I was given a complimentary set of Sony in-ear noise cancelling headphones (model MDR-NC33)  for review purposes.

Sony in ear noise cancelling headphones

Now I had no prior knowledge of this product but I assumed from the name that wearing these headphones would block out a very high percentage of surrounding noise.  Therefore when I first tried them I was amazed that, apart from the muffling effect of having earphones in my ear, I could still hear the TV pretty clearly.  I looked at the Sony site and saw the phrase “cuts out up to 90% of ambient noise”. The issue is that apparently ambient noise can either be defined as:

a the total sound in a given area, or,

b a noise level that is always present

It would appear that the Sony headphones are effective for the b definition e.g. when I was on a train and the London Underground most of the noise made by the train was cancelled out.  However I found the headphones to be pretty ineffective against fluctuating sounds such as conversations or announcements.

The headphones come with three sizes of silicon in ear bud fittings, small medium and large, which you attach to the headphones.  Now I must confess that I don’t find any in ear headphones that I’ve worn to be very comfortable and even with the medium ear bud fitting attached, the Sony headphones were no exception.

Sony in ear noise cancellation headphones with the silicon earbud fitting attached

The headphones suffer from an very annoying design flaw, as the sliding on/off switch is very easily moved from off to on when the headphones are in your bag.  On my second trial of the headphones more than a week after I received them, the battery had gone flat.  When I took the headphones out of my bag to take the photos for this review, they were on, although I’d switched them off the previous day.

The battery/control unit of the Sony in ear noise cancelling headphones

In conclusion, I found the Sony in ear noise cancelling headphones to be only effective against a constant background noise, so if you are comfortable wearing  in ear headphones and travel a lot by train or plane, where there are very few announcements or conversations taking place close to you, the earphones will cancel out type b (constant) ambient noise.

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