What is the difference between noise cancelling and sound isolatiing headphones?
Isolating headphones use large earcups and foam pads to seal out noise from outside, without affecting the signal coming into the earphones. Noise cancelling headphones use mics to sense the noise around you and apply a signal opposite to the external noise to cancel it out. If you don’t mind bigger heavier ‘phones you get the same effect and a musical signal purer and closer to the original music with a sound isolating set. This is why recording studios generally wouldn’t use a cancelling style of ‘phone. If you like smaller,lighter phones but still want to hear your tunes in noisy environments, then the noise cancelling units are the way to go.