Labs

Sennheiser's folding PXC 300 headphones have a separate noise cancellation unit attached to their cable, which takes two AAA batteries. With it switched off, music sounded distant, but we were impressed by the performance when we activated noise cancellation.

Music sounded bright and clear, with plenty of volume and a bare minimum of hiss from the noise-cancellation circuitry. The headphones sounded best when playing pop and dance music with lots of treble. Although more bass-heavy tracks lost some of their power, the sound balance was generally good, and easy to improve by adjusting our player's EQ settings.

Thanks to the separate noise-cancellation unit, the headphones are incredibly light and easy to wear. Sturdy hinges allow them to be folded down to fit inside the supplied case, which also contains aeroplane and in jack plug adaptors.

Though expensive, this is a comfortable, well-built set of active noise-cancelling headphones with great sound quality.