Sennheiser PXC 250

The PXC 250 are basically the excellent PX 200 (see our review) with noise-canceling circuitry, providing great sound with excellent noise-canceling functionality (helpful not only when traveling but also when sitting next to a noisy computer at home). Oddly enough, whereas most noise-canceling headphones sound inferior to comparable standard models, we actually found the PXC 250 to sound a bit better than the PX 200. The only drawback is that since the PXC 250 use smaller earpads — they fit on the ears rather than around them — they don’t block as much external sound as some of the larger models like the Bose Quiet Comfort 2. (Like the PX 200, it takes a bit of practice to get the right “fit” with the PXC 250.) However, considering that other noise-canceling models with similar sound quality cost as much as $300, the PXC 250 are a great value.–Dan Frakes