Fresh gear: Travel headphones

As you may be able to gather from some of my posts here, I spend a lot of time on airplanes. Last year, I used some of my American Express Rewards points to get a pair of Bose Quiet Comfort 2 headphones (I couldn’t justify paying $300 in cash for them, but using my Rewards points was painless). The Bose headphones are very nice - they’re the Escalade of noise-cancelling headphones.

Unfortunately, the Bose headphones are so bulky (even when they are folded) that I don’t really bring them along any more except when I travel on international flights. As a result, I’ve been listening to my iPod and my laptop using the headphones that come with the iPod. They’re very good, but they just weren’t doing the trick for me on planes - particularly when listening to the audiobooks I download from my subscription to Audible.

Well, I just finished a round trip to NYC with my latest headphones, and I love them. They’re Sony’s MDR-EX71 earbuds. They don’t have active noise cancelling, but they have very comfortable rubber ear pieces (three sizes are included) that allow them to block out most of the ambient noise, including the racket on a plane. They sound great, come with a tiny case (not shown in the picture) to hold the extension cord and extra ear pieces, and have a cool little sleeve (looks like a capsule in the photo) to help you store them in a laptop bag without messing up or losing the rubber earpieces. The sleeve also reduces the likelihood of tangling.

The sound quality is very good, and you get a lot more bass out of these buds than the ones that come with the iPod. They sound good enough that I’ll probably put my Bose headphones up on eBay or something. I wore them continuously on a 5½ hour flight and they were comfortable the whole time.

At about $30 via Amazon, the Sony MDR-EX71’s are affordable, and they perform at least as well as other earbuds I’ve tried out that cost $150 and up. If you’re in the market for some comfortable, great sounding earbuds for travel or other places where you’d like to isolate the sounds around you, I recommend these.

Comments

[Erik]

Good review. There are a couple of these ear bud types out there that have the rubber on them. A co-worker of mine had some that had silicone gel padding and they worked great. We would have to throw things at him sometime to get his attention. I would suggest any of them but if you can find the ones with the softest padding, such as silicone, they will conform to you ear the best and block the most noise.

Aloha,
E

[jeff]

I'm thinking of investing in a pair of BOSE QC2, too. But do you find they will cancel out regular noise, such as when I'm on a bus or train and a nearby teenager's music is blaring out of his headphones? Thanks. pls email me directly, if you can.

[Dwayne Melancon]

Thanks for the comments, Erik and Jeff.

Erik,

The soft rubber on these is very effective at blocking the noise - better than I expected, in fact. I haven't tried the silicone ones but have heard they are very good. Are the silicone ones all expensive? A friend of mine has some custom-molded silicone ones but he paid a lot (can't remember but it was over $400) and they are the same kind Sting or Bono or some other famous single-named celebrity uses. Too pricey for me.

Jeff,

As I mentioned in my email to you, the QC2's will cut out background noise on buses, trains, etc. - especially the high frequency noise like the treble from teenagers' headphones. If your music is quiet, you'll hear some conversations, etc. coming through, but it will sound very distant. They don't block as totally as a pair of earplugs might, but they do a great job of isolating the surrounding noise.

The earbuds I reviewed also block out that kind of noise, but you'll get a much fuller sound with the QC2's (deeper bass, etc.)

If you buy from Bose directly, you'll get a money-back guarantee (it's at least 30 days - could be more). They have some sort of minimum advertised price agreement with their resellers or something, since I have found them to be exactly the same price everywhere I looked (at least for new ones). Might want to get a pair and see if they do the trick for you.

[Kris]

Great review! I went the same path; ipod headphones (couldn't hear that well on some planes), Bose noise canceling (too bulky and another battery to worry about) and then I found the same ones you did at the Atlanta airport heading overseas. What a difference, it's like having ear plugs in, all you hear is the sound. Thanks for the review!

Kris

[gregp]

I read an article in the WSJ about small business being picked by big business as a supplier. The story was of a small out fit that made headphones like the Bose, but for less. And how John Deere came to find them and use them as a supplier for a modified branded product. So here are 3 cheaper potential alternatives to the Bose.

199.95 89.99 54.95

Solitude Noise Canceling Headphones 199.95

http://www.protravelgear.com/store/Crew_Supplies___Headsets__Intercoms__and_Microphones___Headsets___Outside_the_Box__Inc____Solitude_Noise_Canceling_Headphones___159?Args=

Plane Quiet NC6 Noise Canceling Headphones 54.95

http://www.protravelgear.com/store/Crew_Supplies___Headsets__Intercoms__and_Microphones___Headsets___Outside_the_Box__Inc____Plane_Quiet_NC6_Noise_Canceling_Headphones___28?Args=

and John Deers branded version of the Solitude for $89.99

http://www.johndeeregifts.com/product-product_id/290298
(could be the best bet unless the tuning to block our john deere motor frequencies is too tweaked to that)

Just an idea.
A blogger/reporter could get samples and test them and write it up.

[Dwayne Melancon]

Great suggestions, Greg - some great options to share. I took a look at the links and they all look pretty decent. The John Deere ones still seem a bit on the large side to me, but the others look like they fold up pretty well.