By WILSON ROTHMAN
Headphone design has expanded in so many ways that everyone can now personalize their headgear for style, comfort and sound quality. At least, that's the theory. In practice, most people simply accept their player's accompanying headphones. In the iPod age, people use those little white buds as status buoys to indicate the hip music product that lies somewhere beneath the surface. Me, I've always eschewed Apple buds for Sony's StreetStyle headphones. They weren't perfect, however, so I was happy when I learned that Sony had re-engineered them for comfort and even included a noise-canceling set.
My hair may not be of the caliber of John Travolta circa Saturday Night Fever ("I spent all day on my hair, and you hit it") but I still don't like the over-the-top arch of old-school headphones. On the opposite end, ear buds — even Shure's new E Series — always seem to flop out or worse, hold too snug giving me an aural claustrophobia. The StreetStyle phones wrap around the back of the head and encircle the ear loosely. The advantage is that they're always in more or less the place they need to be to deliver the sound, so, unlike most buds, there aren't moments of tinny bass-less sound brought on by an unexpected adjustment.
The oft-cited trouble with the old StreetStyle phones came from the rubber hooks that wrap down around the wearer's ear the way eyeglasses do. When sitting on an airplane, leaning back against the seat, those hooks have a tendency to dig into the back of the ear, after a while causing a kind of dull ache, especially for people who also wear glasses. In the new style — triangular instead of round — the hooks are gone. Instead, the phones twist inward towards the ears, creating a cozy little grip around the head. The cord is wrapped in no-friction nylon to reduce knotting, and comes in two segments so that people whose MP3 or CD player comes with a wired remote won't be stuck with an extra yard of useless wire. (The kink-free cord was first introduced in Sony's "W.ear" line, which I do not recommend.)
Because one side contains a AAA battery and a microphone, the new noise-canceling StreetStyle set has slightly larger earphones than the others, and it's $30 more expensive than the next one down, the $40 collapsible MDR-G74. But you can definitely tell the difference. Sony says the headphones eliminate 70 percent of outside noise. I can't say for sure, but I know it makes riding New York subways more pleasant. Both the dull roar of the train and more staccato sounds from doors, PA systems and even people's feet are deadened. Unfortunately, topside, the wind caused problems, roaring into the microphone as I walked down the street. I had to shut off the feature to enjoy my music, but, as safety-conscious Sony is quick to point out, maybe I shouldn't be using noise-canceling gear out on the street anyway.
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