and while they aren't as good as my Bose CQ15s, they did a decent job for her flying to Australia.

If you can't stretch the extra £9, get some IEMs.

Cheers, there are a few mixed reviews on there which is annoying

as I'd rather over ear than on ear.

Choices choices

MouthBoy · 7 Apr 2017 at 13:22

I would point at the NS1000's too. I had a pair (or two) back a few years ago. They sounded great and were very comfortable, but they did break (hence the 'or two' comment) with normal use. They cracked around the headbands and broke. I must say though that was on the older generation, not these new ones. In truth I would be happy to wear a pair again, but I know that they would sound as good as my HD650s, but that is a different conversation.

Delvis · 7 Apr 2017 at 14:19

So would you rate the Goldrings more than the AKG's?

The reviews on the Goldrings is putting.me off but I prefer the over ear of them than the AKG's on ear.

mattyg · 7 Apr 2017 at 14:22

Anyone here have tinnitus?

Does it make it worse with noise cancelling IEM's/OE

Marsman · 7 Apr 2017 at 14:27

Delvis said:
Thanks, the AKG Y50s look good? I would prefer over ear that. On ear though.....That's just me I guess. A possible contender!

Yeah, they are on ear. I was thinking that getting decent closed isolating full size over ear headphones for £50 would be a tall order. Having said that though, Audio Technica M20X looks like they do isolate quite well from what I can gather looking at some comments. Pretty good going from AT to achieve that with a full size headphone costing £40.

To be honest, I'd forgotten about Goldring NS1000. They used to be a very good choice for active noise cancelling (ANC) headphones, but they were at one point a more expensive headphone that was reduced in price. Headband breakage has always been a weak point Goldring headphones. How these new editions fare in comparison I don't know. They're cheaper. You can't improve build quality by making something cheaper.

That said though the ANC does work well and much better than any other budget headphones with NC.

Build quality aside, the only concern for me would be that when it comes to NC, there's more than just airplane noise. While the NS1000 do well on an airplane, they don't do so well if you want to use them on public transport to drown out voices. I suppose it depends whether you want these only for airplane use.

Delvis · 7 Apr 2017 at 15:19

mattyg said:
Anyone here have tinnitus?

Does it make it worse with noise cancelling IEM's/OE

Yeah have it. I'll let you know

Marsman said:
Yeah, they are on ear. I was thinking that getting decent closed isolating full size over ear headphones for £50 would be a tall order. Having said that though, Audio Technica M20X looks like they do isolate quite well from what I can gather looking at some comments. Pretty good going from AT to achieve that with a full size headphone costing £40.

To be honest, I'd forgotten about Goldring NS1000. They used to be a very good choice for active noise cancelling (ANC) headphones, but they were at one point a more expensive headphone that was reduced in price. Headband breakage has always been a weak point Goldring headphones. How these new editions fare in comparison I don't know. They're cheaper. You can't improve build quality by making something cheaper. That said though the ANC does work well and much better than any other budget headphones with NC.

Build quality aside, the only concern for me would be that when it comes to NC, there's more than just airplane noise. While the NS1000 do well on an airplane, they don't do so well if you want to use them on public transport to drown out voices. I suppose it depends whether you want these only for airplane use.

Now I'm more confused I could buy a pair of the ns1000s then a pair of the AKG set, primarily as I know wifey probably won't get on with the OE ones...

They're basically for the odd airplane flight, I don't use public transport, so gaming on my own on the odd blue moon.

I'll look at the others you mentioned as well, thanks