I have been on a quest to find the best noise cancelation headphones available. Like everybody else, I was hoping to find a product that would totally block out all sound. Unfortunately you just can’t pull that off with earplugs or headphones. For example, an average conversation is about 60dB- 70dB, a telephone dial-tone is about 80dB, a whisper quiet library is about 30dB. I have looked all over the place to try to find the best solution for blocking out sound and it seems like the limit for headphones or earplugs is about 30dB. So, no matter what headphones you pick, you are going to still hear some background noise. The Bose QuietComfort headphones appear to be some of the most popular headphones out there for blocking sound but they only reduce noise by about 17dB. They also cost about $300. For under $100 you can get the Direct Sound EX-29 headphones and they will block 29Db of sound – this is a 70% improvement over the Bose headphones. So clearly it’s the marketing power behind Bose that makes them so popular rather than their ability to block the most sound.

So if headphones can’t block out all the noise, how do you get rid of the remaining sound? Well, I looked into that too. The folks at QuietHeadphones.com include a free white noise (actually pink noise) audio track that is one of the best audio tracks I have ever heard. It is a mixture of waterfall sounds and birds chirping. Their audio track also uses binaural beats to promote concentration and creativity. Binaural beats is a cool concept but, for the sake of this post, I just want to point out that the quality of the White Noise Track from QuietHeadphones.com is very impressive – especially for being free. You can pay $15 or more for tracks like this that don’t sound nearly as good. The White Noise Track is only available as a digital (MP3) download. It is not included on a CD in the box but you can easily burn your own CD if you feel so inclined. Most people will probably just put it on their iPod.

Another thing that I really like about the Direct Sound headphones is that they do not use batteries to block the noise. Unlike the Bose headphones that use electronics to actively “cancel” noise, these headphones “isolate” you from the noise by passively – or physically – block noise from reaching your ears. This provides two benefits over headphones like the Bose headphones. First, you never have to worry about replacing batteries because these headphones don’t use batteries. Most people don’t think about the cost of continually buying batteries but it really can add up over time. Second, the Direct Sound headphones can block a wider range and a broader spectrum of sound. In particular, these headphones are really good at blocking out talking noises whereas “active” noise cancelation headphones tend to only block out constant rumbling noises like airplane engine noise. The Direct Sound headphones will block out all types of noise.

There are also two different versions of the Direct Sound headphones available. They is what appears to be the professional version which is the Direct Sound EX-29 headphones and there is also the home version called the Direct Sound EX-25 headphones. Both block roughly the same amount of noise but the EX-29 has studio quality speakers which take up a little more space in the ear cups and sound fantastic. The EX-25 headphones are slightly lighter, and a bit more compact making them an excellent choice for travel or if you just need to save a little money. Both headphones come with the free white noise MP3 and, to me, they both sound really good.

Lastly, QuietHeadphones.com will give you a 6 Month, 110% money back guarantee. This does two things for me. First, it gives me more than enough time to see if the headphones will meet my needs. Second, there is no way they could keep this up if people didn’t like the headphones. So people are clearly pretty satisfied with their purchase. There is also a speakerless version of headphones available but I didn’t try those out. I wanted something I could use with my iPod. So if you are looking for some great headphones at a great value, consider the noise cancellation headphones from QuietHeadphones.com.