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- Average user rating: 4.0 stars out of 7 reviews Back to product review
- My rating: 0 stars
Full user review
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7 out of 7 people found this review helpful
4.5 stars
"Great investment for frequent traveller"
Pros: Lightweight, good sound, strong comparison to Bose QC
Cons: Nothing serious enough to note.
Summary: By way of preface, I have been a professional classical musician, as well as student sound engineer and would love to be an audiophile but can simply not afford it. I am pretty picky about the quality of my sound. I tried many different sound canceling headphones in this price range before buying these ones. Previously I owned a set of Sony 'in ear' sound canceling headphones which I used for about a year before they broke down.
I have owned these for about 2 weeks, and 10 hours of use in travel environments. I paid about $125 US for them including shipping from an ebay retailer.
Overall impression: Good sound, pretty comfortable to wear, good build quality and feel, and the noise canceling works as well or better than others I have tried, with the right expectations for what it can and can not do.
I have seen reviews of these headphones on other sites that bash the sound quality, and I just don't get it. Granted they are not studio quality reference headphones, but if you need studio quality sound, you probably won't be wearing them on an airplane. The whole point of the noise canceling headphones is that you are using them in a noisy environment where sound quality will be poor in the first place.
In the two weeks since I bought these I have tried them on inter-city bus service and on several 4 hour+ flights. They are great. The noise canceling is great at cutting out the mid-low frequency rumbles, and the sound quality is just fine... admittedly when you use them in a silent environment there is a (very) slight bit of induced hiss when you power on the sound canceling, but in an aircraft or bus that artifact fades in comparison to all the background noise. Keep in mind that the noise canceling works best if the cups are sealed well to your ears.
I found I could cut the volume of the aircraft entertainment system in half with the noise canceling on, compared to listening with it off, and checked several times during the flights to compare my listening experience with the headphones powered on or off. It is actually surprising how quickly you get used to the sound suppression... it is shocking to turn it off and hear how loud a commercial airliner is. I find I am less stressed at the end of a flight with noise canceling headphones on, and this purchase was spurred on by the demise of my last pair of Sonys.
I did have the opportunity to try these against my Dad's three year old Bose QCs. We just ducked into the furnace room to get a feel for them in a moderately loud environment, and then tried them side by side in a quiet place for sound quality. Both of us came to the conclusion that there was nothing to choose between them, both in sound quality (from my basic MP3 player) and in the noise reduction... nothing but the price, as I paid less than 1/3 of what he did.
Overall great purchase for me, and I would recommend them to any frequent traveller or someone who has a cubicle next to the server room or air conditioner compressor.
Where to buy
JVC HA-NC250 Noise Canceling Headphones:
$104.30 - $149.99
| store | price | in stock? | rating |
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$104.30 | Yes |
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Amazon.com Marketplace
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$104.40 | Yes |
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$137.12 | Yes |
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Sears
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$119.99 | Yes |
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RadioShack.com
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$149.99 | Yes |
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