Noise cancelling headphones test

Conclusions

There's a few things we can mention if you're thinking about buying any of these headphones, especially depending on where you're going to be using them.

Location: We rather feel that the different headsets perhaps have differing uses, to some degree. The Sonys we found to be particularly good on flights, with the one air trip we took with these cans made rather more palettable by the very good noise cancelling. Given the fact you're not going to have these on your ears for 10 hours straight, the comfort factor didn't really come into it (plus the fact that the rest of you is in far more discomfort on most flights...)

When it comes to gaming - and LANs in particular - we wonder if the A9900s might be the best bet. They encapsulate your head far more, they're cheaper - so less of a pain if you leave them somewhere or have them sat on - and the sound quality probably isn't so important in such a baudy environment, unless you're a real stickler for hearing every twig crunch in Counter-Strike.

The Sennheisers are very suited to on-the-go listening, being foldable and far lighter and smaller on the head. Most people don't want to be lugging massive cans around and feel silly walking around in the them, whereas the nice size of these headphones makes for an attractive upgrade from standard earbuds. However, we also feel that they make for great listening for wherever you are, given the exceptional clarity they produce. The only area you might find them slightly lacking is in gaming, where you may miss the extra bass provided by the other units for your FPS rampages.

Sound quality: We found that the Sony headset tended to have a warm, full sound that made a lot of music, particularly rock, sound very good. It had a good bass line, which worked well in gaming. It lacked a little bit of detail in places, but was generally pretty good.

The A9900s had a fairly unsophisticated sound, often muddying layers of music and pushing different ranges into the middle, squashing the dynamics of the piece. However, in simpler music it fared better, and proved best suited to dance music with thumping basslines.

The best audio quality is undoubtedly provided by the Sennheisers, which reproduced everything we threw at them with exceptional detail, clarity and faithfulness. Bass fiends may find the Zen-like balance infuriating, and will crave some extra low-end. This, people, is where equalisers come in - if you want exceptional sound with a little bit of extra bass, crank it up at the source rather than relying on the headphones to do it automatically. The PXC 250s are easily capable of dealing with the low end, they just don't taint all music with it.

Value: If you haven't guessed already, our ultimate recommendation goes to the Sennheiser PXC 250s. However, it has not escaped our attention that these are the most expensive headphones on test here today, and are possibly beyond the justifiable range for a lot of people. The ultimate question whether they are worth spending an extra £25 on over the Sonys? If you have the cash, then we'd say definitely.

We would have to think, however, that probably the best value is afforded by the Sony MDF-NC6 headphones. They provide great sound quality, exceptionally great noise cancelling and do so at a middling price. We would say that we can't recommend the Acoustic Authority A9900s to anyone except for gamers and dance freaks who want bassline punch, low cost and not a lot else.

Final thoughts

Noise cancelling headsets have so many uses and it's great to see the technology progressing and coming down in price. Whilst this test was dominated by old-school brands Sennheiser and Sony, it's good to see new players like Acoustic Authority getting in there and giving it a go, and we're sure their next generation headset will be substantially better. It's also refreshing to see a well-priced Sony product, which is not something we're used to.

Overall, if we were going to recommend one set to purchase for all your noise-cancelling needs, it would be the Sennheiser PXC 250, and so the headphones deservedly get our Excellence award.