[tavilach]

I like to study in places other than my room, and although my Fontopia in-ear headphones are great, I sometimes have to blast the music to drain out external noises. In my room, my roommate makes strange noises (noises that he can't help, it seems), and I'd like to block out those noises as well, without blasting my music.

I like the concept of noise-cancelling headphones, but they're so expensive! If they really do block out sound, though, it might be worth it...that is, if they block out much more sound than my current in-ear headphones (and they block out a lot of sound).

Let's just say that I would like them, though. What is the difference between a $300 Bose QuietComfort 2 vs. this or this. First of all, the Sennheiser and Bose are both "noise-canceling," whereas the Etymotic is "noise isolating." Is there a difference? Second of all, how would cheaper headphones differ from the Bose heapdhones? Would the cancelation be less effective? How much less?

I'd really like to try these puppies out, but I can't find stores that have them. I normally shop for electronics at Fry's, but I'm currently in Maryland, and they don't have Fry's here (to my knowledge). Best Buy doesn't have anything good in terms of nose canceling headphones, either. Where do I go? If anyone knows Baltimore, help!

[Timo]

Take your questions to www.head-fi.org. Lots of opinions over there.

[Spheric Harlot]

Or, if you want the opinions of MacNN, I suggest searching the peripherals and Audio/video forums, since this eXACT subject was discussed last week.

The etymotics fit snugly in your ear and just block out external sound.

"noise-cancelling" means there's active circuitry and a microphone that observes ambient noise and adds it to the headphone signal, phase-reversed, so that it cancels out the external noise. This is apparently effective only for constant drones, such as aircraft noise, but from an "audiophile" standpoint, it is absolutely impossible to do well in real-time. You will always have MASSIVE phase-shift/processing artifacts - how much these really matter depends on the environment, the source, and your listening habits.

-s*

[tavilach]

I meant to post in the peripherals forum!

[Luca Rescigno]

A cheaper option is to get a fully sealed "earmuff" style set. Those block out the noise pretty well, and they're a lot cheaper than noise-canceling phones.

Head-Fi.org has an excellent message board. Headphone.com has some good information too, and they also sell headphones. Although they do restrict their information to the ones they sell, so they end up excluding a lot of brands.

Anyway, from what I've heard, the Sennheiser HD 280 Pros are some of the best sealed headphones for the money. They're $100. Sennheiser also has a low-end sealed set, the HD 202, for one fourth of that. I think there are some in the middle as well. Headphone.com also likes the Beyerdynamic DT 231, which is $60.

I can vouch for Sennheiser being good quality. I've owned two of their sets of headphones - an HD 270 (sealed) and now an HD 497 (open). Both had excellent quality sound, though I sold the HD 270s a while ago because they made my ears sweat.

That's the one concern with sealed headphones. If you're going to be wearing them for a long time, they will make your ears pretty toasty. There's no real way around it other than to just take breaks occasionally.

[Mithras]

Originally posted by Luca Rescigno:

Anyway, from what I've heard, the Sennheiser HD 280 Pros are some of the best sealed headphones for the money. They're $100.

Bought a pair of these for my wife, who is a writer and needs a distraction-free environment. Now I have to throw things at her to get her attention; she can't hear a thing, even if the stereo is on pretty loud.