Sennheiser CXC 700 Noise Cancelling Earbuds Review

Noise cancellation headphones have always seemed like a tacky technology to me, most of the time they don’t work, and when they do, it’s only because they throw in another layer of hiss to “cancel” out the background noise. Sennheiser being the audiophile masters that they are, I was curious to see how well their newly launched CXC 700 noise cancelling earphones would be.

The CXC 700 is designed from the get go for frequent business travelers and regular commuters on trains. And because Sennheiser seems to understand the different scenarios in which their customers will be travelling, the CXC 700 comes with three different levels of noise cancellation to choose from. The noise cancellation tech obviously requires an additional source of power, which is why you’ll need an AAA sized battery for whenever you’re travelling. If the battery dies though, no need to worry as the CXC 700 will just perform as a pair of decent earphones, sans all the noise cancellation.

One of the other cool features of the CXC 700 is the “Talk Through” mode which basically mutes the audio and deactivates the noise cancellation effect so you can hear anyone and everyone without having to take off your earphones. There seems to be some additional external voice amplification going on during this mode because even with the intraaural (ear canal) design of the CXC 700, you can still hear a whole lot more than you should.

The in-line remote control has a small volume slider along with the button to activate the NoiseGard noise cancelling function. Additionally the remote also houses the “Talk Through” button as well as the “Mode” selection button to cycle through the three noise cancelling modes. Sadly there are no audio control buttons on the remote, which would have made life much easier for iPhone/iPod users. Still, given its wide compatibility with a variety of audio sources, I can’t really blame Sennheiser for not including audio control buttons.