Design and Features

The ATH-ANC3 are built around a pair of standard-looking earbuds with protruding sound tubes that end in removable soft silicone tips. About nine inches up the cable from the gold-plated 1/8th-inch jack is an inline battery pack (holds one AAA cell) with an integrated clip on the back as well as a monitor button, power switch, and red battery indicator light. The total length from earbud to plug is about 4 feet (several inches shorter than Sony's NC22), and the anti-tangle slider prevents the symmetrical cables from turning into a bird's nest. The headphones are available in black, or for thief-taunters, gleaming white.

Extras

One thing we really like about noise-canceling earbuds is how much smaller the case is than the ones that come with full-size models. The ATH-ANC3 comes with a zippered rigid case that measures about 6 x 3 x 1.25 inches and is covered in ballistic nylon. Inside the case, several mesh pockets hold accessories including an airplane adapter, an 18-inch audio extension cable, and three sizes of silicone eartips. Audio-Technica thoughtfully includes a triple-A battery so you can use the headphones right out of the box.

Comfort and Operation

The sound tubes are noticeably thicker in diameter than those of in-ear models from Etymotic and Shure, or roughly the same size as on Sony's NC and EX series headphones. That prevents them from going very far into your ear canal, though the largest-size tips still gave us a pretty good seal. After a few tracks, we barely even noticed we were wearing them, which is a big plus over our far more intrusive Etymotic ER series earbuds. 

The inline controller's large ridged clip held on to any article of clothing we fastened it to, with enough spring tension for jogging. All the buttons and switches are easy to operate, and the stiff cabling doesn't tangle easily even without using the slider. We would have appreciated a volume wheel on the controller, though since it wouldn't have added much more to the size. Unfortunately, there's no getting around how bad it sucks to have a battery pack tethered to your head by cables.

Our chief design complaint is that the cables transmit a lot of noise from thumping against our body when we walk. Wearing the cables over the tops of our ears would fix the problem, but the ANC3's cabling isn't long enough to reach over our ears and down to our front jeans pocket. We also found the cable below the inline module wasn't quite long enough to reach from the iPod in our back pocket to our front pocket, though that was easily remedied by attaching the extension cable. We do wish the cabling was modular so we could extend the length between the earbuds and the controller.

Image Courtesy of Audio-Technica