I bought a couple of these to take on a long trip in order to make the flights more comfortable. There were three of us, so I also bought one of the more expensive noise canceling headphones too, the Jabra 820S (see my other reviews). The noise canceling feature on the Jabra was definitely better, but the truth is, for airline comfort, the Maxells were enough for us. I usually have a hard time sleeping on a plane, but this time I put on the headphones with the noise cancellation on, inflated one of those headrests pillows that wrap around your neck and put that on, turned on my Mp3 player connected to the headphones, and listened to Schubert's "Ave Maria" repeated over and over at very low volume, passed out, and slept like a baby for hours, so these headphones did the trick for me. I really like how they fold up into a ball very quickly so you can get them out of the way without much hassle and their construction seems quite sturdy. Back home, I stored away the Maxells and use the Jabra with my computer to listen to music, etc.