... These headphones are a real mixed bag. We don't like the brightness that the noise-cancelling brings, but we love the luxurious feel and warm, friendly sound you get without it. Do they sound £150 better than our current Award-winner, the Bose QuietComfort 15s? No. Do they feel £150 better? Most definitely.

Prestigious, stylish, decent sounding - there's a lot of good to be said for the MDR-1RNC headphones. But the huge price and stripped-back sound of the noise cancellation mode are bothersome and therefore we see no reason to buy these over the base-level MDR-1R model. Good in isolation, a stretch given the full Sony range.

These are great active noise-canceling headphones that reproduce an impeccable amount of detail and reduce noise better than most of the competition. However, they're quite pricey and can sound overly bright at times.

The MDR-1RNC is good, but it's somewhat of an unbalanced product. Most of all, it's hard to justify prices like these when the active noise cancellation is only so-so and the other (minor) flaws add up.

Sehr hoher Tragekomfort, viel Liebe zum Detail sowie ein fein aufgelöster und wenig aufdringlicher Klang verhelfen dem Sony MDR-1R zu einer Kaufempfehlung. Lediglich Liebhaber des extrem kräftigen Punchs aus dem Frequenzkeller könnten vom Klang des Test-Kopfhörers enttäuscht sein. ...