Thursday, December 26, 2019

Wireless Active Noise-Cancelling Headphones for Travelling

Audio-Technica ATH-ANC500BT
Noise-Cancelling Headphones
For a recent trip, to Singapore and Indonesia, I purchased Audio-Technica ATH-ANC500BT Wireless Active Noise-Cancelling Headphones. These are reasonably priced, over the ear headphones, which cut down the roar of an aircraft's engines. They worked well on three planes and a long distance train. 

This is my first pair of cordless headphones and I found it a relief not to wake up on an aircraft entangled in wires. The batteries last long enough for the flight from Sydney to Singapore. The controls are simple: one switch turns on both Bluetooth and the noise reduction function (you don't have a choice of one or the other). There are volume up, down and pause buttons.

On the Yogyakarta
to Jakarta Train
The audio cable with 3.5mm plugs (provided) worked fine plugged into the aircraft system. With the cable the headphones will worked without power, but then without noise reduction. The Bluetooth function worked well.

I did wish the headphones were a little more compact. The ear-cups rotate so they can be laid flat, but they do not hinge in, so are still quite large. I bought the blue, rather than black model, so they would be easier to see in a dark aircraft, but they could do with some bright highlights as they are still hard to see (but does makes them unobtrusive). That said, I have no regrets with this purchase.

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