Customer Reviews
Average Customer Review
(8 customer reviews) 15 of 16 people found the following review helpful
Works OK, but there are better options at the same price,
March 29, 2004 E. Kurbat "Blah blah blah" (Arlington Heights, IL USA) - See all my reviews
Amazon Verified Purchase(What's this?)
This review is from: Panasonic RP-HC50 Noise Cancelling Insidephones (Electronics)
This is a neat idea, and if you've ever tried the Bose models that do the same thing, you've used something that works pretty good. The idea behind these is to take the noise from around you, invert the waveform and feed it back into your ears thus cancelling out some of the noise. They are intended for use on airplanes or in other slightly noisy environments. They are not designed to eliminate all of the noise around you, only noises at fairly low frequencies (< 1200 Hz). These are slightly larger than your average earbuds to allow for the microphones required to get an input signal to invert.
OK, so how well do they work? Well, they don't work great. With the headphones on, they cut back on some of the noise around you on an airplane. I would be surprised if they were actually cancelling 10 dB of the noise that the instructions claim. They also have a fair amount of reduction in the power output from my MP3 player, so I have to turn the volume way up to hear the music...Read more
9 of 9 people found the following review helpful
Worked For Me,
February 16, 2004 By A Customer
This review is from: Panasonic RP-HC50 Noise Cancelling Insidephones (Electronics)
I don't own other noise-canceling headphones, especially the high-end Bose, however, I did find these very useful for recent air flights. I experimented with the different levels of canceling (none mid and max) and found notable differences at each. Max was my preferred setting. With the headphones I was able to hear the movie and stereo quite well, without the distraction of the motor drone. I was also able to hear cabin conversation better with the buds in my ear!
I agree that the buds are large and uncomfortable. However, the price and usefulness make it a 4 star ranking to me.
12 of 14 people found the following review helpful
Misleading Product,
January 16, 2004 By A Customer
Amazon Verified Purchase(What's this?)
This review is from: Panasonic RP-HC50 Noise Cancelling Insidephones (Electronics)
At first glance this seems a great product but you get what you pay for (or less in this case). There is NO noise cancelling evident at all with these compared to my normal passive Sony in ear buds. The like for like sound level is about half compared to the Sony for the same volume setting on CD player, despite the 'active' box and battery. Although the sound quality is acceptable they are worse at keeping noise down than a good fitting pair of passive ear buds. The buds are big and uncomfortable and unless you are huge, will not fit comfortably. I tried them in a car (passenger), on flights, local bus and generaly walking around and there was NO noise cancelling I could tell and no bass. Save for the Bose or Shure etc. These are useless.
