Panasonic RP-HC500 Noise Canceling Headphones
One of my friends, a frequent business traveler had asked me to pickup for him a pair of active noise canceling headphones from Panasonic, the RP-HC500 few months ago. I had very hard time to find them available anywhere. Most of online stores were out of stock. That really incites me to look more into this headphone. Thankfully not only the unit is back in stock but at a much reduced price too.
Finally I could order one from an obscure unknown New York Web store and after I decided to get another pair for myself at LowMarkup.com a local Web store in Souther California.
The package comes with a flat hard-hell carrying case, airline adapter, one of those big stereo plugs, a AAA battery (should last 40hrs) and a 3.5mm audio cord at around 4.33 feet long. Overall the quality is excellent and robust.
The Panasonic definitely offers some competition to the Bose Quiet Comfort 3 series at a fraction of the cost.
Just like the Bose QC, the Panasonic’s RP-HC500 are over-the-ear headphones that offer more than reasonable sound quality combined with active noise canceling. As its main function is the noise canceling, I don’t expect a perfect the sound quality, which certainly lacks the clarity and detail of more advanced headphones, but the HC500′s produce quite smooth audio (Frequency Response range 8HZ-22kHz ) that is more than adequate for the average listener.
The noise canceling is every bit as effective. You can use these to cancel noise without listening to music or you can also use them as regular headphones (with or without noise canceling) with the detachable cord (I don’t think the Bose QC3 offer that feature). The audio plug on the ear cup is fairly deep but not as deep as the iPhone but if you use the provided cord, this should be an issue. I tried to use a retractable cord, which has larger plug and it could not fit.
Listening music with the noise cancellation switched on offer additional treble and there was a good amount of bass and it extended deeply and that is my prefer setting.
As with most over-the-ear noise canceling headphones the weight and the cushion around the ear cups could be a personal taste for comfort level. The suction effect commonly felt in this type of headphones is also present here (the headphones need to isolate the outside noise). It is not a issue, but it does take a little getting used to. Aside from that they were quite comfortable, resting snugly on the ears and providing adequate padding.
Noise-canceling headphones reduce unwanted ambient sounds (i.e., acoustic noise) by means of active noise control. Essentially, this involves using a microphone, placed near the ear, and electronic circuitry which generates an "anti-noise" sound wave with the opposite polarity of the sound wave arriving at the microphone. This results in destructive interference, which cancels out the noise within the enclosed volume of the headphone. They work well for sounds that are continuous, such as the hum of a refrigerator an airplane, but are rather ineffective against speech or other rapidly changing audio signals.
Features
- Reduces Outside Noise by 1/12 (22dB) at 200 Hz
- Detachable Cord
- Large-Diameter Driver Units (40mm/1-9/16")
- Neodynium Rare-earth Magnet
- Fold-Flat design
- Hard Case
- Battery Life: Approx. 40 Hours with AAA Alkaline Battery
- Plug Adaptor for Aircraft
You can pick-up a pair of Panasonic RP-HC500 for $87.95 HERE!.
Pleas note: The product is no longer available at Lowmarkup.com
This product is so hard to find!!!