Audio Technica ATH-ANC7B Active Noise-Cancelling Closed-Back Headphones

I got these headphones for a very specific purpose: sound isolation when the neighbors wake me up. Unfortunately, I moved to a noisy building and I found this to be a good temporary solution. They work quite well for this, except it is hard to sleep with them on your ears. Still better than ear plugs, I cannot stand those.



I didn't see any review discussing how effective they are against sounds from a noisy building. I was expecting they will not work well against sudden low-frequency noises. They do work surprisingly well. Just be careful your alarm clock is loud enough :)

I gradually started using them at the office and in airplanes and they are quite good.

Sound quality: as expected not nearly as good and clean as my AKG-701 studio headphones, but they are not bad. Slightly better than the Bose QC15.

Build quality: almost the same as the Bose QC15, they seem durable, not not nearly as durable as the AKG-701.

Problems: unfortunately, there are three small, but annoying problems that I did not see when trying out the Bose QC15:
1) with ANC on, I get some interference from the cellular network from time to time. It happens a few times per day at work and very infrequently at home, but it happens and it is annoying enough. I found that it stops if I turn the active noise canceling off and on.
2) with no music, when using ANC, I sometimes hear a high frequency hissing sound. I get used to it after a few minutes.
3) the blue led light (when ACN is on) is too bright in dark places (e.g., when one sleeps :) )

Also, forget about using these headphones when ACN is off. I prefer using the iphone headphones instead.

Honestly, the main reason I got these headphones over Bose QC15 was the price. ACN is good enough for canceling the noise made by neighbors. No point in paying more than 2X to get the Bose. I would have waited for the new AKG ANC, but they are not available yet.

The manual says to not use with rechargeable batteries. I used them with 1100 mAh rechargeable batteries and they work well. All the problems I noticed also appear when using alkaline batteries, so I guess this is not the cause.