[General Accessories] licensedtoquill:
Oh well, in that case, well done for having got yourself into that position!

I have reviewed a number of noise cancelling headphones myself, starting with the Noise Busters which were the first on the market over a decade ago, made by a firm on Long Island which specialised in headphones which HAD to work, for people who work habitually on airfield tarmac surrounded by 747s. Sooner or later the consumer headphone companies undercut them in price enough to put them out of the consumer business. However after a while one common thread became noticeable, which was that with few exceptions, they all seemed to use the same circuitry and did more or less the same job. The difference being the drivers themselves which most companies dont think worth spending too much on if the consumer likes noise reduction.

The result is that most of them sound very much alike, with some white noise, no really deep bass and mediochre mid range and not particularly clear high end. But they all more or less detect and get rid of much the same background noise. Interestingly, these Syllables according to your review, don't do that job at all! Leading to the question:: What is the circuitry which needs those batteries for exactly? And why did the company design circuitry which is not only cheap and is married to cheap drivers but which doesnt read sound and produce inverse sound waves? Especially where the universally available circuitry seems to be produced in one factory for sale to all sorts of headphone companies and does do what the other companies claim!

Did you try these cans in various different sound stages? In a plane, or in the street, in a subway or in a crowded room/bar? Sometimes the noise reduction is quite subtle and is only apparent after the sound has been sampled for a period of time. The cheaper ones (even the Philips, a company renowned for producing electronic equipment stuffed full of knobs which don't actually do anything) do in fact mask quite a lot of sound. it is just not apparent that they are doing so at first and the symptoms can sound like an ordinary injection of white noise.

There is a trick in the trade of not turning the item on and looking for effect; but listening for a while and turning the unit OFF and then registering any difference.

I would be amazed if Syllable didn't buy the circuitry from the factory which produces it, although there is something different about these if they don't work with the batteries flat. Just injecting white noise does nothing in noise canceling terms. If anything, it reduces any passive noise canceling effect?

There is some controversy in the industry concerning whether the inverse waves have to work at low frequency for aircraft noise or high frequency. (the original Noise Busters used to have an airplane slider to increase or decrease the effect. Which also didn't do a whole lot in consumer terms) And what is needed to cancel the background noise for telephone conversation has been in issue ever since people started trying to use VoIP on the 8125/Wizard!! Do these REALLY do none of these things?

---------- Post added at 12:24 AM ---------- Previous post was at 12:12 AM ----------

I would be interested in knowing the answers to my questions because i do accept that if a chinese producer of absolute junk uses pathetically bad drivers, they will use the cheapest conceivable microphone which wont be able to read any realistic frequency range so it wont know what to tell the circuitry to cancel.

They may well use, for example, the real licensed NoiseBuster circuitry and still not work!