sony-headphones-mdr-nc8

Long flight can be either enjoyable for painful experience, depending on how we spend the time.Without all the constant messages and distractions from our smartphones, theoretically we should be able to have the most relaxed time in our days. However, the constant engine noise from the plane can be annoying at times. Especially when our favorite song no longer sounds good.

Sony MDR-NC8 is a headphones with noise cancelling feature. It promises to cancel 90% of external noise, allowing us to enjoy better tunes without too much unwanted noise.

I tested this unit to see how noise cancelling module works. I “use” some noise from cloth-drying machine to simulate in-flight noise. My thoughts? MDR-NC8 does provide decent noise cancellation. The noise is not completely gone, but it becomes bearable and no longer intrudes the music. Some voices from people nearby are still hearable, but they sound a bit distant.

The headphones itself has decent design. MDR-NC8 is compact and can be flipped for easy carrying. Too bad it doesn’t come with dedicated travel case for extra protection.

This headphones uses AAA battery and promises 80 hours usage time before next replacement. We can optionally switch off the noise cancelling feature and use it as ordinary headphones. This might come in handy to make sure we can still listen to music, even when our battery is out of juice.

When I switch on the noise cancellation without any music, I can hear some hissing voice. I still find this hissing more bearable than listening to the actual noise out there. So it’s still helping. Comparing the sound quality, when noise cancelling feature is turned on, the music volume gets slightly reduced and the sound detail is slightly compromised. The quality difference is not super significant, but certainly noticeable.

If you usually listen to music using with low-end earphones, the sound quality of MDR-NC8 is not bad. For me, I can’t help comparing these headphones with my Bose SoundTrue Around-Ear, or even with my other Sony headphones MDR-10RBT. Compared to them, this headphones’ sound quality is not up to a level that I expected.