Customer Reviews

Sony MDR-NC50 Noise Canceling Headphones

5 star:		(34)
4 star:		(36)
3 star:		(15)
2 star:		(15)
1 star:		(19)

 

 

I just tried these 'phones on with my iPod in the Sony store

they are DEFINITELY much better than the $300 Bose

here are the pros -

1. Sound Quality --- terrific sound quality --- I almost forgot I was standing in a store, because I was so wrapped up by how great my tunes were sounding

2. Noise Cancelling --- definitely makes a difference here - there is more pureness and depth within each tune, once cancelling is on ----- however, the headphones still sound great even without Noise Cancelling on

3. Comfort ---- the ear-cups on these things are terrific! I hated how the $300 Bose had a type of 'suction' element to them - these cups wrap around real nicely, closing in on your ear, but making it fine to rest your head upon them, as well

4. MONITOR BUTTON --- this was really cool! These 'phones have a button on the side (a sliver button) that upon being pressed, the music is elimated and all outside noises are allowed in ----- thus, if someone approaches to talk to you, you can just press the monitor button and talk back, without even taking your 'phones off

5. Detachable Cable ---- I liked this --- these 'phones won't get caught up in cable binds

6. Built in battery -- not much to add here

7. Adjustments ---- the 'phones are easy to adjust and manuever

CONS ---- sadly, a few cons

1. Portability ---- the 'phones are small enough to put in a briefcase, backpack, and most laptop bags...... however, they don't fold up ---- rather, they become flat, but the middle doesn't fold in any way ---- so they are not as easy to pack, as most headphones

2. Comfort/FIT ------ personally, I have a BIG head, and one reason I abandoned my $300 Bose is because the snug fit gave me horrible headaches..... sadly, this Sony set seems to do the same ---- if you don't have this problem with other headphones though, then I doubt you'd have it with this one

otherwise though, for $120, these 'phones are a bargain!

Definitely an upgrade in sound quality over Sony's previous models ----- and definitely even BETTER in sound quality, compared to the $300 Bose

HAPPY LISTENING!!!!!

I recently purchased the MDR-NC50 headphones (~$149) as an upgrade for Aiwa HP-CN6 noise canceling headphones purchased in the fall of 2003 (~$65). I've used the HP-CN6 on many flights. I also recently purchased Centrios noise canceling headphones for a family member (~$39). I haven't tried Bose's headphones yet.

Of the three headphones, the new Sony headphones do the best job at noise cancellation and are the most comfortable, while the Centrios doesn't appear to knock out as much noise as the Aiwa. In addition, while you can typically hear some white noise when noise cancellation is in effect, the Sony headphone's white noise sound is definitely much quieter than Aiwa and Centrios. The Aiwa's white noise seems to be the loudest. You can appreciate the difference if you listen to quieter sections of music. For example, with the MDR-NC50 while listening to Mozart's Horn Concerto #1, you definitely are not distracted by the white noise as you are with the HP-CN6.

Regarding a previous reviewer's comments about audio volume being significantly less, I would have to agree. I tested the headphones with an iPod and a Roland electronic piano. The output was disappointing compared to both the Aiwa and Centrios. I also compared them to some old standard Pioneer SE-305 headphones. Even when you crank up the volume to 100% on the iPod while using the MDR-NC50, it still seems you lose out on some of the music. Using the Horn Concerto as an example, there are sections where the bass of the cellos appears muted in comparison to the other headphones. There doesn't seem to be as much depth of sound while using the MDR-NC50s. From this perspective, ranking the headphones for subjective audio quality, from best to worst, I would have to say Pioneer, Aiwa, Sony, then the Centrios. I rank the Sony headphones before the Centrios, because sound seemed more muddled with the Centrios headphones. In addition, the Centrios seems to have trouble voicing the highest octave notes from the Roland electronic piano, while all the others, including the MDR-NC50 had no trouble.

Regarding a previous reviewer's comments on "howling", the Aiwa's user instructions also stated the same thing. I haven't heard any howling from either Aiwa's or Sony's headphones. I have tried putting on the heaphones backwards, skewed, etc., and haven't had any problems.

In conclusion, I think for an airplane environment and at a reasonable price point, the Sony headphones are probably a good trade-off between noise cancellation and audio reproduction. For pop and rock music it's OK. However, the depth of sound and volume issues are disappointing, in particular for classical music. The MDR-NC50 is as comfortable as my standard Pioneer set. Price wise, the MDR-NC50 is probably reasonable between $125 to $150.

About a month ago, I had my Bose QC2 headset (along with my MP3 player and 1GB CF card) stolen from among other personal belongings at a western states airport. Devastated, I dreaded the prospect of shelling out ANOTHER $300 to "Dr. Bose" for a replacement set of his mystical noise-canceling cans.

As luck would have it, however, both the Bose headset and the Sony headset are available as redemption "rewards" under a popular credit card that I typically use when I travel. At that time, I had accumulated enough "points" on my account to get the Sony headset, but I needed another 8,000 or so to get the Bose headset. At the rate I accumulate "points," waiting to get enough points for the Bose set would have taken many months, and I just couldn't wait that long to replace my noise-canceling cans. So ... I decided to take a chance and get the Sony cans instead. Now that I have received the Sony headset and put them through their paces, I don't regret my decision at all. I found the Sony headset to be a perfectly acceptable alternate to the Bose cans, and here's why.

I used the Bose cans for about two years, and they were, in a word, EXCELLENT. Until now, because I was so supremely satisfied with the Bose cans, I never compared them to other noise-canceling headphones, but I absolutely loved their sound quality, particularly at the bottom end. I don't think anyone has ever even matched Bose's patented bass emulation technology, much less beaten it. In terms of bass response alone, the Bose cans flat-out kicked butt on my new Sony cans. From bottom to top, the dynamic spectrum also seemed a little better integrated in the Bose cans than in the Sonys.

However, that's about it. The construction of the Sonys is FAR superior to that of the Bose. More meaty and solid head support, extenders, and earcups; firmer, thicker ear and head cushions; a little bit heavier than the Bose set, but not much. I'm a pretty big guy, so all these features are "money" to me. I like my audio stuff big, strong and solid.

In fact, about a year after I got my first set of Bose cans, one of the plastic brackets at the point where the extender comes out of the headrest broke. To their credit, when I complained to Bose, they gave me an RMA and replaced my entire headset, no questions asked. Bose standing up for their product like that was definitely cool, but let's face it ... a headset as expensive as the QC2's should never have broken like that in the first place. Bose is making a KILLING on these headphones by having them manufactured with cheap labor in China, but they are not passing on one cent of their profits/savings to their customers in the form of reduced price. All the more reason to try the Sonys, and to tell Dr. Bose to take his overpriced cans and shove 'em.

The Sony cans are operable with the noise-canceling feature turned on, or off. There is no such option with the Bose cans. However, there is a DRAMATIC difference in performance between the active (noise-canceling on) and the passive (noise-canceling off) modes in the Sony cans. For example, in active mode, the resistance level of the Sony cans is 40 ohms. Since Bose doesn't publish specifications for its headphones, it's impossible to know for sure if this level of resistance is comparable to the Bose set. However, judging from the volume levels I became used to in listening to my MP3 player, I would guess that if the resistance level of the Bose headset isn't exactly 40 ohms, it's somewhere pretty close to that, because I found the sound levels and dynamic range pretty near equal in both headsets, at every volume level on my audio player.

The noise-canceling function in the Sony set is every bit as good as the Bose set, if not better. I often found quite a bit of ambient noise audible through the Bose set. With the Sonys, a greater spectrum of ambient noise seemed to be effectively eliminated.

In terms of music playback, in active mode, the highs were crystalline and transparent, the mids, solid and well-defined. The bass response was warm and full, but not as punchy and tight as I would have preferred, or to be more accurate, as I had become accustomed to with the Bose. However, I was able to substantially tighten it up with a few simple EQ adjustments in my player, and I then found myself completely satisfied with the bass response in the Sonys.

In passive mode, however, the bass practically disappears, and the rest of the dynamics thin out considerably. That is due to the fact that in passive mode, the resistance level in the Sony cans jumps up to 100 ohms. For most portable audio players, pushing sound through 100 ohms resistance is something like pushing a golf ball through a garden hose. That doesn't mean the headphones are somehow "defective," or that they stop working! It just means that if you intend to use these headphones in passive mode, you need to make sure you have enough power coming out of your audio source to drive the headphones properly, or you will not be happy with the result.

Anticipating this problem before I even received the Sony cans, I researched and bought myself a portable headphone amplifier, to put between my MP3 player output and the headphones, just in case I ever wanted to use the Sony headset in passive mode. In addition to a butt-kicking signal boost that would undoubtedly be exciting news for ANY portable audio nut, the good headphone amps include a vast number of other benefits, such as advanced signal processing/enhancement. I won't go into detail on these benefits in this review, but let's just say that if you listen to a lot of music through headphones, you REALLY owe it to yourself to try one of these things. What they add to your enjoyment of your music is simply immeasurable.

The Headroom Airhead is a pricey and typical example of this technology ... a bit too pricey for me, at $150. I went instead with a largely unknown amp, designed, built and direct-marketed by a Canadian sound engineer named Gary Ali. If you're interested you can see his PA2V2 amp at www.electric-avenues.com. Gary is a great and completely trustworthy guy, and his amp is a little sonic marvel, that he will sell direct to you for only $60.00.

Without the headphone amp, in passive mode, my MP3 player (which uses 2 AA batteries, or 3 volts, to put out about 20 mW per side from the headphone output) had just enough power at full volume to drive the Sony cans to the point where I would consider the sound "full" or, just reaching the point one might call "hot." Any smaller, lower-powered player (e.g., one that runs on 1.5 volts or one AA battery) would probably not be able to do much at all with the Sony cans in passive mode.

Because the bass response is significantly reduced in passive mode, I had to reset the EQ on the player to get some of the bass back, which I did. When I added the headphone amp, however, I was able to get pretty much the same dynamic range and frequency response out of the headphones in passive mode as I was getting with the headset in active mode, without the amp ... proof positive that performance of a headset like this has a lot more to do with power and efficiency than it has to do with any particular design or component differences.

The Sony cans also have a "monitor" button on the exterior that allows you to instantly cut the sound off completely when someone is trying to talk to you, or if you want to hear something that going on outside your headset, another feature not found in the Bose headset.

The Sony cans come with a fairly firm black nylon mesh carrying case, an airline adapter plug, and a 1/8 inch to 1/4 inch stereo adapter plug. The primary plug on the headset is a 1/8 inch mini-stereo plug. The earcups fold over, just like the Bose cans, for storage in the case. Inside the case, there's a little velcro fold over compartment for storing the adapters and cable. The exterior strap for the Sony cans is only big enough for hand-carrying.

The Bose case, on the other hand, is made of a custom-molded plastic polymer, covered with a nylon mesh material, and includes an adjustable shoulder strap, an elastic pocket on the outside, and another removable mesh zippered pocket on the inside. Between the two cases, I confess that I preferred the Bose design.

The bottom line here is this: when one considers the cost of what one is getting in the Sony headset (around $125.00), compared with the $300 Dr. Bose is forcing us to cough up for HIS noise-canceling cans, there is absolutely no question that the Sonys are the better value.

I don't know why so many people have panned the Sonys, but I suspect most of them simply didn't understand what they were getting in the first place, and thus never bothered to figure out how to use them properly.

I say, buy the Sony MDR-NC50's with confidence that you're getting a great value, but if you can, try them out before you buy them, and recognize that you'll probably have to tinker with your input sources a bit to get these Sony headphones to perform in a way that suits your individual tastes.

I am a heavy duty traveller piling on 120,000 miles annually so use these a lot. In comparison to the Bose Quiet Comfort 2 the Sony's do a slightly better job at cancelling out low frequency jet engine noise. The Bose do a better job at mid range cancellation. The downside of the Sony's are they are less comfortable. The headphones clamp quite tightly around your head and my ears tend to ache after several hours of use. The headphones do not fold over themselves and are quite large when packed (they do fold flat). My biggest complaint is that Airbus A320 and A319 aircraft engines tend to cause intermittent howling feedback especially when the engine speed changes - which is very annoying. Strangely enough, Boeing aircraft do not cause this problem.

Just purchased a set of these yesterday at Best Buy, and they work great. I am working in a room with 6 other people, each with a PC under their desk, and it gets pretty noisy.

NOTE: For those experiencing problems, all I can say is RTFM. The loose connections I've seen mentioned are likely due to improperly installing the cable. As the instructions state, you REALLY have to push the cable into the headphones VERY hard. If the cord is not in all the way up to the line marked around the strain relief, it may fall out, or the sound will be muddled and not in stereo. There is a definite snap when the cable is all the way in, but once it's in it's not falling out accidentally. This seems like a good feature, allowing easy replacement of the cable if the cable gets broken at either end.

The noise cancellation on these is very good. You're not going to get rid of every sound in the room, but the most annoying frequencies are filtered very well. The acoustic insulation cuts down a lot on the high frequencies, and the noise reduction circuitry takes out machine noise, like engines and PC fans. Once you have your music going, you'll rarely hear anything else, even during quiet songs.

One thing to consider is that the extremely rich bass on these headphones seems to depend on power from the battery, so the sound range is not nearly as deep when the noise canceling is off. I don't see this as a problem though, since I never wear them without the NC on, and when the bass turns off suddenly, you know it's time to replace the battery.

As for howling, I have not experienced this problem. I have even removed the headphones and cranked the music beyond what I would consider a comfortable volume, and I've not had any problems with feedback thus far.

The sound quality is very good as well. The bass is on par with what you would expect from a decent subwoofer. The mids and highs are good, but may need a little tweaking to your taste via your player's EQ settings.

Last, the monitor function is very useful. Pressing this button not only turns off the music and NC, but it actually amplifies outside sounds such as speech, almost as if you weren't wearing headphones at all! Very handy considering the thick insulation on the cups.

All in all, very satisfied. I plan to buy another pair here when Amazon has them in stock again, for home and travel use.

I tried both the old and new Bose QC and in all honesty found them both a little plastic feeling and not so comfortable on my ears. Further, Bose seem to be keeping the specification of their headphones secret so that only 'look'n'hype' type comparisons can be made. Given very little (ok, undetectable) difference between the Sony NC50, Panasonic HC300, and Bose QC (2) in terms of active noise canceling I went for the Sony. For my ears they were physically the most confortable, had an impedence that matches my Toshiba Gigabeat 60 very well (did not require me to turn the volume way up to achieve a good listening volume), feel better built than either of my other choices, and had good passive noise reduction. Though I really wanted the Panasonic HC300 on trying them the passive noise reduction was not as good as the Sony, even though I believe the low frequencies (without noise reduction) were better on the Panas.

The only advice I can give is go to a good audio store and try everything out before buying. Remember, NC is designed to remove low frequency noises in environments with a contant level of noise approximating being inside an aircraft - so don't expect them to make the sounds from your noisy neighbour disappear completely.

I have had the MDR-NC20s for several years and they finally started crackling after 4 years of hard use. I bought the MDR-NC50 to replace them. The noise canceling is better than the 20s primarily due to the ear cup design (I think). These are great for canceling out most computer fan noise from a whole room full of servers. Higher pitched noise does still come through but is much reduced.

The 50s seem less efficient as you do have to turn up the source more. Also the power button is more awkwardly located than on the 20s. The sound quality seems decent but is not up to the quality of my monitor headphones but I would not expect it to be.

The monitor button is nice as it will cut out the source as well as the noise canceling if you need to hear external stuff.

The 50s use a standard 3.5mm jack as opposed to the weird 2.5mm jack the 20s use.

Overall I am very happy.

I bought this headphone and Sennheiser PCX250 for my mother, who also travels frequently. After using both headphones, I would not recommend MDR-NC50.

Sound quality was not a big consideration to me. I realized that noise cancelling headphones will never sound as a good as decent pair of regular headphones costing half as much. The only reason I bought mine was to use it on an airplane (and maybe on a subway). (Sound is going to be bad anyway because of external noises and since the source of the sound (i.e. airline movies) will be dirty anyway)

Only thing that really mattered to me were comfort, noise cancelling abilities, and the convenience of travelling arround with the headphone.

MDR-NC50 did do a good job in cancelling the engine noise. (Unscientifically) I would guess that about 75% of the engine noise (not other noises) were surpressed. And it did do a semi-decent job cancelling out other noises. However, I felt a sensation of pressure in my ears when I activated the noise cancelling feature. While it was not painful but it was very annoying. In comparison, I felt a much milder sense of pressure with PCX250.

Comfort is really the killer in this headphone. These headphones are the worst pair of headphone in terms of comfort. I bought these so that I can have a comfortable flight by cancelling out the engine noise but what is the point if the the headphone itself is uncomfortable? The headbands are too stiff and squeezed my head - and I don't even have a large head. My ears began to "sweat" after an hour of use and it was simply very uncomfortable. PCX250 was far more comfortable and I did not mind the extra wand that it had since I was sitting throughout the entire flight.

Other notes: NC50 is a lot bulkier and heavier than other models I have seen. Battery lasted fairly long - it kept on going through a 13-hour flight. As previous mentioned, sound quality is so-so compared to decent headphones half its price but that was expected.

I would not recommend this headphone for people interesting in noise cancelling headphones and I would rather recommend Sennheiser PCX250 or Bose QC2 (if you can afford it - regardless of whether QC2 has better sound quality, it was a lot more comfortable than NC50 when I tested them out (after I bought NC50)).

Do try these out if you really want to get them.

OK, 4 stars, not 5...

The Bose, hands down, get 5 stars (I had a pair for the 30 day trial) and they were incredible. I could listen to very soft classical music on noisy turbo prop planes.

These Sony's are a better VALUE since they are 1/2 the price and the Noise Cancellation is, in my opinion, equal to that of the Bose. The sound quality, however, is not equal. It is not horrible either. I am NOT an audiophile, but could discern a difference in sound level and quality between the two.

I had no problems wearing these on a cross-country flight (NH - CA with one stop). I wore them for the entire flight (each leg) and they were very comfortable. I slept well with them on too (they didn't prevent me from sleeping).

The Monitor button on the Left ear cup on the Sony is great. You don't have to remove the headphones while on the plane to hear the Stewardess ask if you want that teeny tiny bag of chex.

In short, if you ARE an audiophile and simply cannot skimp on sound quality (and don't care about the price) go with the Bose. If you are like the rest of us, go with the Sonys.

I've used both the Bose QuietComfort 2 headphones and I just bought a pair of Sony's flagship noise-cancelling headphones, the NC50. I would say that for the price, I would recommend the Sony's over the QC2's. For one, I found that the Bose tended to create some sort of negative pressure which made me want to pop my ears (like in an airplane). Also, the QC2's will not play music without noise-cancellation turned on so if your battery dies, you're out of luck. Not so with the Sony headphones. The NC50 has better passive noise blocking (the padding is stiffer than the Bose to create a better seal). However, this makes them a little bit less comfortable over long periods. I am really liking this monitor button on the side of the Sony's that not only turns off noise-cancellation, but it also mutes your music so you can hear people talking to you (or about you) even though you still have the headphones on. I bought these on eBay for $70 , which makes them less than a quarter of what the Bose QC2's sell for. In all, I'm satisfied and think that they are well worth the price if you can get them for less than retail.

Edit: I've had these for a few months now and I can attest to the fact that they do indeed have a feedback design flaw that makes using them with the NC feature turned on unbearable. I can no longer recommend this product. It's surprising that Sony let these out the door without properly testing them. It's a shame because they work great otherwise. Also, after a year or so the pleather on the ear pads starts to crumble and flake giving you the appearance of small bugs in your hair or black dandruff.