Panasonic RP-HC70 Noise-Canceling Headphones with XBS® Extra Bass System

by Panasonic

Product Details

Product Manual [382kb PDF]

• Product Dimensions: 2.5 x 7.3 x 9.7 inches ; 8 ounces
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds
• Shipping: This item is also available for shipping to select countries outside the U.S.
• ASIN: B00006HOGN
• Item model number: RP-HC70
• Batteries: 1 AAA batteries required. (included)
• Average Customer Review: 3.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (43 customer reviews)
• Date first available at Amazon.com: October 2, 2001

Product Description

Amazon.com Product Description

Lightweight and durable, and designed with the heavy traveler in mind, the Panasonic RP-HC70 Noise Canceling Headphones can help you keep those irritating background noises out of your listening experiences. With a convenient folding design, and featuring a separate controller with noise level adjustment and two levels of noise-canceling effects, these headphones are perfect for when you want to listen to your favorite CDs, MP3s, or sporting events while you're traveling. Best of all, the RP-HC70 runs up to 50 hours on battery power, ensuring that you won't have to worry about losing juice while you're in-flight 25,000 feet above the nearest convenience store.

Product Description

Panasonic RP-HC70 Noise-Canceling Headphones with XBS Extra Bass System

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

221 of 223 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Panasonic RP-HC70 vs. Brookstone, December 8, 2002

By 

"i_am_feldman" (Tel-Aviv, Israel) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Panasonic RP-HC70 Noise-Canceling Headphones with XBS® Extra Bass System (Electronics)

I am very frequent flier and for some time have been looking for a solution against the plane-noise problem.
I have known about the US$300 Bose Headphone for a while, but I decided to wait for less expensive units.
A month ago a bought the Brookstone unit, which has fair noise reduction, eliminating the wind-in-the-wings noise (very low tones) in the plane, but not dealing with the higher tones (such as the turbines.
The Brookstone US$100 unit also proved to be VERY uncomfortable to wear, i.e., any flight longer than 3-hours is umbereable. Another problem is the sound quality of the Headphone itself, which is not too good. It sounds cheap, with not enough bass and squeaky treble.
Today I bought the Panasonic RP-HC70 (for less than half of the Brookstone price). The Panasonic is much better Headphone in terms of sound quality. The sound is clear and, although it could have a little more bass, specially when the noise reduction is on, the quality is OK. It is also much more comfortable to wear than the Brookstone, even though it does not fully cover the ears. It has however one small problem: hiss. Whenever Noise-reduction is turned on, a constant hiss is heard. If classical music is liestened to, all the piano parts become mixed with hiss. In terms of noise reduction itself, it is adequate for plane usage, covering a bigger range of sounds than the Brookstone unit.

103 of 106 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Well worth what I paid, February 10, 2004

By 

oldwei (Los Angeles, CA United States) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Panasonic RP-HC70 Noise-Canceling Headphones with XBS® Extra Bass System (Electronics)

These were pretty much the lowest priced "noise-cancelling" or "noise-reduction" headphones (with active circuitry) I could find for my trans-pacific flights. I didn't expect much out of them, but now feel I got well worth what I paid.

Noise reduction:

This is the first and only pair of noise-cancelling headphones I've ever used. I'm sure they don't even come close to the "legendary" Bose. Nevertheless, it still helps substantially when riding a jet. I can finally hear the in-flight movie dialogue comfortably without cranking up the volume all the way. Classical and jazz music becomes listenable, too. They also makes it much easier for me to relax or nap, even when not listening to anything. I ended up having them on all the time.

They do introduce some white noise (mid-to-high-range hiss) when noise cancelling is on. The over-the-ear design and noise-cancelling circuit combined is effective only to certain frequency range (Panasonic admits so on the package), meaning a crying baby will still be a crying baby. Jet engines, on the other hand, will be much more tolerable.

Comfortness:

I was able to wear them on trans-pacific flights all the time (except when dining, of course.) That was up to 14 hours non-stop! They sure feel nice to me. Nevertheless, no two persons' ears are of the same shape. Your mileage may vary. I wonder if they let you try headphones on in brick-and-mortar stores.

Conclusion:

If you pay five bucks on your flights for the crappy headphones that used to be free, think again. A very little investment may make your flights much enjoyable. As for hi-fi listening at home/work, better look elsewhere.

40 of 41 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars It's no miracle, but it does what it claims can do, July 15, 2004

By 

Herbert H. Yau (East TN, United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Panasonic RP-HC70 Noise-Canceling Headphones with XBS® Extra Bass System (Electronics)

I flew 14hrs from Chicago to Hong Kong with them, I flew regional propeller planes with them, I rode subway and bus with them, and I worked in a computer lab (with nowadays 3 whirling fans per computer) with them. They perform superbly at cancelling noise with a recurring pattern, such as jet engines, car engines, etc.

Please don't expect them to be studio monitor handphones, just look at the price. Sound quality is not very good, especially with the Noise-Reduction on, but it's sufficient for casual listening. They are quite comfortable even in long duration (the 14hrs flight). However, the hinge for collapsing the headphone might caught hair (not fun if you try the take off the headphone quickly) but with proper practice hair-pulling will becomes rare occurance.

To let other not to have false hope about noise cancelling system, I must spend some time to explain how they work. These headphone works by listen to the noise, find its pattern, then generate that pattern at a +or-180 deg. or +or- 1Pi radian phase angle. Therefore, the noise from the background and the "noise" generated by the headphone's will add up to zero, thus the noise is cancelled, or reduced in the least. Also you would be dreaming to have a headphone that cancels human noise because human don't talk with a recurring pattern. Only way for cancalling human voice is to predict what he/she going to say and I don't think any headphones can do that.

The white noise (the hiss) is noticible but tolerable. I know higher end headphones (like Bose QuietComfort II) has managed to pretty much eliminate that but they cost few times as much.

One complain is the control box and all the wirings. It's very awkward wearing it while your iPod or Discman is in a backpack. I ended up "dreadlock" the wires couple of times in one day of subway commute. It would be real nice if there's a belt clip at the back of the control box because I don't know where to place it so I can have easy access to the volume control.