Audio-Technica ATH-ANC3

The ER6is are the best isolating headphones we have reviewed thus far, including headphones with active noise cancellation. They also have better overall audio quality, cost $30 less, and have a much wider selection of sleeves included. If you’re looking for headphones with a dynamic frequency response, or if you’re actually looking for a pair of in-ears that let a lot of external sound in, then consider the ATH-ANC3 headphones. In most cases, however, we’d recommend the ER6is.

The Sennheiser MM 50 iP headphones have great audio quality, isolate fairly well for a pair of in-ears, and are about as comfortable as the ATH-ANC3s. The MM 50 iPs also only cost $100. Relative to their excellent performance, this is downright cheap. The one area where the ATH-ANC3s might win a few fans is with the actual sound of the headphones. We can see people who like drum/bass-heavy songs thinking the MM 50 iP headphones sound a bit flat. The MM 50 iPs and ATH-ANC3s both have similar trends with the frequencies they emphasize, but the ATH-ANC3 headphones over-emphasize drums. We’d recommend giving each a listen before buying, but we’d tend to recommend the MM 50 iPs.

Contrary to popular audiophile belief, the Apple iPod In-ear Headphones (this is their full, non-serial-number name) don’t have horrible audio quality. They are a pain to actually wear, however, since the ear buds precariously balance outside your ear canal rather than fitting snugly inside. This means any tugging on the cord or sudden movements could pull the buds out of position. These annoyingly constant readjustments coupled with the sharp decrease in perceived audio quality when they’re out of place will be deal-breakers for many. In this match-up, unless you’re a bargain shopper and there aren’t any other headphones in the room, we’d recommend the ATH-ANC3 headphones over the iPod In-ears.

The Bose QuietComfort series of headphones made ‘noise cancellation’ an industry buzzword. This being said, the QuietComfort series’ implementation of the noise-cancellation feature isn’t aging well. The feature is dependent on a battery and the headphones won’t play back your music without some juice. Also, you can’t toggle the feature on and off, so if you’re listening to music, you’re burning battery life. The ATH-ANC3 wins here.

Aside from other, more subjective issues that this comparison must encompass, such as on-ear versus in-ear or intended use, we’d probably recommend the ATH-ANC3 headphones over the QC3s in most cases. While the QC3s are a bit better at isolation, have better overall audio quality, and come with more extras, they’re simply far too overpriced for what they actually deliver to consumers. The ATH-ANC3 headphones cost less than half what the QC3s do ($350 vs. $170).