SONY MDR-NC7/WHI 3.5mm Connector Supra-aural Noise Canceling Headphone (White) SONY MDR-NC7/WHI 3.5mm Connector Supra-aural Noise Canceling Headphone (White)

Pros: Inexpensive, fold into small package so is easily carryable.

Cons: Poor audio quality overall. Right ear was louder than left ear, noise cancelling on the after-christmas flight was sketchy and annoying for my daughter. She stated that they would intermittently just let the low-freq stuff through, sometimes left ear, sometimes right ear. The overall audio quality was very low, lower than a 3 dollar set she bought from a mall vendor to have something to use after the flight ended. A disappointing christmas present.

Other Thoughts: If I were to say anything about this sony product, I would have to say it's the FIRST sony product I've ever purchased that i asked for my money back - I would attribute any problems to poor assembly and QA given that the electronic assembly is pretty vanilla.

Pros: These work very well for their intended usage. My wife had a pair of 12 hour flights in the last couple of weeks and loved these. She reports that they cut down the jet engine whine very substantially and made it much easier to listen to music. They also cut down the wear and fatigue that the constant airplane drone normally causes.

She had never used noise cancelling headphones before and also noticed that due to the lower background noise level she could hear surrounding conversations much more clearly; so much so in fact that she felt like she was evesdropping.

In terms of comfort, my wife found these to be very comfortable. She wore them for two 12 hours flights, and left them on the entire time. They did not pull or snag her hair and the headband was comfortable. These fold up into a very compact package, so they are easy to bring along. They fold up much more compact than the last pair (a different brand) that I bought.

Cons: No cons. These were well built. The hinges for example exceeded my expectations, especially at this price point. It took my wife a few minutes to understand exactly how to fold and unfold them, but once she got that she was set. Looking at them I thought that maybe they would pinch or pull hair, but they do not.

The only thing that surprised my wife was not a feature of these particular headphones, but of all headphones. With headphones on she could not turn her head all the way to the side to sleep on the plane. She had just never thought about it before. She found that the noise reduction was worth the effort to use pillows to brace her head more upright and straight ahead and sleep that way, rather than listen to the drone of the engines but sleep more sideways.

Other Thoughts: While I earn my living in a tech profession, my wife is decidedly non-technical and very skeptical about electronic devices in general. These are just about the only electronic devices that I can think of that she has been impressed with. Her exact words were "I was very, very surprised and impressed."

I have been using various sound cancelling headphones for years whenever I fly and highly recommend them. I have not compared these head to head with any others, and my last set was a different brand and they broke before these Sony's were purchased so I could not do a comparison. But these are effective.

A lot of reviews of sound cancelling headphones seem to discuss using them for things for which they are not intended. Their main purpose is to block low frequency noise like that found during an airplane flight. They work very well for that. They are not designed to block the sound of your annoying cubicle mate talking on the phone. Just FYI.