Sony MDR-NC11

Pros: Great Sound, Compact, NC with Volume Control

Cons: Defective Product. Don't waste your money

Summary: Let me start by saying that I usually LOVE Sony products. I've got 2 Sony TV's, the Playstation, PSP, DVD player, etc... and even use the behind the neck Sony headphones when working out (same pair has lasted over 2 years). So, when I needed a pair of Noise Cancelling Headphones for use on a plane I purchased these. The Sound itself was great and it worked perfectly for what I was using it for (sitting still on a plane with little movement) but they don't stay in that well so if you were moving around a lot they wouldn't stay in your ear. I was still very satisfied until 2 months in when the sound went out in the right ear. I assumed that it was because of wire twisting so I took them back got a new pair.
Just to be safe I stopped traveling with them and instead just kept them in my desk drawer for use at work. Once again, worked great until the right earbud went out after a month. By now, the store warranty was gone so I contacted Sony and the best they did was to offer helpful advice such as 'make sure that the unit is on and the earphones are plugged all the way in'- no kidding. I had to resort to buying a new pair from the store then returning them (swapping my defective pair).
Now on my third pair, I used them again only at work being careful never to even wind the chords or twist them in any manner. Nevertheless, after a month the right earbud stopped working. At this point it had been over 5 months and 3 sets of earphones so I decided to just suffer and use the left earbud only while at work. This worked for an additional 2 weeks until that also went out.
Still frustrated at spending $100 (and countless hours) for earphones, I wanted to take them back to the store but by now Sony had gone to a new model and I couldn't find any stores that still carried this model (which I needed in order to swap them out). Last week I was able to find a Circuit City that still had 1 pair left so I again purchased with the intention of returning the defective pair.
I don't advocate this practice and normally I would feel bad about doing this; but I felt as if it was the only recourse I had after paying that kind of money for earphones which are clearly defective (I went through 4 pairs in 6 months and there are at least 20-30 other reviewers on CNET who had the same problem) and that Sony should have recalled these or at the very least put a notice on their website and repaired them for free rather than making me go through all of this trouble.
As I said, they've moved on to the next year's model so I don't even know if you can still get these, but if so and you are considering it I can't stress to you enough not to buy it. It will be a waste of your time and money.