Summary

Great little product. I must say that I'm a big fan on sennheiser: those are actually my 4th pair. I've got some wireless a very cheap vintage pair and a pretty good 490. I just bought those, and it's the first time I had such a good feeling right after buying a pair of cans. No break-in needed at all. It's probably because of the very small and lightweight membrane used in them. I bought those because I listen to more and more podcast on my daily commute (go TWiT!) and I was very tired too boost the volume to listen to some participants to have my ear-drum later on be blown away by other people who were sitting closer to the microphone or with better recording equipments. And on that front, they delivered amazingly: the noise cancelling is quite astounding! I work close to a big 2-cpu database server and even with no music; the sound of all its fans and hard-drive is substantially muffled out. The sound quality is above anything that portable you can find, at least with the NC circuit turned on: I'm pretty sure there's a small amp built-in and without it they tend to sound dull and muddy. The sound reproduction is quite on par with other sennheisers and is quite laid back and not bright at all. Which is good for mp3s, because the encoding tend to screw up anything high-pitched (cymbals and such). I would say they sound a bit British. The comfort is about average, at least to me. Their closed circum-aural design means I don't sweat in them as much as with supra-aural cans. And they don't hurt like some in-ear model do after a while. I haven't tested them for more then 2 hours stretch and I don't really plan to (darn meetings). The 2 only drawbacks would be the somewhat complex folding operation and the fact that they didn't ship with batteries: come on, my 20$ wireless mouse came with them, so why not a pair of 170$ cans? All in all a very good purchase and I would recommend them to any iPod commuter out there. If noise cancellation is not on your list the Bose tri-port are pretty good to isolate you from your surrounding without the NC stick, but won't be as good in noisy subway stations or fast-food restaurants.

Strength

amazing noice cancellation good sound quality

Weakness

complex folding operation no batterries included

Summary

I bought these headphones at the international airport in Copenhagen to be able to use my iPod on a flight without having to increase the volume to compensate for the noise in the plane. I was quite impressed with the effect of the noise-cancelling. It did not get quiet, but much more quiet than normally. It made it much more relaxing to listen to my music on board. The sound quality alone does not defence using $130, you can get much better headphones without noise cancelling for the same price. For travelling on plane, bus or train it is worth its price, however! BTW: They raise the level a couple of dB when you turn them on, and also adds on quite a bit of bass and mid. This fakes a better noise cancelling than you actually got.

Strength

Noise cancelling! While not perfect, it is a vast improvement compared to using ordinary headphones.

Weakness

Sound quality is not perfect withing price frame. Especially with noise cancelling turned off.

Summary

This is my first noise-cancelling headset. While I do agree that it reduces ambient noises of certain frequencies (the jet-engine hum and hiss in the aircraft, primarily) it does this by adding a small amount of its own white noise which is definitely audible in quieter environments. Obviously,m this is the lesser of two evils, but during quiet musical passages, the intrinsic hiss form the headset is noticeable. Also, when the noice-cancelling circuitry is turned off, it's as if the plasit c housing and earcushions amplify ambient noises somewhat - like when you place paper cups around your ears and get that hollow ring to the noises around you. All in al it's an effective headset to get rid of the aircraft noise on long trips, but I wonder if perhaps some foam-tipped earbuds might also be as good at isloating noise without adding internal hiss.