Panasonic RP-HC30 Noise-Canceling Earbud Headphones

If you're looking for something that will cancel out all background noise, this is not the product, but if you are looking for a nice pair of earbuds that can reduce persistent background noise generated by airplanes, air conditioning, and electrical appliances, these are for you. I recently used them on a 4 hour plane flight and even after a few hours they are very comfortable. The rubber buds mold perfectly to your ear canal, so you feel no pain after having them in there for a while, nor do they slip out. The main thing you have to keep in mind is that they can't cancel out noises caused by high-frequency, regularly changing sources, like human voices and music over loud speakers at the gym. But for a pair of earbuds these do a pretty nice job of canceling some background noise at a very reasonable price. I only wish someone would make an earbud product with noise cancelation as good as the Bose over-ear headphones.

I've been a happy user of Panasonic headphones for many years and so thought I would get these to replace a much larger and somewhat cumbersome noise-reducing set, made by Kensington, which did not have good high end response, that I use in my constant travels. My philosophy is to not buy really high end headphones for travel because I've managed to damage one or two sets, and some are just too large.

Basically, the Panasonics are a great disappointment. Though I changed earbuds to fit my ears I simply could not get enough volume from my two MP3 players to listen comfortably in the back of the plane where I usually sit, and it was impossible for me to hear a film on my Archos 604 -- I was more or less rescued by the tiny headset for my iPod. In the middle of my trip I was able to get a Sony MDR-NC6 headset that produced far more volume, with pretty good (not brilliant) noise reduction, and allowed me to enjoy my music and films on the way home.

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These headphones work great for blocking out the noise on an airplane. They do work better when sitting in front of the engines however. I no longer have to turn the volume on my Ipod all the way up to drown out the noise. The sound is great too. Great product, can't beat the price either!