Cancel or enhance noise with pricey headphones
Noise-cancellation headphones are the easiest way to tell the world to shut up without offending anyone. Put on the headphones and retreat into a peaceful, isolation-booth solitude.
Bose has made the biggest noise in the lucrative noise-reduction business with its QuietComfort headphones.
Able Planet, a Denver company best known for products for hearing-impaired customers, has adapted some of its technology into noise-cancellation headphones that look like, sound like and are priced like Bose’s noted QuietComfort 2.
So why pay $300 for Bose-like headphones when you can buy the real thing for the same price? That’s for Able Planet to figure out.
The Clear Harmony headphones, like the Bose models, use active noise-cancellation, meaning they’ll need batteries. They pick up external sounds with miniature microphones mounted in the earpieces and invert the signals electronically.
Able Planet says its headphones reduce noise by 18 decibels — the difference between a normal conversation and a vacuum cleaner.
The Clear Harmony headphones (able planet.com) have at least one advantage over Bose and many competitors: They function when the noise-cancellation circuitry is switched off.
But the Clear Harmony, and other noise-cancellation headphones, are a lousy investment if you’re primarily interested in good sound. These headphones are designed to diminish the sound around you.
That’s what you’re paying for.
The $49 iGrado headphones (gradolabs.com) reproduced Tish Hinojosa’s “Corazon Viajero” on my iPod Nano with greater clarity and better balance, though less bass weight, than the Clear Harmony.
But which headphones did I take on a recent flight? The Clear Harmony, which sounded absolutely luscious while diminishing the airplane cabin noise to a subtle white-noise drone. The louder the surrounding din, the better noise-cancellation headphones sound.
Able Planet’s idea of (quiet) comfort is plush, faux-leather ear cups that surround the ears. Two AAA batteries tucked inside the left ear cup power the noise-cancellation circuitry. A volume control on the removable cable allows on-thefly adjustments.
Linx Audio, the company’s sound-enhancement technology developed for hearing aids, is supposed to enhance sound quality and clarity while making music seem louder than the actual volume. To these ears, the effects were similar to the “late night” listening mode of some audiovideo receivers that boost lower frequencies to increase perceived loudness.
Clear Harmony is packaged like bigmoney headphones, with a hard-shell carrying case, molded slot to fit an iPod and little pouch with all the jacks and airplane sound-system adapters you’ll need.
They doesn’t necessarily feel, or sound, like $300 headphones. But for a quiet ride on an airplane, these are every bit as good as Bose.
CLEAR HARMONY HEADPHONES
PRICE: $349.99
NOISE CANCELLATION: Active
REQUIRES: Two AAA batteries
HIGHLIGHTS: Still functions as headphones noise-cancellation is switched off
