Budget noise cancelling headphones - any good?

[Harpoon]

I have some Amazon vouchers to spend, so have been looking at some over ear BT headphones mainly for office use (need to drown out Jeremy Vine somehow!) but also travel. I don't fly much, so travel use would mainly be trains.

Is the noise cancelling functionality in the Sony CH-700N good enough to be double the price of the vanilla CH-510 (£70 vs £31)? Or for noise cancelling, is it buy cheap, buy twice and you need to spend a lot more for it to work properly?

Or another option I've seen is are the Soundcore Life Q20 which are £40 and have ANC. I've got Anker power banks but know of their audio products.

Thanks!

[bloomen]

I've only tried one budget pair of noise cancelling earphones which I think were Tautronics.

The noise cancelling was a total joke. It seemed more like a slight frequency change.

I presume Sony will do a better job of it but at the lower end of things I'd look more towards better noise isolation.

And noise cancelling isn't much use for voices. Great for drones and roars like trains and planes.

Edited by bloomen on Monday 6th January 18:22

[Ahonen]

I had a couple of pairs of Lindy headphones prior to getting my current Sony XM3s. Honestly the £40 ones were really good from a noise cancelling point of view. The sound was fine also, though there was distortion at higher volumes, but the noise cancelling was genuinely great. I still use them with my drum kit.

[tog]

I got a pair of £40 AXCEED noise cancelling headphones form Amazon before a long haul flight a couple of years ago and they were fine. I have no experience of any other more costly ones so can't compare, but these were excellent I thought. I used them wired to watch the in-flight films, but they also have Bluetooth which I didn't try. I don't ever use headphones at home so haven't used them since the return flight!

[davidd]

I’ve tried several pairs. These Lindy ones are great.
LINDY BNX-60 - Bluetooth Wireless Active Noise Cancelling Headphones with aptX https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B01AAGIKCI/ref=cm_sw_r...

[thetapeworm]

Richer Sounds (and others) used to sell Goldring – NS1000's - they were very cheap but fairly effective at noise reduction. You might be able to pick up some old stock but they stopped selling them and moved to Lindy NC40's.

Newer versions of both are probably now available as it was a long time ago when I looked at them.

Personally I'd make do with some cheap in-ear headphones (TaoTronics do some with basic sound cancelling) and save up for Sony WH1000-XM2 or later Sony WH1000-XM3's - but I'm sure lots of the more budget options get 90% of the results, you need to try them on, full over ear cover can provide lots of noise isolation without even powering up the headphones and enabling the cancellation features.

Edited by thetapeworm on Tuesday 7th January 10:17

[Greendubber]

I have a pair of CH700N and they're decent. Great sound quality (IMO) build quality is good and I like that I can use the app to adjust the sound etc.

Yet to try them on a flight but the noise canceling certainly seems better than my old ones, decent for £70.

[PF62]

Harpoon said:

I have some Amazon vouchers to spend, so have been looking at some over ear BT headphones mainly for office use (need to drown out Jeremy Vine somehow!) but also travel. I don't fly much, so travel use would mainly be trains.

Is the noise cancelling functionality in the Sony CH-700N good enough to be double the price of the vanilla CH-510 (£70 vs £31)? Or for noise cancelling, is it buy cheap, buy twice and you need to spend a lot more for it to work properly?

I have a pair of the older Sony ZX770BN noise cancelling and they are fine for noise cancelling in office use but on the train you still get the background train noise.

However...

I find far better for travelling on trains and using in the office are these simple Panasonic earbuds for less than £6 - https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B00CBU0IV8/ They are the most comfortable earbuds I have worn and although there is no active noise cancelling only the seal from the ear piece that works far better than the active noise cancelling of the Sony headphones, both in the office and train.