Tuesday, September 28, 2010

Canceling the noise, enjoying the music

I'm sitting at my favorite table at Seattle Grind listening to Bob Dylan on my iPod with my Sony MDR-NC7 noise canceling headphones.
I'm especially glad I brought them this morning because there's a lively discussion about Anglican Church theology and structure going on at the next table and I don't care to hear it. I find other people's religious or philosophical conversations tedious and annoying . Actually, I think that could apply to pretty much anything strangers say in public places.
I bought my headphones a month or so ago at Sam's Club for $34 and change, but I see they can be had cheaper on Amazon.com. Whatever. They're comfortable, have good bass response and do a credible job of muting extraneous sounds. They also come with an airplane stereo adapter plug in case I find myself on a flight with entertainment available. Seems unlikely, but better to have it than not.
Here's what one Amazon.com reviewer says about them:
The NC7 is a great upgrade from the older model. They noticeably cancel more of the ambient noise than the NC6. Also, there is virtually no lag time between when the noise cancelling is switched on and when it actually kicks in. The NC6 took a few seconds to begin actually cancelling ambient noise. Also, a common complaint that I've had (and read about) with the NC6 is that there's a faint, yet audible hiss while the noise cancelling is on. This has been greatly reduced to a hardly noticeable, faint background static with the NC7, which will probably annoy the audiophile, but doesn't bother me. These headphones are much more comfortable than the previous model. I must note that these headphones don't cancel out all of the noise, just the constant background noise, like the engines of an airplane or the hum of loud equipment. You can still hear people talking or the keyboard while you're typing (faintly), but they're not meant to drown out these noises, so keep that in mind when trying out headphones. 


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