Sennheiser PXC-450 Noise-Cancelling Headphones

At CES, Sennheiser announced and demonstrated its new PCX-450 Noise Cancelling headphones, which we think will soon jump to the head of this product class, for several good reasons.

First and foremost, a brief listening session convinced us the PXC-450 is a fine-sounding headphone for listening to music, which is hugely important in our book (after all, what’s the point of having a quiet background if the core sound of a headphone isn’t very good?). Second, it provides version 2.0 of Sennheiser’s Noiseguard noise-cancellation system, which blocks about 90% of ambient noise. Third, the system offers side-mounted pushbutton controls, including an on/off switch, up/down volume switches, and a welcome and very useful “Talk Through” switch that temporarily disables noise cancellation so that you can hear and converse with others.

Interestingly, you can disconnect the input signal cord of the PXC-450 and still use the phone’s battery-powered noise cancellation features. Similarly, if the input cord is plugged in and the phone’s batteries run out of power, noise cancellation functions will cease, but the PXC-450 will continue to function as a conventional, passive headphone.

The PXC-450 will sell for $449, and should be available in Q1, 2007.

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