Out of the Box
The phones come with an airplane dual-prong jack adapter and a Sony bag. Two things that are completely useless. I mean, who keeps headphones in a bag? And what's wrong with airplane headphones that they give away for free? It's only a movie with crummy sound, and chances are you will just listen to your mp3 player the whole way.
One thing the headphones didn't come with is a battery. The noise-canceling microphones take a triple-A battery to power. Who actually has triple-A batteries kicking around their home? By chance I had a couple kicking around so I was able to power the suckers. However, for the average Joe, an additional purchase is in order.
Noise Cancellation
I'll admit, these are the first phones I've tried that "cancel noise", so I don't really know what I'm talking about, but I think my speculations are still valid. Supposedly the single triple-A will keep the noise cancellation running for up to 30 hours. I can't verify that because I haven't used the noise cancellation for more than 30 seconds. When you turn it on, all you can hear is SHHHHH, and the volume gets boosted, and all sound dynamics are lost. Did I mention you can still hear everything around you? The package says it's best for ambient noises, like cars or planes, so I thought I would take it outside to test it in a more appropriate situation. Big mistake. The microphones pick up the wind, and try to cancel it out. The thing is, your ears don't "hear" the wind when you have headphones on, so all you hear is a louder SHHHHHH and no music. At that point I apologized to my rare triple-A for wasting it's energy on such a horrible function.
Comfort
The MDR-NC6s are somewhat on the uncomfortable side. The height adjusters are flimsy, the entire top is hard plastic (hard on the head) and the foam is a bit on the itchy side. They work fine with a toque, and if you live in a cold city like I do, you'll appreciate the fact that they'll actually keep your ears pretty warm. That said, they're open-air, so once they're on your head, in a few minutes you'll probably forget that they're there. Unless of course you are listening to some really hardcore music. They you probably won't forget that they're there.
The chord is 1.5 meters long, so unless you're Michael Jordan, you'll have a fair bit of spare wire to deal with. It only comes out of one ear, which is kind of nice. The plug is a gold plated L-shaped stereo mini plug.
Sound
As long as you have the stupid noise cancellation feature turned off, the sound is great. I could go on with the pretentious audio-adjectives (crisp highs... rich mids... and solid lows), but that's not what anyone wants to hear.
The driver units are 38mm dynamic domes, and the frequency range is 30-15,000 Hz. Meh. The dynamic drivers were great however, different instruments are fully distinguishable revealing the many layers in recordings. The sensitivity is 200 dB/mW so if you're into deafening yourself, these will help you every step of the way. Here's a fun fact: when the noise cancellation is turned on, the frequency range goes from 40-1,500 Hz. What were they thinking?!
Conclusion
These go for $60-90 CAD, so you shouldn't expect much, but you should still expect something. If I could change anything, I would take out the noise cancelling feature, reduce the sensitivity and cut the cord in half. Also, I wouldn't include the stupid bag or plane adapter. In short, Sony tried to inlcude too much in this package, and they could have sold headphones of equal quality for half the price. Total rating:
4/10
Sony's info
