Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

I travel. Planes, high speed trains, commuting trains, buses and I love to listen music. Not audiophile but I know difference between bad and good equipment. I do build my own speakers, amplifiers and other stuff. But I can not build good headphones, especially NC, this is why I am buying them. Let's concentrate on NC. I have couple over-ears, just for office and I have 4 in-ear. So, you can consider my review as comparison. Candidates: AKG391NC, Sony MDR-NC100D, ATH-ANC23 and Pioneer SE-NC31C-K. As you may see they all comes from different price range and very reputable companies and they are different, very different. Small introduction. For people who are looking for electronic "ear-plugs". There are no such thing! NC headphones, do not and never will create full external silence, more electronic noise suppression means more audio degradation. They will never silence loudly speaking office neighbor. What NC headphones do best - suppression of monotonic noises, such as airplane's engines, A/C, trains. They do mute bunch of other sounds but do not expect miracles, be real. Hiss? Some reviewers pointing out on hiss sound when there are no audio source. Out of 4 listed above only AKG do not have hiss but let's be real. All other hiss noises are so tiny and considering fact what you are about to use NC headphones on plane which has such high noise level anyway, compare to which this 'hiss' would sound like peaceful heavens (and it's exactly what these NC headphones do). Let's start from high-end - AKG391NC. Very nice sound, I really do like them but it's just my ears, I can not get proper fit, I tried Comply Foam tips they do help but still as soon as they are little bit moved, quality of sound goes down, to unacceptable level. When they are sit proper sound is fantastic. From usability - AKG do not have clip on control module, it has rechargeable battery, which is really bad idea, when you travel far, you have to get charger, additional cord etc. On other end we have Pioneer, cheapest of the bunch. They sound worse of all of them, of course better compare to 'free headphones' from airline stock but this is about it. NC is just Ok. I would consider to use/buy only in absolute emergency but they cheap. interesting they have largest driver (14mm) may be it's the case when size doesn't matter. Sony - I do not understand why people like to trash this company lately because I can not find any major flows with they product and MDR-NC100D is really great NC eadphones. They sound great, perfect fit, even actual ear pieces look little bit strange in reality they comfortable and do fit secure on in my ears. NC is amazing, magic button which automatically calibrate NC according environment DOES work! Difference is not very apparent but noticeable and does make a difference especially when you are using them in already quiet environment. Monitor button is great, AKG do not have it. I bought this headphones for my wife and she used them during flights to Hong Kong (16hr) and Tokyo (12+hr) and she was impressed. Now we comes to ATH, sort of dark horse, reasonable priced, claimed 90% noise cancellation (same as Pioneer), so after my frustration with AKG, I decided to give it try. OMG! I was truly impressed. Sound quality is amazing. NC - almost good as Sony, Sony just a tiny bit better plus auto calibration. But still ATH holds its ground and does amazing job. Perfect fit, they even included Comply Foam tips but i found they stock works great. I do not understand why other readers found ATH cheaply made, they are looks good enough to me. Not AKG grade (high quality plastic and brushed aluminum) but decent enough. Wires little bit stiffer compare to AKG and Sony but fine to me. Important detail - clip on control module is strong and can provide good fixation (compare to Sony). Too bad, ATH do not have monitor button and volume control has limited usage, may be AT will change it in next models. Bottom line: AT did excellent job. Great sound, excellent NC and perfect fit (for my ears).