I was wondering how bad the noise leakage is? Is it minimal or would earplug type be better if you were looking for a portable option ?
767935
R. Cleveland, These are very light phones and are not at all noise canceling. You might want to consider the noise cancelling type of phones if you want to hear nothing but the music. Having said that, I listen at probably louder than average levels and for me, external noise is not objectionable with these phones.
767936
I did not find any external annoyance. I suppose in very noisy environments this could occur but I had no problem. Further I wear high end hearing aids (best thing for music I ever did) so the ear plug option would not have worked for me anyway. I love these little light head phones. I have a large Klipsch 10 speaker surround system and did not think the sound would compare. Does not Move the room :-) but still very nice!!
767937
Earbuds are unacceptable for portable use as you cannot hear traffic, emergency vehicles, etc.
767938
If you mean ambient noise leaking in, yes it is a factor, but I raise the volume and the headphones are fine. Listening to news and information radio, I can easily follow the talk even when using a large shop vacuum. Sometimes I do yard work near a busy intersection with city buses and lots of traffic going by. the sound is still good. If you mean noise leaking out irritating the people around you, I asked my wife and she said that she has not heard any. I wear them a lot doing stuff while she is watching TV. They solve the problem of my radio or music interfering with her TV. In my active life-style, the earplugs always fall out. I'm really happy with this set of headphones.
767939
They are open-air headphones and do leak sound, it does help improve the quality though. But if you're looking for non-leakage, I'd go with the Monoprice IEM, They are super cheap and sound fantastic with minimal leakage.
767940
Leakage is bad. Definitely not minimal. Earplugs are better if you are avoiding leakage
331604
I had the same problem with (much, MUCH more expensive) Sennheiser CX400 earbuds - it was awful. I could hear my *hair*, who wants to listen to their hair? Unfortunately, i'm pretty sure all earbuds that have the sound isolation via making full contact between the rubbery part that sits in your ear, and your ear canal itself, are going to conduct some cord noise. No matter what, the cord must be attached in a way that is so integral to the construction that conductivity is a matter of physics. I find these significantly less objectionable than the Sennheisers, in fact I'm not bothered at all (maybe I got used to it?) But with the sound at a decent volume it's hardly noticeable. I really like these (I saw this post when I came looking to buy another pair or two in different colors). So I tried an experiment, on your behalf -- I put the earbuds in my ears, then draped the cord around the back of my neck. I then simulated moving around (hey, I wasn't about to get up off the couch :) by taking the remaining free part of the cord and whipping it around. Not bad, not bad at all. At the resulting length, you'd need to carry your music player approximately at your waist, and with that wrapping strategy it will minimize the cord hitting against things. Bottom line, at the price (plus, doesn't Amazon give you five bucks of free mp3s if you buy them? they did my last pair), go for it, they're better than Sennheisers at three or four times as much money, so ... what the heck, right?
518116
Well max volume on the iphone barely leaks. And more than 2feet away you cant hear it. The isolation imo is satisfactory, with nothing playing, you can still hear your environment, but it's still quite muffled. With sound on forget location awareness the music takes over :)
1582670
Leak, as in someone around you can hear? No the closed set does not leak sound. I think Aaron Burleys review in the review section sums it up. You can read more there. Concerning music he said, "Now, onto the good! Other than the lack of bass, these things sound absolutely amazing. I've never been a fan of close backed headphones, but these opened my mind. I heard things in music that I never knew existed. Things like extra background voices in the chorus of a song, reverb where I didn't know it was present" However if you want a headphone set strictly for music your probably better of looking at something different.
802753
The noise leak on these headphones is fairly average, however if it's not pounding away at max volume you probably won't disturb people. The seal when wearing them is pretty decent.
1898833
Well, the good thing is that you can raise the volume on both the device and on the source, so you can get a pretty good amount of sound. Ear plugs are probably a good idea, though. I often walk 7-9 miles on hot days,and it doesn't slip at all, so you're OK there.
452348
I have to disagree entirely with this post. I just got these headphones for Xmas, and while sound quality is great with cancellation on and does stop outside noises well, the sound leakage is quite apparent. I wanted them as something to use at the office but I'm not sure I can now. While I don't know how much of an issue it would be on the plane, I'm pretty sure I would be able to hear whatever is playing for someone using them quite easily. I'm torn about returning them now. They sound great and the price is awesome, but the leakage is definitely an issue to think about. If you cannot deal with leakage I would not get these. I have to disagree entirely with this post. I just got these headphones for Xmas, and while sound quality is great with cancellation on and does stop outside noises well, the sound leakage is quite apparent. I wanted them as something to use at the office but I'm not sure I can now. While I don't know how much of an issue it would be on the plane, I'm pretty sure I would be able to hear whatever is playing for someone using them quite easily. I'm torn about returning them now. They sound great and the price is awesome, but the leakage is definitely an issue to think about. If you cannot... » Read More I have to disagree entirely with this post. I just got these headphones for Xmas, and while sound quality is great with cancellation on and does stop outside noises well, the sound leakage is quite apparent. I wanted them as something to use at the office but I'm not sure I can now. While I don't know how much of an issue it would be on the plane, I'm pretty sure I would be able to hear whatever is playing for someone using them quite easily. I'm torn about returning them now. They sound great and the price is awesome, but the leakage is definitely an issue to think about. If you cannot deal with leakage I would not get these. « Show Less
265433
I really like my headphones, but honestly believe that a good set of earplugs would work better. They will work without music playing. I sometimes do this on a plane. They do an excellent job of blanking out the engine drone but I can still hear people talking (albeit at a much reduced volume)
1553257
Yes, they will leak noise. These are semi-open headphones so isolation is not going to be very good
958157
So, I actually have some roommates who can be rather noisy at night, if you catch my drift. It's mad annoying, so I've taken to trying to block it out when it happens. I can say that the noise isolation (with no music) is solid, but not incredible. But honestly, it's about as good as any non-fitted pair of earplugs I've tried. If you combine that with actually playing some really light music (I literally put my iPod on the lowest volume setting it can go), then usually you're in good shape. The only downside is that you've got earplugs in while you sleep. Which means you either have to sleep entirely on your back (which I can do sometimes). Orr... I take one out, sleep on my side, and keep the other one in. This also works decently well since my ear without an earplug is in the pillow, and thus solidly blocked from sound. Also, for music, I recommend chill instrumental music. I've tried other things, but have occasionally been woken up by random parts of a song that get loud.
1826666
Yes, At full volume people around you will definitely be able to hear if it is quiet. They are not as bad as other over ear headphones but being over ear they tend to start leaking audio at around ¾ full volume. Walking around outside it is usually fine even on full volume but if you are in a quiet room I wouldn't plan on putting them on full volume if you don't want other people to hear.
2215842
I think these are better than average at not leaking sound at reasonable volume levels. However, I would turn your music down when you take these off. They sound like little speakers when they are not pressed to your head.
714874
I think the sound leakage is generally quite low. It is worth noting however that the microphones will pick up any non-continuous noise in the room around you, so if you have others around you, everyone will hear them in a call.
1588568
I've asked a couple of people at work and they report the sound leakage is minimum at higher volume. We have separate cubes at my workplace and I've gotten no complaints. I've also had someone else wear them to hear it for myself and it's very quiet.
1271545
There isn't that much of a leak because the headphones do almost a perfect job at doing this. People will hear what you're listening if you have it have it full blast though.
2175054
At moderate to low volume there is no appreciable leakage. They actually won't get quite as loud as I would like ... no ear bleeding head banging, yes I would do that at my office. Over all these are a good quality headphone, they really shine as hands free headsets for phone work.
1237219
There doesn't seem to be a problem with sound leakage, but you can hear the stuff going on around you. This is by far the best/most comfortable headset I've ever used.