Panasonic RP-HC 500

...much?

The Panasonic RP-HC500's come complete with a hard case and a set of adaptors to suit different environments such as aircraft which have a different connector to most MP3 players . Surprisingly, no AAA battery is supplied so you need to pick up a pack of those before you can start using them properly. Looks wise they appear a little bulky compared to the slimmer Bose ones although the ear padding is nice and soft and overall ...
...and for the money, the Panasonic RP-HC500's do an excellent job of noise reduction with a better sound quality than most other headphones in that price bracket. Yes, they could have a little more detail, yes, they lack bass and treble extension but the overall sound still manages to please. Moreover, the reduction in volume that is needed to listen when traveling is remarkable and can only be good for your ears. The price is very fair for the performance ... more

Anyone who has to travel to any extent whether it's by train, plane or bus will know how noisy the background can get and how high you have to have the volume to allow you to make out what you're listening to, especially with spoken word material like podcasts. Over time, these volume levels are both bad for your ears as well as being anti-social to other passengers.

There are plenty of headphones that claim to be noise-reducing or noise-cancelling but in practice, most are just designed to fill your ear canals more snugly. Some do have an element of proper noise cancelling via electronics but for some time now the benchmark has been the excellent Bose range although with prices of £250 or more, these are out of most people's price range.

I was thus very happy to find a pair of Panasonic's RP-HC500's to try out. These are still premium priced at over £100 but some shopping around can reveal bargains. How do they shape up against the Bose's costing over twice as much?

The Panasonic RP-HC500's come complete with a hard case and a set of adaptors to suit different environments such as aircraft which have a different connector to most MP3 players . Surprisingly, no AAA battery is supplied so you need to pick up a pack of those before you can start using them properly. Looks wise they appear a little bulky compared to the slimmer Bose ones although the ear padding is nice and soft and overall construction seems sturdy enough. A nice touch is that the connection lead is replaceable so if you are one of those people that is always yanking on it by mistake, you can be sure it will pull free safely or if the worst comes to the worst, can be easily replaced without having to open the heqadphones up and doing some soldering.

Noise Reduction

The RP-HC500's reduce noise in two ways. The most obvious is that they completely cover your ears which in itself shuts out a lot of background noise. The smart stuff though is the electronic noise cancelling. Each earpiece has a small microphone which 'listens' the the ambient audio and process that in conjunction with the audio being played to dramatically reduce the background noise. This is enabled via a small switch on the side with a blue LED lighting up to indicate noise reduction is on. Unlike some models, the Pananonics can be used without battery - you still hear the audio, you just lose the noise reduction and sound quality changes to what could be charitably called 'muffled'. I found Panasonic's estimate of 40 hours use per AAA to be fair.

When switched on, there is a sudden and surprisingly effective drop in background noise. The first time I tried this was in a shopping center and the lack of feedback on my feet hitting the floor actually made it difficult to walk! On the train and tube it made a big difference with a feeling of spaciousness as most of the audio pollution falls away. There is still some background noise as the circuits are designed to allow an element of higher frequencies such as speech through but the more generalised rumbles of wheels on track are all but eliminated. As a result, I found that listening to speech on my iPod could be done at 15-25% volume instead of 100% volume which can only be good.

On the downside, they do let some audio leak out so whilst these headphones isolate you from the outside world, the reverse can not be said. For normal listening levels they are effectively silent and would be perfectly usable on a 'quiet-carriage' or in an office environment without interfering with other people. However, if you ramp the volume up, whatever you listen to will be public.

Sound Quality

Initial listening impressions were of a slightly bland and mid-range heavy sound but after going back to the normal iPod headphones, the iPod ones sounded horribly harsh and artificial. Going back to the RP-HC500's then created a far better impression. They're not in the top end HiFi range and I did find both bass and treble could be lacking in places but the level of detail often made up for this and I've been rediscovering my music collection noting all sorts of details in the songs I'd previously missed. The best way to describe the sound is 'smooth'. I've not tried the Bose equivalents but a colleague who has tried both the Boses and the Panasonics thought the Panasonic's were 80-90% of the quality for less than 50% of the cost which isn't a bad ratio.

The sound stage is affected by the noise cancelling but in a subtle way. When you switch on noise-cancelling the sound becomes slightly artificially spacious sounding - a bit like switching on the surround sound on a home AV set up. As such, recordings may lose some fine positioning information but the overall effect is quite pleasing and the airiness it creates makes you forget you have headphones on..

If watching films on the move is your thing, you'll find these headphones make a huge difference to your listening pleasure. Watching films on my laptop allowed a far more immersive experience with all the distractions removed.

Conclusion

There's no denying that the market leading Bose line best these headphones in most areas. However, you do need to take into account the price differential and for the money, the Panasonic RP-HC500's do an excellent job of noise reduction with a better sound quality than most other headphones in that price bracket. Yes, they could have a little more detail, yes, they lack bass and treble extension but the overall sound still manages to please. Moreover, the reduction in volume that is needed to listen when traveling is remarkable and can only be good for your ears. The price is very fair for the performance and with some shopping around, quite large reductions are possible so check some online price comparison sites before buying. On balance, a fine pair of headphones for silence seekers on a (cheaper than Bose) budget. 

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