Noise cancelling headphones test

Music testing

We tested each pair of headphones for a good few days, across a variety of different situations and music types. We listened to iPods, PCs, Sony ATRAC players and laptops. We'll give you our general reflections in the conclusion, but here's a few examples of the audio characteristics of the headphones in specific situations. Please don't get too upset over the categorisation of the various tracks: we simply tried our best to find a good range of music to talk to you about.

For this particular listening test, we hooked up the headphones to an Apple Powerbook G4. All of the tracks we used can be bought through the iTunes Music Store if you want to replicate our testing.

Funky

Lemon Jelly - The Slow Train
This is an awesome track with plenty of layers of sound and subtle effects. The thing that was immediately apparent was that the NC6 set has a great low end, with a really warm bass sound that envelopes your ears. The mid-range and high-end were both clear enough for us to be able to make out the MP3 artefacting on our 192k tracks, and clear enough to avoid any muddying of the different layers of music.

Unfortunately, we couldn't say the same about the A9900s. When the track started, the hissing of the noise cancellation was still audible, ruining the beginning. Our initial impressions were that everything was getting shunted into the midrange, with the warm bass sound of the Sonys replaced with an impressive bass drum kick, but a lot less clarity. Not an impressive start.

The Sennheisers were exceptionally sharp, with the MP3 artefacting so audible as to be almost distracting. There was far less bass than on either of the other sets, but the tradeoff was a very balanced and refined sound. The PXC 250s were very good at keeping the layers of music from sliding together, with a good soundstage maintained throughout. We were able to hear notes we couldn't even make out on the other two sets.

Punk

Green Day - American Idiot
Everybody needs a bit of punk rock, right? Green Day have been around forever and with their latest album getting critical acclaim, we thought it would provide just the right amount of edge to serve well as a guitar-rock test track.

The warm sound we identified in the Sonys earlier proved to be the winner on this track. It was able to provide far more energy to the guitars throughout, and really seemed to have a great punky attitude to replaying the music. The booming drum solos in the track sounded great, with strong punch and a real sense of being bombarded with bongos, just as you'd hope. The tradeoff was that there was a little bit of vocal clarity lacking, with the high-end getting rather overwhelmed with the awesome guitars - although, arguably, the way it should be!

The A9900s were pretty horrendous here, with the sound very tinny. The drums and guitar sounded run together, and the drum solos were less of a bongo bombardment and more of a dull thud, as if we only had our ears half open. The vocals totally lacked any power and clarity.

We found a very contrasing sound to the Sonys in the Sennheisers. The sound was, again, balanced and clear, with precise rendition of the vocals and some really nice guitar detail. However, although we perhaps found this a technically better rendition, this set just couldn't compete with the Sonys when it came to adding character and passion to the music - the Sonys really were an awesome experience with this track. The PCX 250s are just not punk rock enough!

Classic Rock

Wishbone Ash - Throw Down The Sword
We're willing to bet that there probably aren't very many of you who are au fait with the work of these 70s rock Gods, but if you're not, you should be. Wishbone Ash have a classic dual guitar sound, with two axes providing a pretty cool harmony on this track. Because the production is very simple here, with just guitars, vocals and drums, there's a great opportunity for the sound to preserve that bare bones 70s rock vibe.

The track starts of very quietly, fading into the main riff, and the Sony's had a noticeably distracting audio hiss from the circuitry. It also disrupted the initial snare drum roll, which was a major problem and caused the track to start with a whimper rather than a bang. The guitars sounded nice and warm, although the cymbals sounded very weak. The stereo separation of the two guitars duelling was fantastic, although the punch of the climactic guitar solo was a little lacking.

Recognising that this track called for clarity rather than character, we were keen to see how the PXC 250s fared. The introduction had far less hiss and generally sounded a lot better here. There was more of the cymbals, giving a little more contrast, and there were a couple of drum notes we mised the first time around that we could now pick out. The subtle dynamics of the piece - extra volume leanings, areas where the notes were just ever-so-slightly held back - were clearly evident. We found that with just an extra notch on the volume, we were in guitar solo heaven, with the 'phones clearly sporting the dynamic range and accuracy really required to do justice to the detail in the guitar recording. Absolutely fantastic.

Unfortunately, we were starting to realise that the A9900s were the ugly duckling of the pack, although they did a little better on this track. Because that 70s rock recording vibe is possibly a little warm and fuzzy, the fact that these headphones appeared to sport exactly those characteristics perhaps made them sound a little better than we would otherwise think. We had a hard time distinguishing the harmonies of the two guitars, however, which is something of a fundamental failing.