16 out of 16 people found this review helpful.
You Get What You Pay For
Date of Review: Feb 22, 2007
The Bottom Line: The quality of noise cancelation is very poor. Just spend $50 on a good set of Headphone.
Specs:
Audio Sensitivity:
Power On: 106dB/mW;
Power Off: 104dB/mW
Impedance:
Power On: 20 ohms at 1kHz
Power Off: 65 ohms at 1kHz
Frequency Range:
10 dB at 300 Hz
Noise Reduction: 40 - 1,500 Hz
General Type: Open air, dynamic
Driver Unit: 38mm diameter, dome type
Magnet: Neodymium
Frequency Response: 30-15,000Hz
Headphones: Adjustable; Foldable (Swivel)
Power Handling Capacity: 100mW
Battery Life: Alkaline: Sony LR03/AM-4(N) Approx. 30H; Manganese: Sony R03/UM-4(NU) Approx. 15H
Weight: 5.29 oz (150g)
Dimensions: 7 1/64 x 2 1/64 x 9 1/64 in
Supplied Accessories :
Carry Pouch
Inflight Plug Adapter
I purchased the Sony MDR-NC6 headphones for work. I'm in a pretty noisy area most of the day and it can really ware on you over time. Like everyone else I considered the Bose Quiet Comfort, but the cost was prohibitive for something that might or might not help. That's why I chose the Sony variety. Sony has the reputation you're looking for and the headphones are reasonably priced.
Power:
When you first put on the headphones you can tell they diminish the volume from your mp3 player, but when you turn them on the volume goes up to where you expect it. Basically this means they're pulling more power than the player can supply.
Fit:
Like the other Sony headphones I've owned, they're ergonomic but backwards. The ear pieces swivel to fit your head but they swivel forward and not backwards. Since your ears point slightly forward, their design is backwards. Basically, it means you need to wear the right headphone on your left ear.
Noise Canceling:
There are two kinds of noise canceling devices: active and passive. Passive noise canceling means the material they're made out of absorbs some of the ambient noise. This is how ear plugs work. They essentially insulate your ears from your surroundings. Active noise canceling means the head phones use a small microphone to sample the ambient noise and introduce a waveform (made up of several frequencies) 180 degrees out of phase with the ambient noise. This means the two waveforms cancel each other out and you don't hear anything.
Sony does a mediocre job at handling noise. If you work under a loud air duct where the "whoosh" sound drives you nuts, these headphones CAN cancel out that noise. If you work near a fan, the sound of the air will be canceled out but not the sound of the motor. This is why Bose QC-2 "over ear" design is so effective. Even if they can't actively cancel out the noise, they can filter some of it out passively. Since the Sony MDR-NC6 sit on top of your ear, they can't passively absorb noise. This means you're limited to types of noise that are extremely constant and almost monotone.
Additional Noise:
If you don't plug the head phones in you can still turn on the noise canceling feature to test it out. What I noticed was a lot of background static. I'm not obsessed with sound quality, but all the static was as annoying as the original background noise. This isn't part of the active noise canceling, since all of that should either cancel out (and sound like silence) or it would sound just like the ambient noise.
Overall I've been very disappointed with these headphones and I plan to sell them. I guess you get what you pay for and I'm now convinced I need to invest in the Bose headphones.
