I'm hardly the first to discover them (or the first blogger to blog about them, I'm sure), but I gotta gush about my new Sennheiser PXC 250 headphones. I'm already familiar with the quality of the Sennheiser brand, with a big hurkin' pair of studio-quality phones (HD-250's, I think) attached to my digital piano. Noise reduction ("cancellation") headphones compensate for low hums and hisses in the surrounding environment by listening to the noise with small microphones, and emitting waveforms shifted 180 degrees to cancel it out-- effectively reducing noise by making more noise. Whatever you're listening to stays (mostly) intact.

Great for airplanes, and especially great for the back room in our apartment. We live atop a grocery store/restaurant complex on the border of an industrial district next to the train station, Safeco Field, Seahawks Stadium, and the freeway, and there's a giant exhaust fan on the roof that runs 24 hours a day. On hot days like these, it is impractical not to keep the windows open. I can only imagine that the reason why noise-cancelling headphones didn't occur to me earlier was because I had never known how well they actually work. It's not completely silent, and things I might want to hear (or not) like conversation are still audible, but it's a huge difference in our back room. Finally, I can enjoy classical music without turning it all the way up.

But I fell in love with these even before I tried the noise cancellation feature. They're the most comfortable headphones I've ever worn, they're small and light. They sound fantastic both with and without noise cancellation. And because they're Sennheisers, certain parts that might wear out are replacable on a part-by-part basis. A small canister sits in the middle of the cable to contain two AAA batteries for the noise reduction; the phones do not need batteries to work without the noise reduction feature, but you cannot remove the canister. But it's a well-designed little canister and there seems to be just enough cord length that it's been an non-issue so far.

They're a perfect companion to the iPod. My ears just weren't made for earbuds, though I've used them reluctantly for their portability. The headphones fold in on themselves and fit into a carrying case (included), which makes them perfect for travel or even just keeping in your backpack.

They retail for $150, and are on sale at Amazon for $117.