Philips HN 110 Folding Noise-Canceling Headphones

Product Description

Amazon.com Product Description

Take the foldable HN110 headphone with you on your travels and enjoy great music everywhere--even in noisy environments like buses, trains and airplanes. It's a full-size headphone that covers your whole ear, yet it folds up for compact storage in the soft pouch supplied. The active noise canceling technology is easy adjusted using the controls that are conveniently integrated into the headphone shells.

Optimal in Noisy Listening Environments

Active Noise Reduction

This smart noise reduction technology enhances the pleasure of listening to lower volume levels in noisy environments. It's particularly good at removing low-frequencies like jet engine noise, so you can enjoy soft music on flights, and in trains and similar places without hearing a distracting buzz in the background. The technology creates an equal but opposite waveform to the noise that that by a process of subtraction, effectively cancels out the unwanted noise.

In-Flight Adapter

Use your own headphones to listen to in-flight entertainment. The adaptor simply converts the standard double-mono jacks to a stereo headphone jack.

Integrated Electronics

All the active electronics are integrated into the headphone so there is no extra box to carry around.

Neodymium Magnet

Neodynium is the best material for producing a strong magnetic field for greater sensitivity in a voice coil, better bass response and higher overall sound quality.

Optimum Sound Quality

Acoustically-tuned design and high-quality drivers ensure best-in-class audio performance.

Made to Fit You and Your Lifestyle

Comfortable Ear Cushions

The shape and materials used for the ear cushions ensure a perfect fit for maximum comfort, and as an added bonus, prevent audio leakage and enhance bass performance.

Full-Size Earshells

The HN110 earshells cover your whole ear for better sound quality, which also provides space for a larger, higher performance driver.

Batteries Included

Use the phones straight away, with no need to buy batteries. Just drop the batteries in and go!

1/4-Inch Adaptor

Use headphones on equipment with either 3.5mm or 1/4-inch jacks, giving you a wider choice of audio devices.

Carrying Pouch

Look after your headphone and stop the cable getting tangled by storing it in this handy soft pouch.

Foldable Headband

The headphone can fold down to a small size for convenient storage when not in use.

Specifications

Active noise attenuation:

50-1,500Hz, 10dB at 300Hz

Noise canceling effect:

~10 dB at 300 Hz

Acoustic system:

Open

Magnet type:

Neodymium

Voice coil:

Copper

Diaphragm:

Mylar Dome

Frequency response:

20 - 20 000 Hz

Impedance:

25 Ohm (ON), 47 Ohm (OFF)

Maximum power input:

500 mW

Sensitivity:

102 dB

Speaker diameter:

40 mm

Cable length:

1.5 m

What's in the Box

Philips HN110 Headphones, 1/4-Inch Adapter, In-Flight Adapter, Carrying Pouch, Battery

Take the foldable HN110 headphone with you on your travels and enjoy great music everywhere – even in noisy environments like buses, trains and airplanes. It's a full-size headphone that covers your whole ear, yet it folds up for compact storage in the soft pouch supplied. The active noise canceling technology is easy adjusted using the controls that are conveniently integrated into the headphone shells.

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Product Details

• Product Dimensions: 8.2 x 3.8 x 9.5 inches ; 12.8 ounces
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds
• Shipping: This item is also available for shipping to select countries outside the U.S.
• ASIN: B00085ESA0
• Item model number: HN-110
  

Technical Details

• Noise canceling feature reduces background nose in any environment; ideal for airplane, train and bus use
• Closed-style, dynamic headphone with 40mm driver, neodymium magnet, and CCAW voice coils
• Foldable headband allows phones to fold down to a small size for convenient storage when not in use
• Includes 1/4-inch adapter, in-flight adapter, battery for active electronics, carrying pouch
• Frequency response: 20Hz?20kHz; noise attenuation: 50-1,500Hz, 10dB at 300Hz

Costumer Reviews

I basically live on airplanes. I fly somewhere over 250,000 miles a year every year. I'm also an amateur audiophile and have a really cool 2 channel stereo system, as well as lots of other high end audio gear. I've owned nearly every brand of noise cancelling headset, as well as used ones I haven't owned. These are by far the best value out there for Around the Ear headphones, bar none. Its true that if you have large ears, these may cramp your style, but this is true of ALL around the ear headphones worn over a long period of time. Thats why most major manufacturers have also introduced OVER THE EAR units as well.

As far as noise cancelling and sound quality, these headphones are at the top of the class. I've worn the ridiculously expensive Bose QCs for years, and the price is downright scandalous. I always am amazed at how many suckers pay for these, when they are no better or worse than all the other ones I have.

At the moment, I have Sennhieser PC300, Philips HN110, Sony HC6 (I think) and have sold my Bose QC2s to pay for ALL of these. So I have both an over the ear (sennheiser,sony) and around the ear (philips). I travel with either the Sennhieser (90% of the time) and the Philips (10%) of the time, but I use the Philips 100% of the time for at home game playing and music listening when I don't want to wake the family. I travel with the Sennheisers more often simply because they take up much less space in my carry on bag. But on long flights (asia, etc), I bring the philips

The Sennhiesers are over the ear and probably have the nicest sound quality, but these Philips are a nearly close second. The Philips also have very very good noise cancelling. The Sony's are generally decent, and are basically balanced overall, not excelling at any one thing. I tend not to use them that much, as they don't have great audio quality.

My ears are not that huge I guess, and these Philips are nice to wear for me. The Bose hurt quite a bit over time, just like any around the ear. I recently wore a pair of Bose QC3 over the ears on a flight from London to New York, and they hurt quite a bit as well (they were complimentary on a American Airlines business class flight). And the sound quality was lousy, as well as the noise cancelling was sub par.

But Bose spends lots O' money on marketing. Philips is basically inept at everything but making things. So you would have to search for these to discover them as a value.

A couple of rules of thumb.

1) ALL around the ear headphones will hurt if you have large ears.

2) NO noise cancelling headphones cancel all noise....they all work the same way, there is no magic (if you are into reading technical specs, you can see this for yourself, don't take my word for it)

3) Bose are priced 5-6 times what they could be priced

4) Most NC headsets between $35-$100 have decent sound quality and around the same NC characteristics

5) ALL over the ear headsets have marginally less NC characteristics than around the ear due to the physical design

Conclusion. Don't be fooled by fancy TV ads, billboards, and other seductive marketing. The product cost the same as all the others inside. Noise Cancelling has been around for 30 odd years, and hasn't changed that much, beyond miniaturization of the silicon chips that cancel the noise, and huge improvement is small speaker quality. But these are not exclusive to one manufacturer. Anyone can make decent NC headphones.

From someone who has worn them all, and has a taste for music and lives on airplanes, I can recommend these units. You could buy 10 pair of these for the functionally equivalent bose QCs, and not really experience any difference.

A good friend of mine let me listen to his pair of the expensive Bose noise-canceling headphones. I was blown away with the technology and capability of the headphones. I began searching for a pair of noise-canceling headphones, but I didn't want to spend a small mint on a Bose pair. My search led me to three choices, one of which was the Philips HN-110, which happened to be the most expensive of the three. I generally trust the Philips name, so I had reasonably high hopes for this product.

The folding design of the headphones is quite nice and compact, making for easy storing and carrying. This is impressive considering the actual weight and bulkiness of the headphones. The noise canceling feature can be turned off and on using a power switch that is embedded on the right ear-piece. The switch is quite "flush" with the rest of the surface, so finding the switch blindly (while wearing the headphones) is somewhat difficult until you get a real natural feel for the placement. The earpieces have a soft foam cushion that completely covers your ears, which I'm sure aids in reducing ambient noise.

The noise canceling ability of this set is good. I went for a car ride to test them out and noticed a significant loss of road noise (caused by tires on a rough road), which is the lower frequency. Higher frequency ambient noise does not get canceled, but that is the case for all the other headphones in this price range that I've found.

The biggest negative in my opinion was the "tightness" of the headphones. The band is arched tightly over the head, so the earpieces press firmly against the side of your head. Because of this tightness, any adjustments to the length of the headband revert to the tightest fit possible, as if the headphones are springloaded. This causes quite a bit of pressure against the sides of your head as well as the top of your head. For extended wear, this was extremely uncomfortable.

While the performance of this pair of headphones is admirable, the price and discomfort (due to tightness) led me to try another pair (Sony MDR-NC6) instead.