Best Noise Cancelling Headphones for 200 bucks

[capnstabn]

Looking to get a pair of noise cancelling headphones in the 200 dollar range. Which pair is the best bang for the buck?

 

[Audiochris]

Are you looking for active or passive noise canceling? If passive, I can recommend the Shure SRH440's. It's an over the ear style headphone which has a pretty flat response and a slight boost in the 10k range. If you're looking for something bass heavy these probably are not the best for you though. They have punchy, even, good sounding bass but as I said earlier, they are tuned relatively flat. It's a great pair of reference headphones. I use them both professionally and at my computer. They can be had for $100ish. You can step up to the 840's and they'll run you 150 - 160ish. IMO they didn't sound quite as accurate when I listened to them.

 

[obobski]

must they be noise cancelling, or just provide decent isolation from outside noises? (whats the usage scenario, basically)

 

[ashmedai]

Passive NC will work best unless there is a lot of very consistent background noise to eliminate, e.g. you want it for use on an airplane. If it's for use in an office, active NC is a poor option.

High passive isolation: IEMs
Medium to good passive isolation: closed circumaurals
Extremely poor isolation: closed supra-aurals ("walkman" headphones), most ear buds
No isolation: open headphones

Special case: active NC

* generally a closed circumaural phone, requires decent passive isolation to work
* battery on head or additional cable for power (for NC circuit)
* constantly monitors ambient noise, attempts to create an inverted wave to cancel

The output of the NC circuit is superimposed over your audio signal, degrading it to some degree. If the NC signal does not perfectly cancel the momentary environmental noise, it will show up in the sound you hear - as noise. If the environmental noise varies significantly, the NC circuit will have increasingly poor results - it can't predict the future, and has to play the countersignal at the same time that the sound occurs outside.

Active NC is very, very good when it is appropriate. When it is not appropriate, it can be very, very bad.

Headphones marketed as "noise canceling" are usually active NC.

 

[ToMMyGuN]

I have the ANC7's and while they are great sounding in my opinion, I can't recommend them due to sound leakage. Having the NC circuit on increases the volume, which is a bit annoying, but not a fatal con IMO. But when I listen to music to a reasonably loud level, anyone within 30 feet or so can hear exactly what I am listening to. They are useless for inside a library.

 

[capnstabn]

Going to be mostly using on an airplane. Id like it to drown out engine noise as much as possible while maintaing good quality.