AblePlanet Clear Harmony Around the Ear Noise Cancelling Headphones - Black Noise Cancelling Headphones - NC1000CHNC1000CH

Product Description

Clear Harmony Around the Ear Noise Cancellation Headphones

Product Details

• ASIN: B003Z5W7CG
• UPC: 859498001033
  

Costumer Reviews

Please note that all the 5 star reviews came on the same day: 11/16/2011. This happens to be the same day that GroupOn is offering these exact headphones at a discount. Caveat Emptor.

Pros:

Will continue to work after the batteries die (the Bose QC15 does not)

Good carrying case

Tight fit (some people may not like this)

Cons:

Noise cancellation sucks (read on for more details)

The technology they use that adds harmonics changes the timbre (quality) of the various instruments/voices (some people find this a good thing, I don't).

Too expensive (at $249) for what it offers.

Tight fit (I belong to the camp that feels that its slightly uncomfortable. I have a slightly larger than average head and ears, so this can really vary between people).

Calls to customer service go to voicemail

Sound quality: I listen to a lot of classical music. I don't really like the fact that it adds these higher harmonics to the sound altering the timbre of the various instruments involved. I somehow lose the "authenticity" behind the music. Other than that, I guess the sound quality is ok, nothing really to rave about there. It does a decent job on some rock music though. I enjoyed listening to Pink Floyd on these.

Build quality: Feels solid, though the components look somewhat cheap. I also don't really like the shape, it sticks outward from your head (the shape is probably similar to the Bose QC2, judging from other reviews, but I'm not sure as I haven't used the QC2).

Noise Cancellation: I was highly disappointed by its NC performance. It does alright in very low noise situations. Its passive noise cancellation is good because the ear cups by themselves remove some noise. Its the active noise canceling that's disappointing. In high noise situations, it generates its own noise, presumably to mask the external noise but I am able to hear BOTH the external noise and the added internal noise and its annoying! So if noise canceling is a priority, go for the Bose QC15! Also, it crackles in the presence of cell phones. I've had it happen twice. A periodic crackling sound appears in the left ear cup. It happened during the day time but it did not after I got back home, at night. I then put my cell phone near me, and it did some crackling (though not as periodically as it did during the day time when I had the cell phone in my pocket). So I'm not sure they've fixed all the bugs in their noise canceling technology. I find it absurd that these are so very sensitive to these cell phone signals because I assume many people will like to listen to music on their iphones (and other smart phones). If you're one of them, you might want to consider getting some other headphones.

Comfort: Its a tight fit. Not tight to the point of discomfort. However, I don't know if I can wear these for more than 2 hours without being fatigued around the ears. I haven't tried but I found the QC15 much more comfortable (I tested them at Best Buy and might buy them soon).

Customer service: I called customer service today but it went to voicemail. I then sent them an email to which I got a response on the same day. So if you don't mind using email to communicate with them, you might be fine but I imagine there might be people out there who prefer speaking to a live agent over the phone to resolve issues!

I will keep these though because I got it from Groupon for $69 and its not eligible for returns! :( However, I'm glad I didn't spend $300 on these, so I don't mind keeping them. I'll just have to get better headphones for travel purposes and for higher quality music listening!

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UPDATE (12/3/2011)

I guess headphones need a "break-in" period. I never took it seriously until now. These headphones have begun to sound much better. So I would say that the sound quality is very acceptable now, comparable to the Bose QC15 (maybe even better, if some of the other reviewers are right about that but I haven't been able to do a side-by-side comparison).

The phones are still quite uncomfortable as they don't go around my ears completely and they are also a tad too tight on my head. Even so, I found myself use these headphones for over 3-4 hours today! The ears do get warm but I just deal with it because whatever noise cancellation it does offer (though it doesn't compare favorably to the Bose) is useful and I could hear things in my tracks that I hadn't heard before (including chamber musicians breathing!).

About customer service, I read other reviews that said that they directly spoke to an agent. So I'm guessing my experience of a call to customer care going to voicemail isn't representative.

So my advice to people is to let these headphones work a little bit (say a week, with 4-5 hours of play every day, you can leave your music on and not use the headphones. It just needs that break-in to loosen up the diaphragms or whatever (ask an audiophile about that!)). This is not to say that I am completely happy with these headphones but I now believe I can live with them for travel purposes. However, I'm looking at some audiophile headphones now to give me higher quality sound experience. I have decided not to get the Bose QC15 because these do cut out some noise (the low frequency noise..not so much higher frequency noises but I can live with that!). So I'll invest instead in some nice audiophile headphones (Denon/Grados/AKG or something). The other reviewer was right, I guess. I really have nothing to complain about considering I got these for $69! So I'll change my overall rating from 3 stars to 4 stars. The one star is deducted because of the comfort issue. My ears do hurt. Also, the crackling noise probably did have to do with the cellphone as I had guessed originally. So that remains a blemish on these otherwise decent headphones (they shouldn't be so very sensitive to these signals because people will want to listen to music on their phones these days!).

Overall comment: I would recommend these headphones if you can get them for around $100-120 (not more) and if you want both decent sound quality and average noise canceling. If noise canceling is a priority, my recommendation still is that you buy the Bose QC15. Hope this is helpful!