Customer Reviews
Average Customer Review
(37 customer reviews) 483 of 494 people found the following review helpful
Probably the best of the conventional noise cancelers...,
January 1, 2003 By A Customer
This review is from: Sony MDR-NC20 Noise Canceling Headphones with Foldable Headband (Electronics)
The fact that noise-canceling headphone reviews were all over the place made figuring out what to buy kind of difficult. I decided to buy the Sennheiser HDC451s ($80), the Sony MDR-NC20s ($120), and the Aiwa HP-CN5 ($50), and the Etymotic ER-6 ($130), try them all, and then return the three I liked least. Bose makes what are probably the industry standard but they weren't any better reviewed than the others and at $299, I wasn't interested.Here's what I found:Comfort: Kind of subjective, but in my opinion they rank as follows: Etymotic, Sony, Aiwa, Sennheiser. The Etymotics are basically earphones built into earplugs, so there's no bulk to worry about when moving around or trying to sleep on a plane. How comfortable they are kind of depends on how you feel about having things shoved in your ears. Of the conventional `phones, the Sony's closed-ear design is more comfortable over long periods. The open-air design of the other two tends to squeeze your ears after a while...Read more
210 of 213 people found the following review helpful
Sony Noise Cancelling Headphones are GREAT!,
September 1, 2001 Jim Fowler (Concord, NH) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Sony MDR-NC20 Noise Canceling Headphones with Foldable Headband (Electronics)
I travel a LOT. Fly on everything from TurboProps to Airbus A-320's and 757's. I've never been able to sleep on aircraft and lately, my tolerance for noise and screaming kids has gone to near zero. Well, that's what the Sony MDRNC-20 noise cancelling headphones have given me, ..... nearly zero noise on flights. My last two flights (this week) were on two SAAB TurboProp commuter aircraft and two A-320's and I could not hear the engines with these headphones on. I also use a Sony R70 MiniDisk Recorder / Player that was useless, due to in cabin noise, until I bought these headsets. I've tried the Bose (overpriced and cumbersome), Sennheiser and Toshiba units and the Sony's are the best. I highly recommend them for frequent fliers if you want to be able to function at the destination end of the flight. OH! Did I mention that we also use them while cutting grass on our diesel Kubota tractor with 60 inch mower deck and can't hear the tractor noise, but Bon Jovi comes through lound and clear...Read more
76 of 77 people found the following review helpful
GREAT!! for the bus or plane, otherwise GOOD,
September 1, 2001 Willis Johnson (Seattle, WA USA) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Sony MDR-NC20 Noise Canceling Headphones with Foldable Headband (Electronics)
These invert ambient sound in lower frequencies, feeding the inverted signal into the speakers on top of the sound from your cd player, etc. The effect is that low frequency ambient sounds such as the roar of jet engines, the drone of bus tires against asphalt, traffic, loud airconditioners, etc. are cancelled. That lets you listen to music at a normal (non deafening) volume in an otherwise noisy environment. EXCELLENT for destressing a commute or plane trip. Compared to other headphones, I rate these GOOD but not the best. The Sony MDR 7506, for example, gives somewhat clearer and more accurate reproduction of classical instrumental music--piano, cello, acoustic guitar... but the 7506 lacks the noise cancelling feature you need to listen to such music in a noisy environment. FYI I tried the Bose and didn't think they worked any better than these, though they were $100 more expensive.
