The Creative HN-505 employs active noise-canceling circuitry to significantly reduce external environmental noise, such as that on an airplane to provide an uninterrupted listening experience. Designed with mobility in mind, the headphones are constructed with lightweight material, foldable mechanism, and cushioned ear-pads for a comfortable extended wear. The Creative HN-505 headphones will definitely be your great traveling companions.
Creative Labs' HN-505 over-ear headphones employ active noise-canceling circuitry to significantly reduce solid-state environmental noise, such as that on an airplane, to further your uninterrupted listening. Noise reduction is rated at 15 dB of attenuation at 300 Hz, which will bring welcome clarity to voices and most instruments.
Designed with mobility in mind, the headphones are constructed using lightweight material, a foldable headband, and cushioned ear-pads for comfort during extended listening.
The headphones' 30 mm rare-earth magnet transducers deliver rich, full-boded sound, and the frequency response extends across the near limits of human hearing, from 20 to 17,000 Hz (no range stated). High, 121 dB sensitivity means even an airplane's headphone jack will drive them nicely, and a supplied 3.5 mm dual-plug airplane adapter makes that possibility an even greater likelihood.
What's in the Box
Headset, 3.5 mm dual-plug adapter for airplane use, a user's manual, and warranty information.
1 Don't Even Think About it.....
Just got 'em in today. We'll start off with the visual aspect. The design is superb, specifically the headband, the way they fold up, where they put the AAA battery, the switch to activate the noise cancelling/volume boost. Other manufacturers should follow the same path. Couldn't have been designed better!
Now for the audio rating. I was extremely disappointed!
First off, you can't really listen without activating the noise/volume boost. If you try too, the volume is very low, to the point of barely hearing the music. Flip on the noise/volume boost, and instantly you'll get a HUGE increase in volume! That must be the way they arrive at a 121db rating, which btw is on the packaging, and one of the reasons I bought these!
Upon making the headphones lets say "active", by turning the power to "on", I went through several rock songs (hard and metal), on my ACT-400 Philips/Nike CD/MP3 player. No matter what combination of settings I tried on my MP3 player (no treble, treble, no bass, bass 1 and bass 2), the sound was bad. There was either no bass, too much bass, no treble, or too much treble. When I'd listen to songs that played right on other headphones with this player, these headphones couldn't arrive at any kind of acceptable middle-of-the-road setting. You increase one thing and something else decreased. Increase what had decreased, and then something else would drop-out!
Furthermore, these headphones totally dropped out of the range in which bass guitar operates, to where no matter what you did, bass guitar was gone from the sound spectrum. It muddied up the lead guitar, and symbols/high-hats seemed very distant in perception. I fiddled around forever with the settings on my player, and no matter how much I'd try to compensate and adjust bass-and-treble setttings to try to fix this, I just couldn't get at a level I'd listen too.
I gave Creative a shot on this because:
1. 4 star review up-to-now
2. I've had good results with their computer spkrs.
3. They advertised a 121db rating
4. These fold-up very small
5. Noise-Cancelling (more like active volume boost!!)
6. All the above, combined with a $29 price, seemed a bargain
I don't believe the pair I got was defective. I just think they can't accurately reproduce sound.
To sum it all up, I plan on returning them and if you're looking for advice, I'd say avoid this pair!
2 You get what you pay for
Although I agree with the other reviewers about the price being very reasonable for what you get, you do however still get what you pay for. I also notice the light and steady static when the noise cancelling is turned on, and you do sort of get used to it, but should you have to? Also, I've had my headphones for a year now, and as happens with many cheap headphones, I have lost sound on the right side. If you are in the market for a cheap pair of noise cancelling headphones, I do recommend these. If you want quality or better noise cancelling, go with Bose.
3 Great value
These headphones are a great value at $30. The outside noise reduction appears to be accomplished in three manners. The first is by having earphones that "seal" well around one's ears. The second is by slightly elevating the pitch of the music etc that you are listening to. The third is by the addition of a "white noise overlay" that results in a slightly perceptable hum. There doesn't appear to be any active noise cancellation such as in the Bose headphones. Functionally I believe the noise reduction of the Creative HN-505 to be very good. The sound quality with the noise reduction turned off is also excellent. I have used the Bose and while the Bose are definitely better I can't justify the price differential between the two based on performance. If you are in the market for a noise reducing headphone at a bargain price I highly recommend the Creative NH-505.
4 Adequate for the price
With the price below $30 for a Noise-cancellation headphone, it does what it supposes to do. For my information, Noise-reduction is a more appropriate word describing this headphone, since I don't think there is one headphone that can eliminate outside noise totally, even those with price over hundreds of bucks. So why not giving a try to this nice and light one at first and having some impression of what on earth Noise-reduction feature can bring you. Although there is kind of humming sound while the Noise-reduction feature is on, it's not so loud that I can barely live with it. it's comfortable wearing over head since it's light. It's easy to carry around since it's collapsible and comes with a travel bag. I am going to love it anyway.
