Scott, what is the difference between noise-cancelling headphone and noise-isolating headphone?Just for a headphone, $300 could be awful lot of money for some of us. My personal favorite is Etymotic ER-4P for almost half the price ($170 market), which I absolutely love. But it is described as noise-isolating headphone as oppose to noise-cancelling like the Bose QuietComfort 15.As always, appreciate your suggestions and love the podcasts.
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Casio Projectors, Headphones, 3D vs. 2D
First, let me tell you how much I enjoy your podcasts—very informative and entertaining. I loved the episode with Gene Dolgoff, a true pioneer in this field.
I was wondering about Casio's new Green Slim projectors (the ones with a new hybrid light source). Are these good projectors?
Ron Filippi
I'm glad you enjoy the podcast! I agree that Gene was a very interesting guest.
Casio's new Green Slim projectors are not designed for home theater, but rather for business presentations, educational applications, and gaming. And with a native resolution of 1280x800 or less, I wouldn't recommend them for home theater use.
The hybrid light source is interesting. It combines a blue laser, red LED, and green phosphor (activated by the blue laser) on a spinning wheel to shine red, green, and blue light sequentially on a single DLP chip. The goal is to eliminate mercury-based lamps, which is also achieved by using three LEDs (one red, one green, and one blue) as in true home-theater projectors from Vivitek, Runco, Digital Projection, SIM2, and NuVision. Most of these are much more expensive than the Casios, but they can produce a superb image under the right conditions.
Quiet, Please
I'm in the market for some headphones, mainly to listen to music. I am really looking for a middle-of-the-road noise-canceling type. Any ideas?
Ryan Banks
My favorite noise-canceling headphone is the Bose QuietComfort 15, a new over-the-ear model. The smaller QC3 is on-ear, but I find that does not provide as much isolation as the over-the-ear type. I just got the QC15 and wore it on the plane to and from CEDIA, and it was great! Excellent noise canceling and sound quality, and very comfortable. Mind you, I don't care for much that Bose makes, but the QC15 is a distinct exception. It's expensive at $300, but I think it's worth it.
3D or 2D?
I'm replacing my dead Samsung plasma and trying to decide between the Panasonic TC-P50G20 (2D) and TC-P50VT25 (3D). The current price difference is about $700-$800, but the 3D set comes with all the extras. Is it to soon to go 3D?
Glen Sabol
Aside from offering 3D and more bells and whistles, the VT25 is a better 2D display, though the G20 isn't bad by any means. In particular, the VT25 produces a lower black level than the G20. (Speaking of black level, we've been running a G20 continuously for around 1800 hours now, and it has shown no sign of increasing its black level as was reported in some 2009 models.) You can read reviews of both sets here and here.
Personally, I find that 3D on a 50-inch flat panel is not all that satisfying—3D really needs a very large image that literally fills your field of view to be most effective. But 3D flat panels are turning out to be among the best 2D TVs available, so I say it's worth the extra money if you can afford it.
If you have a home-theater question, please send it to scott.wilkinson@sorc.com.
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COMMENTS
Submitted by Derek (not verified) on October 1, 2010 - 7:22am
Noise Cancelling headphones have an active circuit and microphone that monitor the sounds near the ears and send an inverted (or revearsed polarity) version of that signal to the driver in the headphones. Mixed in with the music that you want to hear, this inverted signal cancels the noise you would normally hear as ambient background noise. Because they require power, usually a battery, noise cancelling headphone are usually larger, heavier and stop noise cancelling when the battery gets weak. They usually reduce noise more than noise isolation headphones. I think there is a safety law that requires no more than 35db reduction.Noise isolation headphones simply reduce noise by blocking or absorbing noise. This is usually done by fitting the driver very tightly into the ear and the use of foam or rubber flugs. I think the noise reduction is in the 25db range at beast but they are smaller, cheaper and do not require power.Hope that healps.
Submitted by Derek (not verified) on October 6, 2010 - 3:48pm
Bytheway, any in-ear headphones can be converted to noise-isolation headphones. I say a youtube video of some DIY custom foam material that can be molded around the typical in-ear headphones. I ordered some (good for two sets of headphones) from Amazon ans was suprised that it worked. The noise reductio is not as great as the kind you shove in your ear but one thing's for sure. They will not fall out.
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