Sennheiser PXC 250 Traditional Closed Collapsible Headphones (Silver)

Rating:
Summary: These Sennheisers make my iPod sound better than ever
Review: I ride the train and fly a lot with my iPod. My first upgrade from Apple's ubiquitous white earphones was to buy Sony's MDR NC-11 in-ear noise canceling earphones. The upside is that they are small and easy to carry. The downside is that they are uncomfortable to wear for long periods and their rubber earpads eventually fall off and get lost. (They are also excruciatingly expensive to replace).

As a next step I decided to buy either Sennheiser or Bose. After some research, I just couldn't justify the cost of the Bose headphones. Meanwhile, these Sennheisers sound superb with my iPod and have an open, dynamic, spacey sound. They also do a solid job of drowning out the steady drone of things like airplane engines and general background noise. They can also play loud without noise leaking out and annoying fellow travelers. A further advantage is that they are battery powered "active" headphones. This seems to make them a lot easier on my iPod - it now lasts much longer between charges.


Rating:
Summary: Getting slightly less than what you are paying for ..
Review: I'm a self-styled 'value oriented' audiophile ;) . I bought these at the local Circuit City but returned them after trying for a few days ... I compared them with different head-sets in different settings (while driving, mowing the lawn, on the treadmill, talking to people, watching TV .. etc. etc.). I'm sure they are good, ... but definitely not worth 129 .. I have made a mental limit of 75 for these ... will wait until they fall to that price ... or if I have a long international flight.... whichever comes first .... (and believe me .. they fall to 75-90 every now and then on many web-sites).

Just a quick review for those interested (I guess that's why you are reading it!) ..... They work fine but only for 'reducing' low frequency noise ... they should probably be called "outside bass or selective noise reducing headphones". (Use of the word 'canceling' in their description is a bit misleading and if taken literally can cause utter disappointment). Also, if you switch off the noise canceling... the sound is 'quite' poor (please note the emphasis on poor). The headphones actually use the noise canceling unit to boost the input signals especially bass.

The fanny pack and the baggage (noise canceling unit, its wires and extra AAA batteries) reduce the appeal. By the way, note that the headphones do not cover the ears .. but just get placed on them. Also, as one other reviewer has pointed out, these headphones caused him/her ear pressure build-up. I too noticed this phenomenon a bit .. (but then I'm one of those people who have unbearable pain in the ears during the landing of a flight ..)

Nevertheless, the sound quality is better than an average $30 Sony. You DO get improvement over conventional headphones. Also, as you will notice from other reviews, some people are satisfied with this improvement, while others want more .... it's about your perception and expectations as well. But one thing is for sure ... you are definitely getting a little less in these Sennheisers than what you are paying for (not to mention that Bose rips you off even more!)


Rating:
Summary: Great sounding headphones!!
Review: Before buying these, I had had no experience with Sennheiser products and only decided to jump on them when I saw them refurbished for $65 on Amazon. I just got them in the mail today and although I have yet to use the noise filtering technology (I don't have the batteries yet), I gotta say, they are very comfortable and nicely sized and the sound is GREAT. You can't really tell from the picture their size, but like with some headphones that are big and make it look like you're talking to Mars, these are much more discrete and you can fold them and pop them in your pocket to go when you're not using them.

I'm listening to them right now and really couldn't be happier. If you listen to music on the go like me, it's a good investment to get some good sounding, comfortable headphones and I would recommend the PXC-250s.