IPOD, Zune, MP3, Noise cancelling headphones

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Carl White

#1
#1
I"m going on a long cross country flight. CD players and discs are cumbersome. I want to buy an IPOD type player and cheap (Bose is too expensive) noise cancelling headphones for the flight/airport.
I'm not too computer savy but I do own a PC.
Are IPODs and MP3 players both compatible with the Noise Cancelling Headphones? Can anyone recommend a cheaper version of Bose noise cancelling headphones? Should I buy an IPOD, MS Zune or something like Sandisk MP3?
I did read the entire "IPODs are a pain in the ass" thread. I just got more confused.
TIA guys.
 
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elmo16

#2
#2
I’ve tried many noise canceling headphones, all of them cheaper then the Bose QuietComfort headphones, but none come close to the noise canceling effectiveness of the Bose. I found that the newer QC-3 is more effective then the larger QC-2 (even though the QC-2 covers your entire ear).

Unfortunately, while the Bose QuietComfort headphones are, by far the best at noise canceling, they are at best second rate at music reproduction. Their base is flabby; mid range is base heavy and muddy and the highs not very realistic. There are many better headphones for listening to music then the Bose QuietComfort line.

If you just want to sleep on a noisy airplane, commuter train, or just want to concentrate in any noisy environment, then they are without equal. They cancel out noise better then industrial headphones, including they kind that are used at shooting ranges or at airports or earplugs, as well as being infinitely more comfortable or any of them.
 
F

franca

<color=pink>Silver</color>
#5
#5
I've been using the Sennheiser PXC250 headphones for several years. The sound is pretty good. Not cheap, but cheaper than Bose.
 
S

SkellyChamp

#7
#7
I've been using the Sennheiser RS 130 which I've found very good though that is for home TV use. comes with a rechargeable base so I'm not so sure that it would work well for what you have in mind.
 
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elmo16

#8
#8
fortydog said:
FWIW, I recently purchased a Creative Zen Vision M 30GB and its pretty cool. Plays videos and mp3. I never had an ipod though. After the rebate $175.
Click to expand...
I agree, the Creative Zen Vision M works far better then the IPod. The Creative Zen Vision M has a built in FM radio and a built in microphone that allows you to use it as a digital tape recorder. The battery lasts more then twice as long as the IPod, and the battery lasts at least five years as opposed to about a year and a half before it stops taking a charge. I paid only $265 for the 60-gig model from a well-known NYC electronics dealer. The screen has about 4 times as many colors as the IPod. Most people feel that the IPod has a better user interface then the Creative Zen Vision M, but to scroll quickly to a distant album of track is much easier then with the IPod. None of the constant circles with the scroll wheel, the only real down side of the Creative Zen Vision M is the fact that it’s about 4 times as thick as the iPod, and it requires a dongel to connect to the various ports on the Creative Zen Vision M.

The Creative Zen Vision M also allows you to use wma play for sure protected music files that you can download from almost all the on line music stores.

The IPod only allows you to down load music from ITunes. The Zune does not play wma play for sure files, but forces you to buy music from Microsoft’s on line music store.

The IPod is well known for breaking down with alarming frequency. The Zune is very new, but it’s rapidly developing a similar reputation. The Zune does have a special feature that no other mp3 player has. You can easily share music with other Zune owners wirelessly. The only problem is that I have only seen about 3 people actually using a Zune, so your chance of running into another Zune owner with whom you can beam and share tunes is really quite remote, and even then you can only play the protected tunes you down loaded about 3 times before the beamed tune deactivates itself.

Lets just say that Microsoft is to mp3 players what Apple is to computers, only about 1/10,000 times less.
 
O

Ozzy

#9
#9
franca said:
I've been using the Sennheiser PXC250 headphones for several years. The sound is pretty good. Not cheap, but cheaper than Bose.
Click to expand...
Everything is better than Bose... the most over rated over priced piece of shit on the market.


Sennheiser had been the best headphones on the market for 20-30 years now.
 
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elmo16

#11
#11
franca said:
I'm not sure how the noise cancelation compares to the Bose, but the Sennheiser phones do have great sound.
Click to expand...
The noise cancellation of the Sennheiser doesn’t come close to that of the Bose, but almost every Sennheiser headphones sound better then that of any Bose headphone.

I would like to point out that Bose does make, what imho are the best ear buds on the market today. They produce strong base without having to stick the damn things halfway into your brain. The middle and highs are bright and realistic.

There are two problems with these ear buds though, They don’t fit very snugly in your ears, so if you like to go jogging with your mp3 player, these buds would not be your first choice.

The second is that the little rubber caps that you need to use these buds come loose all to easily and are easily lost. This can be cured very easily with a few drops of airplane glue.
 
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jayp67

#12
#12
Thanks for the help, guys!

I ALMOST bought a pair of Bose headphones at the PC Richards in my neighborhood the other day. Glad that I decided to hold off on buying them.

Thanks for the heads up on what headphones to purchase, everyone!

jayp67
 
J

JXM

Bronze
#15
#15
I have a pair of Bose QC2s and the noise cancellation is fantastic. But I'd agree on the sound.

My previous set of noice cancelling headphones were Sennheisers, and the sound was MUCH better, and I thought the noice cancellation was still very good.

The difference was, and this is important if you use them a lot:

The Sennheisers I had did not go over the ear (which I prefer) and the batteries were contained in a separate module that was down on the cable, as opposed to the Bose, where the battery is contained inside the right earpiece. I ended up breaking the Sennheisers after 9 months of heavy use, while the Bose have turned out to be nearly indestructible.

I have not looked at newer model Sennheisers so I can't say that this is still the case, but that was my experience.

And I'm an iPod lover...but not looking for a fight here.
 
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elmo16

#16
#16
I tried the QC2, which fit over the entire ear, and the QC3, which only rested on the ear. I assumed that the QC2, which fit over the entire ear would cancel noise better then the QC3, which don't. The fact is that the smaller, more comfortable QC3 actually cancel noise better then the larger QC2.

The reason is both the QC2 and QC3 use an active noise cancellation system (which is also why they are so expensive). The Bose headphones actually produce the inverse of the sound waves that reach your ears (think of two Sin waves 180 degrees out of phase producing a compound sound wave with an amplitude near zero, or at least much lower then normal). This also explains the slight pressure on the eardrums that the Bose headphones produce, and the fact that the smaller QC3’s, which don’t rely on passively, cover the ear, can block out noise better then the larger QC2’s.
 
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Carl White

#17
#17
Up-date to original thread starter

I ended up buying an Ipod which I'm happy with. With 3 weeks till my cross country flight i still haven't purchased noise cancelling headphones. Bose are so expensive. Best Buy had Sony for $60 and WalMart has Maxell NCHeadphones for $59. That's more my price range. Anybody own those? No Sennheisers in sight yet.
Thanks for all your help.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
M

Mr. W. Coyote

#18
#18
elmo16 said:
The IPod is well known for breaking down with alarming frequency.
Click to expand...

Not going to argue any of your other point, as many of them are just preference or design (except the battery (which is an issue of the thickness), but....


The breakdown point you make... don't you think it has something to do with the fact that Apple has sold 100 Million iPods and you are hearing 'frequency' as a result of volume.

I know hundreds of iPod users (mostly adults who treat elctronics with a modicum of care) who have had healthy iPods for years!
 
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