Review of the ATH-ANC7 Noise Canceling headphones
I may never fly without them again!
by Jason Johnston
I may never fly without them again!
by Jason Johnston
I decided to test the Audio Technica ATH-ANC7 headphones on a recent flight flight. I like to travel as light as possible, especially if I have to make connections, but decided to take the protective carrying case as well in my laptop bag since it was not that much bigger than the headphones themselves and was extremely light. (click here for more technical info on the ATH-ANC7's)
Once we were at cruising altitude, I decided to try the headphones first with my MP3 player. Right away I noticed how light they were on my head, the adjustments were easy and the earpieces nicely angled for comfort and fit. I decided to try them passively first (without turning on the active noise cancellation) and found that they cut out quite a bit of noise without even being turned on. But on the downside, I found the volume level output to be on the low side compared to my earbuds. But this, and my whole flying world, changed the second I turned them on. In one word... "Wow." It was like the entire full flight and the engine all hushed in silence as soon as I flipped the switch. The volume level as well immediately increased and I was able to turn down my MP3 player, I'm sure in part to all the outside noise it was competing with before.
The music was clear and reminded me of other top non-noise canceling headphones in it's class. I found the detail of the sound to be quite good, the higher frequencies clear but soft and the bass not too pronounced. If you like the exaggerated bass sound of cheaper headphones, the ANC7's are probably not for you. But I found the listening experience with Rock, Acoustic, Bluegrass, Folk all to be remarkable. I didn't test them on classical, but from the strings I heard in other mixes I expect it would sound great.
The ANC7's also come with some handy accessories like a 1/8 to 1/4 converter and an airplane audio adapter which saved me $3 and let me test it out on the inflight action movie. The bass was smooth, the dialog was clear and it was an enjoyable listening experience.
To wrap up, you can buy a simple pair of noise canceling headphones for less money. But if you want great noise canceling and excellent sound I would recommend the ATH-ANC7 headphones.
