Panasonic RP-HC150

mid tier headphone – I find the sound quality really quite good, good bass and range of sounds, the active noise cancellation did what it was suppose to do - it dulls the background machinery noises like trains, cars planes and vacuums, but other than that not that useful (since its not passive noise cancellation). Build quality is quite poor - (although admittedly I thrashed mine a fair bit) the connection at the headphone wore out and the side of the headphone snapped. Not that comfortable for long stints due to no head cushion (although ear cushions are fine).

Terrible – Not recommended. I bought these in a noisy airport duty free store as I had just discovered my old noise cancelling Kensington headphones had perished. I tested them in the store and was satisfied the noise cancelling worked - but I failed to actually test the noise cancelling whilst they are plugged in to something. Stupid. Noise cancelling works reasonably well - as long as the audio jack is not actually plugged into anything. Noise cancelling stops working completely as soon as the audio jack is plugged into anything. Whatever you plug it into doesn't even have to be switched on or actually playing anything - as as it is electrically connected to anything, the noise cancelling just stops.

Good – I purchased these at the airport in LA in anticipation of the long flight home to Melbourne (14 - 15 hours). They cost me 80 USD which is probably a little bit more than what they are worth being that i bought them at the airport. They were not the cheapest set, but not the most expensive noise reduction technology set either. i found that they were two bulky to sleep with on the plane (which is one of their intended uses) and that the noise reduction is noticeable but nothing spectacular. While watching movies on Qantas's video on demand system, however - they proved to be a very worthwhile investment. I could watch movies straight for about 8 hours without any irritation at all and the noise reduction, while not particularly spectacular on its own, is more beneficial when listening to music or a movie. Extremely comfortable over ear with soft cushion design; lightweight - can be worn for hours and hours without irritation; comes with Boeing 747 ear phone airplane adapter; relatively good and noticeable noise reduction technology - though not the best and not as good as the higher end Panasonic, Sony and esp Bose. Great all round sound quality - both with the noise reduction on and off. Noise reduction technology on this unit IS noticeable but is NOT spectacular. The higher end panasonics, Sonys and Bose which i sampled in the store were significantly better but also significantly more expensive