Audio-Technica ATH-ANC3

Short-Term Use (7.00)

For this and the following score, we customize the headphones to best suit our heads, then give them a wear. We highly recommend wearing any set of headphones for at least an hour, if not the entire duration of a typical listening session, before you decide to keep them.

In general, the ATH-ANC3 headphones felt about as comfortable as the average, soft-plastic-sleeve-having set of in-ears. The sleeves themselves aren’t particularly rigid, so they didn’t create much pressure, and the three sizes should help quite a few people get a good fit.

Also, joggers will rejoice to find out that these headphones will stay in while they train for their marathon, but they might find the control pendant to be annoying. Actually, we think the ATH-ANC3 headphones are actually better for joggers than typical in-ears: if you leave active cancellation off, If you do plan on wearing noise-cancelling, in-ear headphones while you’re out on the street, be sure to be careful: the world outside is filled with dangerous cars, murderous trains, and Lovecraftian horrors waiting to spring on the headphone-wearing unfortunate.

Extended Use (7.00)

After six-hour session, our opinions towards the ATH-ANC3 headphones didn’t change much. Typically in-ear headphones with soft plastic sleeves are simply not hard enough to make you feel overly uncomfortable (above and beyond the ‘I have stuff in my ears’ discomfort).

Cable Connectivity (7.57)

The ATH-ANC3 headphones measure about 3 feet, 9 and 3/8 inches (1.15m) from cord guard to cord guard. This is a good length for a set of in-ears, and should be enough to reach your jeans pocket, even if you have a particularly long torso. Attach the included extension cord and suddenly you’ve got a full 5 feet, 8 and 9/16 inches (1.74m). This is one of the longest cords we’ve seen on a pair of in-ears.

Customizability (3.00)

The ATH-ANC3 headphones aren’t the most customizable headphones we’ve come across. Typically in-ear headphones can get a good score here by adding a decent selection of sleeves. The ATH-ANC3 has a set of small, medium, and large sleeves, which should provide a good chunk of users with a fit. Some other headphones, however, like the Etymotic Research ER6is, or Shure SE210s came with quite a few sleeves of different shapes and sizes.

Portability (7.25)

As a set of in-ear headphones, the ATH-ANC3s are far more portable than the average pair of over-ears or on-ears. They aren’t, however, more portable then one of their more typical in-ear brethren. The reason for this is two-fold. First, the control pendant is a bit bulky. If we were to measure the portability of each pair of headphones based solely on volume, the ATH-ANC3s’ pendant would half their score. As it is, even though they’re one of the lesser-portable sets of in-ears, they’re still really portable.

Maintenance (2.00)

The ATH-ANC3 headphones don’t provide users with many tools or options for cleaning or maintenance. We’ve seen some in-ears come with cleaning tools, or replaceable nozzle guards (a wax insert to keep your own, grosser version out of there). The only option you have is to remove the sleeves, which is a standard feature on in-ears.

Other Features (6.50)

Battery

While the active noise cancellation feature requires a single AAA battery to operate, the headphones will work as headphones even if there’s no battery inserted. This is far, far preferable to Bose or Sony offerings, which won’t play back music without the battery.

Active Noise Cancellation

The ATH-ANC3 headphones’ most interesting feature is their noise cancellation. Typically active noise cancellation has been the territory of over-ear or on-ear headphones since they have inferior passive noise cancellation (they don’t plug your ears). The active cancellation is controlled via the in-line pendant. Unlike many other active-cancellers, the ATH-ANC3 headphones can switch their cancellation feature on and off via the appropriately labeled switch. To the power switch’s right is an LED that will glow red when cancellation is turned on. To the power switch’s left is the MONITOR button, which, contrary to its all-caps spelling would indicate, will quiet your music and turn off active cancellation for the duration its pressed.