These headphones are worthless off the plane, as they have no embedded ANC circuitry. Since the sound quality is mediocre at best, easier to buy a pair of quality headphones.
Unless they upgrade the ANC software significantly, the headphones are also worthless while on the plane.
In 2020, Delta was providing "Delta Studio Premium Headset" for use with the in-flight entertainment (IFE).
The cardboard packaging holding the headphones together claims,
EXPERIENCE ultimate comfort and performance with superior active noise cancellation
In using them, these headphones provided poor quality audio, and didn't have noticable ANC. I decided to tear one apart to understand what what inside...
That's right... the headphones don't have any active electronics at all. However, they do have a microphone in each ear. Both the microphones and speakers connect to the airline-special dual-prong (1/8 inch) TRS connector. Thus, the microphone inputs are sent into the plane's internals. If the claim of ANC is true, then those microphone inputs are mixed with the audio and the mixed result (entertainment + ANC) would be sent back to the speakers.
Beautiful ASCII art labelling the plug:
==========[[[]]]
Sleeve1 || || Sleeve2
Ring1 || || Ring2
Tip1 \/ \/ Tip2Inside the left headphone (the one with the cord connected), there is a tiny PCB screwed into place. It has six connections on one of the long edges, which correspond 1:1 with the plug:
| Plug | PCB | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Sleeve1 | S- | Common ground for both speakers |
| Sleeve2 | M- | Common ground for both microphones |
| Ring1 | MR+ | Right Microphone V+ |
| Ring2 | ML+ | Left Microphone V+ |
| Tip1 | SR+ | Right Speaker V+ |
| Tip2 | SL+ | Left Speaker V+ |
The S-, SR+, and SL+ connections go directly to the speakers.
The MR+ and ML+ connections each have two resistors:
- a 3.3k between the
MR+and one microphone wire (MR+' - a 1.48k between the two microphone wires (e.g.,
MR+'andGND)
That's it. There's nothing else inside.