There are lots of noise canceling headphones available, nearly all of which operate on the idea of sensing ambient low-frequency sound waves then generating invoice sound waves from the speakers in order to cancel out the exterior noise. (The exception is Etymotic Research (www.etymotic.com), which actually buries speakers inside of ear plugs in order to block out all ambient noise.) When Bose first took the market by storm with its $300 Quiet Comfort headphones, the results were astounding. The trouble with Bose’s design was its size. When stored in the product’s carrying case, the end result was a package about the size of a large toiletry kit.
For those who want peace from road and plane rumble but need to travel small and light, check out Sennheiser’s PCX 250. Considering the set’s 65 gram weight (without cable) and small drivers, the sound quality is surprisingly good. I tested the PCX 250 against the Quiet Comfort and Aiwa’s HP-CN5 and found that while Sennheiser doesn’t even come close to matching the depth and clarity of Bose’s bass response, the mid and high reproduction was just as good as Bose. In comparison, the Aiwa set comes off sounding like a children’s toy. I also noticed that Sennheiser’s passive noise reduction, meaning the amount of sound blocked simply by wearing headphones, wasn’t as good as Bose, but this is to be expected given the size and weight of the ear cups. The pads sit on the user’s ears, not around them.
When your customers want the lightest, most comfortable, and most compact headphones possible with all of the benefits of noise canceling, this is the best solution on the market today.

Xitel
Pro Hi-Fi Link
MSRP: $99.95
www.xitel.com

From the Creative Wireless Music on down, there are an increasing number of wireless devices that let users beam audio content from their PC to a nearby playback system. Whether this is used in the home or a corporate presentation setting, the idea is compelling, but the reality is sometimes disappointing. Every month that goes by convinces me that we have an impending 2.4 GHz disaster waiting over the horizon. There are at least half a dozen 802.11b/g routers within a stone’s throw of my house that I know of, and there may be others I haven’t detected. I’ve gradually watched my wireless throughput and signal quality degrade over the last two years as neighbors have hopped on the Wi-Fi bandwagon. Most people know that microwave ovens will disrupt 2.4 GHz data traffic, and the problem of 2.4 GHz phones degrading Wi-Fi performance is legendary. In fact, my 2.4 GHz office phone is so strong that it disrupts the wired LAN connection of my nearby Wi-Fi router.
The bottom line is that I still believe nothing beats a wired connection for top-quality audio. The question is how to get all those high-bitrate audio files out of the PC and into the target playback system. Sure, customers could use the PC’s 1/8” output jacks, buy a handful of adapters and cabling from Radio Shack, and cobble together something. But every time analog audio jumps from one connector to another, some signal integrity is lost. Additionally, once the digital stream gets converted to analog inside the PC for transmission to the audio ports, it opens the door to interference from the PC’s power supply and other components that can harm the stream’s clarity. Not least of all, the longer the cheap analog data wire is between the PC and target system, the more likely users are to absorb other electromagnetic disruptions in the line.
Enter Xitel’s Pro HiFi-Link. In a nutshell, this is a palm-sized USB box with a USB connection on one side and conventional home audio jacks on the other. Why bother with a USB adapter in this application? Essentially, you’re grabbing the digital audio stream from the PC before it has a chance to get converted to analog. Digital streams are immune to the corruption that causes hiss, pops, and other jags in audio playback. The Pro HiFi-Link has three output types: coaxial digital, optical digital, and RCA analog. Now, some new systems already come equipped with digital output. If your customer has this, then the HiFi-Link becomes less advisable, although he may choke when he sees the cost of long optical cables. But if his source PC doesn’t offer digital out—and most still don’t—and his target amplifier only takes RCA input, then you’re still likely to get a higher quality feed from the Pro HiFi-Link than straight from the PC, both because the digital-to-analog conversion is happening away from your noisy components and because Xitel uses a better quality of conversion circuitry than found in most audio adapters.
Xitel also throws in 30-foot cables for all three output types. This alone can be worth more than $100, but the extra bonus in situations using the RCA connection is that Xitel uses top-grade cabling that does a better than usual job of shielding out interference. Thirty-foot Toslink (optical digital) cables can also be very hard to find, and the usual 6- or 12-foot lengths are often inadequate for going from room to room. This package looks ordinary on the outside, but it really is stuffed with value.
In short, there are many products that will bridge the PC and theater or presentation worlds over medium-range distances. But none that I’ve found will do it with higher quality and lower cost than Xitel’s Pro HiFi-Link.