noise-cancelling headphones

The manual is important. Don't avoid reading the manual, or you'll be confused and possibly void your warranty.<br /> <br /> The manual is made up of pretty small pages. Page 2 of the manual tells the parts of the earphone. The last item on the list is a "wax guard," referring to page 9. Page 9 is the last page of the verbose area of the manual, describing the wax guard.<br /> <br /> The earphones ship with the smallest conical sleeves installed, without any wax guard. You have to take the sleeves off, install the wax guards, and put a sleeves back on, or else you void the warranty. I found that to be the weakest part of the process.<br /> <br /> Otherwise, they seem fine. These are essentially earplugs with earphones attached. I must have small ear canals, because I find only the smallest foam earplugs to be comfortable. The sound is good; the cord seems to be an appropriate length for a hip-mounted monitor pack or personal sound player.

I got these as a present and was initially unhappy with the quality of the output - until I read the manual and realize the special position of the headphones (wiring curled over the ear and behind the head). The tighter the seal with the sponges/earbuds, the more the isolation factor and the better the quality sound. But this puts the speaker tunnel deeper in your ear canal.

Pretty good on the train and helps the 2 hour daily commute - blocks out most conversations. But certain voice pitch will permeate (bad) and the conductor annoucements are heard clearly (not a bad thing).

Excellent in the work place but it is a pain to take the buds out then put them back in.

Overall good for a city person/commuter warrior who is a minimalist and wants to block out the world.