Customer Reviews

Able Planet Clear Harmony Active Noise-Canceling Headphones

5 star:		(11)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

These are excellent headphones, with unbelievable bass(read-accurate).

As equalized they are not particularly accurate though-no doubt to the intention of having them used in noisy environments. Though lacking a documented frequency curve, I would guess it has a pronounced dip in the upper midrange to lower high frequency region, combined with a slightly heavy midbass band. No doubt many people will find this exciting, I am sure this was done again to compensate for an expected noisy external environment.

I am a sound engineer, and I have been looking for very high quality noise reduction headphones for mastering purposes. I suspected when I first auditioned these, that with a little tweaking, I could get them "perfect".

In mastering, one of the biggest problems is dealing with any extraneous noises that may "mask" details in the recording you are working on. traditional headphones simply cannot block all of this noise out. You would be amazed at the noise that creeps into your audtioning that you aren't aware of. The headphones do the finest job of removing this noise that I have ever heard. It is simply amazing. I never realized, even in a controlled listening room, just how much noise was present. In silence with the headphones powered off, then on, I realized I could hear my breathing! Yes, even the smallest amount of noise can effect the quality of music, and how wonderful to have almost everything eliminated.

As stated earlier I had to adjust my eq when using these for mastering, involving listening to hours of reference recordings to get it right, but I got there.

Now I have to say I almost listen exclusively to these headphones for all my audtioning. I have B&W speakers for my reference-anyone who knows anything about speakers, know these are the best, and I still prefer my headphones. NOW this is primarily because of the noise elimination, you simply will not believe the details in music that are buried beneath a noise floor that you don't even perceive.

I can even plainly hear differences between 16bit and 24bit when I am mastering! Its almost frightening.

One last thing. they are VERY comfortable. mastering can often take hours, and its wonderful to have a pair of cans that you can leave on without any ear pain.

Highly recommended. I will be happy to write another review with the supplied eq settings in the future if anyone is interested.

This really beats the Bose headset. I have tried them both and this one has better noise reduction, and just as good bass and treble. The thing that makes this much better than Bose is try calling AblePlanet up- you get a LIVE person immediately and they listen immediately. They are genuinely interested in getting your feedback and ensuring you are satisfied. Smaller company, big customer support.

I have problems with my hearing, ringing, and unusual noise sensitivities, so I am very sensitive to the differences in the noise cancellation headsets. I have experience with most of them, bose, koss, sony, and have blown prodigious sums of money. I received my Clear Harmony, and they deliver!!! The noise cancellation is the strongest that I have experienced, also there is NO annoying low frequency accentuation. I find that many headsets, when set to noise cancellation alone, seem to leave me with upper frequencies cancelled much more than lower frequencies. This headset is superb. There is a tiny amount of hiss, but I believe that is a trade off. This is really a superb headset, and to me, is the favorite of all of them. Although I own the bose,koss, sony, audio technica, this is the one I actually use. AT, and Bose, are also quite good, but Clear Harmony has an edge, in my view.

I bought these from another site where I had a discount coupon. I was in the market for a good set of $200 over the ear noise canceling headphones. My first choice was the Audio Technica ATH-ANC7, but they had been discontinued, and the new ATH-ANC7b version was not yet out. I chose the Able Planet after doing a lot of research on various headphones.

The headphones are good quality, with a very comfortable fit. The noise canceling is very good, with only a very, very slight noise canceling artifact (hiss), far less than other mid-priced noise canceling headphones. In fact, I did not hear it the first time I turned them on.

Sound quality is very good. The LINX technology seems to be a form of equalization which boosts certain ranges, mainly low base and midrange. The strong base and midrange boost gives a sound color very similar to Bose.

The head band was large, and I don't think the headphones would have fit well on someone with a smaller head (more on this later).

I used the headset for a long flight to the South Pacific, however on the return, something malfunctioned in the headset, resulting in the left earcup failing. I contacted Able Planet, and they emailed instructions to return the headphones. About a week later I got the replacement shipment, however it contained the wrong headphones (the Able Planet Clear Harmony NC200). I called Able Planet the next day, and they looked up the shipments and realized they had reversed two warranty shipments (someone else got my NC1000s). They immediately shipped another set of NC1000s to me, along with a return label for the NC200s. But I never got them. I contacted Able Planet again, they pulled up the tracking number on the new shipment, and found they had never been delivered, and instead there was a bizarre code about the shipment. So Able Planet immediately shipped out a third pair the same day I called them.

This shipment I did receive. In the rush, they did not include the return label for the NC200s, so I called Able Planet back, and they told me to just keep the NC200s.

The replacement set appears to be brand new, not a refurbished set. It has worked fine so far. One physical difference I see is the new set uses a different head band, the same as on the Able Planet Lost Cauze and Sound Clarity headphones. This eliminates the one design issue of the original, however I am uncertain if this is an intentional design change.

Despite my challenges, I am sold on Able Planet's customer support. They are very responsive and friendly.

Maybe it's the LINX technology, which is explained in detail on the product box. Or maybe it's my ears. But when I got these headphones and tried them out, I was disappointed. The active noise-canceling feature seemed to work very well, silencing the air conditioner and fans I had set going on "high" as a test. The sound from the TV that came through when the NC silenced the machinery, though, seemed high-pitched and tinny. I then hooked the headphones to my MP3 player and listened to different kinds of music. The instrumentals didn't sound very rich. And I was almost stunned when one of my favorite tracks by a favorite singer played - and her voice wasn't recognizable.

I did an in-home comparison this evening of the Clear Harmony headphones with the Audio-Technica ATH-ANC7 QuietPoint Active Noise-Cancelling Headphones - which don't have the LINX technology. I found the Audio-Technicas to be as good or better as to active noise-canceling, and significantly better as to audio fidelity with the MP3 player. All the different kinds of music sounded rich and clear, and when I played the same vocal track that the Clear Harmony had made sound so strange, it sounded right, including the voice.

I'm looking for a reasonably-priced set of active noise-canceling headphones primarily to use when traveling, and I don't want to have to tweak the EQ settings of my MP3 player, notebook PC, etc., to get good sound through the phones.

The Clear Harmony headphones are being returned; I don't think the LINX technology is right for me. I did like the extra padding on the top area of the headset which I think would help reduce discomfort especially when being worn for a long time.

I paid attention to the review of this product by a sound engineer, when I decided to try it. I wouldn't discourage anyone from trying these headphones, I'm just relating my experience with them which was disappointing.

I have tried Bose quite comfort II but the Able Planet Harmony is definitely better in noise cancelling and the sound is just an amazing experience.
Loay Othman

Geez, there's a gazillion headphone choices. Some pretty good ones. But I gotta say the Able Planet Clear Harmony have delivered to me the best Wow sensation in audio of the 15 to 30 that I've tried. Might be the extra harmonics that come through by design, but bottom line is just extremely natural sounding to my pretty educated musician's ears. If you get them on sale, they are a genuine steal.

The product is just plain exceptional.

I especially like the fact that you can use these headphones while the noise cancelling feature is disabled - or more importantly - when the batteries have drained and you do not have replacements available.

I used these for the first time during an International flight from San Francisco to Frankfurt. The headphones were comfortable enough I wore them continuously without any discomfort.

I am impressed.

I love these headphones. They are great! The best part is the fact that I can listen to music with or WITHOUT the noise cancelation turned on. Unlike Bose or most headphones, you can listen without the NC turned on (which was a serious concern of mine). Bose won't work without batteries.

First, I have to say that I tell everything as personal opinions and feelings. I don't exaggerate things to persuading people to buy things.
I play violin for more than twelve years now. I am super picky to the sound and music systems around me. I personally own [Bose QC2] and [Bose in-ear headphones]. I use [Bose Companion 5] speaker as my sound system. I really have to say that if you have enough budgets, Bose has the products that will not let you down.
I have speakers from Creative, Logitech, Altec Lansing, and Bose. And I have different opinions about each of them, but I won't talk about them here.
I bought five different headphones recently for fun to see the differences from different brands (Altec Lansing UHP606, Audio Technica ATH-CK9, Altec Lansing Black Beat PRO, and Able Planet Harmony Active Noise-Canceling Headset). I bought this Harmony Active Noise-Canceling Headphones ($349.99, I bought it for $130) by Able Planet in December 2009. I think this product is good at surround sound and bass. I really like the bass of this headphone. Although, comparing to the [Bose QC2] I had, [Bose QC2] is a lot comfortable than the Able Planet. Moreover, there is quite a difference in Noise-Canceling between Bose and Able Planet. [Bose] is the only brand I have tried so far with "enough" noise canceling. However, Able Planet has a nice feature that I like - it can function without batteries (which means without turning on the noise-canceling).
In the last words I will say, this Able Planet headphone is worth buying if it is less than $200 (Compare to the price and value of $300 Bose QC15).