Audio-Technica ATHANC7 Noise-cancelling Headphones
by AUDIO TECHNICA
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List Price: Our Price: $80.00 You Save: $139.95 (64%) Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days Category: CE See more product details |
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Customers in the UK,
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for British Pounds
Digital Cameras Photo Reviews of Audio-Technica ATHANC7 Noise-cancelling Headphones
Customer Review: Absolutely wonderful, but not perfect
Summary: 4 Stars
This is a great product and at ~$125 it's a great value.
The big unexpected plus is the simi-hard zip case that comes with the headphones. I knew it was included but didn't think much off it. Now I see it is real value added. These headphones are an expensive bit of equipment and unlike disposable earbuds that can be crushed in the bottom of your bag, they deserve a bit of protection.
Other nice touches are the included adaptors and AAA battery. Realistically I've already got the adaptor I'll use, but it was a thoughtful addition; the AAA battery I've got too, but is another sign of the way the Audio-Technica approached the ATH-ANC7.
Noise cancellation (aka: the reason you are looking at these)...
These are very nice headphones, but not, nor expected to be, audiophile headphones. The feature-set seems geared towards the audio conscious commuter. Regardless of the intention that's why I got them and that's how I'll review them.
1. Passive noise cancellation: These are serious headphones, put them on and the world fades into the background. This isn't quite like wearing ear-muff style ear protection (think heavy industry), but it's a lot better than the in-canal optional iPod headphones.
2. Active noise cancellation: No questions asked, it works. The first time you flip that switch asking yourself "does noise cancelling actually work" you'll be pleasantly suppressed by the answer. The first time I tested these I was in a loud data center, I flipped the switch, I was in silence. It was just like being at home when the power goes out: suddenly all of the mechanical white-noise was gone.
3. Active noise drowning: I'm not sure if this is a feature, a bug, or just a characteristic but it seems that turning on active noise cancellation amplifies the input. I've tried testing this in a silent room to control for the drop in background noise and I really do think it is amplification of the signal. I feel like this is a little bit of a sleazy design to trick people into thinking they are getting `better than silent' performance. Regardless, it's not a big problem for me.
Now here's the but... On a loud subway these things are amazing at dropping out all of the random stuff in the background. If, however, two people sit down next to you and start talking you actually hear them MORE clearly than you would with the active noise reduction turned off. Because the system takes out all the background but seems to do nothing to conversations, the conversations around you sound much louder.
Bottom line / where did that last star go?
For an hour our two these things are comfortable. For much more than that I find them a bit uncomfortable, and increasingly so with time.
The amplification of conversations could be a technical limitation or it could be a limitation of this particular implementation. Either way it's a downer.
Finally pricing, at $125 the price is right. At twice that the price is not right.
Customer Review: Just excellent
Summary: 5 Stars
I've reviewed most of high quality noise cancelling headphones before to make a decision. So, I eared a Bose, a Phillips, a Sony, an the Audio Technica (AT) headphones.
Far from the rest, and as you probably know, were Bose and Audio Technica.
I decided for Audio Technica for these reasons:
- Physical quality construction: they are extremly well designed: the axis where the earcups rotate to fold them are very strong. Perhaps you may find this an inconvenient to rest your head over a side (on an airplane for example), but I do prefer not to worry about take care of them as long as they can handle every normal effort;
- Sound: I couldn't find (honestly !) a difference between this and the Bose ones. Some reviewers appoint the bass are a little stronger with Bose, but I compared them WITH THE SAME MUSIC AND PLAYER, and I cannot assure that. Instead, I found the same bass deep, but a little better mediums and highs on the AT's.
- Comfort: I have to admit that I thought the AT would be "heavy" to wear in a long trip. I've used them on long flights and fall assleep some hours just to awake wearing them with just a small complain of my neck. Why are they so comfortable? a)Earcups are big enough to hold a male-ear inside (bigger than women I guess) without to compromise the ears; b)The cushion of earcups is so soft that simply seals over your head without any faillure: when you put this headphones on, you can feel the air pressure over your ears indicating a perfect fit. This is (IMHO) the reason its bass are so good.
- Functionality: a) With this AT headphones, you can plug or unplug the audio cable needed to connect them to a device (player, airplane or so) from the headphones in order to just "feel" less exterior sound thanks to noise cancelling function: excellent feature; b) The energy needed comes from a SINGLE "AAA" battery !! The receptacle simply "pops up" from a side and you can change whenever you need this so-common-battery, so you can keep a spare in his very good quality pouch and be sure to not get unpowered never. A single battery can last more than 30 hours!. Other headphones need to be "charged" by other system, usually pluging in to a wall charger.
- Price: after this comparassion, I have to admit I coudn't find any reason to pay the extra money the Bose's costs. I understand Bose's are very high quality sound devices, and they are a litle smaller and better portable than AT, but the noise cancelling circuit of AT is really awsome (and better than Bose I guess).Overall quality of Audio Technica's headphones is a no-doubt decision.
IMPORTANT for "first time noise-cancelling users": there is no TOTAL NOISE CANCELLING device. You will always "ear" by your mouth and nose cavities, so please do not imagine to feel in a magic state with any headphone. They will cancel the exterior sound that should go through your ears, not the rest of your body. But believe me: this Audio Technica headphones do the job at the top of today state-of-the-art noise cancelling engineering.
Customer Review: A very decent product, especially a good alternate to the costly Bose
Summary: 4 Stars
The Audio-Technica noise cancelling headset is really well-designed for the purpose of noise cancellation. The basic requirement for me was to have a headset that would cancel out the drone of the plane engines, as I travel a fair bit.
While flying, one can notice that there is more than one noise that can be heard - the low frequency engine noise and the 'whooshing' sound of the wind as the plane cuts it at those huge speeds. You can notice that the headset cuts out the latter very effectively, while not attenuating the former by any significant amount. While that isn't necessarily a bad thing, I would've liked it if Audio-Technica would've taken the trouble to generate additional noise cancelling sound waves for both frequencies.
Where you must, however, give credit is that the noise that IS attentuated is the major polluter and its virtual elimination is an extremely welcome action. An indication of the amount of noise reduction can be had by noting that without this reduction, I need to move my Philips media player volume setting to its full 20 level to hear just barely the song properly. With the noise reduction, however, a volume level of just 7 allows me to hear the song very clearly, with almost no background noise incident on the ears !
One thing that bothered me though, with these headphones - they are similar to the QC2 in design, meaning that they cover the ears. In fact, the Audio-Technica headphones cover your ears so completely and so well that they create a sort of vacuum around your ears. This can sometimes be a pain in flight, when pressure differences affect your ears and you want to either yawn or swallow to relieve the pressure oddity you feel in your ears. With the headphones on, however, this is not easily achieved. You either want to yawn really hard or remove the headphones, do your stuff and put them back on :) Talk about weird !
Someone had mentioned earlier that the quality of sound in the headphones is not the best. Well, I am not an audiophile but I can certainly hear good quality sound when I hear it. In this breath, let me also mention that the first time I connected the wires from the headphones to my media player, I connected them the wrong way - this is because the connectors actually appear to allow this connection ! With the wrong end of the cable inserted into both devices (headphone and media player), the sound was almost garbled and very irritating. I was still able to hear the song and make out the lyrics but it was clearly really bad. I switched the ends and the sound quality was really crystal clear !
Wearing the headphones in the office suddenly makes you feel like you are on a remote island in the ocean with no one around except you !
All in all, these are absolutely great value for money. I'd recommend them anytime ! I've only tried Bose once and I can't imagine their products to be significantly better than the Audio-Technica. If only they'd also eliminated lower frequency sounds as well (sigh) !
Customer Review: One of the best headphones, period
Summary: 5 Stars
While I would not call myself an audiophile, I do appreciate a good sound system and a good pair of headphones- I have Sennheiser HD 570 for home, Sony MDR-G57 for workouts/walk in the rain, but always wanted a quality headphone that is portable yet blocks out the noise. A Shure E2C used to fill that niche until I broke it in an accident. Since then, I have been on the lookout for a brand new pair.
I tried the Bose On-Ear Headphone at a local Best Buy, liked it enough and thought about buying it- until I found out the cost. Hey, I said I like a good pair of headphones, but I am not gonna spend half of what I did for my iPod! I briefly considered Sennheiser PX100 but thought it looked too flimsy and was doubtful on its noise-cancelling ability. By chance I stumbled upon a review of ATH-ANC7, which praised its quality on par with Bose QC2/3 yet at half the cost. It was enough for me to go out and buy this one, plus with Amazon I got a good deal.
The Pros:
Noise-cancelling. Even without its active noise-cancelling function on, the closed design of the headphones muffles out a lot of the outside noise. I wear this from time to time while I work, and even with the music off, I can barely make it out when people are yelling at me! With the noise-cancelling on, some of the louder stuff, such as coffee grinder in the background, road construction is barely noticeable- and I don't like to crank up my music to the max.
Cord length. My HD 570 is a good pair of headphones, but its lengthy cord makes it unwieldy to carry around with my iPod. While the cord with this unit is a bit long, it's definitely manageable for carrying your audio player in the pocket.
Sound quality. Sound quality wise, this easily trumps the stock iPod earphones, MDR-G57, and definitely comparable to E2C or HD 570.
Comfort. I wear this around when I am out. It's big enough to be noticeable, but it's a slick pair, and I have great music, so who cares?
Construction: While not as sturdy as MDR-G57, this is a pair that is solid in its built. Great for casual listening, and with its included carrying case, I can see this lasting a long while.
Cons:
The sound quality varies when the active noise-cancelling is toggled on/off, and you definitely get a louder/clearer sound when it's on. You can still listen to it without the function on, but I prefer having it on obviously- just make sure you have a rechargeable AAA battery for every week or so.
I wouldn't consider my ears to be dumbo-sized- so if you have big ears, try them on, or consider other cans. My medium-sized ears gets warm after an hour or two, and if I don't position them right, it can be slightly uncomfortable. However, I still prefer this than the ear-rape sensation of E2c's.
If you dig bass, then look for earphones that you find comfortable. While serviceable, you won't get the booms you are looking for.
Customer Review: decent sound, great N/C, but uncomfortable and terrible sound leaking
Summary: 3 Stars
I have a Sennheiser HDC-451 N/C headset I bought about 6 years ago when I was commuting from Dallas to Amsterdam every 3 weeks. (I normally fly Monday - Friday). I liked this little N/C headset a lot and preferred it above Bose for 30% of the price. But a connector is getting bad. Because I start commuting again to Europe, i was looking for a nice headset which should be comfortable and have a good 'sound'. Noise reduction is important, but not the most important selection criteria.
I tested/listened to a couple of new N/C head phones. the Bose Q2, Q3, Creative Labs, some Sony's. The Sony's pressed very had on my head, had a decent quality sound and the expensive ones perfect N/C (for $400.- I was expecting that). I didn't like the sound of the Bose too much: artificial bass, 'muddled' and flimsy. But the Bose has good N/C and capabilities and were quite comfortable. I also listened to the Sennheiser PXC-250 and I liked the sound, although a bit 'thin'. My 'problem' with the Sennheiser HDC-451 was that the volume was a bit too low for my iPod and I didn't like the external battery holder. That was also the case with the PXC-250 (although louder than the my old Sennheiser). Because the PXC-250 has less sound isolation than the over-the-ear models, this volume might be an issue.
Based on reviews I ordered the ATH-ANC7 from Amazon.
The good things:
- Nicely fabricated with a good case. Looks/feels durable
- Excellent N/C without the hiss (less then in my old HDC-481)
- very decent sound quality, but need a couple of hours 'break-in' before I liked them. After the break-in I preferred them above the Bose Q3/Q2.
- low price (nobody pays more than 200 for them and the Amazon deal was great)
The not so good things:
- The cans are too small and (more important) not deep enough. My ear has to be squeezed in (and I don't have that big ears). The inside of the can is very sharp en occasionally hurted my ears.
- The stitches inside are irritating my ears.
- The sound leaking is TERRIBLE. It might not be e problem in the back of an MD-80 where the sound of the engines kills all conversations and sound leaks from your neighbor headset, but in a transatlantic wide body this leaking is asocial loud!! With the N/C swithed off, the sound leaking was much less, but unfortunately, the sound quality was also much less. Major design error!
As said, after breaking in the sound quality was good, but, being from Europe, I never got used to the 'American' sound - heavy, colored bass, muddy mid and a bit sharp high. Some find this 'exciting', but I think it is tiring. The ATH-ANC7 was more 'European' than the Bose, but it took some experimenting finding the right equalization on my Ipod before I was satisfied with the quality.
I would love to keep them, but the comfort for my ears and the absurd sound leaking made me decide to return them. I ordered now the Sennheiser PXC-350.