I purchased a set of Sony's MDR-NC11 noise-cancelling earbuds approximately four months ago, and have been using them extensively ever since. I purchased them because I was looking for small yet high-quality headphones that I could easily carry around with me. Sony's list price for them is $149, but I was able to find them for $89 at macmall.com.

The headphones come with three sets of silicon earbuds for three different size ears. They also come with a soft, velvety carrying case for the headphones. Midway along the cord is a bit about two inches long that has a volume control dial and also the on/off switch for the noise-cancelling function. It also contains the AAA battery for the noise cancelling. I have been using the noise cancelling somewhat infrequently since I purchased the headphones and have never had to change the original battery.

I have found the sound quality of the headphones to be very good for earbuds. Previous earbud headphones that I have owned have had very poor reproduction of bass and I have found these to have a much higher capacity for producing bass. The bass is still not as high as it is on some large, over the ear types that I own, but I believe that it is quite good for earbuds.

Additionally, I have found the headphones to be extremely comfortable. The silicon earbuds are extremely soft and fit very comfortably into your ears. Conventional headphones, with their hard plastic earpieces, used to make my ears hurt - but I recently wore these on a six-hour flight from New York to London without much trouble at all - I can't imagine having to wear traditional headphones for that long.

Though the silicon earbuds are quite comfortable, they have a considerable downside in that they are detachable - too easily detachable, in my opinion. One of the earpieces fell off the other day and was lost (I do not really know how), and the headphones are essentially useless without the silicon pieces. I put one of the other sets on but now they do not fit properly in my ear. I assume that I can order more silicon pieces from Sony but I have not yet figured out how. However it is, I am sure that they'll be overpriced.

Though I have been pleased with the sound quality and the comfort, I have not been entirely pleased with the noise-cancelling function. The noise-cancelling is achieved through two different ways: passive and active. Noise is passively cancelled due to the extremely tight fit between the silicon earbud and your ear itself. Noise is actively cancelled by the noise-cancelling battery-powered circuitry. I have found that the passive cancelling is much more effective than the active cancelling; that is, I believe that most of the sound is blocked by the tight fit rather than the expensive circuitry. This irritates me somewhat because I believe that I could have purchased a tight-fitting set of earphones without the noise-cancelling circuitry and experienced nearly the same effect. On my recent flight from New York to London, I noticed some reduction in the jet engine's roar when I turned on the noise cancelling feature - but, as other people have said, the noise is reduced, not cancelled. And, again, I believe that much of the reduction occurred due to the tight fit itself.

Finally, one other problem: the headphones work wonderfully when you are sitting still. However, if I use them when I am walking (particularly if I am walking quickly) I notice a thud, thud, thud noise with my steps. The noise is fairly annoying. I also notice a terrific noise when it is windy out and I am walking outside - I don't know if it is because of the shape of the headphones, or what, but when the wind blows and you have these headphones on, you really hear it. Finally, you do hear some noise through the cord - if the cord bangs up against your coat, for instance.

So, to summarize: The headphones are very comfortable, and the sound quality I have found to be very good when compared to other earbuds - particularly the bass reproduction. However, the noise reducing quality is not spectacular, and I believe that it is mostly due to the tight-fit created by the silicon earbuds rather than the noise-cancelling circuitry itself. Also, the silicon earbuds may fall off, and you will probably also find that you hear a lot of noise through the headphones when you are moving about.

Update: Just for your information, the one missing earbud that I mention in the article cost 7 pounds to replace (I was in England at the time that I bought it - I have no idea what the part would cost in the US). Sounds like a lot for a little piece of rubber, but at least the headphones work again!

2nd Update: Recently, after about twenty months of use, the left earbud stopped working. Seems to be a bad connection in the noise-cancelling/battery unit. I opened it up to try to fix it but it doesn't seem like there's anything to be done. I take very good care of my items so I am dissapointed in this failure of a $100 item after less than two years.

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