Mitashi MH 3001 NC HEADPHONE

Noise cancellation is hot these days, with battery packs and weird on/off switches being telltale indicators of these bulky devices. Ever since Bose started the movement a while ago, players (big and small) have jumped on the bandwagon, with various products on offer.

Mitashi, a household name these days in the realm of affordable electronics, has come out with a model called the MH 3001 NC. These are active circuit noise cancellation headphones. Now to go on and see whether the underdog can stand up to the more expensive stalwarts or fall flat.

Design and Features

The product is quite light and compact, especially when packed snug in its square cardboard box. The foldable design means you can use it for cueing like a DJ, but the performance will dictate the extent of that possibility. The body is black all over, and thick plastic is the material of choice for the headband and driver cases. The top half of the pad has a semicircular glossy surface that bears the Mitashi logo.

The rims are padded with a soft coated cushion, while the exposed driver is protected by a thin sponge layer. Ergonomically it the device is very good, and does not cause any strain on the ears. The left ear contains a slot for 2 AAA batteries, while the right case houses the circuit; the power switch, and input for the EP cord on the bottom curve. The wires included are an RCA-EP and an EP-EP connector, but strangely no batteries are included.

Performance

The model is designed so that it works only in active mode, like the Bose, so you need to have batteries all time. After switching the product on, people encounter a short burst of low frequency feedback on the right, probably by the circuit situated there. It was not damaging, but the slight noise encountered in the absence of music is a drawback.

This gets masked when tracks are played, just like all other amps and their associated hums, though soft passages might get affected by this. Considering the price of the product, people should not be too discerning about the performance – and with this caveat in mind, the performance was good. The bass and mids were in control and sibilance levels too were fine.

Noise cancellation wasn't present but it made the background sound leak through a bit, that too in a weird sounding, out-of-phase form. The headphones can handle good amounts of volume without distortion, and again it’s the music playback capability that impressed us, and not the noise cancellation.

Conclusion
At Rs 1095, this could be the cheapest noise cancellation unit around, so it now boils down to whether you want to spend so little! The noise cancellation is not effective and a few negative issues crop up in the performance, but the sound itself is not bad at all. If you're on a shoestring budget, you might as well give it a try.