Panasonic RP-HC70 Noise-Canceling Headphones with XBS® Extra Bass System

I am very frequent flier and for some time have been looking for a solution against the plane-noise problem.
I have known about the US$300 Bose Headphone for a while, but I decided to wait for less expensive units.
A month ago a bought the Brookstone unit, which has fair noise reduction, eliminating the wind-in-the-wings noise (very low tones) in the plane, but not dealing with the higher tones (such as the turbines.
The Brookstone US$100 unit also proved to be VERY uncomfortable to wear, i.e., any flight longer than 3-hours is umbereable. Another problem is the sound quality of the Headphone itself, which is not too good. It sounds cheap, with not enough bass and squeaky treble.
Today I bought the Panasonic RP-HC70 (for less than half of the Brookstone price). The Panasonic is much better Headphone in terms of sound quality. The sound is clear and, although it could have a little more bass, specially when the noise reduction is on, the quality is OK. It is also...Read more

These were pretty much the lowest priced "noise-cancelling" or "noise-reduction" headphones (with active circuitry) I could find for my trans-pacific flights. I didn't expect much out of them, but now feel I got well worth what I paid.

Noise reduction:

This is the first and only pair of noise-cancelling headphones I've ever used. I'm sure they don't even come close to the "legendary" Bose. Nevertheless, it still helps substantially when riding a jet. I can finally hear the in-flight movie dialogue comfortably without cranking up the volume all the way. Classical and jazz music becomes listenable, too. They also makes it much easier for me to relax or nap, even when not listening to anything. I ended up having them on all the time.

They do introduce some white noise (mid-to-high-range hiss) when noise cancelling is on. The over-the-ear design and noise-cancelling circuit combined is effective only to certain frequency...Read more

I flew 14hrs from Chicago to Hong Kong with them, I flew regional propeller planes with them, I rode subway and bus with them, and I worked in a computer lab (with nowadays 3 whirling fans per computer) with them. They perform superbly at cancelling noise with a recurring pattern, such as jet engines, car engines, etc.

Please don't expect them to be studio monitor handphones, just look at the price. Sound quality is not very good, especially with the Noise-Reduction on, but it's sufficient for casual listening. They are quite comfortable even in long duration (the 14hrs flight). However, the hinge for collapsing the headphone might caught hair (not fun if you try the take off the headphone quickly) but with proper practice hair-pulling will becomes rare occurance.

To let other not to have false hope about noise cancelling system, I must spend some time to explain how they work. These headphone works by listen to the noise, find its pattern, then generate that pattern at a...Read more