I just return from a repeat air trip to England , and be hope for a more restful -lrb- read that more sleep with fewer distraction from cry child and the cough lady in the next seat -rrb- trip through the use of these philip headphone . I find that the noise cancel feature do decrease the drone ambient sound to a somewhat helpful extent . other cabin sound be still intrusive . the sound quality do not seem much better than the airline-supplied headset and the product seem to be quite cheaply make . my biggest concern be : 1 -rrb- that the headphone pad have to be position carefully to derive any benefit from the noise cancel feature , which mean that I have to keep my head straight to not push on the neckband . also , my neck pillow tend to push on the neckband and degrade performance . bother . 2 -rrb- my -lrb- admittedly generous -rrb- auricle just plain hurt after a few hour of use , and I have to take the headset off . I do buy a pair of noise-cancelling earbud to address these two issue , and this approach have work well . for instance , consider one of the sure earbud .