Average Reviews:
(More customer reviews)This is a neat idea, and if you've ever tried the Bose models that do the same thing, you've used something that works pretty good. The idea behind these is to take the noise from around you, invert the waveform and feed it back into your ears thus cancelling out some of the noise. They are intended for use on airplanes or in other slightly noisy environments. They are not designed to eliminate all of the noise around you, only noises at fairly low frequencies (< 1200 Hz). These are slightly larger than your average earbuds to allow for the microphones required to get an input signal to invert.
OK, so how well do they work? Well, they don't work great. With the headphones on, they cut back on some of the noise around you on an airplane. I would be surprised if they were actually cancelling 10 dB of the noise that the instructions claim. They also have a fair amount of reduction in the power output from my MP3 player, so I have to turn the volume way up to hear the music. Given the chance to do it all over again, I would probably bring my Peltor H10A hearing protectors (also available at Amazon) with a pair of cheap earbuds on the plane instead. They don't have the same gee-whiz factor, but they work better and cost about the same.
Update: The Sony MDR-EX51LP will probably work better than this on an airplane as well. I've tried those in noisy environments and they do cut out a good bit of the background noise as well.
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Product Description:
Panasonic's RP-HC50 dynamic earbud headphones are equipped with powerful noise-cancelation technology, making them an ideal companion for in-flight (or even on-bus) music lovers. Their noise reduction is effective over a range from 40 to 1,500 Hz, covering the part of the audible spectrum where human ears are most sensitive to sound.
Microphones located in each earpiece detect any non-musical, steady-state (essentially constant) environmental noise. This information is read and analyzed by a device that generates an inverse noise wave that is out of phase with the noise itself. By feeding this new noise back into the headset, the noise itself is audibly canceled, since the sum of the two waves, ideally, is zero. This eliminates a good deal of unwanted sonic junk, from airplane engine noise to distant freeway traffic seeping into your living room.
You get two levels of noise cancelation (approximately 5 dB and 10 dB of noise attenuation, respectively), depending on the degree of noise around you. Less attenuation conserves batteries but also reduces the effect of the cancelation on the low frequencies of your chosen program material--which, thanks to the headphones' XBS (extra-bass system design) is minimal to begin with.
The headphones operate for about 50 hours on a single AAA battery (supplied) and come with a handy slider to prevent slack ear cords getting tangled during use and a clothing clip to simplify operation. The RP-HC50's gold-plated .125-inch minijack connector is ultra-resistant to corrosion and other signal-degrading artifacts.
What's in the Box
Headphones, inline noise-cancelation box, 1 AAA battery, a cord clip, and a user's manual
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