Best affordable phones IMO remain the Koss PRO-4AAs, and have been for about 50 years. They're not specifically noise-cancelling, but they do block out room/background noise fine; have very comfy gel-filled ear pads that surround the ears; are comfortable to wear with a nice foam liner across the head; have an extendable/retractable coiled cord (I really dislike "straight" cords for headphones, they get in the way); are incredibly rugged (I drop them on the floor all the time and they don't care); and sound very good. I first learned about them visiting high-end recording studios in NYC, where they were ubiquitous -- all the studios used them (late 1960s time frame). Then I found out they actually weren't expensive. They're still on the market and used by lots of studios and cost $99 today (retail). I've been using them since about 1970.
Is that your XYL in the thumbnail? Is she Filipina? My XYL is Filipina, and the pic reminds me of her (although she's older now!).
Yes, and yes. When I looked you up a few months back on QRZ, my guess was that your wife was Filipina because you have a daughter named Lovely!
Kenwood HS-5 rewired for stereo so I can use dualwatch work well for me with CW. Have a narrow frequency response which is good for either CW or SSB. As well help with blocking out surrounding ambient noise.
There's a reason, though, that David Clark headsets are called "David Clamps" in much of the aviation community. I flew for years with my H20-10X because I got a great deal on it, and it works well, but when I later got a Telex the DC became relegated to occasional passenger duty.
My pound shop ones I use for SOTA (summits on the air), they spend a lot of time getting shoved in and out of my rucksack. They are still in working order after 3 years of abuse.
I've had to replace the ear pads and the head pad once since I've had them. Otherwise they look and sound as good as they did when I first got them.
I tried my good Bose headfones , I listen to music usually with them, CW sounds fine , BUT I also tried a very light weight set of "Dollar Store" stereo ear fones without any thick padding around the ears and CW sounded JUST as GOOD, I have my own hobby room for my radio setup and not any external noises with the door shut and don't need any noise cancelling. * note (some of my older radios need a mono to stereo adaptor to get both ears working)
My own experience is that the biggest difference between cheap and expensive 'phones is comfort. There are no doubt performance differences, too, but I can't easily detect them. If I want REALLY sensitive 'phones, I use my old high-impedance set. When I was troubleshooting my Omni D after a lightning strike took out the receive audio, I could hear the output of the product detector with them (which pretty much eliminated everything ahead of the product detector. I replaced the audio amp IC, LM 386 if memory serves, and all was good).
