Sony MDR-NC500D
March 3rd, 2008 | by Mike Kobrin
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Average user rating from 2 users |
Huge disappointment from Sony
by Joe Martin on May 8th, 2008 at 12:19 PM:
I have been waiting to hear these ever since I read about them in January. When I finally received them last week I was very disappointed. Things that were very important to me were:
Noise cancelling ability
Sound Quality
Comfort
Travel Size
Battery life
I have been using Bose QC1, QC2 and QC3. I was looking for something better. Well did Sony succeed? Absolutely not. I would not buy these for $100. Let me start with all the negatives. While the actual headphones are only slighly larger than the Qc2 the carry case is about 70% larger. You almost need a seperate suitcase just to carry the huge case. Sony states the battery life is 16 hours and 12 hours with the 2 AA batteries. Well according to the manual you only get 15 hours and 10 on the AA. I also found the headphones to be very uncomfortable. The cushion pads are very firm and they squeeze your head. At home I found the noisecancelling to be useless but I was still somewhat optimistic that they would be great on the airplane. Sony says they block out 99% of the noise. Well they did not do that. I could not tell any difference between the noise cancelation between the QC2 and these. The sound quality is pretty good but I could not listen to them for more than 5 minutes beacuse it was hurting my jaw. SO they cannot compete with the QC2 because the Bose are so much more comfortable, are smaller to travel with and the battery lasts 3 times as long.
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Beats Bose by Miles
by Jack J on May 24th, 2008 at 6:33 PM:
I chose these headphones over the Bose ones for the simple reason that it is old technology, for a very high price. Instead I chose these headphones by Sony as they are new, and encorporate the Digital Noise Cancelling technology, and also are cheaper than the Bose QC3's.
The marketing for these headphones claim that they cancel 99% of noise. This unfortunately is not true, however, I have tested these headphones straight after a pair of QC3's, and I found that the noise cancelling was far superior on the Sony's. As far as the comfort levels go, I slept with these headphones on, on several occasions, and I have felt no discomfort. However, it is probably best to try these headphones before purchase, as some people complain of a high pressure exerted their ears.
The sound quality on these headphones is also decent. The only noise cancelling headphones I have found to be superior are the Sennheiser PXC450, however they are far too large, and look rather ridiculous. The bass is clean, powerful and defined, without being muddy (unlike the Bose) and the mids are silky smooth.
Overall, if you are in the same situtation that I was, deciding between the Sony's and the Bose, then this review has been specially written for you, to tell you that these headphones are far better, (and cheaper), and also have features that the Bose do not, for example the battery pack which allows the use of AA batteries if the rechargeable one runs out.