Quote:
Originally Posted by Sliver
So my wife has adopted my Sennheiser on ear noise cancelling headphones, which means I need something new.
I want over the ear ones this time, though. How important is it to have active noise cancelling? Do the ones without powered noise cancelling block out most of the noise anyway?
Also, I'd like them to be cordless, but have the option to plug a 3.5mm jack into them if they run out of power so I can still listen to them. Does such an animal exist?
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Hope you've got a good budget
How important ANC is depends on how you're using them. Personally I think the whole concept is overrated. The passive noise cancelling I get from the a well-fitting set of IEMs is, overall, as good as any ANC I've tried (except the QC15s).
Where ANC is excellent is while traveling. No ANC can completely cut out all sounds in real-time. There's a predictive aspect to the technology that makes it great at cutting out persistent mechanical noises, like the low drone of jets or most distractions on a train, but great isolation still trumps ANC in a lot of areas.
That said - really great isolation isn't that easy to come by in circumaurals (if you really need over-ears).
If you need BT
and cabled, ANC, and over-ear, your options are going to be very limited (and pricey). I'd give the
Phiaton MS 530s a serious look (you can order from
headphonebar).
If you don't need ANC I'd look at the
Sony MDR-1BTs - they're one of the more popular BT sets (I thought they had an ANC model but I can't find it).