I'm in the market for noise-cancelation headphones
 

I'm quite new to this specific field, and have no idea what to buy. My requirements are simply:

1. Does a good job of canceling out noise (d'oh :P)
2. Good enough sound quality
3. Sturdy enough (some reviews at Amazon criticized Bose for crumbling)
4. Must be headphones that cover the whole ear. Don't want earbuds. Don't want tinny delicate headphones that look like they'd snap in two if you push hard enough.
5. Price no more than $300 (don't want to spend too much on first purchase). No minimum price though, since I can be a cheapskate too!
6. I don't care about stowage capabilities

If any of you gents have any experience or recommendations, I'd love to hear them.

I'm currently (seriously) considering the Creative Aurvana X-Fi, but it IS kind of at the top of my price range! :p

http://images.sg.creative.com/images...ge/16975_1.png

Thanks.

well, don't know what you want to use them for, but i would recommend sonys blue hooky ones (MDR - J10's) £4 in the uk and in the US about the same round about $8; Amazon.com: mdr - j10

my friends a dj and uses sennheiser, round about £150 ($300) supposedly very good headphones for noise cancellation and sound quality, unfortunately i don't have a make or model, but i found these which look like them, but i can only go on my friends recommendation.

Amazon.co.uk: Sennheiser HD280pro Closed DJ/Monitor Headphone: Electronics & Photo

couldn't find them on amazon america though sorry.

yeah, the sennheiser HD280 pros are awesome for the price.

also check out:

Beyerdynamic DT 770 M
AKG K 271 S
beyerdynamic DT 250-80

check out headphone.com

they have pretty good reviews, and sometimes even have response curves.

Rule #1 for new headphones: TEST THEM. Not the sound, or the looks but fit. There's nothing worse than spending $X00 on freaking sweet sound headphones when they'll kill your ears after 30mins of use.

Btw, personal experience.

Do elaborate on your experience.

What ruined the purchase of your freaking sweet sound headphone? Didn't fit the shape of your head?

After 30 minutes of orgasmic music experience (good) my ears were on fire and hurt really bad.

Of course, I tried it several times and in many ways, but it always ended in the same way.

So... test them!

Ears on fire? Perhaps you were playing music too loud...?

Noise-Canceling headphones (no ear buds) are usually very very closed*, if you are like me (Big head/ears), some of this headphones will get extremely hot and uncomfortable.

Seriously, never buy headphones without doing some testing first. (Specially if you have big ears)

* Eh... most of this headphones apply a higher pressure to the ears than regular headphones.

Yeah, I've owned a pair or two of headphones that just felt plain old uncomfortable. Either too much pressure on my ears, didn't fit quite right, kept snagging hairs off my head, or a ton of other little annoyances that can happen.

Hmmm, I shall certainly take your recommendations into account! I fell in love with the noise cancellation provided by Creative, but I surely didn't put it on for 30 minutes.

Ask around on head-fi. A few members are full of shit, but you can find good reviews there, just don't get carried away.
Creative is garbage, I wouldn't touch anything by them. And BOSE is a scam.

Lowe has a pair of Audio Technica A900 closed headphones (which are very awesome) which he claims cancel a lot of noise, but since they aren't actual noise canceling headphones I couldn't tell you how much reduction it is.
I suggest staying away from Sennheiser as well, they're well known for the Sennheiser Veil(tm). Lowe pawned a pair of HD595s to get A900s, and he says the 595s couldn't compare. Even though both are $200 headphones.
Oh, and I couldn't put it any better: [20:27] <Lowe> noise cancellation is a scam
[20:27] <Lowe> my a900s cancel out more noise than you'd everneed

IMO just get some closed audiophile headphones. Most of them should reduce outside sound by around 8-18 db.

Be wary about headphones that cancel out ambient noise -- wearing them for long periods can actually make you nauseous or dizzy.

I get that reaction sometimes, and I'm only wearing in-canal earbuds.

IIRC, that happens because the noise canceling earbuds use your ear canals to produce low frequencies, some people is affected by this stuff.

Sennheiser makes exceptionally nice headphones. Whether or not they sound veiled depends entirely on your expectations and how the headphone's frequency response works with your own ears. Headphones like the 5XX and 6XX series are very precisely tuned, and obviously this won't work for everybody. I'd suggest listening for yourself before passing judgment.

Noise-canceling headphones block noise by using a microphone to pick up ambient noise and then reversing the polarity and playing the sound back into the ear, neutralizing (so to speak) the ambient noise. In lower quality headphones, the effect can be noticeable.

Of course, high quality in-ear monitors are preferable to any noise canceling headphone, from both decibel reduction and sound quality standpoints.

In-ear headphones can't compare to larger headphones sound-quality wise, though.

Sure they can, if they're good enough. A pair of ER4s or E500s sounds just as good as any full-size headphone, only smaller. Certainly, a pair of custom molded Ultimate Ears or Sensaphonics monitors sound better than most other headphones, period.

Eww... that sounds like fanboy discussion.

The in-ear route is awesome. I made a journal entry on headphones about six months back and Piccolo led me to some ER-4s. I can play an MP3 player at moderate volume with those babies, all while inside of a noisy-ass chopper and it still blocks out all the noise. Plus it's *better* for your ears. As opposed to big headphones sometimes blaring louder to overcome outside noise, these are basically earplugs with a stem and a sound filter (not the right name I'm sure). As a result of this, it barely plays the music/sound that loud at all and it'll reach your senses just the same.

I'll admit, I didn't really read the post... but whatever. I've tried a couple ENC headsets, well, just one really - but it was in a DHC-2 radial beaver (loud as fuck). But if I were you, I'd try out the David Clark H20-10XLs, very nice (and comfortable)

David Clark Company H20-10XL/XP