Audio-Technica ATH-ANC23 QuietPoint Active Noise-Cancelling In-Ear Headphones

I have been looking for a high value Active Noise Cancelling set of earbuds, and these fit the ticket. I need them for a future 14 hour flight. Pro's I have a very noisy whole house fan to see how well the noise cancelling worked and was very happy. It cut down the constant rumble by a whole bunch! I am sure it will be equally effective on an airplane. The battery compartment and electronics is as small as it can be for a AAA battery. The unit will pass audio even without a battery. I was also unaware, but there is a volume control on the side of the battery box that works when the unit is running or when it is off. So if you run out of battery, you can still enjoy your music. Con's The wire from the battery box to your mp3/audio player is a bit too short for my tastes, and may even be an issue on the cramped airplane seating, but I will let you guys know for sure after my first flight. The quality of the audio was not bad, but was a little too much bass for my tastes. I have a user controlled 7band EQ on my mp3 player, so tweaking in a little more midrange and mid bass is not a problem The headphones have low distortion, so the extra 1-2 db in the mid-range didn't make it any worse. The unit does have a little bit of hiss, but certainly not objectionable in a noisy environment like an airplane. Overall I don't like using the typical silicone earbuds that come with most in-ear headphones. (I think my ear canal shape is out of the statistical average range) I replaced the stock cups with a Christmas tree style version. This helps the unit stay in my ear with a very good seal and excellent bass response. (this is probably why I found the sound to have too much bass in the first place) (http://www.amazon.com/Earphones-Plus-EP-BLK-TRI-4B-S-earphone-replacement/dp/B011W10YTM/ref=sr_1_16?ie=UTF8&qid=1463338252&sr=8-16&keywords=replacement+earbud+tips) I am very happy with my purchase. Just a couple of tweaks to the EQ and replacing the silicone earbud with my preferred version has turned this unit into a most enjoyable and ear saving tool in my travel bag. Thanks Audio-Technica! - Definitely a recommended purchase. ************** Post flight evaluation: I took these along with me on a 3 hour flight. What a difference! Switching the on and off button for the noise cancellation was incredible! When switched on, the majority of the engine rumble and constant droning went bye, bye! Without it, I could not believe how loud the cabin was! I was watching an old James Bond movie on my Kindle Fire, and it came in loud and clear. I even had the headphones on without any music playing, just to get away from the jet engine noise. These headphones are now on my "must not forget to pack" list any time I have to fly. Definitely a great value and a recommended buy!

First off, these are not perfect… but then again, no Active Noise Cancellation is. I bought these for a specific purpose. Riding a motorcycle tends to be a noisy affair. Road and engine noise tend to drown out bass notes in particular and add a noise level in general. A high volume level is needed to drown out the road noise and be able to actually hear all the instruments being played. Such a high level leads to hearing damage. Looking for some level of ear protection and noise isolation (not cancelation) I had been using an MP3 player and earbuds. This left me with no phone access but I could listen to music and radio via an MP3 player and the earbuds offered a fair degree is noise isolation. After a while the wired earbuds became a hassle. I purchased some wireless earbuds but the volume level of these were lower than wired earbuds and none of them had any serious bass (skull candy included which advertises enhanced bass). Over time, my 20 year old helmet began to give up the ghost. My replacement helmet seemed somewhat noisier than my previous helmet. After some more research I decided to use a combination of a wireless intercom with active noise cancelling (ANC) earbuds to A) get the ability to hear the GPS on the phone and the music and B) get away from cords. These earbuds were well rated and far cheaper than the Bose ANC earbuds. This combination accomplishes what I need. This model of earbuds do NOT have a microphone. For those who want a microphone for phone please check out the model ATH-ANC33. The intercom I purchased does have a microphone, so the ATH-ANC23 fit my needs nicely. The earbuds run off of a AAA battery which is convenient. No charging. I was able to connect the earbuds to the intercom and tuck the wiring inside the helmet liner. The circuitry is contained in a box about the size of two AA batteries side-by-side which also holds the single AAA battery. A switch on one of the flat sides activates the ANC functionality and a small volume wheel on the side can control the volume. Both the ANC switch and the volume wheel (while small) were easy for me to adjust with standard gloves on. I did not try this with winter gloves. I was able to clip the box to the chin strap of my helmet through the fabric look that attaches the D-rings. There is bout 6" of cable between the plug and the battery box so you COULD attach this elsewhere. With intercom buttons on the helmet my ears being in the helmet, the best place for the ANC microphone to be (for me) is closer to my helmet, although I may experiment with this. The earbuds come with several different silicone ear plugs and one set of foam earplugs. The foam earplugs tend to stay in my ears when I pull the helmet down over my heard. The silicone earplugs often tend to pull out while doing this. There is a power switch to turn on Active Noise Cancelation. Otherwise, these work like regular earbuds when the switch is turned off. The Active Noise Cancellation is considerable. I’d estimate maybe 30%-40% of the background noise. As a test, put a battery in these, leave them unconnected to anything, put the earbuds in your ears and turn ANC on. Just the ambient noise in your house from the AC to the refrigerator will be greatly diminished as is with nothing else connected to the earbuds. At an intersection, with ANC on, you can hear the cars passing by at a lower volume. Engine noise is minimal (I do not ride a Harley with loud pipes). I can hear the engine, but in a muted manner. Turning on ANC actually sounds like the volume of the music increases a bit. In fact, doing this adds an inverse signal to the ambient noise thus cancelling some of it out to a degree. On road the wind noise is greatly reduced allowing me to play my music at a lower volume than without ANC. This, hopefully, will help avoid or lessen hearing damage. There are some occasions where the ANC seems to struggle a bit. I noticed a few occasions where I could hear a wind buffeting sound (chop) but with no physical pressure. Riders have likely experienced this before and understand this noise. This also sound a bit like the chop sound some cars may experience when only the rear windows are down but not as loud. Essentially, here, it sounded as though the ANC was being turned off then on again at about ½ second intervals. These conditions rarely lasted more than about 5 seconds or so and the volume was no louder than if I had ANC turned off. I noticed this more often when navigating through S turns where you are transitioning the bike (and yourself) from side to side. I suspect that having the control box clipped to one side of my chin strap created a change in wind across the device depending on whether the box was on the windward or leeward side of the turn compared to wind travel. To sum up, this is not a perfectly quiet setup, nor are these headphones, by any means but I am quite happy with the amount of noise reduction I experience and the ability to ride with a lower volume level. The controls are easy enough to use with standard gloves on. Fidelity and bass response are quite decent. The foam earplugs help keep the earbuds in my ears but are still comfortable. I enjoyed NOT paying $250 for Bose ANC earbuds!

Edit: I've long since used these on an airplane, including a flight from Philadelphia to Tokyo. They did a miraculous job of filtering out the engine noise on the jet, making them even better than i praise them in the initial review below! ------- I thought that surely i'd be returning these with disappointment but thought affordable, active noise-canceling earbuds would be great if they worked so it was worth the risk. Not only do they work, they work like a miracle. I haven't used these on an airplane yet but i've been finding noisy stuff to test them around. My apartment's A/C is completely muted when these are on, in fact if i leave them on over the course of an hour i can only tell the A/C is on because air starts blowing on me. Normally i have to turn my TV up when it kicks on because the A/C is on the other side of the far wall with the air return vent visible from the couch. The dishwasher is reduced from its normal volume to a swishing sound, the collective sound of all the apartments in the courtyard outside simultaneously air conditioning is eliminated, and even the white noise generator my wife uses to sleep turns to silence. What these will NOT quiet are sudden noises and high-pitched noises. I've seen noise-canceling headphones that can handle sudden noises but these require the noise to be regular, so talking passes right through. When i run my Roomba, the vacuum motor's sound is removed by the headphones but the wheel motors make a high-pitched whine that gets through unphased. This is because they are earbuds so they can't insulate against high-frequency sounds like headphones can. These get 5 stars from me because they do what they say they will within the expected limitations of the materials used. I won't dock them points for not standing toe-to-toe with headphones that cost 10x as much. One word of caution: make sure the earbuds are firmly seated in your ears (so try the different sizes they provide to get the best fit) and you'll get more than what you pay for with these.

I gave this product a low rating simply because it was ineffective. I tried using it in two different noisy environments: as a passenger in a car on the freeway, and in the laundry room while the washing machine was running. In each case there was clearly some noise reduction when I powered the unit on; however, the benefit was so slight that it was barely noticeable. It was clearly not worth the trouble of purchasing and wearing the device. By comparison, I once had the chance to try out a pair of Bose over the ear noise canceling headphones, and found them to be quite good at reducing noise. This Audio Technica ATH-ANC23 seems to be more than an order of magnitude less effective. In other words, it is not in the same ballpark. I had to ask myself if I would rather own a product that barely works at all, or instead have $55 toward the purchase of a product that I know works great. After looking at it that way, I immediately initiated the Amazon return procedure. The Bose headphones that I tried produced a noticeable level of hiss as part of its noise canceling process, while the Audio Technica ATH-ANC23 produced none at all. This makes me suspect that the Audio Technica ATH-ANC23 unit that I received could have been defective, but there's no easy way for me to determine this. Many of the other reviewers have had good experiences with this device, which also leads me to suspect that I might have received a defective unit. It just isn't worth the bother and disappointment for me to order another one, because there's no guarantee that the next unit will be any better. Physically, the product is good but not great. The battery case has a nice strong-looking clip on it and the battery door seems quite secure. Because of some deep creases in the cord, I expected the unit to be broken, but the ear buds both functioned and the sound was better than my stock Apple ear buds. Your choice of three different sizes of rubber ear bud tips plus one pair of squishy foam rubber tips means that you should have no problems with fitting. The volume control dial worked smoothly and quietly. A cloth bag with a drawstring is a nice touch that keeps your cables from getting tangled with your other items. Unlike some of the other ear buds I have purchased, the left and right sids are clearly marked. Due to its poor performance at noise reduction, I would not recommend this item to anyone. You should order this product if you think that I simply got a defective unit, and imagine that you will be more fortunate.

I got these headphones because the previous model, that has since been discontinued, gave out after about a year of use. This model ultimately suffered a very similar fate and lasted about the same amount of time. Overall these are pretty good headphones. The sound is quite good and the noise reduction feature works really well. I used them on the NYC subways and they do a great job reducing the incredible amount of noise and allowing me to comfortably listen to podcasts. The price was also lower than most other comparable headphones. The problem with the headphones is the amplifier box / battery housing. It is placed too close to the headphones to be put in a pocket. The only real alternative is for it to be clipped to a belt. Even then it might be too short for some. As for myself I was able to do that until the clip broke. It is made of plastic and while reasonably sturdy if you lean on it or bump into something with it, it will break. After that my only option was to awkwardly tuck it in under the belt which eventually must have caused wires to be bent and ultimately start shorting. I would suggest for anyone considering these as their main headphones to see if you can find them anywhere to test out and see if the box placement will work for you. As initially said, the headphones are overall really good as far as the performance goes. The design is at issue here and it eventually became too much for me as I have decided to go with blutooth hedphones from now on in order to avoid wires altogether and gain the ability to control my phone from the headphones directly. I will miss the great noise reduction I have enjoyed with the audio technica headphones but going wireless will make up for the lower sound quality. I still have a pair of Sony MDR-7506 for when I have those audiophile days.

I travel. Planes, high speed trains, commuting trains, buses and I love to listen music. Not audiophile but I know difference between bad and good equipment. I do build my own speakers, amplifiers and other stuff. But I can not build good headphones, especially NC, this is why I am buying them. Let's concentrate on NC. I have couple over-ears, just for office and I have 4 in-ear. So, you can consider my review as comparison. Candidates: AKG391NC, Sony MDR-NC100D, ATH-ANC23 and Pioneer SE-NC31C-K. As you may see they all comes from different price range and very reputable companies and they are different, very different. Small introduction. For people who are looking for electronic "ear-plugs". There are no such thing! NC headphones, do not and never will create full external silence, more electronic noise suppression means more audio degradation. They will never silence loudly speaking office neighbor. What NC headphones do best - suppression of monotonic noises, such as airplane's engines, A/C, trains. They do mute bunch of other sounds but do not expect miracles, be real. Hiss? Some reviewers pointing out on hiss sound when there are no audio source. Out of 4 listed above only AKG do not have hiss but let's be real. All other hiss noises are so tiny and considering fact what you are about to use NC headphones on plane which has such high noise level anyway, compare to which this 'hiss' would sound like peaceful heavens (and it's exactly what these NC headphones do). Let's start from high-end - AKG391NC. Very nice sound, I really do like them but it's just my ears, I can not get proper fit, I tried Comply Foam tips they do help but still as soon as they are little bit moved, quality of sound goes down, to unacceptable level. When they are sit proper sound is fantastic. From usability - AKG do not have clip on control module, it has rechargeable battery, which is really bad idea, when you travel far, you have to get charger, additional cord etc. On other end we have Pioneer, cheapest of the bunch. They sound worse of all of them, of course better compare to 'free headphones' from airline stock but this is about it. NC is just Ok. I would consider to use/buy only in absolute emergency but they cheap. interesting they have largest driver (14mm) may be it's the case when size doesn't matter. Sony - I do not understand why people like to trash this company lately because I can not find any major flows with they product and MDR-NC100D is really great NC eadphones. They sound great, perfect fit, even actual ear pieces look little bit strange in reality they comfortable and do fit secure on in my ears. NC is amazing, magic button which automatically calibrate NC according environment DOES work! Difference is not very apparent but noticeable and does make a difference especially when you are using them in already quiet environment. Monitor button is great, AKG do not have it. I bought this headphones for my wife and she used them during flights to Hong Kong (16hr) and Tokyo (12+hr) and she was impressed. Now we comes to ATH, sort of dark horse, reasonable priced, claimed 90% noise cancellation (same as Pioneer), so after my frustration with AKG, I decided to give it try. OMG! I was truly impressed. Sound quality is amazing. NC - almost good as Sony, Sony just a tiny bit better plus auto calibration. But still ATH holds its ground and does amazing job. Perfect fit, they even included Comply Foam tips but i found they stock works great. I do not understand why other readers found ATH cheaply made, they are looks good enough to me. Not AKG grade (high quality plastic and brushed aluminum) but decent enough. Wires little bit stiffer compare to AKG and Sony but fine to me. Important detail - clip on control module is strong and can provide good fixation (compare to Sony). Too bad, ATH do not have monitor button and volume control has limited usage, may be AT will change it in next models. Bottom line: AT did excellent job. Great sound, excellent NC and perfect fit (for my ears).

Caveat: I'm an avid fan of silicone earbuds (the kind you just shove in there and feel the seal it makes), so it might not be for everyone. I was between this and the Bose QC20, but the Bose just made my ears itch (dunno why cuz I don't have ear hairs...yet. Here's some quick pros and cons (when weighed against the Bose): Pros: +The hiss associated with noise-cancelling is far less noticeable on this one than the Bose +Price ($50 < $250) +Battery life (50hrs > 13hrs AND it's just a AAA, easily replaceable, never need to charge) +Sound is balanced and stays that way even when noise cancelling is off (not that you'd ever have to power it off); the Bose can't do this +Power compartment is in the middle of the cable with a large clip (vs Bose where it's at the end with the jack, leaving you 1" of cable liable to fraying stresses) +Comply tips are nice, but I can get people preferring not to use them because of having to roll them before inserting. Every. Time. +Aesthetics (it just looks more professional than a spirally blue-striped cable) Cons: -Doesn't drown out as many high pitch noises -Cable material transmits a lot more noise than the QC20 -Doesn't "cancel" out ~as much~ noise as the Bose (but Bose definitely does that with some of its louder ambient hiss) Overall I can see preferring the ANC23 below certain noise thresholds because of the lack of audible hiss to its noise cancellation. The fact that the sound quality barely even diminishes while powered off makes this immediately better than the Bose due to its wider usage scenarios. Furthermore, I feel completely comfortable recommending this to people looking for NC in-ears because those people a.) will have been used to in-ears already, b.) can swap out the ear tips to any they may prefer/already own, and c.) would appreciate the money they saved despite probably losing out on 5% of noise "cancelling" that the Bose does through its audible hiss (which they probably wouldn't want in the first place). With the QC20, if I were to recommend it, I would forever be insecure about which aspect of it would put someone over the edge to return it (whether it be its battery life, lack of charger, itchy ears, short connector, sound quality, ridiculous price, etc).

Amazon reviews are my favorite part of this site. I put a lot of faith and credence into them. You have to weed out the crazy 1 star "I hate my life oops.... I mean I hate this product so much. Waste of money!" people and the 5 star "This is the first time I've ever used anything and it's AMAZING!" This products' good reviews has me a little confused. I don't like giving products 2 stars but I just think the 4 star rating is leading people (me) astray. I was hoping these earbuds could help me avoid paying the Bose piper. Alas, I have not beat the "pay little, get little pay more, get more" system. I like the company and my M-50 headphones have been a big improvement in my audio life. However, these earbuds did not impress me. I did not take them on a plane trip but I have a pretty good idea of the type of noise they should and shouldn't be able to block based on noise-canceling headphones I've owned in the past. I didn't expect these to block to the same extent as Bose but from the glowing reviews it seemed that they must do something very well. The general rule for current noise-canceling headphones is that repetitive low-mid frequency sounds can be quieted but higher frequency, changing sounds like music, voices, dogs barking, tv etc. cannot. Noise-Cancellation: Poor. Definitely not worth $40 to me. I turn them on next to a fan (a repetitive noise that should be in any NC headphones wheelhouse) and only a very small range of sound in the fans sound spectrum is reduced. It's still loud. Same with neighbors lawn mowers, blenders, and traffic. Sound: About equal to Apple EarPods. Not as good, but in that range. Fit: A good fit in my case. I think they would be helped by the support wings that are used in the QC20's and Bluebuds. The wings are super cheap pieces of rubber that make for a better end product. ******The battery pack is pretty heavy with the battery in it. If you don't clip the pack to your clothes the weight will pull the buds out of your ears. The battery pack is also at a bad position on the chord. I'm 6", if I clip the pack to the bottom of my shirt or pants pocket, the earbuds don't reach my ears. I keep my phone in my pocket so this was a fairly big problem for me. I understand these are "cheap" but so are foam ear plugs. Foam ear plugs and these also have in common that there are no track/play/pause controls for your smartphone. If noise cancellation is really important to you and is going to be a positive in your quality of life, I'd save for the Bose QC20's. If you just want something cheap, WireCutter recommended a unit that was around $20 and had decent sound and noise-cancellation. Sorry I do not remember the name. Anyways that's just my 2 cents. Maybe my tango with Bose in the past just raised my expectations too high. I'm not a Bose fanboy by any means but they really are tops at blocking sound...and they know it $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$