Home > Consumer Reviews > JVC HANC250 High-Grade Noise Cancelling Headphones

I travel fairly frequently on work and the long international flights were getting to me. I'd originally bought a Solitude Plane Quiet II headset which I was fairly happy with except for:
1. Quite tight around the head, difficult to wear for long periods of time.
2. Good sound quality, particularly bass, but an annoying hiss and missing treble and highs during audio playback.
3. Fairly heavy owing to needing 2 AAA batteries.

A colleague at work bought the JVCs and we did a comparison. Initially I was skeptical because my Solitudes were around the ear vs the JVCs which are over the ear. We went into a very noisy server room to do the test and I have to say the performance of the JVCs was astoundingly good.
All three issues that I had with the Solitudes were absent.
1. Extremely comfortable and light. Great build quality.
2. Even better noise canceling performance despite the over the ear design. Even with the active noise cancellation off, merely wearing the headset provides good sound insulation.
3. Great sound quality, very balanced bass and treble, zero hiss.
4. Better battery life than the Solitudes despite needing only one battery.

In addition, the JVCs have some of the benefits of the Solitudes over the industry's most famous headset (Bose).
1. Conventional cable (not proprietary like Bose).
2. Audio passthrough even when the battery dies.
3. Single AAA battery, non-proprietary (if you forget to charge your proprietary Bose battery, your headphones are dead).
4. Great price/value tradeoff compared to the Bose QCII or III.

The only negatives of the JVCs I could perceive are:
1. No volume dial control on the headset itself which is less of a convenience as you now have to turn down the volume from your ipod or computer rather than just reaching up and dialing down.
2. Headphone cable is fairly short (43in) so its difficult (not impossible) to use it with home stereo equipment.
3. Replacing the battery is a bit difficult and involves popping the right earpiece out.

Update (Jan 2008): I was able to compare these against the Bose QC3s. The Bose sound quality (you will not believe this) is really bad compared to the JVCs. Specifically the sound of the QC3s is muddy with extremely muffled treble. I am even happier now that I bought these instead of the Bose.

I recently purchased the JVC HANC250 headphones after researching the options on the internet. The Bose were an obvious option, but the price could not be justified.

I have always been thinking about buying noise cancelling headphones, and with a pending trip to Australia (from New York) I decided that now was the time.

Pros:
Great sound quality
Excellent Noise Cancelling
Very comfortable
Long battery life (changed the battery 2X over a 48hr use period)
Nice looking
Excellent value

Cons:
Changing the battery under the ear cup is not the best design, but not that hard to do either

Tips:
1. Keep a couple extra batteries in the accessory pouch inside the headphone case
2. Put a business card in the same pouch in case of loss

UPDATE: Feb, 2009

After owning the JVC HANC250 for a year they are still the best headset I have ever owned. I travel by plane almost every week, and they are always along for the ride. The hard cover case has well protected them and the headphones look like new. I comfortably wear them for hours at a time and use them with the airline sound system, my BlackBerry and notebook PC. There is no hiss and excellent sound quality.

I work in a noisy lab, so I wanted noise canceling headphones that could reduce the distraction of nearby chatter as well as the usual airplane engine sounds. After a bit of searching, it seemed like these JVCs and the Panasonic RP-HC500 were the best all around choices. So I bought both pairs and borrowed a friend's Bose QC2's to do a comparison.

*Noise Cancelling:
Although I did not have as much time with the Bose, I was able to use all three pairs to listen to city street noise outside my building as well as co-worker chatter in my office.
Although all three pairs did a fantastic job of removing the low frequencies (the ventilation system hum, etc.), the Bose really excelled here. It's really true that speaking while wearing them let's you hear your voice absent its lowest octave! The JVC and Panasonic pairs could not quite compete in that sense.
But for blocking higher frequency sounds, the JVCs were the winners. With the noise cancellation turned on, but without any sound playing, the voices of my office mates were muffled to the point where I could hear that they were speaking, but often could not make out what they were saying. The others muffle the chatter as well, but to a lesser extent.
Interestingly, it was sometimes hard to compare the Panasonics, as they produced audible hiss when the noise cancelling was turned on. The hiss was low, and wasn't distracting with even soft music, but the JVC's near-complete lack of hiss sometimes made me question whether the Panasonics were blocking as much sound as I thought, or just masking it.
But overall, the Panasonics and the JVCs were very comparable. There was a noticeable difference for office chatter, running a dishwasher, and air blowing, but the difference was always subtle--even factoring in the hiss issue. I was only able to try the QC2's in a couple of situations, but on the whole, they were not sufficiently better than even the Panasonics to justify their price tag.
-The Winner for Noise Canceling: JVC.

*Comfort:
Since I only had 20 or 30 minutes with the Bose, I can't say too much about them, except that they seemed typical for circumaural headphones. But I was able to try out the Panasonic and JVC pairs for several hours each.
The JVCs are incredibly comfortable at first; they're small, light, and even look decent. But I wear glasses, and after a while the pressure they were applying to my ears against my glasses' frame started to hurt.
The Panasonics, by contrast, apply far too much pressure to my head at first, and seem big and heavy. But after gently stretching them apart, they actually feel alright. They won't win any awards, but I could wear them--with my glasses--for probably at least an hour without them hurting. Although I may still need to stretch them out again, every so often.
In terms of strange sucking feelings that some people describe with noise cancellers, I did not experience anything like that with any of these headphones. But of the three people who also tried them out, one said that the Panasonic pair made an unpleasant sensation in her ear and she did not even want to try them out again. The others did not seem to notice any problems, though.
It's also worth noting that the Panasonics and Bose are circumaural (they go around the ear, and rest against the head directly), and the JVC's are supraaural (they rest right on the ear). So after a lot of use, I imagine the JVC's would be least likely to make your ear feel hot or sweaty, since they cover the least amount of your head. But also, if you have large ears, the fairly small space that the Panasonics expect your ears to fit into may be too small and therefore uncomfortable as well.
-The Winner for Comfort: a tie between JVC and Panasonic, but it depends on your ear size and whether you wear glasses.

*Sound:
I didn't really listen to music with the Bose, so I'll keep this section only to the Panasonics and JVC's.
I listened to a handful of styles on both pairs of headphones; mostly rock, folk, and even some an capella solo. Consistently, the Panasonics sounded better. As one friend described it, the JVC's didn't have tight bass. I would add the highs weren't that great either. They're fine for occasional use on a plane, but were surprisingly poor compared to the Panasonics.
The Panasonics aren't a panacea either for sound quality. No one will confuse them with high end headphones (say, Sennheiser HD-590's); particularly, they have a fairly narrow sound stage.
-The Winner for Sound Quality: Panasonic

*Other Issues:
In spite of the poorer sound quality, I was still going to keep the JVCs, until I discovered that I could not use them with my laptop! For some reason, as soon as I plug the JVC's into my laptop (with the noise canceling on), they make a strange hiss, and I also hear a 60 Hz hum from the electrical outlet. I have a Dell Latitude D820 (not exactly known for its sound card), so I figured it was the computer. But I experienced the same problem with other people's laptops as well. And none of my other headphones (even with comparable or lower impedance) make any audible hiss or buzz at all. I exchanged the JVC's, but the replacement was the same. For what it's worth, there was no hiss or hum with my friend's mac, or with any of my portable music players.
Some reviewers also mentioned the poorly designed battery replacement scheme on the JVC's. I agree that it's an odd design, but I personally didn't find it a problem at all. But speaking of batteries...
The battery life on the JVCs was significantly worse than Panasonic. I don't recall just how long it went, but it was probably about 15 hours or less. The Panasonics, by contrast, were used many hours more, and still haven't used up a battery. Both headphones use a single AAA.
-The Winner for Other Issues: Panasonic

*Conclusion:
The JVC HANC-250 headphones are very, very nice and have really remarkable noise reduction. If the Panasonics weren't available, I'd have gladly kept the JVCs. But not being able to use them with my laptop, a well as the mediocre sound quality, pushed me to Panasonic instead.

We tried several models of noise cancelling headphones including Bose, Creative Aurvana X-FI, and two models of JVC (this one and the HANC80 model). The Bose and Aurvana X-FI both do an excellent job of noise cancelling and are comfortable. But they are also $300. We just wanted something that did a good job for a few airplane flights a year. We found the HANC250 model on sale for $100 rather than the $200 normal price. We tried them side-by-side with the HANC80 and decided that the over ear model 80's did a better job of noise cancelling. We sent the 250's back and used the 80's on a flight from Seattle to Hawaii. They made it very enjoyable to watch the movie and listen to the audio programs. They didn't eliminate all of the other sounds but it was completely adequate. They were also very comfortable for the entire flight. If you don't want to spend the $300 on Bose or Creative models, I recommend the JVC HANC80 model.

I have been looking for a pair of well-performing and well-priced noise-cancelling headphones for a while now. After looking through a bunch of reviews, both professional and user, I settled on these JVC NC-250s.

The first test took place on a window seat of a 757 right by the engines. What I found is that these headphones successfully cancelled out the low- and low-mid frequency noise of the engine. It does not mean you hear nothing altogether - there is a "white noise"-like background - but the 85% figure in JVC specs seems to be about right. Once the music is on, you barely notice that. My previous headphones were in-ear Shure e2c, which blocked out the sound pretty well (I used foam heads). In comparison, JVCs are a very nice improvement. The sound quality is quite good - nice and clean across the range, for various types of sound - music and movies.

I am normally quite sensitive to wearing on- and over-ear headphones, so I was pleased to find that these cans are light and comfortable over time - I tried them on 2 and 3 hour flights and my ears were just as comfortable at the end of use as they were at the beginning. Considering its on-ear design, that is remarkable in my opinion. At the same time, they do reach a nice seal on the ear. The padding on the earpieces and the headband help that a lot. Plus, I believe these are the lightest headphones in the class (vs. QC2-3s, AudioTech). So that helps too.

My only real complaint, and the reason for 4 instead of 5 stars is the design of battery placement. To replace the battery you have to take off the ear pad from the right earpiece. I can foresee that being a prime opportunity for something to break, thus creating doubts about the durability over long-term.

To summarize: this is very good pair of noise-cancelling headphones that do the job at least as well as any other headphone out there (particularly Bose QCs which I had a chance to try in the past), but a half or third of the cost of the more expensive ones. My research before buying suggests that $100-150 is the actual reasonable price range to get good NC headphones today. Anything over that makes very little sense and is a waste of money. My only concern is the placement of the battery, where replacement may result in your breaking something off - you have to be careful.

One note: In some reviews there was a mention of an air-popping sensation when NC is on. Amazingly enough, I got to experience that the first time I wore the headphones, but it turned out to be strictly a matter of headphone placement on the ear, the fit. I moved the earpiece a smidgeon back and the effect was gone.

Updated on 11/28/2008: 9 months later, I am still very happy about my purchase. I have had flights where I wore them for more than 3 hours and still no significant discomfort. Which is a first with any of the over-the-ear headphones I have ever had. I am also less concerned about the placement of the battery - I have changed it a few times now, and it appears to be much sturdier than I thought originally.