I ended up buying a set of Sony MDR-NC60 at Circuit City here in Durham. So far I am very pleased with them, they come with airplane plugs and a handy bag and the sound quality is quite good. Furthemore, when the noise cancelling feature is turned on, the hum of A/C devices pretty much disappears, I am looking forward to see how effective they will be on airplanes. I constantly turn the volume up way to high on the crappy head phones that most airlines supply – hopefully I won’t have to do that with these.
I could have used those on my trip to Australia…
I bet you could. I am really looking forward to see how much they really help. I am quite happy with them so far.
I spend a lot of time in the air as I have to travel for my job. I’ve found that some of the cheaper noise cancelling headphones don’t do a particularly great job. The type with full size earcups are best as they isolate you from the noise physically, as well as via active electronics.
I’ve been very happy with a pair of Sennheiser PXC350 noise cancelling headphones I’ve been using for about six months. Very comfortable and surprisingly lightweight.