Sony MDR-NC50

Pros: Button on side to let outside noise in when desired

Cons: Poor performance. Had to wear them backwards to make them work

Summary: I travel internationally quite a bit and have seen an increasing amount of people wearing the Bose noise cancelling headphones but I figured I'd give a cheaper alternative a shot before droppinng $300 on a pair of Bose.

But unfortunately I was sorely disappointed. I put the headphones on shortly after takeoff and noticed an annoying hum in my left ear. Strangely enough the hum would go away by either pressing the left earphone slightly against my head or by turning my head slightly to the right (odd I know, but just trust me).

I thought perhaps this particular plane just happened to have a lot of vibration that the headphones were having difficulty dealing with and I was sitting in a window seat so I took them off and waited on my next connecting flight from Chicago to Seoul. I was flying business class and had a seat in the middle isle far away from any window so I thought for sure the hum in my left ear would go away but it did not go away at all.

Since I had left my Sony earbuds at home in anticipation of these earphones actually working as planned I was desperate for them to work so I started fiddling with them. Nothing I did short of applying pressure to the left ear or turning my head to the right (both of which are not an option for a 14 hour flight) seemed to stop the hum. I eventually tried reversing the headphones (putting the cup labeled "right" on the left ear and vice versa) and what do you know - it worked like a charm. The problem? It was uncomfortable.

Outside of the annoying hum in the left ear I was dissapointed with the sound. My $50 Sony earbuds produce a much higher quality sound than these earphones. The treble was too high and the bass was dull (sometimes it was difficult to tell the difference between two different bass sources - like a bass guitar and a bass drum for instance).

So I just ordered the Bose QC2 (they seem to be liked better than the newer QC3) in advance of my next trip to China.

Give these a shot - maybe you'll have a different experience. If not you can return them to the store like I did. It appears that the hum I was experiencing was due to the way in which the earphones fit me since I could alter the way the phones cupped my ear to resolve the problem. But even outside of that the sound quality is below average for this type of headphone.