RCA HPNC500 Active Noise Cancelling Headphones
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Buy.com price: $19.99
List price: $99.99

RCA HPNC500 Active Noise Cancelling Headphones - Limited Stock!

WOOPS.... Meant $19.99 Plus Free Ship Save $80.00. SORRY! Still a great deal though... includes airplane adaptor and carrying pouch.

Can you use these as standalone noise cancelers, rather than plugging them into an audio source?

That is the same post from here! It is at Buy.com, however, I hit the number eight versus the number nine without catching it prior to posting! This is the same thing!

peterhopkins1998 said:it is $18.99 from
http://www.dealighted.com/?search=RCA+HPNC500+Active+Noise+Cancelling+Headphones++++%2418.99+Free+Ship+Save+%2480.00
EnjoyEnjoy What????

You link goes to a deals search page that just find this exact thread at FW (and at SD and others).

gkrykewy said:Can you use these as standalone noise cancelers, rather than plugging them into an audio source?Yes.

OP - You can edit your own posts. Just click the Edit button and fix your original post's price in the title.

Hmmmm.... DUH on my part, I did not realize you can edit your post once started. It has now been edited to reflect the $19.99 price point accordingly.

The HPNC250's got mixed reviews on Amazon - maybe the 500 model would've fared better.

There is video documentation of trouble someone had with RCA noise cancelling headphones at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-s6luor6HJA

Although not specified, the headphones in question appear to be the HPNC500 - No other headphones I've seen on the RCA website look like that. It is odd, however, that the video does not spend more time/detail showing the actual broken area.

FWIW, I'm still buying a pair for myself since they are only $20. I am just not going to buy the second pair I was thinking about for the kids...

gkrykewy said:Can you use these as standalone noise cancelers, rather than plugging them into an audio source?
Yes, but you have to understand the limitations. The frequency range that these type of headphones can cancel is very narrow. They work best at eliminating a constant semi-low frequency source, like the hum of an engine. But except for the passive noise reduction of having on any full ear cup headphone they will not actively block high frequency sound. You will be able to hear voices around you, for example. And if there is a constantly varying pitch sound these will not be able to reduce that much at all. Plus most of the cheaper ANC headphones like these add high frequenct hiss when they are turned on. When you have audio playing through them you don't notice the hiss as much but with no audio source the hiss will be very noticeable. When you move into higher quality, higher price noise cancelling headphones ($300-600) like Bose and David Clarks that we use as pilots you still get most of the noise reduction from the earmuff not the electronics. Even on the best the frequencies that the onboard microphones can reproduce are only from about 300Hz-3.5KHz. On the cheaper ones you can expect more like 1000Hz-2000Hz. (For reference the human ear hears sounds from approx 20Hz-20Khz)

So you may be better off just using a pair of headphone style hearing protectors like you would find at Lowes or a shooters supply store if you don't plan on using them with an audio source.