Quiet Headphones

January 2011: Here's a positive detailed review of the process of ordering, receiving and initial performance of the EX-29 headphones. Prior to ordering, corresponded with merchant via e-mail. Responses were extremely prompt, detailed and written in a friendly manner by salesman Ryan. Headphones arrived promptly in the window of time promised. Ordered the white limited edition headphones EX-29 Extreme Isolation Headphones, and they are really attractive for a female to wear! Cool-looking, actually!!

The headphones arrived in excellent condition for my birthday, as they are a gift from my boyfriend! The company ran out of their protective carry cases, but as promised, the headphones came in their own cloth case which will fit in a large purse or carry bag easily and keep them free from scuffs and the cord tangling with other objects. I ordered the very short 40" cord which is just long enough for listening to an iPod or directly from the laptop, which is how I use them. As the salesman recommended, for any other use, you would want to order them in the 9 foot cord, or be prepared to buy an extension cord elsewhere. The site doesn't sell the cords separately.

I haven't tested them in too many ways as yet, other than to block background sounds and on my Dell Lattitude D820 laptop, which is not a media oriented laptop, but a business model. On the laptop, I mostly listen to them while viewing video clips that people send me, or while researching websites which have accompanying videos. What is great, as compared to earbuds or other headphones, is that the noise does not escape the headphones and disturb my boyfriend who is sitting right next to me enjoying TV or the stereo. He doesn't know I'm listening to something different, unless he looks over to see what's on my screen!

As promised, as opposed to noise-reduction headphones which require batteries to actively produce an anti-noise high pitch sound (ugggh!) and can produce feedback, these headphones reduce all higher pitched sounds going on by physically blocking sound. The high pitch sounds of my computer fan and loud commercials on TV are the ones that drive my sensitive tinnitus ridden ears crazy. I can hear all conversations going on around me and the TV clearly, but in a non-agitating way, and without that noisy background of many shows. When my boyfriend watches football games, I can now enjoy them too for now all that blaring background noise of the fans is minimal to unnoticed. This is the real reason I bought them, but it sure has turned out nice that I can now watch all kinds of videos on the laptop without disturbing his TV shows.

I'm still trying to find the right fit for my ears and head. The headphones are adjustable, it is just that my ears and head have always been very sensitive to any pressure from anything on them, even hair barrettes and bands. This will be the determining factor over time as to whether I'll be able to keep them. I am very pleased to see that they have a 6 months return policy, satisfaction guaranteed which will give me this opportunity to fully test them over time. That is something few companies provide today, in their greed to make $, and why I must recommend everyone try these from this company who obviously take pride in their product.

4/29/11 4 Months Later: Have to laugh... my boyfriend ends up using them more now than I do ... but not because he wants to!! I make him!! ;-) He has Sony MDR-XB500 (paid $80 a year ago) which he says has a better low end bass response and a warmer sound overall, BUT! --they are not sound-isolating. What this means to me -- a LOT of sound leaks out and drives me nuts. So when he's on his spin bike in my small house, and I'm in the room, he wears my quiet-headphones instead of his. (No point in us both having to wear headphones when he wants to listen to music.)

I have exceptionally good hearing, and I cannot even tell he is listening to anything, well, except when he starts singing along. ;-) The other thing to mention is that he can't hear me if I yell, no matter how loud or how close I am, but truly that is because he is listening to loud music! (so, someone who really wants to escape into their private world of music w/o any distraction can w/ these.) As I stated above if I simply have the headphones on to block out noise, I can watch TV and hear conversations in the house, and I can hear him call to me if I'm actually listening to music -- but then I play music at a normal volume!

He has absolutely no complaints about the way they fit his head and ears. I am ultra pressure-sensitive to anything on my head or ears, even simple hair bands, so I'm very appreciative he does this for me out of consideration.

The point of my addendum is this, if you have a teenager or partner driving you nuts with their noise-leaking earbuds/earphones/headphones, these are definitely worth every penny to buy for them -- if they'll agree to wear them like my sweetie does -- so you won't have to listen to their noise, um, I mean music!!! :-) SO HAPPY HE GOT ME THESE FOR SO MANY REASONS NOW!!!

The order arrived in two days which was nice. The fit was not great for me, which may have compromised the sound reduction. The return has gone smoothly so far and customer service has been top notch.

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