Noise Cancelling Earphones

DirtyMonkey · 30 Oct 2007 at 21:07

Hey

Am planning a few long distance flights over the next few months and have got myself a PSP to while-away the hours in airports/on planes/in hotels etc.

I'd like to get some decent noise cancelling headphones - now I'm assuming that the sound coming out of a PSP isn't going to need the top of the range kind of things that are probably out there.

My main criteria are (in no particular order) not too bulky for travelling, comfy for long duration of use and good at getting rid of that background drone you get on planes.

Thanks a mil!

Hxc · 30 Oct 2007 at 21:12

Shure EC2s can be had fairly cheaply and have fantastic sound quality and from experience are pretty good at cancelling noise; although any in ear headphone with a decent seal and music playing will block out virtually all noise around you.

bigredshark · 30 Oct 2007 at 21:21

My in ear phone never cut it on a plane, they just didn't seem to isolate the drone from the engines. I got a pair of Bose active noise canceling headphone which are *Very* good for that job but I've never used them for anything else, which is a bit of a waste of so much money. If you're going to fly a lot then seriously think about them though, nothing beats them on a plane (and they have an adaptor with them for the personal entertainment so you can use them for that too.)

Hxc · 30 Oct 2007 at 21:24

In the world of headphones BOSE are very looked down upon, if you actually take real people's opinions.

Never tried them myself, so can't form a real opinion. Just over at Head Fi and on sites like AudioCubes, they get slagged off a fair bit.

jhmaeng · 30 Oct 2007 at 21:30

The Bose QuietComforts are actually very good on a plane - the active noise cancelling circuitry really does work well, but purely in terms of sound quality I wouldn't rate them particularly highly. I used to use active noise-cancelling earphones before but found the sound quality very lacking - then changed to Shure E4c and I couldn't be happier.

As for in-ear earphones vs. IEMs, it really has to be IEMs to cut down any significant amount of noise. But my Shures with foam sleeves cut down the noise to more or less nothing (nothing noticeable), with incredible sound quality, so I really couldn't ask for anything more.

Well, my E4c broke so I'm waiting for the replacement which is apparently SE310 these days.. but you get my point

Big Kev · 30 Oct 2007 at 22:49

My E4c's broke and I was sent a brand new set of SE310's, but I decided to sell them and have just taken delivery of some E500PTH's and they are brilliant, better sound quality than the E4c's and with great bass, but they come at a cost.

We really need to know how much you intend to spend mate.

DirtyMonkey · 30 Oct 2007 at 23:45

Big Kev said:
We really need to know how much you intend to spend mate.

I've no idea really. I figured I'd see what people recommended and if I thought it was reasonable I'd get em. If not then regular earphones will do...

LeoN88 · 31 Oct 2007 at 00:06

well i have a pair of e5c's was an instinct buy tbh cant believe how much i spent but they were well worth the money in my opinion now.
I dont know what the e2cs are like in comparisment but you cant go wrong with shure as they all have a 2 year warranty as far as im aware. As my earphones broke within a year and i sent them back a week later received a brand new pair and the sound quality is well unbelievable and u dont need to whack the volume up either however they can take it though

james.miller · 31 Oct 2007 at 00:07

Big Kev said:
My E4c's broke and I was sent a brand new set of SE310's, but I decided to sell them and have just taken delivery of some E500PTH's and they are brilliant, better sound quality than the E4c's and with great bass, but they come at a cost.

We really need to know how much you intend to spend mate.

jesus they are some expensive earphones

marscay · 31 Oct 2007 at 12:33

you can source them from a guy over the pond through that well known place for a lot cheaper than RRP in the UK.

E500's are sex for your ears, the step up in quality over £100 IEM's is phenomenal.

Big Kev · 31 Oct 2007 at 18:36

marscay said:
you can source them from a guy over the pond through that well known place for a lot cheaper than RRP in the UK.

E500's are sex for your ears, the step up in quality over £100 IEM's is phenomenal.

Tell me about it, even a fairly big jump from my old E4c's in my book, especially in the bass department. Plus the fact, if they go wrong in 2 years, the chances are that I'll end up with a brand new set of SE530's.

As for your source, same bloke I used by the look of it, receiving them in four days, including a weekend. :eek:

Leporello · 1 Nov 2007 at 18:44

Hxc said:
In the world of headphones BOSE are very looked down upon, if you actually take real people's opinions.

Never tried them myself, so can't form a real opinion. Just over at Head Fi and on sites like AudioCubes, they get slagged off a fair bit.

Horses for courses. I have a set of Sennheiser HD650s used via a headphone amp. with my home hi fi system. For flying I use a set of BOSE triports for comfort and moderately decent sound. To use the amplified Sennheisers on a flight would be daft as would be using the Bose triports with my hi fi.

Headfi.org is a useful site with loads of informed user threads, but in common with most enthusiast forums it has its quota of parrots who trot out a mixture of folk lore and half digested factoids.

I wouldn't buy many BOSE products, but their noise cancelling and Triport headphones are good products for their target market.