Sony MDR-NC500 Digital Noise Cancelling
Delivering products equipped with groundbreaking technological features is nothing new for Sony. In fact, if you look at their consistent track record of bringing out products powered by never-seen before technology, it’s clear that this is quite often their speciality. And so you may expect a lot from the Sony MDR-NC500 digital noise canceling headphones too. After all, they claim to be the world’s first digital noise canceling headphones!
So, what is this technology all about and does it really make these headphones worth buying?
Headphones are meant to provide you a private listening experience. The ‘privacy’ is meant to work both ways so that:
It is the second aspect which is definitely a more important consideration when you are selecting a pair of headphones. Ambient noise can lower the quality of music you are playing if it enters your ears even with the headphones on. The Sony MDR-NC500 digital noise canceling headphones have an artificial intelligence noise canceling system which claims to reduce up to ‘99% of the ambient noise at 160Hz.’
The MDR NC500’s are particularly useful if you travel frequently by air and most of your music gets drowned in the humming noise made by the plane’s engines. In fact, most frequent fliers who have used these headphones have vouched for its ability to help you listen to music over the drone of the jet engines, even if you are seated towards the back of the plane, where the engine noise is louder and more invasive (which makes them perfect for work too).
The Sony MDR-NC500 headphones have three different levels of pre-programmed noise cancellation. So, along with the airplane, you can also use the ‘bus’ and ‘office’ modes to reduce ambient noise, depending on where you are.
There is a downside to this though – sadly, you cannot use the headphones without the noise cancellation mechanism switched on. In a very serene environment, you may experience a sensation of pressure on your ears due to the noise cancellation working actively despite the lack of ambient noise. However, it is not a major problem, unless you listen to music for hours at a stretch.
These headphones have inbuilt lithium-ion batteries which can power them for 16 hours before you need to recharge. You can also use normal AA batteries to get a combined battery life of 28 hours and so these headphones are really suitable for use on long flights.
The price of the headphones is always an important consideration because you usually do not want to pay over the odds for an accessory (albeit an arguably necessary accessory). The Sony MDR-NC500 noise canceling headphones are listed at around $400 which makes them quite a pricey pair of headphones. If you want the best noise canceling headphones available though, you may have to pay a premium price.
On March 26, 2010 admin wrote:
Pricey, but worth trying. Very useful in noisy environments.