As a frequent traveler, I've been long thinking about getting proper noise-cancelling headphones. Now, en-route to a Haedong Kumdo seminar in Ireland I managed to forget my usual headphones home, and so it was time to take the plunge.

Here is a quick review:

• First impression: wow, quite a lot of cable to carry around. I got used to too good with the Bluetooth headphones which my iPhone 3G unfortunately doesn't support
• The noise cancelling unit is a bit big, but clips into belt and runs on two AAA batteries
• Sitting next to the engine, there is still quite a strong background hum, but still I'd estimate at least half of the noise is gone
• If I push the headphones on my ears, most of the hum disappears too
• I was amazed how loud planes are when I took the headphones off to buy lunch from the stewardess
• The bag that came with the headphones is very handy, and includes adapter for plugging the headphones into in-flight entertainment systems

All in all, the headphones are bit pricey, but will increase comfort of regular air travel quite a lot.

Written while flying over snow-capped mountains of Norway on a SAS flight, listening to Mahler's 6th symphony.