Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

This is a combined review of two of the lowest cost “Active Noise Cancelling” earbuds on Amazon: Audio-Technica ATH-ANC23 QuietPoint Active Noise-Cancelling In-Ear Headphones Egghead 1010 - Active Noise Cancelling Earbuds with Travel Pouch PRICE The price difference as of May, 2015 was $14 with Audio-Technica being the more expensive unit. IN THE BOX Both products contain: --Earbuds --Multiple silicone earbud cups --Airline headset adapter --Carrying Pouch Audio-Technica contains in addition: --Battery --Pair of foam earbud cups. Not memory foam, just normal foam. I have not tried these. Egghead: --Mute button: In addition to the ANC on/off switch, Egghead has a nice mute button that turns off Noise Cancellation while it is pressed down. SOUND QUALITY I am not an audiophile so the sound from both headsets were good to me but the difference comes when you factor in the fit of the earbuds. FIT Both sets sit deeply in your ear and from pictures of both products, you will see that beyond the earbud, they have a circular piece before the actual connection to the wires. --Egghead: The earbuds are attached straight to the circular piece so the fit is actually straight out away from your ears. --Audio-Technica: The earbuds are angled forward so the circular piece actually serves as an anchor that sits nicely in your ear lobe and further cuts out outside noise. The additional foam earbud cup may make the difference for some people when it comes to a comfortable fit. --Kids: I purchased these for a trip that the family will take. The kids usually have a hard time with normal earbuds not fitting in very well but they were able to keep the Audio-Technica earbuds in using the smallest earbud cups. The kids are 6 and 9. NOISE REDUCTION Here is the main event. I want to make a few points about Active Noise Cancelling: --Noise cancellation filters are designed to cancel out lower pitched, repeating noises like airplane engine rotors and car tires on a road, but it will not cancel out high or mid-range sounds like human voice. The same engine rotor and road noise also contain components of higher pitched sounds so NC filters will not cut out the noise completely. --Using Noise Cancellation often feels like being underwater with your ears popping. It is a discomfort that you would have to get used to. The greater the cancellation effect, the greater the discomfort. Be prepared for this if you haven’t used NC before. --ANC only works IF the inverted noise wave can overpower the noise coming in. If you are using a lawn mower and the noise it makes overpowers the “anti noise” because you’re standing right in back of the motor, you will not hear a big difference in the Noise Reduction effects. Ok, so on with it. The Audio-Technica claims to reduce 90% of noise. I don’t have anything to confirm the claim but if we assume the Audio-Technica(AT) to be at 90%, my own assessment of the Egghead’s (Egg) noise reduction effects would be around 50-60%. --Computer Fan Noise: Egg reduces the noise to slightly audible but you’d need to use toggle the mute button on it to really tell. AT completely removes the noise. --Clothes Dryer: Egg takes the “edge” off the noise produced. You can still hear most of the noise standing about 3 feet away from the dryer. AT takes the bass tones completely out of the noise while leaving the higher pitched metal friction and buttons hitting the tumbler noise. In effect, with the AT, standing only 3 feet away, it sounds like you are actually 20 feet away. So in conclusion, you have probably guessed that I think the additional cost of the Audio-Technicas are worth it. In addition to the benefits mentioned above, I have recently been able to get a great deal on a pair of Harmon/Kardon SOHO II NC on ebay. The noise reduction effects of the Audio-Technicas equal or maybe even exceeds those of the Harmon/Kardons.