Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

Pros: Fairly good sound, smaller profile, great price point, comfortable, foldable, stylish Cons: Non-detachable mini-plug, soft pouch (no hard case) There are better noise cancelling headphones out there, but not for less than $50. At $49.99, these are great headphones for the traveler on a budget. I previously bought the MDR-NC6s and they worked pretty well for me. I originally got them to use while flying, but I also use them at work to remove the annoying hum from our company computers. The NC7 is a great upgrade from the older model. They noticeably cancel more of the ambient noise than the NC6. Also, there is virtually no lag time between when the noise cancelling is switched on and when it actually kicks in. The NC6 took a few seconds to begin actually cancelling ambient noise. Also, a common complaint that I've had (and read about) with the NC6 is that there's a faint, yet audible hiss while the noise cancelling is on. This has been greatly reduced to a hardly noticeable, faint background static with the NC7, which will probably annoy the audiophile, but doesn't bother me. These headphones are much more comfortable than the previous model. I must note that these headphones don't cancel out all of the noise, just the constant background noise, like the engines of an airplane or the hum of loud equipment. You can still hear people talking or the keyboard while you're typing (faintly), but they're not meant to drown out these noises, so keep that in mind when trying out headphones. These are far from the perfect headphones, however. The mini plug is not detachable as with other, more expensive models. Also, they use a double cable design (one leading into each ear pad) as opposed the single line design of its predecessor. This might cause the headphone cable to get more tangled. Also, the case that it comes with is just a soft nylon drawstring pouch, as opposed the molded cases of more expensive headphones. Bottom line, with only minor flaws, these are great headphones for an unbeatable price. I only wish they came in a wireless behind-the-neck "street style" version.