I just love this product. Great design blows away my BOSE. I bought them from an AT dealer for $129.99 and got them for free shipping. They sent our a flyer with special pricing. h**p://www.roaddogonline.com/dailygrowlissues/emailflyers/email_flyer_AT_ANC7_JULY_AUG_08.html

Honestly these are my first set of over the ear headphones so my experience with these is limited. I have used Sony bud style headphones over the last decade including the following models (MDR-888, MDR-EX90LP, MDR-EX71SA, etc, etc). I bought the ATH-ANC7 at Yodobashi in Japan so I was able to test a whole range of brands and models. The ATH-ANC7 and the Panasonic RP-HC500 were very close in noise canceling capability with the Panasonic being about USD$60 cheaper. I couldn't test the sound quality so I opted with the ATH-ANC7 since I had read some good reviews. I wasn't disappointed, my uneducated impression is that the headphones have good range and has brought a new experience to all my music. It is a marked improvement over the sound quality of my current in-ear headphones (MDR-EX90LP). Initially I found the headset uncomfortable, since I am not used to over the head, but a couple of weeks of use has made things good. Now for the most important part. Active noise cancellation works fantastic. When listening to classical music in a quiet room there is a small amount of white noise. Not sure if this is a problem with my unit since I could not detect this white noise at Yodobashi. However, Yodobashi is far from quiet and the ambient noise leaking into the headphones probably masked this white noise. With other kinds of music this white noise is not noticeable. If you are buying these for a plane flight you won't even notice the white noise with all the ambient engine noise leaking into the headphones. Recently I tried out the QC2 and QC3, honestly I couldn't tell the difference so I'm glad I got the ATH-ANC7 over the Bose. Overall I am happy with their performance and do not regret the purchase.

I don't typically write these reviews, but I can't tell enough people about how great these noise cancelling headphones are from audio technica. I work in a very noisy office environment and have needed to use nc headphones in the past. These are by far the best pair I have ever owned. Not only are they great at cancelling the ambient noise, but they sound great too. The sound is clear, balanced and seems to stay true to the music, which is something I really like. I recently took a new position and now I'm traveling a lot too, so I was pleasantly surprised to find how great these work on the airplane. I knew they worked great to block out office background noise, but I had no idea it could make the plane ride as enjoyable as it was too. Before I bought these, I saw a lot of people post that these were great headphones for the price, but I think they're great headphones period, whatever you pay. Compared to the Bose and Sony's I've tried in the past, these are the best in my book!

An update. Just did a couple of 12 hour flights, one during the day and the other overnight. Both times I wore the ATH-ANC7 and they worked superbly. They remove the roar of the engines, which can fatigue passengers, leaving a comfortable level of noise. I don't have a single regret buying these headphones and they definitely made for a more comfortable flight experience. They worked so well I could hear a high pitched whine in the aircraft's video/audio on demand system. If you don't have good noise cancellation you wouldn't hear this whine over the roar of the engines. I've clocked up about 40 hours of use from a single AAA Energizer alkaline battery and its still going strong. Just bought some AAA lithiums so I'm patiently waiting for the alkaline to die.