A couple of weeks ago i had to go to the airport near where i live at 7 in the morning in order to welcome a good friend of mine so as always i packed my smartphone along with my wallet and a pair of headphones and made my way there. Well the thing is that i actually managed to get there quite earlier and i was somewhat glad since i was hoping that there wouldn't be too many people at the airport so early in the morning (i rarely travel so early) and thus I?d be able to enjoy my coffee while listening to my favorite tunes. Unfortunately this wasn't the case and so the amount of noise coming from the terminals and from everyone around me made it quite hard for me to enjoy listening to music. Because of this the moment i came back home i started searching online to find a reasonably priced headphone set that offered active noise cancellation and thus could be used in noise intensive environments such as bus terminals, trains and yes even airports. The M10 SE active noise cancelling headphones by BlackBox were amongst the top results of our search and so it didn't take long for us to receive a review sample.

At Blackbox? our passion is all about your sound ? hearing what you want to hear, and not the background noise. In fact, we?re literally obsessed about fully integrating patented ANR? Active Noise Rejection? technology, to push back unwanted noise and let your music through. On the street or in the air, there's a lot of challenge involved in delivering music without interference. ANR? takes care of it, giving you un-compromised audio. ANR? was developed to combat low frequency background noise in passenger aircraft cabins. Passengers can now experience the full audio richness of in-flight movies and music, at a higher quality of listening. That adds up to a better travel experience. That's Music on the Move.

There are two types of noise reduction headphones (and headsets) in the market currently, passive ones that keep out unwanted noise by using thick earpads and a completely closed design and active ones which use sophisticated noise reduction technologies. The M10 SE headphones by Blackbox use ANR (active noise reduction) technology by Phitek which basically uses microphones placed on the exterior of each earcup to "measure" incoming sound waves (lower-frequency ones mostly) and then electronically cancel them by producing counter waves (can effectively screen out up to 89% of ambient noise). Unfortunately there are some limitations to this technology since it can't counter mid/high frequency sound waves as effectively but thanks to the reduced pressure of the earpads this technology allows for it comes as no surprise airlines are using it for their passengers. Other specs include two 40mm neodymium magnet drivers that feature a frequency response of 20Hz-20KHz, 32Ohm impedance and 94dB sensitivity.