SonyMDR-NC40 Noise Cancelling Headphone (Black)

This product is great when the active noise canceling is active. I use this with a SANSA Clip MP3 player/Dell 1505 PC and the sound is simply amazing for the money. I have stood next to the air vent while cooking and I was not able to hear it. It works great with low level continuous noise. If you are looking for a set of headphones to eliminate voices, you should look for something else. It does diminish the sound but it does not cancel it out, even with casual conversation that is happening 10 feet away from where you are listening.The headphones are very tight and cover most of the ear. The top of the headphones can cause a little irritation to the cranium crest. The earphones fold neatly and the construction seems to be top grade for the price. If you are expecting complete isolation or bullet proof construction, then go with much higher quality headphones.Overall sound quality is excellent with great lows and highs. MP3's sound very rich at 128kbs or higher levels. Response levels down to 14Hz provide base response without distortion and the 21KHz upper end provides excellent highs.The bypass switch cuts off the input to the headphones for easy conversation. The cord 1/8" plug is a little small and is hard to remove from the device. The small soft silicone sides tempt you to pull at the cord rather than the plug cover. It has not caused any difficulty as of yet, but could become an issue if you are not used to it.Without the active listening engaged sounds very hollow and does not reduce much of the ambient sound. They still work but they are not enjoyable.The battery compartment is a little difficult to get into on the first try. Once you learn how to open it this does not become an issue.Overall, this is a great product that should provide at least 500 hours of intermittent service without trouble (last about 2 years @ 5 hours/week).

Out of the box, as a critical listener I give these headphones three stars, since the bass is very strong but the highest treble is weak. However, with frequency compensation, I give five stars for the excellent sound. This headphone can give audiophile quality sound, if the treble is turned up in playback. The bass response is flat, tight, and goes down beyond the lowest note on a bass guitar. I heard 32 Hz organ pedal notes with these headphones! The midrange is neutral and flat, but will not be appreciated unless the high frequencies are boosted.I achieved excellent sound by adjusting the frequency response of the music played into the phones. You can do this best with a free software program such as Audacity, but you could also use the equalizer on your player. Many of the Sansa mp3 players have them built in. I got the best results by reducing tones 50 Hz and lower by 3 dB, tapering up to flat at 100 Hz. The high end was smoothly boosted from flat at 2.5KHz to +4dB at 6.3KHz, continuing to +7dB at 12.5KHz, and +12dB at 22KHz. With this equalization the sound was splendid, and I could easily hear the subtle difference between my personal CDs ripped with Nero and those ripped with "Easy CD Ripper".The noise reduction of the headphones was as specified at 10 dB reduction of ambient noise. This was enough to reduce the noise of a cheap treadmill so that I could listen to music without blasting my ears. It also had the same effect on a noisy upright vacuum cleaner. The noise was reduced, not eliminated. On two airplane trips, sitting near the front of a 737, the noise was reduced enough so that I could listen to music if I turned it up slightly from my normal quiet-background level. In a rental 2011 SUV, the noise was reduced for better listening. My conclusion is that the noise reduction is sufficient, but not outstanding.Battery life is specified as 40 hours, and I believe it! I ran my 1.5V battery down to 1.1V, and the headphones still worked fine.These headphones fit snugly against the ears, but the pads are comfortable. These are on-the-ear, not over-the-ear headphones. I don't listen for more than an hour at a time, so I am not bothered by the snug fit.I would recommend these headphones both for casual listeners to use out of the box, and for more critical listeners to use with frequency compensation for excellent sound.

It is nice NR headphones, but made no mistake - it is not a Bose and not even close. It does not sit as comfortably as Bose QC3, NR is not as good as QC3, sound quality is not as good either. If I traveled a lot I would buy Bose QC3 without hesitation. But since I travel only few occasions a year I need something less expensive but good value.Sony is comfortable to wear, but not as pleasant as Bose QC. Built quality is good but not as good as Bose. Sound quality is okay for the price, is better than typical cheap NR phone. NR quality is nothing spectacular, may be better than typical non-brand $20 phone but does not worth $100.Sound quality is an issue. When NR is off sound is good though it is evidently not high end - similar to $100 Bose headphone I have at home (without NR). But when you turn NR on - low and high frequencies are artificially amplified and distorted. It makes it impossible to listen blogs - you need a player with eq. to remove bass boost. Both high frequency and bass are kind of crude. Might be good to listen rap or may be even hard rock but forget about classical or any other acoustic music or other refined music.Noise reduction is so-so - it does not have that WOW factor like Bose has. Low freq dron is reduced and thats all folks. But it is still better than no NR.From my review you may get impression that I am not happy with Sony. But it is not true. Sony does not worth $100 of course, but it is sold on discount, and my comments explain why it is discounted. I paid $67 and for $67 you get a pretty good product. All I wanted to say that if you fly often and want really high quality product - spend more money and buy Bose (who actually invented NR headphones and is always ahead in technology). But for rest of us who thinks that our needs do not justify $300 spend on NR headphone and who can tolerate 20 hours a year of crude sound - there is always Sony ready to help.