•• What it is ••
To understand, how well, these headphones work, it might be necessary to tell you what noise-canceling headphones are. If you know this stuff already, skip to the next section. Noise cancellation works in one of two ways: passive cancellation is simply insulation. Big fluffy headphones that surround your ear and act as a barrier to waves getting in. Then there's active cancellation which is what these headphones employ. Active cancellation takes the generic noise sound wave and flips it upside down. If you have a sound wave playing and then give the opposite wave, you will get nothing. It's kind of like adding 10 and negative 10. You get zero. The cheaper headphones assume the noise is going to be of a certain frequency and volume and they simply block that sound regardless of whether it is present or not. The more expensive ones like the Bose, actually have a microphone inside the earpiece that measures the level of noise and blocks it. These headphones, do not. They simply block certain frequencies below -15db.

Ok, then, for those who skipped ahead, these headphones are active noise canceling headphones. Let's move on....

•• The Hardware ••
The headphones are an attractive black, gray and silver. The head strap is plastic with an intermediary strap that hugs the top of your head. This extra padding is comfortable, though probably not all the necessary since the headphones don't weigh much. Being made mostly of plastic, the headphones are lightweight and fold-able. The battery pack supports 1 AA battery and stores it neatly above the ear.

The headphones do not quite envelope your ear, but that is not entirely necessary since the noise cancellation is supposed to block out any extraneous sounds. These are medium sized cans and rest comfortably on the ears. I've worn them for long periods of time without any ear strain or discomfort. This is due in part to a very soft padding around the ear pieces.

The cord is a standard length, about 6 feet. The cord is not extremely thick, so I suspect some corners were cut in terms of using a thicker gauge wire. Noticeable to the casual listener? Most likely not.

The plug is a standard 1/8 inch elbow plug with gold plating.

At a good distance from the cans is a volume control. This control works nicely, going from silent to pretty freakin' loud. As a test, I turned down my player and cranked the volume of the headphones way up to see if it would introduce any line hum. It did not. Louder volumes had the same quality as quieter volumes.

The headphones fold up and fit nicely in the included pouch. The pouch is fairly flimsy and doesn't offer much protection from bumping. But it does keep the cord and phones contained.

•• Sound quality ••
The Earhugger Folding Noise Canceling Headphones sound quality must be judged from several different perspectives. First, with all noise canceling off and then with it on, in normal environments and then in noisy ones.

In a normal environment with little white noise (the kind of noise you'd get on an airplane) and the noise cancelling turned off, the headphones sound a little muted. I had to turn the volume up a little higher. They just didn't sound great. While the bass was decent, the mids were muddled and the highs were cut off. A little bit of EQ'ing on the player side could alleviate the problem, but it shouldn't have to.

Turning on the noise cancellation rectified the problem. Curiously, the volume got a little louder. Probably because the headphones switched from phantom power (powered by the player) to using the battery in the headphones. As well, the sound quality increased. Highs were a little punchier and the midsection became clearer.

However, in a side by side test with my Sony Studio Monitors, they could not compare. Using some sweeping classical music with a full breadth, these phones got muddied and clipped in intense passages, whereas the Sonys where clear and punctuated throughout.

But is this a fair test? After all, the Earhuggers are really mean t for those who travel on airplanes and the main focus is to block out the noise. This is something the Sonys are not able to do. And sure enough, on an airplane, the Earhuggers did a dramatic job of blocking out the noise. If you want to hear something weird, put on some noise cancelling headphones without any music and turn the switch to block out noise. They do such a good job, it feels as if all the air was sucked out of your ears. This sensation is moot once music playing, that crisp, noise-free music in an environment that isn't conducive to music. Are the headphones of the best sonic quality? Nope. But do they make the overall music listening experience more pleasurable in a noisy environment? You betcha.

I tested the Earhugger Folding Noise Canceling Headphones with a number of sources, including pop, classical and audio books. The most noticeable improvement was with audio books simply because there is less music to distinguish from noise. Thankfully, the headphones cut out so much noise, I was able to hear the crisp voice of the narrator. Music fared well, but again, the sound quality was not on par with a higher quality set of headphones.

Of note, the battery life seemed to hover around 10 hours of constant use. This should be more than adequate for almost any flight. and if not, the headphones take the ever-convenient AA size. So bring along a spare and you should be good.

•• Conclusion ••
The Earhugger Folding Noise Canceling Headphones are not highest quality of headphones available. That said, they are good enough to serve the purpose for which they were intended: blocking out noise while travelling. Could the noise be blocked along with exceptional sonic quality? Perhaps in a higher priced set of headphones. But for the price, these are a decent pair.

Recommended:
Yes