Review : Noise Hush i7 Headphones.

[ozcanoz]

I bought these last year for my RTW trip in Economy and believe me it made all the difference to the experience. Why pay for Business Class when you can have the peace on international flights using these wonderful earphones. I arrived in London much fresher than usual, thanks to the lowered stress that the background noise creates. Only one down side - the stewards had to touch me on shoulder to get my attention.
Thank you AFF for a great product at a truly great price!

 

[breakNegg]

reports are so good I ordered a pair, I am having full knee replacement in December and will be awake for entire time, so noise cancelling is important. I had a full hip done the same way and is a tad noisy in theatre LOL

 

[Buzzard]

I purchased 2 pairs, one each for Mrs B. and myself on an auction/buy it now website for $75ea inc postage and am very happy with the purchase. Even use them in J as I think they are better than what Q provide.

 

[get me outta here]

reports are so good I ordered a pair, I am having full knee replacement in December and will be awake for entire time, so noise cancelling is important. I had a full hip done the same way and is a tad noisy in theatre LOL

How do you stay awake during a TKR??

 

[breakNegg]

How do you stay awake during a TKR??

Awwww man Ya killen me with the price but having said that, I am happy to support AFF as much as the price is hurting LOL

 

[breakNegg]

buy oz i say

 

[Buzzard]

buy oz i say

I did..... my seller is a company in Sydney

 

[breakNegg]

Hoping my set will arrive tomorrow, Friday better be good, I have to survive a live theatre knee replacement in 2 weeks

 

[breakNegg]

Must say, even though its not ff fault 8 days delivery to WA sux, perhaps an express option is a go one day.

 

[breakNegg]

Have been told, they are on courier run for delivery today.

 

[breakNegg]

Ok here is my report, awesome packaging, awesome sound control poor makemanship, you need to be very careful with loading batteries as it is very tinny with plastic casing. Does the job very well, just concerned with the long term life of such.

 

[aussiejohn]

Well I went and bought these headphones when my old Philips ones finally stopped working.

After reading all the glowing reviews here, I am sorry to be almost the only dissenter. I am extremely disappointed that I wasted my money on these headphones.

Prior to buying these, I had a pair of Philips NC headphones that I picked up at Changi Airport back in 2007. They were rated at 85% noise cancelling which I suppose in reality is a pretty meaningless figure in the scheme of things as this is very subjective, and will vary from person to person I guess. I tried a few pairs in the shop within my budget, so that excluded Bose of course.

Whilst not perfect, these Philips headphones met my needs, fitted over my ears really well, were comfortable, reduced the engine noise on the planes, and were great for the IFE. For the price (about $175 from memory) I was very happy, and they did several overseas trips, along with the daily train trip to work. One thing they did do well was block out the garbage on other people's iPods etc on the train, and eliminate those irritating keypad tones which just drive me demented for some reason. I can't stand them and they are totally unnecessary.

Before buying these headphones, I emailed the company and they told me the noise cancelling was rated at 90%. So I was expecting them to perform at least as well as my old Philips or better.

Sadly this has not been the case. Firstly, the cups are not deep enough and do not fit as well as my old Philips. Secondly, while they do mitigate the engine noise on the plane nearly as well as the old ones, it is not quite as good. However, on a recent trip to Hong Kong and Singapore, I found that when wearing the Noisehush headphones on the plane, I could hear the sound coming from the headphones of the guy sitting across the aisle from me who was watching some action movie!!

Not only that, when I try and get some relief from the noise of iPods and keypad tones on the train each day, the Noisehush headphones are totally useless.

So to say that I am disappointed and very unhappy is an understatement. I am totally at a loss to understand how so many people think they are wonderful. Your criteria must be totally different to mine.

Now I am bereft of ideas as to what to do. I cannot continue with the Noisehush. As far as I am concerned they are not fit for purpose.

I have reached a point where I should probably try to replace the Philips, though I have forgotten the model number I had. The other alternative is to try and scrape up the money to invest in some Bose QC15's, though not everyone seems enamoured with them either from various reviews.

I would be grateful for any advice on what to buy.

Secondly, if anyone wants another pair of Noisehush headphones, mine have had little use and I am happy to sell them for a reasonable offer. I have packaging etc still.

 

[NM]

Prior to buying these, I had a pair of Philips NC headphones that I picked up at Changi Airport back in 2007. They were rated at 85% noise cancelling which I suppose in reality is a pretty meaningless figure in the scheme of things as this is very subjective, and will vary from person to person I guess. I tried a few pairs in the shop within my budget, so that excluded Bose of course.

Before buying these headphones, I emailed the company and they told me the noise cancelling was rated at 90%. So I was expecting them to perform at least as well as my old Philips or better.

I wonder how (and why) they rate using a % value???

I measured the noise reduction of my QC15s recently. At 100Hz the reduction was 22.9dB. The raw numbers for the signal measured by a microphone inside the cup of the headphones being worn by a person (my daughter) was 504mv (peak to peak) without power applied, and 36mv with power applied. So I guess that could be considered 1-(36/504) = 0.9286 or 92.86%. But sound level is not linear so should be measured in dB by the ratio of RMS voltages as Reduction = 20xLog[SUB]10[/SUB](V[SUB]2[/SUB]/V[SUB]1[/SUB]), so 20xLog[SUB]10[/SUB](12.7/178)=22.9dB. The "apparent" sound level is halved for each 6dB of reduction, so that is an apparent reduction to slightly less than 12.5% of the original level inside the ear cup (so not accounting for any passive acoustic reduction just due to wearing the headphones themselves), so lets say around 15% as an approximation (12.5% would be at 24dB reduction). So I suppose that could be claimed to 85% reduction. Perhaps the passive acoustic reduction could be in the order of 5% to achieve a claimed 90%??? But I personally prefer to measure sound levels in dB rather than percentages.

Also note that I specifically chose to do this test using a 100Hz sinusoidal source "noise" signal as active noise cancellation is going to be most efficient with this type of signal. I did not test at different frequencies, though that would be interesting and perhaps I will do it some time in the future. I did not run a similar test when I briefly had the i7s for testing, but would expect similar ball-park results based on my brief usage.

It sounds like your results are less than satisfactory. I wonder if your specific set of headphones are faulty as the results you have described are not what I would expect from those headphones.

 

[aussiejohn]

While I was in Myer on Boxing Day, I tried out the Bose QC15 headphones. Probably a good test for me, the shop was heaving with people, it was noisy, crowded and I was over it 5 minutes after I walked in.

But all that aside, the QC15's seemed to make a hell of a difference, noise cancelling wise. Yes, I could still hear people talking etc, but so much of the extraneous noise was blocked out.

So on that basis, I think the QC15's would work for me. If they block out that much noise in a crowed department store, they should be magic on a plane or train.

Now I just have to screw down the budget even tighter to try and make some savings to raise the $399.

Anyone care to comment on their experience with the QC15's.

 

[hummel]

No experience but check DJs they have 15% off Bose at the moment.

 

[jetlagger]

While I was in Myer on Boxing Day, I tried out the Bose QC15 headphones. Probably a good test for me, the shop was heaving with people, it was noisy, crowded and I was over it 5 minutes after I walked in.

But all that aside, the QC15's seemed to make a hell of a difference, noise cancelling wise. Yes, I could still hear people talking etc, but so much of the extraneous noise was blocked out.

So on that basis, I think the QC15's would work for me. If they block out that much noise in a crowed department store, they should be magic on a plane or train.

Now I just have to screw down the budget even tighter to try and make some savings to raise the $399.

Anyone care to comment on their experience with the QC15's.

They are superb.. I have for last two years about 60 international sectors used them without fail.
I also have the new QC20i which are also excellent.

 

[Limewood]

They are superb.. I have for last two years about 60 international sectors used them without fail.

+1 had had mine about 2/3 years never get on a plane without them, got my wife the Noise Hush she says their OK but wants a set of Bose 15's.

 

[aussiejohn]

I have now bitten the bullet and bought a pair of Bose QC15. Myer had 15% off a couple of Saturdays ago, and I had some Myer Vouchers to use, so ended up paying $169 for them. But I lost my job recently, so no chance to try them on the train!

If anyone would like a second set of Noise Hush, happy to sell my minimally used set, for half price, or reasonable offer. Have all the packaging etc.

Thanks

 

[Favfern]

I have now bitten the bullet and bought a pair of Bose QC15. Myer had 15% off a couple of Saturdays ago, and I had some Myer Vouchers to use, so ended up paying $169 for them. But I lost my job recently, so no chance to try them on the train!

If anyone would like a second set of Noise Hush, happy to sell my minimally used set, for half price, or reasonable offer. Have all the packaging etc.

Thanks

Bad luck about the job, aussiejohn! I already have two sets of the Noise Hush muffs, so don't need any more. I have a heap of Bose stuff in my lounge room, and it is the gold standard of audio as far as I am concerned. I am sure you will get great value from your QC15's particularly at $169! There will be some people who will argue with my statement about Bose being the "gold standard" I am sure, but those people are probably cough-retentive "audiophiles" who sometimes pay $10,000 for one sub-woofer. As I require hearing aids to even hear my wife nagging me, I do not satisfy the criteria for "audiophile" --- and besides, with hearing aids, one can always scratch one's ear in such a way that no one knows you have turned them off completely. I only reveal this truth on AFF because I know my wife is not a member!

 

[aussiejohn]

Update: My set of NoiseHush Headphones have been sold.