EclectEcon

I really dislike airplane headphones — bad programming, which gets boring on a long flight, and uncomfortable headphones. More seriously, all they do is pump more decibels into our ears, and I can't believe that's good for us.

Noise-canceling headphones are different. They have some built-in magical circuitry (requiring a AAA battery, usually) that "reads" the ambient noise and then creates an exact opposite sound wave, thus canceling that noise perfectly (or pretty near so). They're great for canceling noises from jet engines on planes or computer fans in an office. I have two different sets. The first one I got from Radio Shack, and it wasn't tooooo expensive. I used it last summer on the flights to and from England. Then last fall I bought a Sennheiser set — comparatively more expensive and better, but perhaps not worth the extra money unless you're extra picky.

They both go on, not in, the ear, like regular headphones. So they are bulkier than buds; but they are designed ingeniously so they fold up somehow and take up very little space. Also, it is increasingly the case that you can use your own headphones on airplanes, including noise-canceling headphones, and that makes their programming much better.

To see the effect, you might go to an electronics store to see if they have a demonstration set you can try out. Just putting them on and turning on the circuitry, without music playing through them, gives you a sense of the noise-canceling capabilities, even in a store or mall. It's pretty awesome, especially in a setting with a lot of steady ambient noise. Some people have said they find them a bit disconcerting because they can hear other people's conversations better with all the ambient noise cut out. I figure that at some point I'll have to wear them full time just to hear people speaking more clearly. 8-)