Noise cancelling headphones reduce unwanted sounds by using other light noises to "cancel" out the distraction. A small microphone is triggered inside the earpiece to create an "antinoise" when ambient sounds are detected. The signal that is produced cancels out the ambient sounds outside of the earpiece.
Sound travels in waves. There is an external receiver for the sound, and when it is received, the headphones send out waves (very quickly, mind you) that are "upside-down" or "opposite" from the soundwaves going in. Think of a wave going in as a mountain and the wave coming out as being a valley. Added together, the line becomes zero, and there is no more wave, and therefore no more sound.
Noise cancellation headphones work by blocking high-frequency sound waves and erasing lower-frequency sound waves. This can occur due to their ability to mimic incoming noise in order to produce their own sound waves.
The headphones that are rated the highest for noise cancellation are Bose headphones. They are recommended for long flights and for times when you will want to cancel out outside noise.
If you get real Bose headphones, yes they do have noise cancellation. It's pretty great. They do have knock off Bose headphones called Brose but they don't work as well as Bose.
One of the benefits of the Sharper Image Cancellation Headphones is that the headphones are very comfortable. Another benefit is the high sound quality.
One can purchase a pair of headphones with noise cancellation from many stores and online retailers. They can be bought from Best Buy, Walmart, Target, Amazon and eBay.
Sennheiser HD 515 headphones don't have true noise cancellation so that they do allow in outside noise.
A noise cancellation system is really nice for using an Ipod out in public,but any headphones will do fine with an Ipod.
The cheapest noise cancelling headphones would probably be JH Audio, but the cancellation isn't very good. I would suggest you get Audio Technica or Sony.
The light on the Beats by Dr. Dre Studio headphones indicates if the noise cancellation is on.
Many companies make noise cancellation headphones, but Sony has one of the best around. Some of their most popular models that are good for your money are ones that are portable and can reduce noise up to 75%.
Noise cancellation is more effective at lower frequencies, but reduces most external sound.
Noise canceling headphones use neither white noise nor music. True noise canceling headphones use microphones that pick up outside sounds, amplifiers to invert those sounds, and combining circuits to combine the signal to be played with this inverted external sounds before feeding it to the speakers. The external noise vanishes by cancellation, which is why they are called "noise canceling".