Fancy a mile-high earjob? We've had five!

An actual bargain

https://www.7dayshop.com/noise-cancelling-headphones/7dayshop-headphones-active-noise-cancelling-headphones-with-aeroplane-kit-and-travel-case

These are excellent for the price. I mean, look at that price, they're worth every penny and then some.

A table listing specs would have been handy.

Y'know, like with the noise-reduction numbers, battery life, and price (and how much of that price is because of all the ads..).

I've got the Bose

I tried a few before settling on the Bose ones (which I got in Dubai for £200). They really do work well and I take them on all my flights now. I don't use the case - it's a bit bulky.

Mine came with two wires - one straight and one for an iphone - which doesn't work with Android. But since I use them with my laptop anyway, I don't really care.

correction

"Passive headphones use padding and cunning acoustics to block ambient sound. Just about all headphones do this to some degree. Passive noise-cancellers are engineered to do it better."

Should have been "Active noise-cancellers are engineered..."

Appreciate the review, but it would have been nice to see a few specs or measurements as well.

Also, several inaccuracies on the first page gave me doubts:

1. Noise canceling headphones are always the active kind. Passive "noise-islolating" headphones may attenuate noise, but they do not in any way "cancel" noise. Please correct your terminology.

2. Noise canceling headphones do not make you "think" that you do not hear the noise, they actually apply energy to cancel the sound wave so that it isn't there any more.

3. You do not have to be out of your mind to wear noise-canceling earbuds during a flight. While most earbuds may be less comfortable for long-term wear, there are some well-designed ones that that can be reasonably comfortable. They can do an excellent job of passive noise isolation in addition to the active noise canceling, and they have the added advantage that on many flights you are allowed to wear earbuds during the takeoff and landing phases of flight (the noisiest) while you are not allowed to wear headphones.

No Audio-Technicas?

I would have thought that the ATH-ANC9s would have deserved a mention here, Noise cancellation on par with the Bose but not as bass heavy (though they are still slightly bass heavy) and they work even when turned off unlike the Boss. I use these every day in the office and they are fantastic.

You've used the wrong earbuds

Pick up some HiFiMan RE-400s. They are so small that they essentially fit inside your ear. They are aluminum and super lightweight. And the tips are extremely soft rubber. They're incredibly comfortable and I've worn them on flights for 5-6 hours straight before they started to annoy me.

Also, Inner Fidelity measured them at -25 dB for broadband noise isolation and more than -20 dB at 300Hz:

http://www.innerfidelity.com/images/HiFiMANIE400.pdf

That's similar to headphones and earbuds that do active noise cancelation.

Also you can see from the other graphs that the sound quality is excellent.

EDIT: I also feel compelled to point out that earbuds take up dramatically less space in one's luggage.

Shame no Sennheiser and AT.

Review would have been much more valuable if you'd included their gear despite no advice from them or freebies.

I know getting ignored isn't good, but those guys are in a minority of makers that have pedigree(*) . I want to know how their stuff compared, even if you do have to spend some money to find out.

(*they have made studio-grade stuff for years. I know that doesn't mean that everything with their name on is 'proper pro')

I stopped using noise-cancelling headphones on flights.

I've actually found that running my headphones with a program that generates "sounds of nature" is better for reading and sleeping on flights (YMMV, of course). I generally use V-MODA Crossfade-XS because they sound great, they're more or less indestructible (real metal frame - yay!), and they neatly fold up into a surprisingly tiny case. If I have extra room in my carry-on bag (rare) then I'll bring my V-MODA M-100s.

If you're unlucky enough to be flying sitting next to some selfish parent's screaming kid and that parent follows today's standard parenting approach of allowing their offspring to do anything at any time, then I can thoroughly recommend the Bose kit, or, if you don't have it, anything by Insomnium played loudly.

AC, because this type of parent gets a bit spiteful when their inbred sense of entitlement is challenged.

Minor omission

The reviewer's testing didn't cover one of the bigger aural annoyances on flights: the screaming child.

It's well established in psychological circles that the howling of babies is more stressful than the mechanical noises. A pair of cans which cancels out those noises entirely would be worth a lot of money.

QC25 here, too

But I never fly. We've got a noisy office, though.

And I can use them to make calls with the iPhone.

I've downloaded an app that plays white noise (breaking of waves in my case) and that helps blocking the typical office-noise (that is hard to noise-cancel actually).

I've read a test in a magazine that concluded that the best results can be achieved by using in-ear NC headphones plus earmuffs on top.

Don't know how comfortable that is, but it sounds quite effective...

I am told that a cheap and effective solution is to use industrial grade earplugs then put ordinary over the ear headphones on as well. You have to crank up the volume so what you want to hear is still audible though. Anyone tried this?

The Sony MDR10RNC are a better bet than the MDR1: they're $227 on Amazon and arguably sound better. There's a little more depth to the inside of the earpiece too.

For sound quality in ear buds the is NOTHING to beat the Kef M200 and with Comply Foam tips you can get excellent sound isolation. With the correct size of the tips I find them comfortable for at least 8-9 hours into a flight. I found them for $99 last year, then add about $20 for a three pairs of tips.

Poor quality QC25

The QC25 I bought on Black Friday has failed 4 times. Out of the box the left speaker would cut out if you moved. 2nd pair left speaker wouldn't noise cancel. 3rd pair was working great on one flight to New York but completely died on the flight home. So far the 4th pair is working fine.

Also only buy these from an approved Bose reseller not Amazon. If you didn't buy from an approved Bose reseller you don't have the Bose warranty for when these go tits up.

Goldring NS1000 are good value

I have a pair of these, which are in the £60 range. I doubt if they are as good as Bose, but the active cancellation definitely works. They are also comfortable and have survived several years' use. You can detach the cable for noise cancellation without audio listening and they also work as normal headphones without their AAA batteries.

Preferred noise isolating... until bose 25s

I've tried quite a few different noise isolating headphones, and favourites have been up until now the Etymotic ER-4i, which do isolate quite brilliantly. After a 10 hour flight my ears do know that I've been wearing them for 10 hours though!

Tried the Bose 25s, despite preferring passive. Previously, I must admit that I don't Bose well at all: for me, a triumph of marketing over performance. Beats for the previous generation, if you will ;-)

But I bought a set of these in Schiphol whilst on the way to the US (€269, so about £190) and my goodness, they're superb. Goes from noise to practically nothing at the flick of a switch: genuinely astonishing. Sound isn't bad, either.

Downside? The crying child's cries come through nearly perfectly, with no background noise... Oh, and you can hear all the little 'alarm' noises because there's no background noise!

Business opportunity?

I would love decent stereo microphones placed in locations like "inacessible beach, Maldives", deep forest Europe/S_America/N_Amerca/Asia, pebble beach (with long draw waves) or even country park (but away from people enough to ensure privacy).

We are programmed to subconsciously respond to noise threats and hearing nature in a non alarm state is one of the most calming background noises to me.

I want to be able to spin the globe and pick a live streaming location from a map and scenario, some people might like to hear the background hum of a city, not my kind of thing but I could imagine it would help some people relax if that is their natural habitat.