Audio Technica ATH-ANC70

Wish the ear pads were of better quality – Happy with the sound quality of the headphones but the poor quality covering on the ear pads totally lets them down. The covering started to disintegrate well within 12 months of purchase. The ear pads will cost about $25 each to replace. That makes the ear pads worth about 1/4 of the price I paid for the headphones - and too expensive for something which has already proven itself to be of poor quality.

They came with a sturdy hard case which is heard wearing. If only the earpads were a bit more hard wearing as well.

Falling to bits. Not obvious to change battery – After about 10 uses the padding on the ear pads is disintegrating leaving black stuff over my ears! Also went for a long haul flight unable to change battery - you have to go to YouTube to work out the totally weird manoeuvre that has not hint on the device. Also have a Bose .... go Bose - 100% better.

Great for long-haul flights – I bought these headphones (ATH-ANC70) from Addicted to Audio (Melbourne) in August 2014 and used them on the flights to and from the UK in September. I flew economy on the Qantas A380 both ways, down the back of the plane, so whilst the noise was less than I'd experienced previously on Boeing 747s, it was probably noisier than the front of the plane (however a very smooth and straight ride, unlike the 747).

With the headphones you get a travel case, one cable of suitable length, aeroplane adapter, stereo adapter and a AAA battery. I threw in a spare battery that I didn't have to use at all, however all of the noise cancelling headphone use was on the plane - at least 20 hours (I don't sleep very well on planes). Sound quality when in noise cancelling mode was fine and my perception was that the aircraft din was diminished significantly, and I didn't notice it. Movie watching was a pleasure with these. A great feature of these is the volume control on the left-hand side, which I set to 3/4 of maximum and adjusted the entertainment system volume to a comfortable level. This then gave me immediate control if the movie suddenly got really quiet, or the PA announcements cut in, without having to scramble for the in-seat controls. For music, I used my android phone which can be controlled via another button on the left-hand side of the headphones; pause (you can then take a call if on the ground) and track skip forward or backward. I didn't find the track skipping particularly useful, however the pause function was very useful when others wanted to speak to me.

When testing these headphones on the ground prior to flying, I did notice a significant difference between sound quality of music with and without noise cancelling on, however, when we were stuck in the plane at the terminal for an hour waiting to push-back (engines weren't running), I watched part of a movie without noise cancelling on and found the sound to be very acceptable. Being a musician and having played in orchestras and bands, sound quality is important for me, however I also know that perceived sound quality is subjective and dependant on the immediate exposure. I didn't want to get hung up on sound quality for a pair of headphones that were only going to be used in an aeroplane environment because the price starts escalating significantly (these cost $220, headphones for music listening at home are a completely different proposition). So for my purposes, these headphones fit the bill. During my research I did read reviews that rated these headphones down for only having one noise-cancelling mode and not having suitable noise quality or noise cancelling for offices and train commuter needs, but as I was only looking for use in aeroplanes I dismissed this information and am glad I did. If you want to use them in these environments, then this review probably won't help you.

I did have one accident with them when inflight and that was failing to remove the cable from the seat arm when leaving the seat which resulted in breaking the jack in the adapter that sits in the arm rest when returning to my seat (I was in the middle of the row). Fortunately my husband had a spare cable, but it lacked the telephone control connection. Back at home I've easily managed to get a replacement Audio-technica cable via Addicted to Audio, though it's a $44 exercise (ouch!). Also, I did manage to forget to turn the noise cancelling off when leaving my seat, however I always turned it off when packing them into the case. Packing them back into the case is easy and even the cable seems to remember how it was stored. The case is a little larger than most, but the space we had in the seats meant it wasn't too bulky to handle (the extra room internally allowed for storage of other little things). I didn't experience any discomfort or pressure points when wearing them, and really like the over-ear cups, as opposed to on-ear. The build seems to be substantial enough to withstand a few knocks that are inevitable in an aeroplane environment. All in all I'm really pleased with this purchase and hope to have many years of use out of them.