[corv]

Active noise cancelling headphones are hardly an audiophile's first pick. Almost all NC headphones introduce audible white noise. They are also ineffective at blocking voices in the background.

Earplugs are significantly cheaper and more effective at blocking noise.

That said, Bose does make the best NC headphones.

[wodenokoto]

The point is that the sum of added and reduced noise is smaller in the noise cancellation than in non-noise cancellation, unless you are in an optimized environment.

[corv]

The problem is that voices or crying babies will be more audible in a noisy environment when using active noise cancelling headphones because they only effectively attenuate low frequencies.

[sjwright]

In a room with a crying baby, all pretense of an audiophile experience is gone, no matter what.