Average Reviews:
(More customer reviews)I'm an international traveler addicted to noise-canceling headphones. My most frequent travel these days is Houston-Los Angeles-somewhere in Australia. That's a lot of hours with the roar of jet engines. Recently I left my phones at home and couldn't bear the thought of not having them on the 14-hour ride to Sydney, so I visited the airport shop. (I know, not recommended.) I found these Able Planet NC200B phones for the MSRP of $99.99, which is as much as I was willing to pay. They definitely did not make me forget my Sony MDR-NC60's. Here are my pros and cons:
Pros:
1. When the battery was on, they canceled noise...a lot of it. At the end of the day, that was what I wanted and they did a reasonable job of it. On this trip I sat on the 71st of 74 rows. The roar back there is incredible and these phones really made a difference.
2. With the battery on, the sound quality is acceptable. Not great, but decent enough. It won't make an audiophile happy at all, but at 37,000 ft, it is ok. I didn't notice the hiss that some others have reported. The bass is good enough. At home without the noise, the clarity is not great, but on the plane you don't notice it so much.
2. These things are pretty solidly built. They feel and look like they will hold up for a lot of use.
3. The cord is detachable. This is nice on the plane because I can get up, keep them on my head but leave the cord behind.
4. The cord includes a volume control. This was a very nice surprise. (Wish my Sony's had it.)
5. Accessories include carrying bag, double-pronged "airplane" jack and 1/4" "home" jack. I wasn't going to buy something that didn't include a way to keep all the bits together, and this does.
Cons:
1. Like some other NC phones (but not all), you have to turn the battery on to get reasonable sound. I tried them in the gate lounge before the flight without battery. Urk! It was terrible. The worst, least expensive phones you can find would sound better. Don't plan to use these without battery.
2. The carrying bag is a thin, fabric bag. Yes, it keeps the bits together, but provides very little protection. My phones are carried in my backpack along with a lot of other stuff. If something were to get on it hard, the bag would not help.
3. I don't prefer the way these fold up for storage. The headband folds in the middle and the phones rotate to face each other. So instead of lying flat in a case, they make into a block with the headband protruding out a bit. This wouldn't be so bad if you were storing them on your shelf, but it doesn't work very well in the seat-back pocket on the plane. It is too thick and unwieldy.
As mentioned, these phones don't make me forget my Sony MDR-NC60's. They may not even be the state of the art these days for the money, but I will stick with mine and let the NC200B's be my backup.
Sony MDR-NC60 Noise Canceling Headphone
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