The Audio-Technica QuietPoint ATH-ANC7 headphones can drown out the outside world, but how do they sound?
Review summary of the Audio-Technica QuietPoint ATH-ANC7:
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 The Audio-Technica QuietPoint ATH-ANC7 kill outside noise, but they don't sound that impressive, especially for $150 cans. Specifically, sound quality is pinched, overly bright and lacking definition. Compared to other noise canceling headphones, though, they do fairly well for their price range. We can recommend these phones to red eye warriors and anyone else who spends plenty of time in airplanes and other noisy climes, but others might be diappointed by their sound. Release: July 2008. Price: $125.
Pros: For over the ear headphones, they're very mobile. Very comfortable. Standard 1/8-inch jack.
Cons: Sound quality subpar compared to normal headphones. Could be constrictively small.
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Full Audio-Technica QuietPoint ATH-ANC7 Review:
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Design - Good
The Audio-Technica QuietPoint ATH-ANC7s are small for over-the-ear cans, to the point that some may find them uncomfortable. We had no problems, but they did feel somewhat constrictive. On the other hand, these headphones are intended for travel, so their smaller size makes them easier to pack away. It's a trade off, but a diminutive size is better than not being able to fit them in your suitcase at all.
There's a nice, rubber cushion along the headband and deep padding around the phones, so it didn't surprise us that the ATH-ANC7s were plenty comfortable, even after several hours of use. The band itself is very flexible but not flimsy – another plus when squeezing them into a backpack. Still, we wouldn't put the phones through too much abuse. We'd wager an errant footstep or too much yanking could easily snap them.
The Audio-Technica QuietPoint ATH-ANC7 headphones accepts any standard 1/8-inch stereo cord, which we greatly prefer to headphones with an irremovable, soldered connection. If you accidentally rip the cord on the ATH-ANC7s, you can buy a replacement at practically any electronics store for a few bucks. If you rip out a soldered cord, then it's time to start looking for new headphones. The bundle comes with an 1/8-inch to L-shaped 1/8-inch cord and a 1/4-inch adapter, so the phones can connect to any standard source right out of the box.
Sound - Good
The ATH-ANC7s seem equalized for their noise cancellation circuitry, so when you use them with noise canceling turned off, they sound murky and awfully bass heavy. Thus, we had noise canceling turned on throughout our testing.
The ATH-ANC7s are punchy without being brittle, and bass is present but not boomy. This makes them well suited for movies, and when we tested them with a few episodes of Berserk (an esoteric anime show; accept our apologies), the dialog was clear and the sound effects were tangible. Localization was also good, with clear stereo cues and a well maintained sound field. For watching a few flicks on a transcontinental flight, the ATH-ANC7s are solid headphones.
Music playback didn't impress us as much. Noise cancellation tends to squash dynamic range and muddy a pair of headphones' sound quality. This is true of all noise canceling phones, and so it is with the ATH-ANC7s. This doesn't mean music sounded 'bad;' it was just slightly less expressive than similar cans with no noise cancellation. Also, closed headphones inherently sound worse than open headphones (they have less air to transfer sound waves), and the ATH-ANC7s sounded echoey, even claustrophobic, in comparison to similarly priced open headphones.
Guitar-centric music fared the best. An MP3 version of Queen's "The Hero" sounded comparable to our open Sennheiser cans, presumably thanks to the lossy compression of the source. With all of our other tests, it was a quick KO in favor of the Sennheisers. DVD-A recordings of the Grateful Dead didn't come alive in the ATH-ANC7, and Alan Parson's quadrophonic masters of "Dark Side of the Moon" didn't sound perceivably better than the CD version (whereas on the Sennheisers, it's an enormous improvement). None of this is particularly surprising or disappointing: noise cancellation headphones are made for noisy environments, not critical listening, and the ATH-ANC7s at least sounded on par with other noise canceling phones.
To test them in the their natural habitat, we grabbed a Walkman CD-player (yes, old school) and went out into the cacophonous din of Manhattan. Normal headphones are useless on the far reaches of the Upper East Side, where jack-hammers pulverize in ear-splitting volleys, the surly and the soused congregate outside bars and scream at nothing in particular, and car horns continuously rip through the atmosphere with little mercy. In short, it's a loud place. The ATH-ANC7s, however, went a long way in drowning out the chaos. Like most noise canceling phones, they tend to compress outside noise and make it sound as if it were coming through a brick wall 10 feet away.
The ATH-ANC7s were less effective with sudden noises but very effective with constant drones. They were a particular godsend on the subway, as they all but eliminated its low-level hum. Granted, canal-phones can accomplish the same thing, but the ATH-ANC7s are far more comfortable than jamming a wad of plastic down your ear hole. On the other hand, they do require battery power, and a $150 pair of canal-phones would blow them out of the water in terms of audio quality. It's a trade-off either way, but we'd recommend the Audio-Technica QuietPoint ATH-ANC7 headphones to those who spend a lot of time traveling and just want to relax, and we'd recommend canal-phones to those who really want to listen to music while they're on the go. Audiophiles with a quiet listening space should, of course, stick with open cans.
Price and availability
The Audio-Technica QuietPoint ATH-ANC7 will start selling for $125 to $200 () in July 2008.
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