AblePlanet Clear Harmony Noise Canceling Headphones

	Usability
• Cord isn't too long, which helps portability. • Not a lot you can do to clean/maintain the headphones. • They will work without battery power, but it adversely affects audio quality.
	Introduction	Page 6 of 12	Sennheiser HD 650 Comparison

Cable Connectivity     (4.24)

The NC200s have a four-foot, removeable cord that plugs into the bottom of the left ear cup. The cable itself seems pretty robust, with decent insulation and thick cord guards.

This is the part of the plug that hooks up to the headphones. The curved bit at the bottom
is supposed to be flush with the ear cup, but it sticks out a bit, unfortunately.

This is the part that blugs into the audio source. Note the cord guards, because they're pretty meaty.

The headphones also come with a 1/4-inch adapter.

This is the adapter, which looks like every other
1/4-inch adapter ever.

Portability     (4.50)

The NC200s are meant to be portable, since outside is where the majority of unwanted noise is. While they're lighter than most on-ear headphones, they're still a lot bigger than a set of in-ears. The ear cups do fold up, but that doesn't improve portability that much: you'll still need a bag or something to carry them in. The headphones come with a pouch, but we doubt anyone will want to tote a tiny, manufacturer-branded pouch.

This looks like it should contain polished gemstones, but no, it's just a sack for your NC200s.

Maintenance     (3.50)

While you can disassemble the NC200s, you can't get very far. You can take off the ear cups, and a piece of foam underneath them, but at that point you hit a dead end. The headphones also don't come with any cleaning tools.

This is what you'll see once you remove the padding.

And this is what's beneath that small foam thing. We didn't have a small enough
screwdriver to continue our journey into the bowels of the NC200s.

Other Features     (4.00)

Battery Dependency
The AblePlanet Clear Harmony NC200s use batteries to power their active noise cancellation feature and also to give the music a bit more kick. You technically can use the headphones without battery back-up, but we wouldn't recommend it: they have a weak, hollow sound.

Active Noise Cancellation
The active noise cancellation feature is controlled by a switch on the right ear bud, and has a little red LED to indicate when the feature is active. While we liked the ability to switch the feature off, as mentioned above, the headphones lose a lot of punch without battery power. Also, the active cancellation feature isn't very kind to audio quality. It creates an audible hiss, and doesn't offer much actual cancellation.

Volume Dial
The volume dial is located in-line, a good distance or so away from the ear cups. It functions like you'd assume a volume dial functions. Our only complaint is that the dial feels a bit cheap, like it's on loose.

This is the side of the pendant where all the volume dialing action takes place.

This is the side of the pendant that's boring and no one pays attention to it... until now.