Seems to work on plane but hurts my ears

Just before a flight between Dallas and Detroit (a little less than 3 hours flight time) I purchased a set of Philips Active Noise Canceling in the ear earbuds (HN060) at Target because they were on clearance. The regular price was $49.99, they were $34.98. Compared to the Bose headphones at $299.99, it seemed like a worthwhile try.

Sitting at the front of coach class (MD-80, row 9), they seem to work very well connected to my laptop while listening to educational courses on CD-Rom. Since I'm shopping for a pair in preparation for a 17 hour flight to New Zealand and plan on doing course work during the flight, I didn't listen to music so I can't say how they do with good tunes. With out an audio source, they still work but you can hear a quiet hiss.

The earbuds are an in the ear design. This means you have to put them into your ear canal. The benefit is that the earbud itself becomes a passive noise blocker by sealing out some of the noise. For some this isn't a problem but I have very sensitive ears and they flat out hurt almost right away. I also could not get a consistent seal. There isn't additional sound dampening as in a full size headphone so even touching the wires conducts noise through the earbuds.

The battery pack (1 AAA) and control box is about 18 inches down connected to the earbud wires. It also has a neck strap. There is an On/Off switch. You can definitely tell a difference when toggling back and forth between On and Off. It does not cancel out all noise so the crying baby sitting next to you will still be heard. What it does do is clear out a great deal of the background noise of the jet engines and air flow (again, not all but a great deal). I doubt there is anything short of shooting earmuffs that will silence the jets at the back of an MD-80.

I'm fairly impressed with the noise canceling ability of the product compared to its price point. I'm just a baby and can't handle the soreness and headaches due to the in-the-ear design. I will return these to Target and try the regular earphone/headphone style of the Philips brand. Sony also has an in-the-ear design noise canceling product that I may try due to the difference in ear-bud design. Either way, I'm still way ahead of the game compared to the Bose (which I tried at the mall and wasn't all that impressed with).

If you normally use the in-the-ear style earbuds, I would recommend you giving these a try.