RCA HPNC050 Consumer Headphones

I tried these noise cancelling headphones, as Radio Shack had them on sale. Advertised, "list $49.95" sale - 19.99."
Turns out - on-line, other sellers offer these regularly at $26 or so. I paid $11 with coupon - and frankly - they suck.

Construction:These are solid plastic - and that cheap feeling, potato chip, plastic - what everything used to be made of 15 years ago. Modern plastic has a better, more durable, more dense, buttery feel to it.
The plastic headphones are adjustable and foldable, but since the adjustable part is plastic bumps, they will eventually wear down - and cease to hold in place - and the folding mechanism locks in place with bumps of plastic - one is already worn down - and does not snap into place. As a result, the section of plastic (headphone and 2 inches of the 'arm') swings freely on it's hinge.

The cable is too short - meant to go from pocket to head - and that's it. On my pc, i have to lean to wear the headphones while typing at the keyboard - otherwise headphones wouldn't reach where i'm standing, about 2 feet from the pc. Also, the volume / noise cancelling box is 1/2 way up the cable - bigger than a zippo - unnecessarily big - and pulls the cable down from wherever I leave it.
If I were wearing an mp3 player, this box has a clip, to attach to your shirt. I would be ashamed to have people see that.


Noise Canceling:The noise cancelling is almost useless. It states on the box "between 300 and 450hz". What about 0 to 300hz, and 450 to 20,000 hz? Those noises don't matter? When NC is on, it slightly lowers your intended music's volume. With silence on the headphones, and external speakers playing music, one can tell the 300-450hz range is 'slightly' (ever so slightly) muted. Otherwise, all external noise is unaffected. Tapping, scratching, banging, my computer's fans - all sound the same. My cdrom spinning sounds bassier with NC turned on, but not really quieter.
Sound Quality: As far as sound quality goes - they are acceptable. Not "wow" but not awful either. I can hear the music, and I recognize it. To be fair, the highs sound pretty distinct. The lows aren't booming, but clear and present enough to satisfy.

Features:The noise cancelling box includes a volume control dial. It works to reduce the volume from the input - it cannot raise the volume - even when NC is turned 'on.' Also, RCA offers a life time warranty. I suspect very few people want these back after they break, so RCA is probably safe offering that. Strangely, the retail packaging includes a teeny piece of white paper - I almost missed it, having fallen on the floor. After reading on the package back, 'warranty information included inside box' - I found the fallen post-it. On the back, is printed a disclaimer - wash hands after handling! Wire contains lead, which is known...." What? Who makes lead cable jackets anymore? These are headphones, after all. Apparently, you should shower after you use these!

Conclusion: Basically - for being moderately expensive Noise Cancelling headphones, these things suck. I would never pay $50 for them. As far as sound quality goes - they are acceptable. Not "wow" but not aweful either. I would say - they are about as good as any other $10 head sets you see on a shelf - and that's what I paid, so I'll keep 'em. I will not put a battery in the NC box, reducing the weight on the wire. I already have a nice set of Sony behind the neck headphones - which I normally use. I'll keep these as standby's, or spares when I cant find the Sony's. If you fall over these, keep them as spares, until they break.
I would give them 3 stars as average headphones, but take off 1 star because they don't perform any useful noise cancelling function, and thus are overpriced compared to comparable regular headphones, and take off another star because they are of poor quality construction / materials, and 'mechanically' broken even though brand new.