Recently, The New York Times' David Pogue and Wired's Joe Brown published roundups of noise cancellation headphones, ranking the headphones on the market in terms of price, performance, and, of course, how well they stacked up against the Bose Quiet Comfort series, the undisputed champ in this category until recently. Now, I love Pogue--he's always entertaining--but as the Lead Audio Analyst at PC Magazine, I test a lot of headphones, and I disagree with a few of his findings, as well as some of Brown's. I'll explain after the jump.

When I saw that both roundups dismissed the Sennheiser PXC 450 as good but not great, my jaw dropped. Folks, it's simple: They are more expensive than the Quiet Comfort (both models), but they are also better! Not only do they cancel out more high-end frequencies, but they sound excellent, with some of the more intense, tight low-end I've heard in headphones. And while the PXC 450s aren't audiophile-level, those of us who like some nice bass and crispness in our rock, rap, electronic music will be thoroughly pleased. Sennheiser has always made great-sounding circumaural (sealed) headphones, so this was no surprise. The surprise was that someone was finally able to topple Bose's superior noise-cancellation technology. The comparisons were close, but Sennheiser edged both pairs. I gave them a 4.5 score, but we denied them an Editor's Choice award based on their absurd $450 price tag. Here's my review.

Pogue's gripes about the PXC 450 were that the music reproduction wasn't commiserate with their whopping price tag (I agree--they sound great, but not $450-worth of great) and that "you can't detach the audio cord." Whoa, David! Did you try pulling on it? Just to set the record, straight, you definitely can detach the cable.

Wired's take on the Sennheisers was a bit more to my liking: "Bombastic noise canceling" seems like a more accurate description than Pogue's "noise cancellation works well"--quite an understatement. But Wired claims the oversize, super-plush earcups are uncomfortable, and Pogue compared them to wearing a helmet. While I chuckled, and there's no denying that the PXC 450 is a big headset, they are incredibly comfortable and pretty lightweight. There is so much cushioning on these things, it's ridiculous!

Pogue certainly gets one thing right, though--the Able Planet Clear Harmony headphones are pretty lousy. Their performance was so bad when I tested them in the labs that I didn't even review them.

Post by Tim Gideon