Before I boarded my plane to Amsterdam last week I picked up a pair of Koss QuietZone Pro noise-cancelling headphones. They were on sale at Rat Shack for 50 bucks. I’ve long been jealous of travelers with their high-end Bose noise-cancelling headphones but couldn’t cough up the $300 or more for a set of headphones. I didn’t have high hopes that a $50 pair would perform well.
Boy was I wrong. They’re great! When they’re actively cancelling they reduce an amazing amount of ambient noise in an airline cabin. I sat there thinking, come on, this doesn’t REALLY work, does it and I’d flick the power button on and off. Sure enough, the wind noise would vanish when it was on. I was astonished at how well it worked!
Three months ago when I made my trip to Australia I had my Sony earbuds and that was it. The plane I flew for that trip, a Boeing 777, had the traditional airplane-headphone jacks in the seat, meaning I could listen with my Sony earbuds but only in mono.
That wasn’t enough to filter the noise out, however. I spent the trip with my in-flight movie’s volume cranked to its highest level. Even then I couldn’t hear some of the dialogue. With the noise cancelling headphones, not only could I hear the dialogue but I had the volume set to the absolute lowest level! I honestly couldn’t believe what I was hearing (or more specifically, what I wasn’t hearing)!
My only quibble with the headphones is that it is quite mysterious figuring out where to install the batteries! I couldn’t use the noise cancelling on the way to Amsterdam because I couldn’t for the life of me figure out how to power them. Only after I’d gotten on the Internet did I realize that one of the ear pieces rotates off, revealing the battery compartment.
If you fly with any frequency and want some relief from the drone of the engines, pick up a pair of these noise-cancelling headphones. Your ears will thank you!