Flying to visit the in-laws for New Year’s? Grab your noise-canceling headphones (for the plane, silly). And if you haven’t yet invested in a pair, ask the holiday shoppers in your house to check out Velodyne Inc.’s vQuiet models.
The headphones are designed to reduce jet engine and other ambient noise by 90 percent while enabling a high-quality audio experience. A controller on the vQuiet’s detachable audio cable lets you go from listening to music or watching video to talking on the phone, if you’re connected to a device with such a feature.
The headphones have a matte black finish and a diamond-blue Velodyne insignia on each ear cup that serves as a bypass/mute button. They also fold for storage. But, like most noise-canceling headphones, they don’t come cheap. The vQuiet retails for $299.