Noise Cancelling headphones?

[crazydog]

I've been looking for some good noise cancelling headphones for when I travel, and it's very tough to sleep on a train when there's people that wont stfu!

Anyway, I've narrowed it down to these:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Productcompare.aspx?Submit=ENE&N=2100080070%201092949027&StoreType=-1&CompareItemList=N82E16826402014%2cN82E16826402012%2cN82E16826402013%2cN82E16826737002&bop=And

I'm looking mainly at the $79.99 one, because of the price, and the $114.99 one, since it's $165.00 off the unit price.

Any suggestions?

[V.I.P.]

Does the frequency response range have anything to do with canceling the noise?  If so, I'd say the one with the larger range would probably be a better pair but I'm not sure.

[crazydog]

I'm pretty sure the frequency range is about the playback.
The Sensitivity is the noise cancelling factor, but I'm not exactly sure how to read it.

I'm leaning towards the AblePlanet ones, because:
1) They're $80
2) They're $30 cheaper than the next cheapest ones
3) They fold (I'll be taking them traveling)
4) I don't listen to Metal (reviews say it sounds bad in them. )
5) I'm not an audiophile so I don't need ones that go down to 5Hz. 20Hz is fine for me.

[V.I.P.]

I would have to agree with you...the price difference probably comes from the company name so I'd get the cheaper ones.

[Luggage]

check out the SENNHEISER PXC300.  In general, I love Sennheiser headphones -- absolutely audiophile quality for low budget.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16826106043&Tpk=sennheiser%20pxc300

I have a pair of these which are like-new (used them once or twice) which I wouldn't mind unloading for a fair price (you tell me what you are comfortble with). 

[Mustard]

I'm an audio fiend so I'm gonna try to help out here.

First off, you should go to Headroom.com, I buy all my headphones there and the service and prices are hard to beat. Plus the reviews they do there are really professional and most important, honest.

As far as noise canceling goes, in most cases they aren't really noise canceling, their just a more well padded headphone. For a true, good quality noise canceling headphone you won't spend less than $150. For that price you can get the Sennheiser PXC 300 (as also suggested by Luggage). Totally worth the money, and you can pretty much never go wrong with Sennheisers. I use a pair on my home system when I game or listen to music.

Of the ones you were considering, I own a pair of Audio-Technica ATH-700s and I can tell you that they are really excellent headphones. Not the most portable things in the universe, but really an all around great headphone that you'll get great sound out of.

AblePlanet is a company that I'm largely unfamiliar with, so I can't speak to the quality of them.

When it comes to headphones, you will almost always get a better product if you spend more money (unless you buy Bose or Sony, DON'T BUY BOSE OR SONY). Frequency response is important, but it's a tech term. What's more important is what the drivers are made out of and overall build quality. ATs are built well in the bigger models, though I wouldn't recommend their smaller sets. I've owned 6 different pairs of Sennhiesers and I've never been displeased with their quality.

Honestly, I think you should spend a little more and get the Senns, their a smaller phone that will have excellent sound and are also pretty portable.

One thing I'm curious about is what kind of source you're using?

[crazydog]

Thanks for all the suggestions.

I have Sennheiser earbuds (I've been using them for about 4 years. Every time they break, Newegg always replaces them. ), and I love 'em, so I trust the Sennheiser brand.

To answer your question Mustard, as I said, it will be while I'm traveling, so the audio source would be an iPod/iPhone/BlackBerry/Laptop depending on the situation.

The $80 ones (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16826737002) SAY they use Active Noise Canceling, which is the better method:

"Active noise-canceling headphones can do everything that passive ones can do -- their very structure creates a barrier that blocks high-frequency sound waves. They also add an extra level of noise reduction by actively erasing lower-frequency sound waves. How do noise-canceling headphones accomplish this? They actually create their own sound waves that mimic the incoming noise in every respect except one: the headphone's sound waves are 180 degrees out of phase with the intruding waves."

And as a review states:
"I only wish that these had an automatic shut-off on the noise cancel. Im finding that no one remembers to switch em off, so I have to keep throwing in new batteries."
So they DO cancel incoming sound, not just try to block it.

But what do I know.

Also, it's headphone.com. The site name is Headroom (very confusing). Headroom.com is for Manhattan Real Estate.

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