And noise-canceling headphones.
Regular headphones deliver music directly to your ears. Noise-canceling models also reduce any dull, consistent roar around you, like airplane engines, vacuum cleaners and presidential campaign speeches.
O.K., that last one was a joke. Noise-canceling (NC) headphones don’t actually reduce irregular noises like speech and crying babies in the row behind you. Even so, cutting down airplane roar is supposed to cut down on “noise fatigue,” an edgy tiredness that comes from hours-long exposure to loud noise. They also let you listen to music or videos on the train or plane at a much lower (and safer) volume.
For years, Bose has ruled the NC headphones roost. They’re incredibly good, but incredibly expensive; the latest model, the QuietComfort 15, costs $300. They’ve now been on the market for more than two years; surely, in that time, somebody must have introduced some less-expensive or better-featured rivals.
To test that theory, I rounded up the latest models from 10 companies. In alphabetical order: Able Planet NC1100B ($250), AKG K495 NC from Harman ($350), Audio Technica ATH-ANC7B ($125), Bose QuietComfort 15 ($300), Creative HN-900 ($100), JVC HANC250 ($103), Monster Beats by Dr. Dre ($300), Panasonic RP-HC720 ($90), Sennheiser PXC 310 ($300), Sony MDR-NC200D ($200) and Sony MDR-NC500DM3 ($400). I managed to stuff all of them, including their black carrying cases, into a bulging canvas tote bag. It raised some serious T.S.A. eyebrow.
I tried them out on four cross-country flights, constantly swapping pairs, testing each for its NC ability and music fidelity (and utterly baffling my seatmates).
I discovered that when you’re shopping for NC headphones, only eight things matter.
NOISE CANCELING They all work the same way: an external microphone samples the ambient sound, and then pumps out the opposite sound waves, thereby canceling out some of that external roar.
But there’s an enormous range of NC effectiveness. For example, the Monster Beats may be the coolest-looking headphones on the market, but you’d get better noise canceling by stuffing Kleenex in your ears. There’s practically no difference at all between On and Off.
The Audio-Technica, Creative, Able Planet and JVC headphones do best at canceling low or medium frequencies; they leave plenty of roar. The Panasonic, Sony and AKG models do better. (The Panasonic’s well-designed seal starts blocking sound even before you turn on the NC switch.)
But not one comes close to the Bose. Putting these things on makes the world go away. It’s the difference between being at a rock concert and being a couple of miles away from the stadium.
(On my ears, the 15’s create a weird, slightly uncomfortable pressure, as you sometimes feel in a descending airplane. But the customer reviews online suggest that I’m a tiny minority.)
BATTERY NC headphones require power. Some have built-in rechargeable batteries, including the Sennheiser 310 (20 hours) and AKG (10 hours).
Others require AA or AAA batteries: the Audio Technica (40 hours), Panasonic (34 hours), Bose (35 hours), Creative (40 hours), Sony MDR-NC200D (22 hours), Able Planet (50 hours), JVC (50 hours) and Monster Beats (12 hours)
One pair — the Sony NC500DM3 — has both: a rechargeable battery (16 hours) and a compartment on the cord for AA batteries (12 hours more), just in case.
PLAYBACK WHILE OFF Most of these headphones can pass along music even when they’re not powered on; that is, you use up battery power only when you need noise cancellation. Some, though, are utterly silent when they’re switched off, which is an unhappy surprise. These laggards include the Bose, the Beats and the Sony NC500DM3.
ON-EAR, OVER-EAR There are two kinds of NC headphones: those with big cups that rest on your head, enclosing your entire ear, and those with smaller cups that rest on your ears themselves.
E-mail: pogue@nytimes.com
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