I’m enjoying my ipod but I spend a lot of time in noisy places like subways, and I wind up cupping my hands over my ears so I can hear. Are there some better headphones I could buy that will help out with this? Any experiences you’ve had with them?
I have these: http://www.v-moda.com/collection/modaphones/vibe.aspx
And the difference over the regular Apple headphones was astonishing. If you buy, check around - they were $40 cheaper on Amazon than through Apple. 99% of the review on the Apple site were very positive, too.
I can’t compare them to any other NR headphones as I haven’t used any others. But these were worth every cent .
I bought a pair of cheap ones for an air trip, in the hopes they’d reduce the background noise to a comfortable level. They didn’t work all that well, they felt sorta buzzy, and I managed to get a splitting headache, of the kind where you hope you’ll manage to pass away peacefully rather than suffer like that.
So my advice is, don’t buy on the cheap.
In-ear headphones of the type in the link usually work well with reducing outside noise, and I can recommend them. They also fit better IMHO. FWIW I have a pair from Sennheiser.
They aren’t actively reducing noise, just isolate better, but I think this might be exactly what you need. Actively noise-reducing headphones of the type Lars Aruns mentioned tend to be pricey.
Not sure how you feel about over-the-ear headphones, but I solved the problem by buying some nice studio monitor headphones. Very good sound, even some bass, and I can’t hear a damn thing happening out in the world. I purchased Sony MDR-V600’s. They’re about $75.
I have a Sennheiser PXC 300. It’s pretty effective for low “rumbling” noise, like compressors and large ventilation fans. It’s not very effective against high-pitched noise, like jet airliners and office A/C. In fact, in my office I find I’m more comfortable with the noise-cancellation turned off. (This headphone works as a regular headphone even when the circuit is turned off; I don’t know if others do.)
I have the Bose headphones which work great. The second generation are smaller, which may suit you better.
I have the version 1 of the Bose headphones and they work great at reducing white noise like the flow noise in jet airplane. They can be overpowered by too much noise, such as the noise inside a turbo prop airliner.
They do not work at stopping the loud kid in the row behind you talking up a storm.
I also have a pair of Shure E3C headphones with the triple flange sleeves. These rock at stopping conversations, but not so good at flow noise.
One of these days, I am going to wear my E3Cs under my Bose cans just to see what happens. 
I’ve had the best luck with the earplug style ones. Just block the external noise, and then overwhelm what’s left with the music. I have a cheap pair of Sonys that work great on planes, and take up zero space in my luggage.
I just bought a pair from Amazon. Should be delivered this week. Thanks.
Mine aren’t head phones but are noise canceling ear buds from Sony (MDR-NC11A).
I LOVE them–I traveled 100% of the time from January to June and those buds saved my sanity on the planes with the crying babies who couldn’t be consoled.
You’re welcome! Enjoy them. Another good thing is they send a lot of extra caps, in both white and black. Plus a very Rick James gold lamé carrying case! You’ll be 70s cool all over again. 
I forgot to mention, I think I had to turn off the “extra bass” feature on my iPod upon using these earphones because it was SO much clearer with them than with the regular Apple ones.
Also I had bought a pair of Philips supposedly noise-reducing headphones at Best Buy prior to getting the V-Moda, and they were CRAP. For one, they required a battery, which I didn’t realize wasn’t the norm; and the battery ran out in less than a week of playing. AND you had to put the whole contraption over your head in order to not have the weight of the AAA battery pack pull the phones out of the ears. Piece of junk. And they were about $60. I returned them to Best Buy and said they were the crappiest piece of “electronics” I’d ever bought.
I have an inexpensive set of Sony noise-cancelling headphones. (MDR-NC6.) I’m sure there are plenty of better sets out there, but I think I paid about $30-$40 for these. And while wearing the headphones on an airplane, you flick the noise cancellation switch, and the omnipresent airplane background roar drops by about 60%, which suffices for me.
Just got them and tried them out. Love em! Thanks again.
Oh goodie, sometimes I worry that someone’s gonna go buy something I said was good and then hate it and I’d feel very guilty.
What color did you get? The red ones were cheaper when I bought for some reason so I got those. I feel very Moulin Rouge with them.
Black
That’s a lot cheaper than avaition models. I spent $200 on a kit to modify my DC headset. That was just for the kit. Not that this is relevant to the thread but I was amazed how well it worked compared to the factory noise canceling headset I own.
Magiver, where does one get this kit? I’m working by a very noisy TVAC chamber and I’m realizing these $20.00 Philips SHN2500 nc ear-buds are just not up to the job. Could you provide a link, please?
My wife and kids tried them, now I have to buy three more. :smack:
My store-bought NC headset died so I thought I’d try these. It’s not like the technology is new so I figured $200 down the drain was better than $800. I can’t say if these compete against the high-end headsets on the market but their claim of 18db was noticeably better than the 15 db headset I have. I was able to hear the clicking of the radio knob in-flight.
Can’t say I was impressed with the instructions. The diagram had faded and it took me a few minutes to figure out the mic connection. Also didn’t mention anything about re-grounding the mic. I have the DC set with detacheable cord and they offered a kit for it.