Sony Introduces Self-Contained Noise-Canceling Earphones
18.05.12
The last two active noise-canceling earphones we tested, the Phiaton PS 20 NC and the Sennheiser CXC 700, sound great and suppress noise effectively. Both are also in-ear designs, which provide some passive noise cancellation to begin with just by sealing off the ear canala trait that helps the active portion of the system work more effectively than it could otherwise. But both of those products suffered from having a separate, bulky compartment to house the battery and noise cancellation circuitry, which limits you to either wearing a shirt with a place to clip it on, or just leaving the earphones and wearing a different set that day.
Sony's new balanced armature earphone lineup for 2012 comes in regular and Bluetooth as well as noise canceling varieties. The Bluetooth versions also lack a separate compartment for that circuitry, although that's been done before, with the lightweight Novero Tour being just one recent example we've tested. Sony says the entire XBA product range, including the XBA-NC85D, will be available in stores sometime in February.
Source: PC Magazine