The Best of Both Phone, and Tablet-
"Best for Travel, light, great sound, blocks airplane noise" on by Michiganbta
Pros: Very easy to travel with, great noise canceling, fantasitic sound quality
Cons: No real cons here... they don't block out screaming kids
Summary: I have owned this headset for 6 months now, and 30,000 airline miles! These are by far the best sounding headset I have ever had, and the noise cancelling is fantastic!!! I love puting this on a friend, then asking how they sound... they are really impressed, then I flick the NC switch and watch their expression!! WOW, is all they say. I use rechargable batteries and they last for weeks. They are strong, light weight. You can't go wrong with the company that invented noise canceling technology. Sennheiser created this technology for pilots. Back to the sound quality, full range, great highs and base, what more can I say... best headphones on the planet (even off the planet when you are in an airplane). One other note, I was sitting next to a guy with his $300 Bose NC phones, I asked him if we could swap for a minute, and he didn't want to give me mine back (I couldn't wait to give his back to him). Well needless to say you can't get anything better than these. BTW, noise canceling works for dull back-gound noise, don't expect them to eliminate screaming kids. You just get clean clear sound, with no dull roar of a jet engine.
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"Very good, not perfect" on by sfo2
Pros: Great for the plane!
Cons: a bit hissy, I wish the control was smaller
Summary: I have the 300, my son has the 250. There is not much difference, IMHO. 300 has nicer padding, hard carry case. I don't think there is any performance difference.
Sound is a bit hissy, however I think that is the case with all noise cancelling headphones.
I prefer the Sennheiser to Bose. Bose covers the entire ear and one cannot hear your wife talking in the seat next to you. (ok, this can be a benefit)
Drastically reduces noise from the airplane even without a music source. Allows one to listen to ipod or movie at modest volume. A must for the frequent traveller.
I wish that the controller which holds 2 AAA batteries was smaller. -
"Excellent travel companion" on by ajdbarros
Pros: excellent sound, good noise cancellation
Cons: noise cancellation unit not detachable
Summary: I travel quite a bit and these headphones have been a great companion - I've been using them for over a year now. The sound quality is excellent as you'd expect from Sennheiser. Noise cancellation (NC) is no miracle - it reduces ambient noise such as air conditioning, engines, etc. - constant humming noises. It won't dissapear with the chatting of your neighbors in the plane. But it is enough to make you forget about external noise e and concentrate on the music. With the NC unit on, the volume is hightened and there is some "loudness" effect. What is just fine for a noisy environment. Batteries last forever. The only glitch is that you can't detach the NC unit if you won't use it.
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"nice headphones, reduces some noise," on by maurice987987
Pros: Comfortable and reduce some noise
Cons: Dont reduce all noise
Summary: Nice headphones, but it's good not to expect too much of them. They are comfortable to wear and easy to use. The build quality feels good. The sound is good quality, rich and dynamic, and easily loud enough for me - I think if anyone wants a louder sound, they probably don't need this type of product anyway, as anything louder and you'd not notice external noises anyway.
The sounds it muffles best are constant and quite smooth low frequency sounds, for example air conditioning. In my workplace, the effect is remarkable. If you want to deal with the effects of such noises, these headphones are brilliant. On trains, however, the effect is good but not great. On modern (British) rolling stock (ie air conditioned, so no open windows) they deal with maybe half the noise, the lower level machinery noises - but the constant but uneven noise caused by the wheels pressing on the rails and other noises is left as is. And, a curse on trains now - the one in two passengers using cheap 'in ear' headphones for ipods and music from phones - those high pitched percussive noises from the selfish person next to you are not filtered out.
What this means is that I can just about bear to use them on the train (as I don't like excessive volumes and no half hour listening to music is worth damaging my hearing for), but only just - and bearing in mind that is why I bought them, I suppose I'm a bit disappointed. But my expectations were too high. They certainly help, and make listening to radio or music on the train possible without deafening myself.
Not tried them on a plane yet, but they are so good at dealing with air conditioning in the office that I think they'll probably help there - the noises on planes are a bit more constant than those on trains, so I think that will be better.
If I can find a better product for the train I'll buy it. These are the only model I've ever tried, and so I've nothing to compare them with. I somehow doubt if any model will really eliminate most of the noise on trains. But they are good overall -they reduce and muffle a lot of external noise, and make it at least possible to hear music.
Something I found strange was using them in a shop. I turned them off and found out the shop was deafening, and playing horrible muzak that I hadn't realised was on. So I think I'm going to find new uses for them I hadn't imagined - just having them on without music means I can have a bit of peace and quiet when I'm out and about. But there are no worries about safey - you'll easily hear someone say something to you when you have them on.
I got mine for £92 uk pounds, online (that's 162 US$ at today's exchange rate, or 135euro). At that price, and if you realise they won't eliminate all external noise, then I would recommend them. -
"Costly and a bit problematic wiring but good sound and comfy" on by mssanto
Pros: Pretty good sound. Pretty comfortable
Cons: Mess of wires. Big clunky power source and noise cancelling circut
Summary: Good sound and pretty good aircraft noice cancellation. The Bose headphones that cover the entire ear are a bit quieter, I think, but are not nearly as comfortable to wear on a 10 hour flight.
Two AA batteries are required to power the circuts. Consequently there is this big black cigar with wires running to and from it to the headphones. The wires tend to tangle up in the blanket. Remember to wear a shirt with buttons or one that has a pocket so that you can clip (this big cigar does have a clip built in) the battery case to your body. There is enought wire, just, to clip the case to the seat pocket in front but again the wires become problematic.
These headphones fold up and come with a semi-hard zipper case and two-pronged airplane adapter. The case fits nicely into a side pocket on a laptop bag.
The speakers swival and the over-the-head band is hinged (like the ear pieces on a pair of glasses. It all seems pretty flimsy to me, but I've used them on a half dozen trans-atlantic flights (and have even lent them out) without any trouble.
I bought these at Schiphol one morning when I thought I couldn't take the noice any longer, so I paid the high end (219 USD). Even so, I prefer these to the older (larger) Bose and to the newer (smaller) Bose even though the Bose products do not have the power supply external to the headphone and consequently no wires.
It comes down to a matter of long-haul comfort. I choose the spaghetti wire and cigar solution because they are so light weight and comfortable.
Sennheiser PXC 300 user reviews (headphones)
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