i have two pair of panasonic noise cancelling phones. one is the regular
over the head type, the other is earbuds. the big phones work great but
the earbuds are the best. both models only cancel the lower frequencies
leaving the vocal range and higher intact. i use them to listen to sw in
a dumptruck. they take out lots of engine and road noise but i can still
hear traffic and the two-way radio for safety's sake. i got them at
wall-mart on closeout for $26. these are the greatest audio advancement
since the invention of stereo. i haven't used phones with full spectrum
cancelling but they must be better yet. the effect is kind of subtle but
i am very happy with them. $200 seems steep. i saw sony noise cancelling
phones at wall mart on saturday for about $70. i cant vouch for them yet
and i don't know if they have full cancelling or partial cancelling like
mine but they are a lot cheaper, for $200 i would expect high end phones
like sennheiser or bose. at the age of 45 i don't think my hearing is
still good enough to justify the expense. why pay for audio frequency
response from 10hz. to beyond 26,000 hz. when my ears are more like
40hz. to 15,000 hz. that would be wasted money.