Home > Consumer Reviews > Sony MDR-NC6 Noise-cancelling Headphones

These are pretty effective at low frequency noise, but unless the whole environment is quite noisy then they do have a noticeable background hiss when the noise cancelling is switched on, which I find annoying. On the other hand they are quite light and comfortable, so make reasonable everyday headphones with the noise cancelling off.

If you want great sound, great bass without distorting boom, buy these bad boys. I cant believe the sound for the price. Fair enough you might not look too cool strolling down the town with them on but for the other applications that you buy noise cancelling for...You wont beat these for value!

I bought these as my Sennheiser HD 202's had recently broken and I thought I'd go for some Sony headphones for a change. I saw that the frequency response on these was fairly good and they do sound pretty good too!

However, I do find that the picture shown is slightly misleading, my impression from seeing it was that the headphones looked strong, sturdy and bulky enough that it wouldn't fall off your head; although on arrival, the headphones weren't as I'd expected them to be. They look like the headphones you'd buy on a plane except they have the switch on the back to kick in the noise reduction feature (probably because they're travel headphones). I was expecting them to look slightly more sophisticated, I think next time I'll go back to Sennheisers or possibly a different type of Sony headphones.

Great if you're the type of person which travels a lot, but don't buy these if you're looking to buy headphones for their sound quality and not their features.

I purchased these for listening to classical music during the walk to work so dealing with traffic noise was a major factor. Good and bad news on this front. The good news is that traffic noise is much reduced. The bad news is that this comes from these phones ability to magnify the lightest of summer breezes into a rip-roaring, state of Florida flattening hurricane howling in your ears.

If you've ever wondered how the Berlin Philharmonic would sound if they were playing Ride of the Valkeries while Miami is being flattened all around them by Hurricane Harriet then reach for your wallet now. Otherwise ...

Maybe they'll work better in a windless environment but these are essentially useless outdoors.

Yes. As passive headphones, they work as well as any stereo headphones would be expected to. When the noise cancellation is turned on, there is a noticeable level of background hiss. (In theory, white noise tends to make interference less annoying subjectively.) In the home, any external noises are reduced significantly. These include a washing machine spinning, a dishwasher or even the fan in a lap-top. Obviously, noise reduction cannot perform miracles (e.g. noise in a tube train) but, for the price, they have a place in the market compared to those costing ten times as much.