NYT: Headphones to Shut Out the World

The New York Times
June 14, 2007
State of the Art
Headphones to Shut Out the World

By DAVID POGUE
Correction Appended

As you may have heard, air travel this summer isn't going to be
pretty.

You'll be crammed in, delayed and bumped - if you're lucky. If you're
unlucky, your flight will just be canceled.

Fortunately, not all of this misery is out of your control. Take, for
example, the noise-canceling headphones that Bose began making popular
a few years ago.

Until you try them, you won't believe what a difference such
headphones can make. As tiny microphones monitor the mind-numbing roar
around you, circuitry in the device creates a sound wave 180 degrees
out of phase with the original sounds. Presto: the roar of the engines
is magically subtracted from the sound that would otherwise have
ground away at your well-being for six hours.

You can wear them just to be more peaceful, or you can connect them to
a music player, DVD player, laptop, or the plane's audio system.
Because the engine roar is missing from the mix, you can enjoy
enormously improved audio quality at substantially lower, safer volume
levels.

Nobody disputes the quality of Bose's market-leading phones. But wow -
$350 a pair?

Little wonder rival companies are now trying to bring you similar
peace in the stratosphere without propelling the price up there, too.
Panasonic, Sennheiser, JVC, JBL, Audio-Technica, Logitech and Able
Planet have now joined the noise-canceling marketplace, with hopes of
canceling a few of those Bose sales along the way.

There's only one good way to test these headphones: wear them on
planes, trains and automobiles. So when a three-leg trip loomed, I
grabbed a carry-on bag and crammed it with 10 pairs - 2 Bose models
and its 8 rivals.

Airport security probably thought I was a little unbalanced, and my
seatmates thought I had some kind of attention deficit disorder. But
in the name of science, I shrugged off the humiliation and proceeded
with my A/B test. Or, rather, my A/B/C/D/E/F/G/H/I/J test.

Most of these headphones are powered by a single AAA battery. Each
comes in a carrying case that keeps the devices together with their
accessories: the miniplug cable for your music or DVD player, for
example, and the adapters for quarter-inch phono jacks and dual-
pronged airplane armrest jacks. Most of these cases exude elegance but
take up a huge portion of your carry-on bag.

The "active noise reduction" technology used by these headphones
generally cancels only lower frequencies. Higher ones are difficult to
stifle electronically. Whatever upper-register noise cancellation you
get from these headphones, therefore, comes from the seal they make
with your ears, which is "passive noise reduction."

None of these products touch the sound quality of high-end audiophile
headphones. Some people say, for example, that they can hear a faint
hiss in some noise-canceling headphones when music is not playing,
although my 44-year-old ears couldn't detect it.

Here are the contenders, from least to most expensive. (I didn't test
earplug-style phones, which earring-wearers may prefer; my trip wasn't
long enough.)

JVC HA-NC100 There are three refreshing points to note about JVC's
entry. First, the street price is only $40; you could buy seven pairs
of these for the price of one Bose set. Second, these phones rest on
your ear instead of surrounding it. As a result, they're so small,
they come in a compact drawstring bag, rather than in a hard
clamshell.

Finally, the audio cord is retractable - a brilliant, obvious and
extremely handy feature.

You can probably feel a "but" coming, and here it is: the circuitry
cuts out only a chunk of the lower frequencies, leaving much of the
engine roar unabated. And the music quality is only average and weak
on bass.

PANASONIC RP-HC500 The pleasantly smushy-edged earcups on this new
model do an excellent job of isolating your ears. That may be one
reason the noise cancellation works so well; all but the highest
frequencies are subtracted. Better still, the music reproduction is
stellar, especially in the crisp, clean higher registers.

I waited to look up the prices for these products until after I'd
tested them. So I was astonished to discover that you can find these
online for $100. You get quality that's nearly indistinguishable from
the Boses - for a third the price.

AUDIO-TECHNICA ATH-ANC7 Here is another winner, with another
surprising price: $132 for these comfy, solidly built, absolutely
great-sounding headphones. The circuitry cuts out a huge swath of
engine, road or train noise, and the music is crystal clear, sweet and
finely textured.

It's "Bose" without the marketing campaign.

JBL REFERENCE 510 You can't accuse JBL of designing with the herd.
Instead of putting the circuitry and the battery in the earcups, JBL's
engineers offloaded them to a little box that dangles on the cord. You
can clip the box to your clothing.

Thus relieved of that extra weight and bulk, these on-ear headphones
are positively microscopic compared with their rivals. They fold down
into a little pocketable stretchy bag.

Unfortunately, these $150 phones are the least comfortable of the lot;
those tiny earcups feel like tongs trying to grip your head. The
external-fob approach means a lot more wiring to fuss with, too. And
you can't detach the cords when you want to use the headphones for
noise cancellation only.

Music sounds terrific, but bewa with a 125-decibel peak, these cans
will blow out your eardrums if you're not careful.

LOGITECH NOISE CANCELING HEADPHONES The noise-canceling circuit is
superb, cutting out both the low roar and most of the middle
frequencies. Inside the gigantic case, labeled loops keep everything,
including jack adapters and even an iPod, in its place.

Music sounds pretty good for the price ($155), though it does not keep
up with the Boses.

ABLE PLANET CLEAR HARMONY, LINX AUDIO These cans look great and feel
great. They sound pretty good, but the noise-canceling is only so-so.

On the bright side, there's a volume control on the audio cord, which
you can use to mute the music when the flight attendant is asking for
your drink order; and the volume, as with the JBL set, goes all the
way to 11. For $300, though, you can do better.

BOSE QUIETCOMFORT 2 Mmm, nice. Bose may charge a lot ($300), but you
have to admit they know their acoustics. The noise cancellation is
amazing; when you throw the switch, the world just falls away. Music
sounds fantastic - wicked bass, clear highs.

Unfortunately, you can't use these as regular headphones; when you
turn off the noise-cancellation, you turn off all sound.

BOSE QUIETCOMFORT 3 This $350 pair are smaller than the QuietComfort
2's; they're on-ear rather than surround-ear. There is no room for a
AAA battery. You get a snap-in rechargeable battery instead, which
means that you have to pack and track its charger. The 3's are
incredibly comfortable, and both the circuitry and music reproduction
is outstanding - but like the cheaper version, they can play music
only when the cancellation circuitry is turned on.

SENNHEISER PXC 450 If these headphones were any bigger, they'd be
called Sousaphones.

They're loaded with unique features, like a Talkthrough button that
cuts out all the music and the noise-canceling when someone's trying
to talk to you. Volume buttons and a bypass switch turn the
Sennheisers into regular headphones.

The noise cancellation works well. But you can't detach the audio
cord. And despite "adaptive baffle damping and Duofol diaphragms,"
music reproduction isn't where it should be for $450.

So what's the verdict? Nobody has yet knocked Bose off its pedestal,
but Panasonic and Audio-Technica have climbed up there with it. These
headphones sound amazing, but cost a half or a third as much.

Then again, any noise-canceling technology is better than none. Now
all we need is technology that gives us overbook-canceling, delay-
canceling and cancellation-canceling.


Correction: June 15, 2007

The State of the Art column in Business Day yesterday, about noise-
cancellation headphones, referred incorrectly to the audio cord of the
Bose QuietComfort 2 headphones. It can indeed be detached, with a
sharp tug. The column also misstated the name of a set of headphones
from Able Planet. They are called Clear Harmony with Linx Audio, not
Solitude with Linx Audio.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/06/14/te...y/14pogue.html

wrote:

BOSE QUIETCOMFORT 2 Mmm, nice. Bose may charge a lot ($300), but you
have to admit they know their acoustics. The noise cancellation is
amazing; when you throw the switch, the world just falls away. Music
sounds fantastic - wicked bass, clear highs.

It should be noted that there are 2 types of QC2.
The newer ones use the same technology that was developed for the QC3.