The World’s First Digital Noise Canceling Headphones by Sony

The Sony MDR NC500D is a world breakthrough of being the first Digital Noise Canceling Headphone. Although the tag is a bit pricey at $400.00 dollars, we feel all the worth as it allows more flexibility in performance than an analog models.  Much more as an added benefit, the phone’s signal to noise ratio is so much high that it doesn’t allow noise to be produced when passing on a signal line.

Design

The headphone design is typically colored black and chrome with big rotating earcups. The headband is padded paving way for extreme comfort when being used.  The pads may not seem to be as big as you had thought, but just enough that is tactile and foamy making it as soft as possible for the ears.  

Down the bottom of the left cup is where you can find two ports – for AC power and for the packaged 3.5 mm headphone cables. Opposite side, sits the power switch with a blue LED status indicator, small reset button, and the noise cancellation button.

Noise Cancellation Technology

What can the Noise Cancellation Technology do? Let us provide that to you in details.  On the headphone is where you can find three levels of noise cancellation having options for manual and automatic.  For the manual mode you need to press the button marked “AI NC Mode” each beeps of the phone allows you to mover forward to the next mode.

• Mode A – blocks the typical airplane noise
• Mode B – blocks the noise you heard on a train or bus
• Mode C – cancels listening for office place

Now we enter on the automatic mode by pressing the same button until hearing a downward series of notes. I here, you press the button briefly for a few seconds to engage in thorough monitoring of noise by the headphone and it will determine the appropriate noise cancellation level for the present environment.  

Overall Impression

The headphone gives comfort since it doesn’t give sweat on your ears (beneath the cup) when being used for several hours.  The sound quality is a good candidate for a headphone to reckon while the battery life is rated at 16 hours, which is good enough. Overall, the build is solid and sturdy truly indeed making it a good choice for traveling while avoiding noise.