DEBRIS.COMgood for a laugh, or possibly an aneurysm

I’ve been looking for an excuse to buy a pair of Bose noise-cancelling (NC) headphones for years. I think the idea of it really appeals to me: analyse ambient sound, issue an identical waveform that is 100% out-of-phase, and “viola” as I like to say when no one’s listening, the ambient sound disappears. What could be cooler than that?

But I tend to be suspicious of hype, and Bose is known for hype. (How many thousands of times have you seen an ad for the Wave radio? I predict that only these NC headphones will surpass the ad density unleashed on the world by Bose’s Wave campaign.)

And then I stumbled across a concise, contrarian opinion: Noise cancelling headphones are mostly a waste of money. According to HeadRoom, NC headphones offer ~10db of isolation, which is not significantly better than what is provided by a good pair of sealed headphones. Further, they opine (without naming brands or models) that NC headphones are inferior for audio reproduction.

They suggest Etymotic’s in-ear-canal headphones, which offer 20+ db of isolation (!) and are described as the “world’s best sealed headphone.”

Now that I think about it, it’s shocking how badly I need a new pair of cans. My ancient V-6s deposit little vinyl turds on my face because the pads are disintegrating, and one of the earcups has snapped off my old Sennheisers… I’m overdue, man! Quick, where’s my VISA card?!