Noise-Cancelling Earphones

[Wanderer]

Bose QC 15

I've got Bose QC 3 headphones. They are the business, excellent sound quality and they aren't so big that they make you look like Princess Leia Organa of Alderaan.

Noise cancelling is very good but difficult to quantify. It works better with low frequency noise like on aircraft or the drone of car wheels than it does with speech. Wearing them on an aircraft, I can tell that they are making an announcement but can't make out what they are saying. With music playing, I don't hear them saying anything at all.

The nice thing is that when you are listening to music the combination of the noise cancelling and music drowns out most of the sounds around you even at very moderate listening volumes.

They have a rechargeable battery lasts ages, they say 24 hours. The newer ones only come with one battery but mine had two so you can switch them over while the other charges which is useful as you don't ever get caught short. Battery charges in about an hour or less anyway.

The main criticism is the charger that comes with them. It's a beautiful piece of engineering with loads of different plugs for various countries but it won't fit in the bloody case properly. It's also totally pointless when they could just have added a USB socket to charge the bloody things from so I can just plug in and charge them off just about any laptop, iPhone/blackberry power brick and or the USB socket long haul aircraft have these days.

They are comfortable enough to wear, I've worn them for a number of 12 hour flights, including while sleeping without too much bother.

[dundeedude]

Having suffered from slight tinnitus for some time, I can help here.

For blocking out noise in an office, whilst driving, try simple wax earplugs. The best ones are a cylindrical block of wax designed for 1 ear, but I cut them in half and use one half in each ear instead. This also has the benefit of making them nearly invisible. In clubs this works particularly well, because I can hear everybody better and my ears aren't damaged by the shrill high frequency noises that you hear the next day with ringing in your ears. For driving you'll hear conversation better and have the benefit of no hearing-fatigue on long journeys, as it's safely blocking out all the repetitive drone noises of engines, fans, and so on.

For your own music in an office, if you don't want to just use wax earplugs to block the sounds, you can use Sennheiser CXC700. These are inner-earphones that actively process noise and block certain frequency ranges out. Mode1 blocks out lower ranges, mode 2 blocks out higher ranges, and mode3 blocks out all possible ranges available, the manual details those ranges that it can cope with.

They can also be used with noise cancellation switched off, meaning if the battery dies at least you can still listen, if required. You can also adjust each ear individually, as your ears probably experience different sensitivities to different frequencies. There's a "talk" button, so you can quickly listen or talk to people without "occlusion" (the sound of your own voice in your head due to earplugs/phones) which I find very useful on long flights.

They're £152 in Dixons at UK airports. Good for office, planes, trains and automobiles - but you may as well try them then return them if you find they're not up to your expectations.

If you're a cheapskate, go for hard wax earplugs instead. Ignore soft wax earplugs from Asda and the like, they're rubbish.