Silence, like sound, is golden

MANILA, Philippines - While ours has long been an increasingly mobile, portable world, it used to be that people were glad just to be untethered from the confines of both home and the office cubicle — to be given the ability to function unencumbered sans power cords and the like.

Since then, contemporary demands are growing more, well, stringent. We want better resolution, better quality, better sound, better everything. That MP3 player with the standard-issue earbuds just won’t do anymore. We expect, nay, demand the best experience.

And if you are anything like me, you spend countless hours in cafés banging away on your laptop. That’s well and good, except that as we both know, your friendly neighborhood brew place can be a very noisy venue.

Imagine then trying to compose a report, letter or even article (very much like this one) while the barista is operating heavy machinery (really). Consider the difficulty of organizing your thoughts while the next table is loudly talking about a colleague who was caught watching a movie during office hours. Even with your headphones on, the sound level needs to be at deafening levels to cancel out ambient noise. Travelers who want to keep their music handy while on long-haul flights rue similar situations.

That’s why noise canceling or active noise control (ANC) technology is a welcome innovation.

Maryland-headquartered Polk Audio touts two of its ANC-equipped headphones as standard equipment that will give you “refuge from all the noise” through “sophisticated algorithms” to silence the racket. The company says it goes beyond ANC in its UltraFocus-branded headphones, which use a proprietary Optimized Active Tuning to further enhance the audio signal.

Field-testing the on-ear UltraFocus 8000 is a joy because it indeed gleefully shuts out unwanted external noise. The moment you switch it on (power comes courtesy of a pair of AAA batteries within the left cup), ambient noise is reduced significantly by 15dB. If so inclined, you could even choose to just slip the powered-up headphones on for some peace and quiet. You could finally, mercifully, be left to your thoughts.

Bass response is decent and not overbearing; so are mid and upper frequencies. Coupled with the increased intimacy brought by the silence, it’s as if my cache of music is given new life.

Thoughtfully, Polk Audio threw in a boatload of other features as well. You could engage in quick conversation without having to take the headphones off. Just push the bottom part of the right earpiece, which mutes the music and amplifies outside sound. Need to change tracks on your iPod or Mac? How about pausing the track? There are buttons for those as well.

Meanwhile, the flexible, well-designed planar audio cable assures kink- and tangle-free performance. The UltraFocus 8000 includes two “easily switchable custom length” cords depending on your preference and use. An array of adaptors also comes standard, along with a classy carrying case. More notably for me, there was no hint of fatigue even after prolonged use — perfectly comfy cans.

Retailing for P14,950, the set does not come cheap. Then again, no one expects exceptional performance and quality to come cheap.

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For more information, visit www.powertrip.com.ph or call 746-0598 or 470-7416.