NC Headphones

[David Nathan]

Hello Bruce

I recently used a Sennheiser PXC300 in some fieldwork for general audio work: monitoring some audio and video recordings, audio editing etc.

I found that the quality was fine. I normally used them passively ie did not turn the noise-cancelling on, although the noise-cancelling could be useful in dealing with background fan noise. 

For monitoring recordings, I cannot see that the noise cancelling feature is any advantage. For me, the main annoyance of the unit was the largish control unit (with AAA batteries) situated halfway along the cable which makes the unit a bit cumbersome if you need to be mobile. In the interests of compactness, the earpads are rather smaller than full size units (they do not completely cover the ears), but nevertheless isolate fairly well. The unit does not seem not nearly as robust as a typical closed set. Therefore it is quite a compromise against a regular pair of closed headphones. 

Ultimately, I don't think that  the extra cost (if you had to go out and buy them anew) is worth it for fieldwork - money would be better spent on buying one (or more! - for other listeners) reasonable quality "normal" closed headphones. In fact, we have found that you get quite good value for money (in terms of listening quality) for some headphones around the 30-50 USD mark (eg Sony V300). However, if you do want something that's reasonably compact, with decent quailty, and, in particular, you want to do some transcribing (or listen to movies...) on the plane on the way there, I'd recommend the Sennheiser; otherwise you could do better for your money.

regards

David


 At 06:20 23/07/2006, you wrote:
Dear Friends and Colleagues,
 
Has anyone had experience with the Sennheiser Noise Cancelling Stereo Headphones models PXC 150, PXC 250 and/or PXC300?
 
I would like to buy a good set of headphones for use in auditing and transcribing .wav and mp3 recordings of spoken texts in several North American and Australian indigenous languages, and I would appreciate any comments, advice and recommendations.
 
Best regards, Bruce
 
 
Bruce Rigsby, Emeritus Professor of Anthropology
The University of Queensland
 
Home: 32 Molonga Tce, Graceville, Qld 4075  AUSTRALIA
Phone / fax (617/07)3379-8625
brigsby at bigpond.net.au