Background noise? What background noise?

So ... I'm about to fly to Perth once again and am not looking forward to it; damn you 7 hours in economy class. Last time I did this I bought along my PSP and a movie or two to watch; Damn you crappy airline movies. Problem was that the PSP doesn't exactly have a decently amplified audio signal and airplanes are loud. Very loud. I had great difficulty enjoying "Be Cool", although I can only partially blame the environment for this.

So ... I'm about to head off to my departure gate when I decide to check out the duty free stores in the hope they might have some nifty electronic toy I never realized that I couldn't live without. It wasn't looking good until suddenly they jumped out at me - a set of noise reduction headphones. Hell yeah, that sounds like just what I need. Sure they were about $120 (duty free price) and it meant I didn't have an excuse not to buy a UMD movie (I got "Hitch") but the promise of flying without a constant drone in my ears was something I couldn't pass up.

They needed an AA battery, which wasn't supplied, to power the canceling feature and once I had that sorted out they worked pretty damn well. There was still a mild hum but I could hear the movie perfectly. It apparently only works on low frequency noise and so I could still hear the serving wenches ask me if I needed another drink - very handy feature. Apparently a single battery lasts for about 15 hours so I wore them for the whole flight, even when not watching a movie. Not exactly peace and quiet but better than what I'm used to. I hope Perth Duty-Free has a decent selection of UMD movies. I really wish I'd got it together to rip some DVDs onto memory sticks before I left. Have to remember that for next time.

Anyway, I do a fair bit of flying about the place so I think these were well worth the cost. Now if I could just get an upgrade to business class ...