Product Description

Reduce outside noise and enjoy your music more! Maxell's HP/NC-II uses microphones in the headphones to detect ambient noise that is interfering with your music. Information from the microphone is fed to the audio enhancer pack where it is analyzed and a precise active noise cancellation wave is generated. When this "anti-noise" wave meets the unwanted noise, the noise is reduced up to 95% so your music comes through loud and clear. With 16Db of noise cancellation, the NCIII has a full range (20 to 22,000hz) of frequency response with Neodymium magnets in a 40mm driver design. In addition to its high-quality stereo sound and superior noise cancellation technology, the Maxell HP/NC-II offers a collapsible design, a 6foot cord, travel pouch, dual prong airline adapter. The NCII is a lightweight closed ear design with longer battery life than most models on the market today, up to 50 hours of battery life. All important benefits to users who travel. Use Maxell's Noise cancellation headphones to enjoy your favorite music, or to simply block out unwanted noise. Road noise and airline noise can cause fatigue, and using noise cancellation headphones can help to reduce this fatigue. You arrive at your destination more energetic as a result. Or use noise cancellation headphones at home or in the office to block out ambient noise to help you concentrate and work more efficiently.The HP/NC-II also will provide sound without battery power, an important consideration for travel and to choose Maxell when purchasing a noise cancellation headphone.The HP/NC-II comes with a 90 day warranty for parts and labor.

Product Details

• Brand: Maxell
• Model: HP/NC II
• Dimensions: 10.25" h x 6.25" w x 3.00" l, .45 pounds

Features

• Noise cancellation headphones help reduce ambient noise and the stress levels caused by noise
• Over 50 hours of use with 2 AAA batteries(not included)
• Dual Prong adapter for airline use included
• Folding for easy storage and portabililty
• Includes a travel pouch

Amazon.com Review
Maxell's HP-NC1 portable headphones are equipped with Noisebuster, a patented noise-reduction technology that really works, making the HP-NC1 an ideal companion for in-flight (or even on-bus) music lovers.

The Noisebuster technology works via the following process: tiny microphones within each earpiece "listen" for any pervasive environmental noise and send this information to a device called an in-line audio-enhancer pack. This device reads and analyzes the information and then generates a noise-cancellation wave that's out of phase with the noise itself. The audio-enhancer pack feeds this wave back into the headset--when the noise wave goes up, a corresponding cancellation wave goes down, causing the two signals to cancel each other out. This eliminates a good deal of unwanted sonic junk, from airplane engine noise to distant freeway traffic seeping into your living room.

We evaluated our HP-NC1s as a utility crew used jackhammers on the street outside our listening room. Because you can bypass the Noisebuster technology with a switch, it was easy for us to compare the noise-canceled signal to the standard sound. While Noisebuster didn't entirely eliminate the jackhammer's rat-a-tat-tat, it did significantly reduce the sound so that we could listen to quiet music, such as soft jazz and classical.

As for the sound of the headphones themselves, the midrange is clear, but the HP-NC1s are a little sluggish overall, with no deep bass or extended high frequencies. In fairness to the HP-NC1s, noise-canceling headsets often sound restricted in the frequency extremes, as it can be tricky for the noise-canceling devices to differentiate between noise and music. The fit of these headphones is also a little snug for our taste, but you can loosen them a bit by gently bending the headset.

We have heard comparably priced, non-noise-canceling headphones that sound better than Maxell's HP-NC1. However, better sound doesn't matter much if you're having a hard time hearing the music in a noisy environment. At this price, these headphones are a bargain.

Pros:

• Noisebuster technology works well
• In-flight dual-jack adapter included
• In-line volume control

Cons:

• Snug fit may be uncomfortable
• Average sound quality

Customer Reviews

THEY SUCK!!!
this was my second pair of noice canecelling headphones. my first pair were made by sony, but can't remember the model. the noise cancelling was not as good as the sony's but they are far more comfortable...EXCEPT FOR THE ON-CORD BATTERY HOUSE/NOISE CANCELLING CONTROL!!! that was the dumbest part of this product!!! it just hangs heavily from the headphones unless you put it in your pocket. then it takes up valuable pocket space, especially in the summertime when you don't have coat pockets to put some things in. the sony pair had the battery housing and controls built right on the head phones. i read in another review that this is a belt clip...don't believe the hype. there is no clip on this thing. the sound was mediocre and the noise cancelling was inferior to the sony.

also, as previously stated, my left ear is gone. sometimes it comes on when the cord gets bumped around in my pocket to the right position, but otherwise it is gone. i don't know how something like this could happen after a few months of use, but it is not a good thing. i checked to make sure it wasn't my ipod that was broken by putting the headphones in my computer and sure enough it was the headphones.

Not worth your time
I was going on a business trip, and didn't have time to get these in through Amazon. I had a previous version that went bad after four years, so I bought another pair (through Walmart).

Maxell really cheapened these up. The phone jack was flimsy, and started having problems after only three uses in my laptop. The fit around the ears was nowhere near as nice as the previous pair I had, and there seemed to be an intermittent (more on than off) constant tone around 9000 hz that was quite irritating.

Save yourself the time and aggravation with this pair, spend the money on a nice Audio-Technica unit (like I'm going to do) and get something that meets your needs for the long haul.

Great while they last, which isn't long
I bought these in the second week of February. Today is April 3 and the right headphone is already on its death-bed. If I fiddle with the cord, I can get it to work, at least until it dies out again. It's an endless cycle of fiddling with the cord over and over again, only to have the right speaker die out again and again. I finally give up.

Any headphones that can't even last 2 months are not worth your money. I've also read other reviews where the same thing happened, so it's not like it was an isolated incident. Needless to say, I will not buy any Maxell headphones ever again and I suggest you don't either.