Customer Reviews

JVC Inner Ear Noise Cancelling Headphone

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(12)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(5)
1 star:		(12)

 

 

I've used both over the ear and ear bud style noise cancelling headphones and both have their place and function. I like these JVC earbuds as they are tiny, you can fit your ipod into the JVC case and they do work.

I read a couple other previous reviews which say these are either perfect or don't work at all. I'm in the 'they work, but not as good as 'over the ear' models' camp.
First comment, I don't think any of these (although I haven't tried the Bose) will eliminate all noise, especially things like voices or changeable frequency noises. What they do best is to eliminate or significantly lessen the constant / droning noises, like those of airplane engines. These earbuds do that pretty well.
Second comment is to experiment with the 3 earbud sizes they give you. I've found a significant change in effectiveness for each size (and for all us men of a certain age (and older), the trimness of your ear hairs will also have an effect.... sorry ladies....)
I used these on my last flight without any music playing and found a significant difference switching from the 'monitor' function (which stops the noise cancelling) to the active noise cancelling. It did take about 5 seconds for the noise level to decrease, which might give an indication of what kind of noises it removes, ie., those that are constant for a few seconds.

So, if you want close to concert hall, go to over the ear (and the bigger, thicker the ear covering the better), but if you want to substantially decrease the background noise level, these earbuds work just fine.

Lost my iPod and Etymotic ER6i earphones a month ago. Spend 10x longer trying to decide on what earphones to buy than on which iPod.

For both the cost reasons (I'm cheap - I drive a 1996 Corolla) and cause I lost the last pair, I didn't want to shell out $300+ on the Bose / Sennhieser, but did want something good.

Finally decided to give these JVC a try - even after reading the mixed reviews.

What a huge mistake. The noise cancellation doesn't appear to do anything. I thought maybe it was just me, or maybe it only worked with "white noise" type noise, so I downloaded a white noise generator.

Turning on / off the noise cancellation feature did nothing to reduce office noise, or white noise, with or without music playing. Maybe JVC has some test that shows it does this by 1db in some lab condition, but I certainly didn't notice it.

Purchased a pair of Etymotic ER6i's again - they fit better (and come with 3 cone (small / med / large) tips and 1 foam, so you can match your ears better, SOUND better, and don't have the awkward battery/circuit box that you had to rubber band to your iPod.

Wish I'd kept the packaging - I'd really, really like a my money back from JVC...

I use a Bose QuietComfort 2 and a Shure E3c-n Sound Isolating Earphones (Black); I thought that this might be a good, smaller, alternative to the Bose. Wrong. The JVC HA-NCX77 is useless. After using them for approximately 24 hours on 6 different flights I can state conclusively that they provide effectively no noise reduction beyond what you would expect from an in-ear set like the (much better sounding, more effective, and higher priced) Shure. Most people will probably be better served by just sticking their fingers in their ears for 4 hours ;-)

Congratulations to JVC on a good marketing launch for a worthless product.

Update (17 Aug 07): After seeing a few positive reviews here, I thought it would be worth exchanging them to see if a I had a bad set. I received a new pair from JVC, put in fresh batteries, re-read the manual, and used them on a trip from Boston to London. Exact same result ... Their noise cancelling is completely ineffective.

It's absolutely beyond me how anyone can give these a positive review; I can only conclude that they've never actually used a device that provides effective noise cancellation as opposed to simple passive isolation (e.g. the Shure E3c)

For the reviewer who said the Bose are too expensive, I agree. Try the Audio-Technica ATH-ANC7 QuietPoint Active Noise-Cancelling Headphones. They're at least as good as the Bose, possibly better, and are about 60% less expensive.

I can't imagine how anyone could give these a positive review (well, maybe - check out one of the 5* reviewer's other reviews). The two 1* reviews are spot on, the noise cancelling feature is useless. I lost my Bose and purchased these at the last minute for a 4-week trip to Asia. After spending 40+ hours in the air it's very clear that these are almost completely ineffective. There is some small effect when turning the NC on and off, but I'd place it at substantially less less than .5db (i.e. not enough to make any difference).

This product was very disappointing. The noise cancellation is barely noticable, if at all. In a side-by-side comparison with my full-size Bose headset, this was a non-performer. I wanted a smaller set for travel but I absolutely would not use this again.

Testing headphones seems to be like tasting fine wines. Take two bottles and two people, and one will tell you bottle A is great and bottle B is yuk. The other will tell you the reverse. There's lots of variation in the way people hear and process sounds, but we love to think that something is of poor quality just because it doesn't fit our personal tastes.

I took these on a couple of flights just this past weekend, and was very pleased with both the overall sound quality and the noise canceling. I used them both on the in-flight video/music and with my iPod. Their dynamic range was impressive to me. Some headphones just can't get it right for me, no matter how I set the EQ, but when I changed the EQ presets according to the particular type of music I was listening to, these JVCs responded pretty much spot on. As far as noise cancellation goes, I was unimpressed at first, but there was a big improvement after I seemed finally to get the buds properly positioned. The difference was amazing. If they're not placed properly, then sure, the noise cancellation isn't very impressive because it was designed to work with properly positioned earpieces. After the earpieces were positioned as intended, the noise canceling made a significant difference.

I recently purchased these in ear heaphones and they were the first noise cancelling headphones i have ever had. If you have never spent more 10-15 bucks on headphones and don't want to spend a lot these are AWESOME. 10X better than what you've used before. BUT they are far from the best ever made and if you can afford and/or are willing to spend more do it. You won't be disapointed with these though.

The sound reduction seems to reduce about 20%. The earbuds have small rubber cups that fit into your ear canal. Unfortunately, the cups are only attached to the actual earbuds with a friction fit. You will lose them very easily ad the earbuds cannot be used without them. A few pairs come with the unit, but plan on trying to find replacements. I have lost four in the last year just by pulling the unit out of my pocket. They definitely are not good for running or other active tasks.

I read the other negative reviews and when I fired up my riding lawn mower, put the headphones on, and clicked the noise reduction on, nothing happened. Then I tried another ear piece that came with it, and once I got a good seal, it made a significant difference with the noise canceling turned on. I could tell a big difference with noise canceling on or off. While mowing with my riding lawn more, and having the noise canceling on, I could hear the music very well, as long as I also turned the volume up on my mp3 player nearly to the max level. The trick to making the noise-canceling feature work is to have a good seal with the ear buds.

This is absolutely useless gadget. My version didn't reduce the noise but actually gave me a hissing sound on the right ear. Contacting JVC was fruitless. I still haven't gotten a reply to my complaint 1 month ago.

Do yourself a favour and save your money... I get more noise reduction with Creative ear plugs