[engaged]

The wife and I are flying out to Oz later in the year to see her brother, and I was thinking about getting some noise cancelling 'phones for the flights. I can't afford to spend too much, certainly can't justify something like Ety's.

Panasonic have some on offer from the online store, only £35;

http://www.panasonic.co.uk/noise-can...c100/index.htm

I know that Sennheiser offer the PXC-250, which can be had from veronica for £70 - but would these really be that much better?! I do have some PX-200's, and am pleased with them.

I'd welcome any feedback, comments and suggestions. I've had a look at headfi, but it doesn't seem to have a search facility!

[TameRacingDriver]

Never heard the Panasonics, but the PXC-250 are pretty highly rated by everyone who has heard them, I think you'll be hard pressed to do any better for the money.

[MarkE19]

By the looks of it the Panny phones cover the ears. Great for cutting out noise, but make it more difficault to hold a conversation (or is that the whole point ).
I've got an older pair of Sennheiser noise cancelling phones that sit on the ear, so can be left on for a conversation. You'll be surprised at how loud the background noise on a plane is when you remove them. I can highly recommend the Sennheisers. They are lightweight and comfortable for extended wearing. Although saying that I have never tried the Panasonic phone so don't know how they compare.
Of course you could always spend around £800 and get the Bose equivelent phones

Mark.

[engaged]

Thanks for your replies.

Wondered if I'd be able to buy just the box of tricks that accompany Sennheiser PXC250's and use them with my PX200's. Just gave Sennheiser a ring and was put through to John Willet (?) who, as I understood, is in charge of their service and support.

He explained that the gadgetry (microphone and signal inverter) is actually in the headphones themselves and the box is only the batteries. He uses them himself (obviously!) and was happy to discuss the subject area.

Nice to get decent support!

[Nic Rhodes]

I use the Sennheiser PXC250's, as someone who has spend most of this week on noisey trains I cannot recommend these things highly enough, they take all the stress out of travelling. Bargain

[Kazman]

Originally posted by MarkE19
Of course you could always spend around £800 and get the Bose equivelent phones

Mark.

I have the Bose QuietComfort2 and they do not cost £800!!

Got them for a bargain £160 from the US due to the great exchange rate at the time and they sound fantastic. The bass weight, the timing, the snap, all spot on. Great for noise cancellation too.

UK Price is a bit steep at £275 though.

[Jeff]

I can confirm that despite the Bose name, they work very well.

Definitely, I bought the Bose set last time I was out in the US, the trip back alone was worth the cost (just shy of £170 after conversion) IMHO. Not to mention that I've just got back from another trip. I watched the person next to me with the standard BA 'phones turning the volume *way* up just to hear, and there I was with it set a notch above minimum, getting a quite reasonable sound from the movie.

I have a set of Sennheisers (relatively cheap ones admittedly) that I used to use at work - the Bose set are considerably better.

Dunc

[rOAdeh]

im sure i read that the original bose noise cancelling phones were rejected ba pilot headphones or something? or is that just some urban legend?

in any case it wasnt looking too favourably at the bose cans - maybe it was just the anti bose brigade marching on eh?

[Kazman]

I'm not a big fan of Bose surround sound gear, but the quietcomfort2's really are awesome.

Lovely weighty and detailed sound

Etymotic is going to keep out more noise, and ER6 can be had for a bearable price on ebay. And they take up less space and use less power.

And there are other in-ear phones available (but I haven't tried them). eg Apple £29.

[Iain Shields]

I noticed these as a cheap replacement to the supplied in-ear headphones I got with my portable CD player, they say they do quite a good job of cutting down noise which would be handy for me as I commute from N.Ireland to England on the plane quite often, nothing upmarket here but they look like a good cheap replacement at £16... any comments?

http://www.audiovisualonline.co.uk/d...s/display.html

Regards,
Iain.